John Zeitler

Essay Week 2010 runs from Sunday, July 25th to Saturday, July 31st. Every year I take a week and write about some topics of interest to me that run slightly more serious than the usual fare on the blog. That’s not to say that games and anime won’t enter into it, but the predominant theme is that this week skews a bit more literary than epistolary. We wrap up this year’s week with a manifesto on gaming that speaks, frankly, for itself.

I have been a gamer for ninety percent of my life. That ratio is going to increase, and that much is certain. However, it’s important to note that I’m only thirty. That means that I started gaming when I was three years old. I’ve told that particular story many times before, about how my grandfather held me up to the Pac-Man cabinet at the pizza parlor and let me play.

But the fact remains, I wasn’t born a gamer. There were more than two years of my life where gaming was not an ingrained part of the American consciousness, and by extension not part of my life. Some of the more cynical among you will likely think that it was those two years where I was truly safe, and the day I first held the joystick was the day I became irrevocably corrupted. Pac-Man Fever was, for people in those sorts of mindsets, a terminal disease.

I’m going to put it to you, my fellows, that there was no safe point. There was no time in the world when gaming, of some kind or another, did not engulf this world and have a chance to put its hands on me, and itself in my hands. Think on this for a moment: In the fall of 1983 CBS introduced the Dungeons and Dragons cartoon, as well as the Saturday Supercade, which was in addition to the Pac-Man cartoon that had premiered the year before on ABC. Video gaming was big enough then to spawn mainstream television about it– but it would also spawn controversy.

The idea that media can be created and developed stands at odds to the desire of those in charge of the existing media to stay in charge. Newspapers felt threatened by radio, which felt threatened by television, which has felt threatened by the internet and video games. It’s all a matter of companies in control wanting to remain in control, and when a new source of information– a new medium– comes along, it shakes up the balance of viewership and power within all media. Some might say that that’s a needlessly cynical view, but I posit that it isn’t cynical enough. Human nature being what it is, there’s a reason we have the aphorism about power and corruption.

Nowadays, the public at large doesn’t fall into a huge panic about every new little thing that comes around. With the maturation of a sufficiently jaded generation, we recognize that rock and roll is here to stay, that Dungeons and Dragons inspires creativity, that video games can be a great way to pass the time, and that the internet is not entirely for porn. It is because we have lived through the persecution of these media that we understand that the needless ridicule and pseudo-vetting process isn’t helping matters and in fact hinders the acceptance of potentially beneficial technologies.

In the world of video games, however, few are as universally accepted as flight simulators. While around 2002 there was some unfortunate misunderstanding regarding their ease of acquisition, in general the flight simulator is a well accepted and perfectly understood piece of software that is almost always hailed as a “game”. Microsoft’s Flight Simulator software line has been going strong for decades now, and as technology has advanced, it is possible to build a flight cockpit so realistic as to permit its use as part of a real pilot’s training regimen. There are many arguments as to why realism in games is a bad thing, but if this “game” was not so realistic– if it did not conform to the physical world in every way– would it be as accepted? I think not. I think, in point of fact, that if MS Flight Simulator had featured and prided itself on even the slightest deviancy from reality, it alone would be held responsible for the events of late 2001 by the court of public opinion.

When you get down to it, that’s where the world finds its greatest fear in games. The world cannot accept the fact that there is something wrong with it. In employing imagination to alter the parameters of the world– to presuppose that something that is, should not be, and that something that isn’t, should– the collective society is cut to the quick. Such a declaration irrationally frightens people. I have absolutely no idea why.

Is it really so bad to conceive of a world better than ours is? Are people so unwilling to engage in self-analysis and reflection that they would instead turn a blind eye to anything that highlights their imperfection? More than that, even with completely fantastical elements such as magic, or advanced technology, people are squeamish to the point of repudiation. Why is this? What could provoke such an irrational, pointless, self-destructive fear? What did Harry Potter, Gandalf the Grey, Malcolm Reynolds, and Luke Skywalker ever do to you?

Some people say that being a gamer is a pejorative mark, and that it’s indicative of an intellect that far outstrips its social grace. I think it’s the other way around. I think that those individuals who play games, who enjoy science fiction and fantasy, are able to set aside the more ridiculous preconceptions of society and engage their imaginations with all four cylinders running. The ability to see the flaws in a situation and conjure up ways it can be improved is nothing but a benefit.

