I invite you to a little entertainment, for madmen only, and for one price only, your mind. Are you ready? Herman Hesse, Steppenwolf
The original christyland inspiration was to treat the city as playground. Rules were rewritten. We weren’t hurting anyone, walking along the bay, watching the sunrise, having just consumed one more little pink pill with a happy buddha stamp.
When my son was young, we played Terminator at Chuck E Cheese. I caught myself wanting to grab the weapon power ups, but instead encouraged my son to go for that grenade. When I told my cousin, who likes video games, about this experience, he said, oh yeah, you gotta get into it!
John Wick was free on YouTube recently, so I finally watched it. Not sure if this is why it’s so popular, but it feels like a game, with resource management, puzzles, in the form of combat, and bosses to defeat.
His Dark Materials lets god finally die; Neo frees everyone from robot overlords; Project Mayhem deletes data that enforces the system. Let’s game the game.
What if video game culture benefits our societies? It’s harder to impose systems on people if they know how incentives and behaviors work. They have awareness to weigh consequences and enforcement capabilities.
But what if you’ve already maxed out the game, or if you’re in a loop of plain old bad luck? Is the game worth your attention anymore? Is this why Elon Musk is making a new game in space, or why nihilism seems more popular lately?
Art often holds up a mirror and makes us take a good look at ourselves. It brings insights on the infinite journey to know thyself. Seems meaningful to encourage personal responsibility for development of the self and actually face those skeletons in the closet.
Are games art? Do cooperative games give insights on the infinite journey for humanity to know itself? Seems meaningful to encourage mutual responsibility for development of the collective and actually face those skeletons in the closet.
What if we’re already masters of the human game, just because we’re born? We do have puzzles to solve and resources to manage, including relationships. So then, what’s our boss monster? If we defeat it, will that set us free from the painful constraints the game imposes on us?
Maybe we can watch Tron together sometime? I haven’t seen any of them yet.
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