http://www.mixcloud.com/antonipeychev/food-for-thought-online-gaming-a-man-made-plague/
We all have our dark secrets; mine is that, between the age of seventeen and nineteen, I used to play a game that, I am quite certain, you have all heard about- World of Warcraft.
Even
though I most definitely wasn't as obsessed with the game as many others were, I
used to spend about a couple of hours in the ‘virtual world’.
You
might think that two hours a day is not a lot but I can assure you that playing
the game is not the most addicting aspect of it.
The
most scary bit is when you spend hours of your day thinking of those two hours
that you are going to spend playing the game later on.
Then,
suddenly, at some point of your life, the following happens:
Although
I have not been even close to the above state, I have had the ‘privilege’ of knowing
a couple of people that were.
That
(and the fact that I had ‘outgrown’ it, apparently) was partly the reason why I
gave up online gaming; out of the shear fear of becoming one of those mindless
zombies that just walk around aimlessly, uttering a ‘yeah’ and ‘nah’ every now
and then, pretending to take part in the conversation whilst actually thinking
of the two hours’ of ‘questing’ that awaits them.
What
I found out recently, however, was way scarier than the above: I found out that
they might well be justified.
The
prize for first- place in a tournament of an online game that a friend of mine
is playing, called the League of Legends, is wait for
it.......................... $ 1mln.
Since
there’s a team of four, that’d be $ 250k each...
That
horrid reality entertwined with an article that I recently read on how, in about
twenty years’ time, machines (or robots) will take over 60% of our jobs. The
person writing the article championed the above in that he said that it would
allow people to focus on the more ‘creative and artistic’ side of work.
To
begin with, with an unemployment rate of 25%, I don’t see anyone in Spain being
particularly creative and artistic...
Furthermore,
could winning an online game tournament be considered creative and artistic?
Also,
does it, in any way whatsoever, contribute with ANYTHING meaningful to society
or to humanity’s well- being?
Entertainment,
people would say.
Are
we, then, entering a new era of young people sitting in front of their PCs all day,
observing real- time tournaments, taking notes with the hope that one day
someone else would be sitting in front of their PC, observing them whilst
taking notes?
And,
if so, is there a practical way in which we can make young people play less games
and read more books without prompting them to run away from home, trying to
slay monsters, hoping that they’d drop a ‘good loot of better weapons, armour
and medium- rare rib- eye steaks which temporarily increase your stamina by 3’.
Well,
let’s have a look at A way of doing it, shall we?
That’s
right, folks; a father had commissioned ONLINE assassins to continuously kill
his son online so that he could give up the game and find himself a proper job.
In
today’s world, would you consider the above ludicrous or ingenious?
Also,
do you think that the father would have done the same, had his son come back
home one day with the £1mln prize money that he had won as a result of his
honing his ‘online gaming skills’ 24/7? Would he still want him to find a ‘real-
life’ job?
Well,
let me be ‘The One’ and break it up to you, my dear readers:
There’s
no ‘REAL’ world anymore; welcome to the Matrix.
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