In Defense of Gaming

Gaming's often seen as a strange, antisocial activity. Part of this is probably its history of being strongly attached to nerdiness and technology. Video games started off fairly obscure and have become more and more popular until now it's no longer something you can make fun of people for, it's mostly something that some people do while those who don't wonder what the appeal is.

From one perspective, playing video games is strange. What's the appeal of running around as an dwarf, slaying monsters and collecting items? Why do you want to shoot people in the face so badly? How exactly does winning battles between 0s and 1s excite you? Wouldn't you want to interact with REAL people? The thing is, with that logic lots of other things seem strange. Why do you enjoy watching virtual armies destroy each other on the screen (the Lord of the Rings battle sequences involved lots of computer animation)? What's so great about watching other people find love in a wacky, heartwarming way? Why are you reading a BOOK when you can experience the real world? Basically, escapism isn't all that weird- and in a way, games are a better way to escape because you control the experience.

It is an antisocial activity, relatively. You can play it with your friends in one room, or online with your friends, or online with strangers (many of whom talk shit, annoyingly,) or completely by yourself. Ranked next to playing sports or going out with friends, it's antisocial, but unless you're the only human in your game, you're more isolated reading a book than playing a game.

The reason why it's fun depends on the genre, which is why many people (especially girls) only like certain games. Interestingly, I remember reading that there are more woman MMO players (MMO is where the whole game is online, like WoW) than male ones. Some games are fun because you're in a fantasy world that previously you could only read about. Other games are fun because you can run around shooting people, for whatever reason the game gives, something you can't exactly do in real life. Unless you go to war, which I've heard is ever so much fun. And like the game I've been playing recently, some are fun because you get to command entire armies and pit them against the machinations of an opponent. Most of them have a decent story (some have a good story) to drive things forward. And all of them require some skill, so you can feel proud when you accomplish something impressive.

So: strange? Hardly. Antisocial? Relatively, sure. Fun? Hell yes.

Pixies are scary

They have THREE SPLEENS.

The Significance of Star Wars

(I've decided to write a post that doesn't deal with a serious issue.)

Did you know that there are people in this world who haven't seen the original Star Wars movies? (I don't mean the unedited versions, I mean Episodes IV, V, and VI.) Some people haven't even seen one of the six. In fact, there are some people in this world who, get this, don't like Star Wars. Weirdos.

To be perfectly honest, the Star Wars movies (referring from now on only to the original ones) are not without their flaws. The acting wasn't exactly stellar and some of the lines they deliver are pretty corny. They're still amazing movies because the story and the world it's set in are, in my mind, awesome. Come on, Jedis and X-wings? Tell me those aren't cool! Part of what makes these movies so special is that I saw them when I was a kid, and they're part of my childhood. I wanted to be a Jedi, have a lightsaber- heck, I still want those things.

It's not like Star Wars has had a huge impact on who I am today- it's not that significant. I'm not a Star Wars nerd, I don't own the action figures, and if I argue about it with my friends it's because I argue all sorts of crap with my friends. And if the subject of the new trilogy comes up, I will despair and possibly rant, because they could have been SO GREAT, but instead they were merely ok.

If I were a Jedi, I'd occassionally fuck with people's heads just for fun :
"You are not on Earth."
"You should dance naked in the streets."
"Your name is Filbert MacGonalogolous. Your great-grandfather was a Greek that moved to Scotland."
That would be so awesome.

Lord of War- The Arms Trade

There is a movie called Lord of War, starring Nicholas Cage. It's a good movie, I'd suggest you watch it. It follows a Ukrainian-American as he enters and then gains power in the business of selling weapons illegally. He and others like him make sure that wars run smoothly wherever wars can be fought. Smoothly in the sense that there won't be people who want to murder others going without the necessary assault rifle.

The problems with this kind of business are fairly obvious: the world doesn't actually want terrorists with AK-47s, RPGs, or whatever else they can get their hands on. This trade isn't likely to go away easily, since the US uses it to supply "freedom-fighters" when it wants to put pressure on a government it doesn't like, see Iran-Contra. Another problem is that black markets are notoriously hard to control, and this would require cooperation between governments on a global scale. Seeing how this doesn't even work with drugs, why would it work with guns? Still, a greater commitment to controlling arms would be a step in the right direction. There is a campaign calling governments, through the UN, to take greater measure to control the trade of arms called, appropriately, Control Arms, located at www.controlarms.org.

However, there is another, disturbing aspect to the arms trade, one that the Security Council would not like to admit its role in. And that is that the only reason there are weapons floating around to fall into the hand of militants is that they're produced in insanely huge quantities. After World War II the United States was faced with a dilemma. How was it going to maintain wartime levels of arms production, and protect this vital industry, without a war to fight? Well, at first it started giving away the surpluses it had to its allies. Its allies didn't really want more weaponry, though, as they wanted to produce their own.

So unable to sell to each other, America, France, Russia, and Britain started selling abroad. They sold so much that America and France are still the two largest producers of military goods and are still producing as if they were at war with someone. (Well, the US is at war with Iraq but it's not suffering from a lack of nukes or tanks, is it?) Russia produced so many of its highly effective AK-47 that it is truly the weapon of choice for militants and child soldiers worldwide. Britain has been replaced by China, since China soon realized this was a lucrative business indeed, and it had an impressive domestic market to start off with.

So thank you, Big Business. Thank you for fueling conflict around the globe, and thank you to the government for creating this monster of an industry to begin. As Matthew Good said it on Remembrance Day, "the very principles and freedoms that those individuals [i.e. soldiers] fought to protect have been either endangered or altogether lost by the sheer magnitude of our perpetual love affair with destruction." A love affair that has lined the pockets of the super-rich, created child soldiers, and aided conflict across the globe.

Songwriter-Pundit?

In recent times I have been reading the blog of Matthew Good, of Matthew Good Band fame. His blog has a few of the usual blog posts about his life, the weather (he lives in Vancouver), and other not-particularly exciting things. However, he's also an activist and writes a lot about activism. And I agree with most of what he says, namely:

1- The government is not democratic so much as plutocratic (rule by the rich.) See post below.
2- American foreign policy harms everyone, even those it is supposed to be helping, with the exception of the corporations that benefit from war or from US intervention. On this note, Iraq is a complete mess and Bush should be impeached.
3- Ignorance is NOT bliss, it is an obstacle to actual improvement of any situation.

This blog is to be found at www.matthewgood.org. Notable posts are:
The price of ignorance: http://matthewgood.org/champions-of-nothing/
Summary of the arms trade: http://matthewgood.org/parts-of-bombs/
And "Just Math" on this page: http://matthewgood.org/page/2/