Society has always had a love-hate relationship with imagination. We encourage our youngest children to make-believe, to pretend and to imagine the limitless possibilities that stand before them. As time wears on, though, we teach them instead that imagination is poisonous, that someone who isn’t 100% completely grounded in reality at all times without the slightest spark of creativity is going to be forever a child. We encourage imagination at early ages because we see it as a childish conceit, instead of proof of our innocence which we must never lose. The day we, collectively, stop dreaming is the day we, to a man, die.

On the flip side, though, an overabundance of imagination is poisonous. If we lose contact with reality entirely, we become unhinged, deranged, dangerous. Someone who is unable to understand the connection they have to the world, and the world to which they have a connection, is a liability no matter what wondrous works they conceive of. It’s important to have a basis in reality, but that doesn’t mean we have to be there all the time. Moderation is the key, as it is with everything in this world, or worlds we have yet to even hear of.

For my part, and from my perspective, gaming and creativity are the sparks most people need to rekindle the fires of their imagination. They see the worlds that others have created, even if they’re as simple as a yellow partial pizza chomping dots and escaping ghosts in a blue maze. Somewhere in that interaction– in plugging yourself into someone else’s world and letting the real one fall away, for a time– your own world comes alive once more. And there can be no greater good than finding that the worlds you once thought were things of your past, the mental places you played in as a child, can be passed down to the children you have, or will have.

So let’s play a game.

Essay Week 2010 runs from Sunday, July 25th to Saturday, July 31st. Every year I take a week and write about some topics of interest to me that run slightly more serious than the usual fare on the blog. That’s not to say that games and anime won’t enter into it, but the predominant theme is that this week skews a bit more literary than epistolary. Today we take a look back at the very first Essay Week topic three years ago, and see if I was rolling 20′s that day.

It’s not that Dungeons and Dragons has become less nerdy in the two years since its fourth edition was released. Quite the contrary, in point of fact, as the game now has an emphasis on miniature modeling in addition to die-based roleplaying. The books are more numerous, the gameplay more dogmatically defined, and the characters hewn more closely to standard fantasy and gaming archetypes. But, even within that strictly nerdy framework, the players involved are becoming ever so more diverse.

( In retrospect, I think maybe Wizards of the Coast made a bad call in describing 4th edition as ‘evolutionary, not revolutionary’… » )

Essay Week 2010 runs from Sunday, July 25th to Saturday, July 31st. Every year I take a week and write about some topics of interest to me that run slightly more serious than the usual fare on the blog. That’s not to say that games and anime won’t enter into it, but the predominant theme is that this week skews a bit more literary than epistolary. Today’s theme is the waste of a perfectly good course of action, and how to prevent it.

Earlier this week, I ran into a little bit of trouble with my car. It rattled me enough to derail the topic I did have planned for today, which I’ll get to tomorrow. The short version of the story there is that the thermostat coupling on the car broke, and threatened to overheat the engine. I knew from experience that when I saw the temperature gauge rising, I needed to stop immediately and get the thing fixed; the last time I’d let it slide, the car I did it to did not appreciate it one bit, and died a rather spectacular death on Interstate 480 in Cleveland.

As I said, I had not planned for this– ( but that doesn’t mean I wasn’t prepared for it… » )

Essay Week 2010 runs from Sunday, July 25th to Saturday, July 31st. Every year I take a week and write about some topics of interest to me that run slightly more serious than the usual fare on the blog. That’s not to say that games and anime won’t enter into it, but the predominant theme is that this week skews a bit more literary than epistolary. Today’s essay goes into what I do on this here blog.

Recently I’ve had occasion to take stock of what I do with myself online, and while for the most part I tend towards a ‘read-only’ view of the majority of the web, this blog and its predecessor, along with the Linguankery project, are where the majority of my effort and output winds up. The question has been posed to me in several different ways, but it all comes down to the same thing in the end: Why exactly do I feel the need to write a blog?

( As with everything, the answer is a little complex… » )

Essay Week 2010 runs from Sunday, July 25th to Saturday, July 31st. Every year I take a week and write about some topics of interest to me that run slightly more serious than the usual fare on the blog. That’s not to say that games and anime won’t enter into it, but the predominant theme is that this week skews a bit more literary than epistolary. Today I take the metaphor of ‘food for thought’ unusually literally.

