In my many years on this Earth, one important notion that has continually revealed itself to be more true with the passage of time is simply: nothing is ever quite what it seems.

Gotta read between those lines, y’all

Another Saturday has arrived, and with it, another terrible batch of the Sorrows to go along with it. These have become a regular occurrence, as I’ve discussed them on a number of occasions, and go right alongside other similar ideas akin to “a case of the Mondays” or the “Sunday scaries” that others have proclamated upon in the past, in anthropomorphizing the days of their work week. Certainly a vibe, and a persistent one at that, which just goes to show you that even with a job one likes, and a healthy array of activities for one to engage in, there is no running away from morbidity forever, as the bill always comes due, it is just whether or not you will be ready to pay it when the time comes.

I think it’s worth it to mention just how out of my gourd exhausted I am at the moment, which is definitely affecting my ability to formulate more comprehensive thoughts with any liquidity. I make explicit this reality so readily, for new readers who may not be use to my baseline, and assuring longer time readers I constantly do my best on their behalf, sometimes that means providing a 100% effort with a much lower ceiling of robust capacity at the ready. This is more of a forecast that this current thought will likely be another truncated effort like yesterday, but we shall see what the next half hour brings before I must depart for work.

I suppose if I expound upon my thoughts from yesterday even further, I can meander through the minefield of consideration involving the novel context of why people, as a collective of individuals, gives a pass to games, that do indeed fundamentally fail at what I referred to as “the defining revolutionary standard” of video games, that being the inherent interactivity that imbues gaming its defining characteristic vs others like movies and television, though, that in and of itself is a worthy claim I’ve investigated before. Does any level of interactivity thusly transform what would otherwise be considered a TV show or movie into a game? I saw a thread the other day talking about the semantics of why digital graphic novels would be considered within the realm of gaming in a similar fashion. The considerations are many and vast, and my take on the matter, while being philosophical in nature, is not necessarily driven by a drive of exclusionary standard, or the desire to be a detail peddaling pedantic romanticizer standing guard at the gates of reason and turmoil, it is pure curiosity that keeps me motivated, as per my usual.

This discussion was reignited recently, due to the idea that, in possessing a perspective of the first person shooter persuasion, My Friendly Neighborhood (MFN) would be liable to the ramifications of what most demand of the genre, which at the very least, should premise itself upon a strong sense of gunplay. MFN sadly, does not have a strong sense of gunplay, as mentioned yesterday, but a forgivable oversight in my world, or at least, in this context, which relates back to that “standard” of gaming to which I speak. There are many examples of where this is true elsewhere, and I’m reminded of an article I read in Edge magazine, detailing a remake of Devil Summoner 2, and how one of the big overhauls was with the combat, which the writer remarked was “not very good at all” in the original release. Shocking to hear of course, as that is the core element of gameplay one is to grapple with, so for Devil Summoner 2 to remain so lauded is somewhat breathtaking upon consideration, apparently having so many strong elements outside of its main gameplay hook to endear it to players as a worthwhile experience. In an adjacent, though exceedingly different manner, another series comes to mind with similar affectations, and if one were to thoroughly detail how many issues any given Elder Scrolls title had out of the gate at launch (and even beyond, quite frankly), you would wonder how a game with such an vast itemized list of incongruities and fabulously over the top failings would similarly be so lauded in the realm, but here we stand, in that very land of improbability.

I think this investigation will represent an ongoing one, as the number of titles that helps to showcase this metaphysical reality as it were, the one where they fail that “defining revolutionary standard” of video games, yet remain so pivotal to proof of existence of gaming itself, is key in unlocking a greater understanding of both players, and the medium at large, in furthering my own work, and in building a system of effective philosophy around the whole phenomenon…detailing the metaphysical happenings related to video games at large. However paradoxical this process seems, in making more distinct the dividing lines between reality and surrealism, encodifying meaning in the formless, and making objective what once seemed subjective is par for the course in the realm of philosophy, and one of the reasons the entire field helps to reinforce the notion of how vital it is one thinks radically about the reality that surrounds us, as we better understand ourselves though or own relativity to it.

-Pashford