In attempting to navigate the world mindlessly, one can certainly make an ass out of themselves without even realizing it.



What I imagine drivers who don’t use their turn signals look like

In a slightly related notion of incidentally mindless traversal, I inadvertently screwed myself this very day, as instead of getting to writing about System Shock posthaste and right out of the gate when I woke up, I attempted to pour more time into the title, to see if my continued scouring would further reveal the metaphysical nature of System Shock to me, in all of it’s methodical virtual insanity. This much turned out to be true, mind you, but at the great cost of time to spare. However, being able to share even the slightest notions of what I continue to uncover is still of great importance to me, as I continue to break down what has remained to be an enlightening experience, dare say, and at the risk of sounding obnoxiously uninspired, shocking.


I actually deserve to be electrocuted in a similar fashion Marv does like that scene from Home Alone for making such a profoundly stupid fucking comment

What staggers me about System Shock is the time and place involved. Every time I second guess myself in terms of it’s initial release, I double check just to verify that this was indeed first released in 94′, and my jaw falls heavily upon the ground once again. The sheer notion of such a title, in all of it’s innovative gumption, releasing so early in the 90’s to PC gamers the world over, in an event that no doubt created shock-waves of innovative bravado hither and thither throughout the computer space. And yet however, in spite of the titles impressive magnitude of affect upon that realm, any within the console space would be none the wiser, with System Shock seemingly nothing but a vague rumbling in the far distance, those with controllers firmly in hand would swear they heard no world changing event or anything of the sort occurring whatsoever, the difference between a resounding bang and a faint whimper. This notion in reference to System Shock laying the ground work for so many titles yet to come.


Cue Doom 3’s theme song Sound of Silence: …hello darkness my old friend

My piece yesterday, deconstructing the metaphysical reality of System Shock, or at least part of my beginning workings on the matter, and in some ways, within the delightful spectrum of great perversity, goes to show you just how “similar” an experience may be, or share elements with other titles in so many ways, and yet carry a completely different feel all the same. In some further irony on the matter, and in a manner that I’m not entirely able to succinctly surmise here, I focused more on the contrasting notion of the “fingerfeel” of the virtual experiences of the games themselves, rather than compare “the games themselves“. Sounds like a queer distinction, and perhaps it is, but a devastatingly vital one to underpin in my notions of fairness and adequate analysis, sometimes involving the greasiest of dichotomies.


There remains great insight within the notion: the reality of the Cheeto is found within the dust it leaves

To wit; with System Shock offering up and in essence, setting the stage with so many tropes for future games, some may mistakenly roll their eyes at some of the included elements of the game: bleak audio logs, treacherously tense slow walks down dark hallways, having corridor battles with unsightly beasts that seek to haunt you. So much of System Shocks’s novel beats became the cliches of tomorrow, so much so, that upon reexamination of some of Doom 3’s machinations, it looks as if it’s inspirations were jarringly obvious in where it tried to pull from. I suppose there is a cerebereality System Shock placates that Doom never chased, and why maybe Doom 3’s approach helps to bring into focus my idea of one being akin to navigating a forest, and the other an operating room.


A notion of farce and whimsy that has firmly rooted itself in shockingly relevant ways within my world

Perhaps that’s why Doom 3 feels as if it was attempting to operate in a locale not fit for the standard operation procedure it needed to perform, within the frame of reference to the kind of surgery the Doom series \ normally performs, but being wildly out of it’s element while doing so, perhaps failing that “fingerfeeling” familiarity so prevalent in the metaphysical nature Doom fans are so accustomed to. In reference to the metaphysicality of the minute to minute of System Shock in contrast, a far more compelling contemporary remains, in my mind, Morrowind if you would believe it, though these contrasting notions of “fingerfeel” will have to wait until more moments may be safely maintained.

~Pashford