I am, as has been noted before, a caffeine fiend. The day that wondrous molecule is outlawed– heaven forfend– I will have to start the day with naught but an egg and a waffle, or possibly cold cereal. At least until sugary cereal is put on the bad books, too. However, in the past few years, a market has sprung up around the quaffing of caffeine in forms other than coffee. As I’m not a big fan of coffee in general, you can see how this would be interesting to me.

( One of the leading brands of energy drinks nationally available is Rockstar… » )

Essay Week 2010 runs from Sunday, July 25th to Saturday, July 31st. Every year I take a week and write about some topics of interest to me that run slightly more serious than the usual fare on the blog. That’s not to say that games and anime won’t enter into it, but the predominant theme is that this week skews a bit more literary than epistolary. After a bit of a hard-edged start, we move to a more fluid topic.

A few years back, Mike Doughty, lead singer for Soul Coughing, released a cover of Kenny Rogers’ iconic song “The Gambler”. The cover transposes the song to a more alt-rock style, leaning more heavily on the drums than the original (which was dominated by acoustic guitar), and it drops half of one of the narrative verses in favor of starting with the legendary and infinitely-memorable chorus. In many respects the cover is good, but it loses something in the retelling, particularly without the missing section.

“The Gambler”, at its core, is a fairly standard country-western song. ( Country as a rule tends to be more narrative than other genres… » )

Essay Week 2010 runs from Sunday, July 25th to Saturday, July 31st. Every year I take a week and write about some topics of interest to me that run slightly more serious than the usual fare on the blog. That’s not to say that games and anime won’t enter into it, but the predominant theme is that this week skews a bit more literary than epistolary. We start this year’s Essay Week off with some thoughts on Essay Week itself, in point of fact.

Last week I put out the call for ideas for this year’s Essay Week. While on the surface it appears that the response was a little anemic, it turns out that that gave me plenty of ideas as to what to write about. I suppose, though, I ought to address why the call didn’t get as many public ideas being floated as I had hoped.

When I made the request, I put in a proviso that I didn’t want to tackle anything overly polarizing or controversial. ( The reasoning behind this categoric dismissal is… » )

I missed being able to post for today, primarily because I was filming footage for the Life in One Day project. As it turns out yesterday was profoundly boring, and I’m not even sure I’ll submit any of my video for the project… but it did serve its purpose in getting me a little more practice with the video camera in advance of Otakon. I also wrapped up the essays needed for Essay Week, so without further delay, I’ll be posting the first one… now.

This week has seen a few game announcements of note, and a few anime announcements. Only natural, because Comic-Con International is going on over on the West Coast. Among the anime announcements have been Tales of the Abyss, which is good as I’ve been meaning to find an excuse to play the game (or in this case, not play the game– 13 hours of anime versus 40+ hours of game for the same story is not a difficult decision to make). But the real gem has been one and a half game announcements.

Capcom shed a little more light on the enigmatic Mega Man Universe, which had been revealed in a rather well-done teaser trailer a week or so ago. According to the revelations, Universe is meant to let each player play as their idealized version of Mega Man– a tricky feat given that good ol’ Rock has been incarnated in many varied forms in his twenty-three year history. (Wow, can you believe it’s almost time for the silver anniversary of Mega Man?!) Capcom seems to be going all-out with this one, even including the godawful version of Mega Man from the US box cover. This is fanservice of the highest degree, and quite frankly, I couldn’t be happier about it.

Except that, in almost the same breath, rumors of a for-real announcement of Mega Man Legends 3 were rekindled after the question was met with the Capcom rep throwing foam Mega Buster arms into the crowd and simply saying, “Thank you.” And as much as I want to believe in the rumors, I have to retain more than a modicum of disbelief.

There’s this thing I don’t do. It’s called ‘tempting fate’. It’s because of this other thing that I have, called ‘historically rotten luck’. And the reason I don’t do it in this case specifically is because of a thing I like to call ‘I really really want MM Legends 3 to come out and will do unspeakable things to anything that jinxes that chance, myself included and in particular’.

“The great work of great men, without exception, began as the tiniest spark in the mind of a child.”