On The Believer's Journey...

   "That depends on what you are threatening. Killing him would just wake him up... but pain? Pain is in the mind"

   Most of you probably remember this quote. It's taken out of a great film, one that the superb Christopher Nolan directed in 2010 and that's called "Inception". Mal speaks those words to Cobb in the beggining of the feature, holding a gun to his partener's face. A movie that mostly takes place in a dream-space, in which the death of one's avatar would just result in them waking up... not in the most gentle of manners but that would be it. The feelings felt in there however would be as powerful and real as any expressed or felt in our reality. The event might always be around us... but the experience is in the mind.

   I think after years of studying, thinking and trying to understand why people all around me are so ill-pre-desposed concerning the gaming industry I've funally managed to conclude that their idea's roots are not that deep. I've always known that the less one understands about something the more they tend to loathe, fear or misunderstand it but in this case, it's all rather simple... and simple is the perfect word to describe it. That's what most of those snobs think: That gaming is a simple proceedure, involving mostly the wasting of time, dulling of senses and lack of social interaction (like THEY all lead very interesting lives, them TV-consuming, coach-potatoes... but I won't go there. It's beneath me). Summing all those adjectives together, it's easy to rationalize why they misunderstand so much. You see, a phenomenon witnessed in most lowly-educated societies captures the core of the problem and it has to do with the fact that a person with no SPECIFIC interests never endeavours in expanding their horizons. When all you do with your every day life is work, watch trash on TV, have the occasional coffee break with another person just to find time to "discuss" how bored and disheartened you are about the course your life has taken, well... there's really not much to look forward to. And who has time to TRY and find something interesting to do these days?! Right...? So, along with most of the not-100-years old things that our grandmothers didn't see fit to teach our parents who then, in turn, didn't see fit to introduce to us, gaming fell into the cracks. And what a shame that is...

   You probably know this already but most mediums these days are sterile beyond most hope of repair. For every Dexter, The Walking Dead and Fringe you get 1000 cases of Sex & The City, Desperate Housewives and so on. Series about people who have managed to turn their lives into every-day marathons against boredom, personal failures and lack of focus. There's no empowering factor here, nothing to move you forward or make you question what you would have done if things went sour or how you can improve in the here and now (unless you consider tactics of getting new boy/girlfriends every couple of weeks the way to awesomeness). So living in this era of mediocrity whilst being bombarded by the socially-accepted standard of "coming short" who has time for bloody Adam Jansen fighting against the dominance of misleading media in a destopic world? Who cares about Old Snakes making one last stand for a free society? For armour-clad soldiers without names, without a home to go back to, who've lost everything having nothing to gain, throwing themselves into the fire for the survival of an entire race, and then some? No point in that of course. It's just non-existent people, in non-existent - but oh, so close to our own - realities fighting non-existent battles. There's really not much to it now is there? Is there?

   Sad truth is, people who interprit all information around them in simple terms will always diminish the worth of new things, the worth of creations that require you to look at the details, the worth of work that calls out to you to think differently, dream bigger, feel larger, go further. Humanity has always been able to move itself from place to place, the perpetual nomads in a world that called out for us to step on new grounds and draw new blood. The location of the corporeal flesh has always been the final frontier, at least for the average man. For every Karpyshyn, Kojima and Nylund there are THOUSANDS of "news-watchers" and "bored-out-of-their-minds" consumers. Their escapade from the bog of inactivity, mayhap, has always been at the tips of their fingers: In the pages of a good book, in the frames that comprise a movie... and now, after just a few decades of experimentation, in gaming titles with enough mental nutrients in them to make us think, lose sleep over, get troubled and RECONSIDER.

   Reality can only take us so far, the glorious aspects of our world sometimes out of reach, sometimes mundane, sometimes conquered. The physical realm, finite as it is, might very well kill the joy of exploration and longing that we might have felt whilst growing up. But The Journey Beyond... The Journey is in the mind.

On What Truly Remains...

   I remember it was a night like every other. I was at home, waiting for that special other person to be done with her work, enjoying a series of matches on Halo 4 multiplayer, chatting with some friends. The mood was good, the games were going well and the thought that each passing second brought me closer to my beloved (we were fresh into the whole "lovebirds" vibe back in the day, and I am proud and happy to state, we still are) made the occasion all the merrier. I remember it was "Ragnarok" - one of the oldest maps in the game, known in older iterations as "Valhalla" - and I had left my Sniper's Perch for a more direct approach on the action. The tool I had acquired was none other than the revered Rocket Launcher and I was charging uphill, towards the center of the map, confident that the weapon would keep me safe enough. When I was about half-way to the top I heard a sound: The unmistakable humming of a Warthog, roaming about. I caught the trademark vehicle out of the corner of my eye, driver behind the wheel and a sole gunner manning the .50 cal. It was a moment of zen, I might say, one of these special instances in life when time slows to a crawl and everything fall in place at the edge of one's perception. I spun around, let out a sly breath and pulled the trigger. The rocket flew in the distance, reaching for the trajectory of the approaching 'Hog. After a few seconds I witnessed the blossoming of a flower quite common in titles revolving around people shooting at each other: One comprised of vibrant colors, reds, oranges and yellows. An explosion. The rocket had traveled out of the barrel, towards the horizon to meet a target that was still ways off their meeting point. But the shot was true, the split-second calculations correct and the result, in its simplicity and booming beauty, perfect. Now, the math required to pull off something like that is quite complex, but this is not a reference to the grandeur of the accomplishment. It's something quite different...
   It's about those moments, set in stone in one's mind. I believe it's a common occurrence, for people to keep mementos of specific occasions, of times they treasure. But why? What is the reason for keeping said pieces of our past in some form other than that of foggy thoughts? What moves us and what is the actual benefit?
   Throughout a person's life, one comes to experience various feelings, encounters and situations. We move through them, some time oblivious to the outcome, sometimes in total control. We keep and conserve those most dear and let go of the rest. These "keepsakes" come in many forms: A page in a book, describing some epic event in a tale. A movie scene, a tune whilst having a glass of wine, a simple kiss by someone we love. Just moments. They come, pass and then they are gone forever.

   You are probably wondering what the blasting of a Warthog in a Halo 4 match has to do with any of this. Maybe you've gotten wind of what I am trying to say already...
   We do things everyday in order to enrich and improve our lives. Every action stems from the need to achieve something and more often than not, the subliminal reason is the preservation of the moment itself. We are defined by our actions and our course... it marks who we are. It is the same thing with games of course. There are moments in there as well, in the countless sessions and endless hours when everything falls into place, when time slows to a crawl and you feel that you are in total control. And the feeling pays of, creating moments of magnificence, moments worth remembering... Memories. With each one added we have more to show for ourselves, we draw another line in our cave's stone-age drawing. We have more to cling on, to rejoice for.
   It is never about the fun itself. It's not about the magnitude of the achievement. It's about all the Memories. The people that are close when something happens and share that moment with us, the ones we describe them to and have a laugh whilst doing so. For in the end, we are little more than the sum of our experiences and of what we do with them. We are time made flesh, given shape... and enriching that time in any way possible - even by blowing up a Warthog in a generic Halo 4 match in some spectacular fashion - is a worthy endeavor.