[Canyarion]

Ok this is our proposal. Basicly we're gonna argue that virtual worlds as in MMORPGs have a lot in common with tourism, since they provide places to visit etc.

As we have proceeded into the 21st century, new forms of leisure have gained a place in our lives. One of the biggest new industries is that of computer/video games, growing more rapidly than the film industry. Today, millions of gamers from all over the world are connected to each other, playing the same games simultaneously in the same virtual environment. Virtually any type of game can be played through these online networks, from racing games (controlling virtual cars or other vehicles) to strategy games (controlling an entire army) to first person shooters (controlling a single soldier or warrior of some sort). The recent development of one particular type of computer game has taken the gaming experience to another level: in Massive Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games (MMORPG’s) gamers can experience what it’s like to live in a huge alternative fantasy world, playing as characters from different races (for instance elves and dwarves) and interacting with the characters of other players in many different ways, from exploring dungeons with a group to simply having a drink in a virtual bar.
In our article we will argue that the process of globalization has been very important in shaping these virtual gaming environments by connecting millions of players from all over the world to them. Furthermore we will argue that virtual gaming environments can perform a similar function as tourism destinations because they fulfill the tourists need to find something authentic, exotic and different to their everyday lives. And although these places aren’t real in a physical sense, the fact that within them one interacts with other real people makes them very real and in many aspects a reflection of the physical world (for instance: in some of these virtual worlds economies exist that function in much the same way as real economies). We would even argue that this virtual tourism provides a more authentic experience than a physical tourism destination, because it actually lets people become someone else who has abilities (all kinds of super powers) they don’t have in the physical realm. They can also very easily become part of the community they visit, which is very hard for visitors to physical tourism destinations.
We think the article will be of scientific relevance because it links a relatively new type of environment (the virtual) to tourism processes which, according to our research, has not been done before in this way, but might be of great importance to the future development of tourism. We will justify our arguments by using scientific literature that addresses the tourists’ search for the exotic, authentic and the other (an example of a scientific article about this subject is Aitchinson’s article called: Theorizing Other discourses of tourism, gender and culture: can the subaltern speak (in tourism)?, published in Tourist Studies in 2001). Background knowledge on the nature of global gaming networks in general and MMORPG’s in specific will be sought in scientific journals, professional journals, newspapers, websites and personal experience.