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Sunday, Nov 8, 2009
"I love FPShooters, especially Half-Life and Halo; (and coincidentally, I am also a 41-y-old female"
--No Name Given
Yeah, as if.
Are you hot? I am sure you would be a rare catch in the adult male shut in gamer dating scene.
I had heard of it, but really never seriously thought to give it a try, I am drawn to controversy in pop culture as a rule.
No, not really a FPS fan. More into strategy games. I thought it was interesting how they made the player sit through all the medical classes in real time.
Okay... sorry, I don't get it. Call me slow if you like. Someone's aunt likes you because she (probably mistakenly) thinks that her children are ignorant of the realities of war and that somehow you might be in a position to enlighten them.
Two points need to be made: 1. Not all gamers are young kids. 2. Not all young kids are as stupid as the world likes to think they are.
People who play games don't immediately think, as another letter writer has implied, that it's cool to do the things in real life that you accomplish in a game. This summer I played a bit of a game called Saint's Row, which is more or less a prettier version of the Grand Theft Auto games. The most amusing thing I did in that game was hijack a propane-laden semi and drive it head-first into oncoming highway traffic. I've also played Half-Life, a game that requires you to shoot up aliens, Marines out to exterminate your character, and black-ops assassins while you teleport in and out of an alien world. I've played the Thief series of games, sneaking through all manner of castles, manors, and crypts in the pursuit of wealth. I played Nintendogs, a game that allows me to raise cute little pixelated puppies and enter them into obedience trials and more. And, of course, I've played MMOs like Guild Wars and Star Wars: Galaxies, which have allowed me to play as a macho, brainless warrior and a shrewd merchant, respectively.
I'm a 3.8 college student looking at the seminary, a classical musician with all the awards and commendations I can stomach, a State AP Scholar for my home state. Whatever you non-gamers might think, please don't assume that I, or any competent gamer, would automatically think of ACTUALLY hijacking semis, blasting away aliens, stealing treasure from Medieval castles, entering the AKC championships, or devote my life to saving the kingdom of Ascalon by defeating the evil Charr. Having volunteered for environmental groups, left-wing activist organizations, church outreach programs and more since the age of 15, I also find it presumptuous that people assume that kids have no idea what's going on in the world. Come on, now. We see the news too. "Adults" are not as wise and worldly as they think they are.
Gamers are not stupid. We are not duped by the alternate reality that a videogame creates. We don't assume that a fun game about the Iraqi occupation makes joining the Army (or any branch of the military) a really good idea.
And at the end of the day, we're not going to listen to people who sermonize to us while we're trying to have a little escapist fun in this horrible, cruel, beautiful, amazing, divided world we live in. You can pray all you want. It will not change reality.
God bless
It only just occurred to me that you seem to assume that when people "learn" that soldiers actually die in combat (gasp! who knew?), they will lose any and all interest in the service. Maybe I'm being idealistic, but I'd like to think that America's youth is slightly more courageous than that.
My brother, a year older than I, and a staunch opponent to the Bush administration and its policies, is planning on joining the Marines as soon as he gets his degree. My dad retired as a major in the Corps about 14 years ago after putting in 20 years of service across the globe. A good friend of mine from music ensembles spent the summer in basic and advanced training for the Army so that he can play tuba in an Army band. One of my very good friends since early childhood had no means of paying for college other than through the ROTC program, and she is currently deployed by the Air Force in the Middle East.
It would be silly to assume that any of these people were unaware of the reality that war kills. I am a pacifist and don't understand the military's appeal, but that doesn't stop me from admiring these people for their courage and their sense of duty to something bigger than them... something I /do/ understand.
I guess what I'm saying is that I would rather live in a world where people interested in the military said "Oh, people die in combat? Hmm. Well... that is a risk I am willing to take to do something I feel called to do," rather than "Oh, people die in combat? Oh bugger. Guess I'd better devote my sad life to slinking up the corporate ladder or something else less dangerous!"
"It only just occurred to me that you seem to assume that when people "learn" that soldiers actually die in combat (gasp! who knew?), they will lose any and all interest in the service. Maybe I'm being idealistic, but I'd like to think that America's youth is slightly more courageous than that."
Thirty years ago, a sentiment like this would have seemed very strange coming out of the 'mouth' of any but the most conservative of college-age kids. The post-1980 American lurch rightward is more astonishing to me than anything Bush himself (who is hardly a man of paradoxes) has come up with. Long after he's gone, we'll still be dealing with the fact that the two-party system in our country is a dialog now between the right and the ultra-right. Any person or concept that might legitimately be called 'Left' is written off as wacko, stupid, or just too weak to live.
Chloe, let me open your eyes to the wisdom that signing up for the 'service' is not nearly as courageous an act as speaking out loudly against it. Young people risking serious injury or death (and risking inflicting the same on innocents) in order to serve a shadowy cabal's global agenda is an awful thing. Just as so many women are now complicit in their own oppression, so it seems with the young, who are perhaps too hypnotized by the over-abundance of consumer choices, and the pressures implicit in the drive to earn enough money to make these choices, to think too deeply about philosophical questions of independent-vs-herd thinking. You rightly admire your friends and relatives for doing what they think is right, Chloe, but ask yourself: why do they think signing up for this war (these wars)is right? Does it really make sense? Why is their government so willing to risk their lives in a death-trap on the other side of the world and to what end?
These questions are not asked often enough, loudly enough, by enough 'normal' people.
Much of the initial coverage about Fort Hood turned out to be wrong. Is there anything wrong with that?
The accountability imposed by another country for the CIA's kidnapping and torture reveals much about our own.
Fox News' morning show plays to type, talking about whether Muslims in the Army should face "special debriefings"
The survivor and author is upset about comparisons some on the right are making to genocide
Once seen as a lunatic fringe, reactionary anti-women groups are courting respectability
Salon headlines in your mailbox
