Craig’s tendency to talk about his boredome with games has been getting me thinking about this again lately in a slightly different light, actually.

I mean think about it: how boring is it to be presented with scene after scene of things to destroy when ultimately nothing is ever accomplished? To echo Earnest Adams, I say “Screw the princess — saving her won’t do any good. I’ll just kill 50, maybe 60 (thousand) people, then she’ll be all thankful, and then a hundred years later it will all start over again.” YAAAAAWN.

I can put up with this only when it’s done with mastery, as in the Zelda games. But seriously, how many ninja’s-kidnapping-the-president plots can we deal with before we just stop caring? You’d almost think that more game developers would be trying to satirize our old cliches the way they just get so out of control….

In the first level, it goes beyond not killing people and well into not even knocking people out or being seen by the guards. (Random citizens wouldn’t recognize you as a MASTER THIEF, but guards, by now, know who you are…)

Memes, whether introduced by games or other forms of media, are extremely powerful contagions. There have been dozens of largely-suppressed reports on the matter – whole countries have had rashes of suicides due to a glorification of suicide in the media. I don’t know why shootings would be any different.

Here’s a quick read on the subject, especially as pertains to suicides. He’s a bit pompous, but, then so am I. :)

http://cfpm.org/jom-emit/2001/vol5/marsden_p.html