Discussing Your Choices and Responsibility

Today post is kind of a fluff piece in some regards considering that it is about your decision to play one game rather than another. However i feel it is important to think about the choices we make because they usually have far reaching consequences we may not see.

The articles i had you read for today have little to do with the decision you will make regarding the free trial you will play; but for millions of others a purchase of game software adds up to big business. In our country money talks louder than anything else and the gaming industry has a very loud voice indeed. Gaming is a multi-billion dollar, and apparently recession proof, industry. Those billions can influence policy and therefore our lives.

On a sadder note, the gold farming industry in China is a rampant effect of America's gaming industry. Like the sweatshops that create hard goods, these workers toil ceaselessly for low wages in order to provide for some an illicit prize. While It has been made "illegal" in China, authorities tend to overlook an industry that employs millions and keeps them off the streets. Something to think about when you do go out and purchase a game.

Well, this is where we discuss our choices of game. I have had a subscription to World of Warcraft on and off since its launch in 2004. What originally appealed to me about the game was the choices regarding Avatar customization and the effect that had on your faction. World of Warcraft is/was vastly different from other online games at the time in that it provided a Player versus Environment and Player versus Player platform along with streamlined, easy to use questing system which did not really exists in online games at the time. WOW also used pretty state of art graphics; which today are clearly dated. My only reservations in going into the game initially had to do with the subscription fee i incurred on a monthly basis and the stigma of playing a nerdy online game. The subscription fee quickly became pretty painless as i felt i was getting my moneys worth. As a rock climbing guide and outdoors man in general i finally learned that my game playing was but one facet of my personality even though it seemed to many like a contradiction. Walt Whitman wrote in "Song of My Self":

Do I contradict myself?
Very well then I contradict myself,
(I am large, I contain multitudes.)

For the weekend please be sure to write the short essay to hand in before Monday. The assignment is listed under the first days assignments as Paper Assignment. Also take a look at this one short reading on The Proteus Effect

If you have any questions regarding the assignments or the reading please send an email right away to jriedl@nccc.edu or guideadk@gmail.com. Have a great weekend and Im looking forward to seeing the choices you made and what you experiences will yield next week.

Jeremy