tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5077773.post8533367873398586003..comments2024-03-26T15:22:25.095-06:00Comments on The Earliad: Emotional FalloutEarl J. Woodshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07963936256606285358noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5077773.post-79575667592552606342010-02-05T13:34:08.498-07:002010-02-05T13:34:08.498-07:00My favourite game of all time is the original Syst...My favourite game of all time is the original System Shock. <br /><br />It was amazing and gripping. It got buried in the media blitz for Doom (or was it Duke Nukem?).<br /><br />The sequel was very good, but pales in comparison to the original.<br /><br />It's (not really) abandonware, so there are copies of it floating around. The initial set up (DOSBox) and learning curve are worth the trouble.Fracturehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07222710943052924373noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5077773.post-19389809351731195242008-12-01T12:33:00.000-07:002008-12-01T12:33:00.000-07:00I doubt anybody is following this thread anymore, ...I doubt anybody is following this thread anymore, but I read an interesting article about nuclear war in fiction, and how it creates a dangerous precedent.<BR/><BR/>The research suggests that fiction, especially pulp-style science fiction about a post-apocalyptic war scenario romanticizes a nuclear attack, and actually causes people to reduce their fear of the Bomb. <BR/><BR/>In most of the fiction, you have the resouceful hero often battling mutated survivors, monsters, and such, and in the end prevailing. This gives readers the thought that not only is nuclear war survivable, but that they will be allocated some sort of supernatural energy that will help them to survive. Often, it's the "bad guys" that turn into mutants, but sometimes the hero mutates as well. Of course, the protagonist often finds some way to turn the mutation to their advantage.<BR/><BR/>Post-apocalyptic fiction, then, feeds the same needs that a reader has when they indulge in superhero fiction. Instead of donning a cape and flying through the sky, the protagonist evades an atomic blast relatively unscathed. Such an atomic survivor would be to the rest of the irradiated population not unlike how Superman would be compared to us in contemporary society. I guess it's not so much that the post-nuke protagonist gains power, so much as the surrounding population loses theirs. <BR/><BR/>Real nuclear holocaust does not provide this sort of resolution. Everybody either dies instantly or horribly and slowly. The blast of the bomb forms a scar in society that may possibly never heal.<BR/><BR/>Witness Japanese manga, where cataclysmic events are positively common, and the concept of the determined survivor is pushed almost to a mania. Or look at a lot of current American offerings where in a post-911 world vengeance, torture, and "shock and awe" style violence is in order. <BR/><BR/>We don't see realistic consequences for this violence in our media. As a reult, we learn to marginalize the cost in terror and despair that this destruction would offer. Not that we WANT to know the true resolution to these events! The six o'oclock news is already bad enough as our institutionalized provider of mass-media fear (This news broadcast is sponsored by Blankety Bank: You're Not As Rich As You Think!). There's only so much misery we can take in. <BR/><BR/>But if the hawks truly had their way, the (ICBM) rockets' red glare and the (Hydrogen) bombs bursting in the air would give proof to the light (the detonation flash, natch), that nothing more would be there, in the land of the free (fallout) and the home of the (mass) grave.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5077773.post-75255550702376996422008-11-13T18:27:00.000-07:002008-11-13T18:27:00.000-07:00There's a certain level of irony to be had, to be ...There's a certain level of irony to be had, to be sure. And I haven't killed anyone who hasn't tried to kill me first! That has to count for something.Earl J. Woodshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07963936256606285358noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5077773.post-72288581330853650312008-11-12T16:33:00.000-07:002008-11-12T16:33:00.000-07:00Irony for me will have to wait until next year, wh...Irony for me will have to wait until next year, when the game's price gets chopped down a bit.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5077773.post-67373977647168433102008-11-12T01:48:00.000-07:002008-11-12T01:48:00.000-07:00I think we are more likely to face an enviromental...I think we are more likely to face an enviromental disaster nowadays than a nuclear holocaust. Not saying the nuclear one can't happen, just that the enviromental one is a guarantee in the current situation.<BR/><BR/>And I find a lot of irony in you being sad at killing virtual characters, yet continuing to play the game and kill more.ZeeBridehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10694346818619809215noreply@blogger.com