mmorpg; Symantic Zombies

I wrote a reply to a review of Urban Dead at play this thing.

There were a couple of posts I responded to that were  advocating this...thing. I'll just post one here

Ah, but you see...Once you get all your skills, then you can try influencing the tide of battle, getting in on large-scale troop movements, planning out battle strategy...


Or, you know, not. But some people do really get into it. ;)

And my responce

Yeah, but why? It seems like some real life instinct to assign meaning to mass carnage is at play here. Your just inventing a meaning to all that carnage but reacting to your invention as if it really is the case.


It's like being a moth attracted to a flame, because the moth thinks the flame is the moon and you think this carnage is a 'tide of battle'. When it's just carnage. Pointless. Endless.

It's like the human brain simply cannot accept any idea that real life is pointless and endless, so it starts inventing meaning to it. Fair enough in that case, what else can we do? But you don't fucking stop - you start doing it in games as well. And in doing so, you actually perpetuate games which are both meaningless and endless. You perpetuate the darkness. Games are some meaning we can add to real life, but your fucking perpetuating meaningless games. It's like your so certain life has meaning, your freaking destroying what meaning we have been able to make.

It's up to the author to invent a point for a game, not for people to take their RL meaning making and apply it to the game.

And I realised this is a philosophical point that needs to be made again.

We cannot accept the idea of a meaningless, pointless and endless universe. I'm not trying to prove it's the case, but we can't even accept it as a possible set up, really. So we invent meaning. And fair enough, what else are we to do, apart from fall to the earth from where we stood and move not again?

But then people start making meaning inside 'games' like urban dead, or world of warcraft...and the worst and critical bit is, they start encouraging more of these 'games'.

They make meaning because there is none in these 'games' - no proper ending or anything. And they want more 'games' like these made!

Do you understand? In a universe where we have to make and add our own meaning, they want to propergate stuff that has hundreds or millions of players, and they participate for large chunks of their life in a, by default, a meaningless activity.

"But they'll invent a meaning!"

No, they only invent a meaning for the fucking game, if at all! They stop making/adding meaning to real life!

In being so instinctually meaning making, they are not only ceasing to do so but actively pushing for activities that are by default without meaning - letting in the very thing meaning making is supposed to be a bulwark against - just pure nihilistic darkness. It's becoming a zombie in itself - a thing that does not self reflect upon it's hunger and moves to spread that.

Why do I write so passionately? Because even if I'm wrong on this, I'd rather write passionately and yet be foolishly wrong, rather than assume everythings dandy and be horribly wrong.