Link Roundup #1 - Because Writing is Hard
One of my favorite things is to enjoy being bad at things. Mostly because life is short, and art long. Since I don’t have the 10,000 hours needed to achieve mastery in all the things I want to do, I’m gonna be spending a whole lot of my time on Earth being bad at stuff, and may as well like it.
One of these things is writing. I wish I had more time to write blog posts, but I’ve learned (unsurprisingly) that writing something relatively interesting and insightful, nevermind original, requires quite a lot of time and effort. It really makes me wonder how all these brilliant people on the interwebs find the time to be professionals, hobbyists, and amazing writers, and have a Twitter account. No amount of coffee or cola could get me to those heights of productivity, I don’t think.
So it is with great pleasure and self-loathing that I start a new series of blog posts, where I collect and share some amazing reads from around the web. I was inspired by Hoodie’s blog, where they have a series called TGIF (try it on!) to do just that. I’ll probably add a bit more commentary to at least provide the illusion that I’m a writer-in-training, but the juiciest parts will be the links, so please, enjoy the feast.
We Will Force Gaming to Be Free – First Person Scholar
Everyone’s talking about #GamerGate these days, and this deconstruction of the “movement” and its supporters is the best I’ve read so far. Plenty of ideas to chew on here.
Shooters: How Video Games Fund Arms Manufacturers – Eurogamer.net
It’s shocking to me that this is happening. I never made the connection before, but in High School I bought an airsoft (BB) gun replica of the Desert Eagle, a gun I gained a lot of proficiency with at the time from playing lots and lots of Counter-Strike. To this day there’s some small part in my brain dedicated to the “feel” of that gun from all those hours gaming.
A notable quote from the article:
“The stories we tell and the games we play have an effect, otherwise people would not bother with the whole undertaking. Licensing gun names is a darker point on a spectrum that begins with the act of playing Cops and Robbers. But putting money in the palm of arms dealers can only help them make tools to kill.”
Call of Duty vet suggests govt. ‘brainwash’ public, debate soldiers guarding schools – Polygon
[Former Call of Duty game director Dave Anthony] said that the government should follow in the footsteps of video game publishers, and market their ideas before they become a reality.
“When we have a new product that has elements we’re not sure how people will respond to, we market it,” he said. “We market it as much as we can, so that whether people like it or not, we essentially brainwash them into liking it before it actually comes out. When you have decided to make these changes, you have a marketing campaign to introduce them before it is forced upon you.
My first reaction was to be outraged at such a flagrant public statement, but then I wondered how much less I would know about the current state of things if this hadn’t been said publicly and openly. My only question is, what’s the proper response to something like this?
Later in the article Mr. Anthony compares the government to Activision, a videogame corporation. I think this is such a false equivalency on so many levels, but I’ll just say the obvious one: Activision has no obligation to anyone – its singular focus is on absorbing profits, and not just for survival. Government’s function is to serve its citizens, who contribute taxes with the intent that the money be redistributed for the public good. They’re basically opposites. Government is not a business model, god dammit.
Which leads me to this inspiring talk:
How Designers Destroyed the World – Mike Monteiro
This is a talk you definitely don’t want to miss. Watch it. Whether you’re in tech or not, it doesn’t disappoint in delivering the conversations we need to be having yesterday, today, and for all time.
Finally, an incredibly thoughtful and refreshing post on false equivalences and understanding our relationships. Pretty important if you currently identify as a human being (and probably moreso if you don’t):
on false equivalences – graydon2
There is a responsibility we have when arriving at a conversation about these topics [of oppression], which is to know enough about both the history and present situation that we respect the magnitude of the problem: otherwise we are signalling that we’re wasting everyone else’s time. If you do not know enough about the history or present reality of such a topic […] then my advice is the same: go read up on it. Literally. Find a book that’s recommended on the history and current state of the axis of oppression you’re discussing, and read the whole thing. Then another. Maybe three to five books will start to give you a feel for the magnitude and texture of a topic (and as a bonus, it will begin to average-out idiosyncrasies of any given author).
I hope these incredible authors inspire you to stoke the fires of your imagination, as they did for me. Be well, y’all. Over and out!