obsessed with the cosmos I’ve always
looked up at the night sky at the stars
planets the moon and everything that is
the cosmos and I thought to myself that
I wish I could live on that star there I
wish I could board my spaceship engage
my warp drive and whoosh I’d be far far
away
one day I will experience what it is to
live in the stellar now we’ve all had
our childhood dreams but usually as time
goes by those dreams start to sound more
absurd or even impossible the same thing
was with me
until I discovered the world that has
everything I wished for and more it all
begins Animas 11 years old
and being a child with not much of
social life I spent my evenings watching
YouTube videos YouTube was the only
place where I could feel at peace but
one day or watching a video I saw a
little picture next to it on the picture
was a spaceship in front of our planet
and the blue nebula and a text on it
read play free for 14 days now I was
already solved by seeing the spaceship
on it so I told myself that I have
nothing better to do and I signed up but
to be honest I didn’t expect to see much
but those were probably the fastest 14
days in my life being just blown away by
the experience I repeated the same
process about 20 times over the course
of the next two years every time getting
a bit further until I finally got the
courage to ask my parents for a
subscription of the game it took some
time to convince them obviously but when
it finally happened I was born into the
virtual universe known as New Eden New
Eden is a very complex
system to me it is the definition of a
virtual reality because its inhabitants
the players have a huge impact on the
environment they shape the landscape of
the universe in New Eden
you have politics Ward’s diplomacy the
market jobs corporations alliances and
much more it’s hard to find something
like that exists in that virtual world
for my past experience I knew what did
you where to go but once they got past
the trial limitations I was completely
in the dark again so I knew alone this
wouldn’t work and I started looking for
a group to join I hopped on the
recruitment channel and told new player
looking for a cooperation immediately I
got about five different people talking
to me but all those conversations slowly
faded after I told them that I was only
13 years old about one he was a nice
British guy named Zack and he took me
into his cooperation I was the youngest
person in a corporation by about ten
years but despite that I wasn’t treated
any differently then I realized that in
virtual worlds what matters is who you
are not what you are and I got realizing
it I actually started talking to people
and I started to make real friends for
the FIR for the first time I felt that I
belong somewhere
after a few months the decision was made
during an alliance of corporations that
involved moving internal security space
which as you can see is on the outskirts
of universe in all security space as the
name suggests is completely ruled by the
player alliances they have full control
there and I’m not usually a person who
likes big change but when my CEO Zack
me of all those things I was filled with
excitement this is exactly what my
childhood childhood dream has been
living in a society in space
shortly after joining we had a first big
war we were invaded by neighboring
alliance that was quite a bit bigger
than us they struck us right in our
capital system and we were barely
holding on but an enemy for enemy is
your friend so another big entity in the
area came to help us out and together
we kicked the neighboring Alliance out
of their space and repelled the invasion
as well
we a for demand cooperation were inside
a four thousand man alliance that was
also part now was that was now also part
of our coalition of almost 10,000 real
people meanwhile in my corporation I was
promoted to be the recruitment officer
me a 14 year old boy who still used
Google Translate to fully understand
what people are saying to run
recruitment for the corporation my CEO
could have chosen from a number of
different people but he chose me and
then I realized that I am actually part
of something important but I’m a
participant in the goings on around me
that I’m actually relevant my actions
matter but as with all good things they
must come to an end a year a year went
by and we were invaded again but this
time the invading force was so
overwhelming but I remember the last
flip ever before it was it involves over
a thousand people and it lasted for two
hours but we lost in the end and I was
left devastated seeing something you
care so much about seeing your whole
your community crew part of get torn to
shreds after a single battle yes I still
have my corporation but it was never the
same again everything I changed we spent
the next year look looking for a new
home but it didn’t work out and land and
the corporation expanded and all my
friends who I made went their own way I
was lost I had lost the meaning to play
I lost my meaning of life in that
virtual world but then I started taking
a different approach instead of Ling
leading my child a dream I started using
this virtual world as a platform to
search for myself to find out who I
really am for example I started teaching
newer players to find out whether I’m a
good teacher
I started making cinematic videos and I
discovered my passion towards filmmaking
like three months ago I started even my
own corporation just out my village hips
virtual worlds are not just cheap
entertainment
they are like an extension to our
reality they help us make the give us
the opportunity to experience things we
could not experience in real life but
most importantly they allow us to make
mistakes and through mistakes there are
laws to find ourselves without having
any negative effects in real life thank
you [Applause]