A Tyrant Comes Clean
Great post at Chewing Pixels, My Virtual Sins: A Gamer’s Confession:
Bless me Father, for I have sinned. It has been longer than I can remember since my last confession. These are my sins:
I killed a man. No, too modest. On every continent and in all countries, across centuries, worlds and dimensions, in times of war and times of peace, my trail of dead is one frag short of endless.
I masterminded the genocide of countless Civilizations and annihilated every city on Earth each time I booted up Defcon.
I’ve committed patricide in Lego Star Wars, matricide in Final Fantasy VII, sororicide in Bioshock (little sister had it coming) and pesticide in Viva Piñata.
I colonised America in Anno 1701 and killed all of the Indians (but hey, if it works in my favour, I did help put an end to World War II around 73 million times).
I blew up a sheep in Worms. Come to think of it, I blew up a worm in Worms. I wiped out all of the ants in EDF2017, all of the bats in Symphony of the Night, all of the mice in Chu Chu Rocket and all of the light in The Darkness.
My Nintendog ran away.
I vandalised Shinjuku in Jet Set Radio, jaywalked in Frogger, tore down the Empire State Building in Hulk: Ultimate Destruction and, last week, I rolled up London in a Katamari. I’ve let Sim Cities run to ruin and left the weeds to choke town Animal Crossing. I couldn’t be bothered to tidy up Tetris.
Read the rest here.
[...] ways in which computer ‘games’ and war are converging are multitudinous and endlessly fascinating on a number of levels. As a training tool, as a recruiting device, as a weapons control [...]