Why I Don't Shop at Wal-Mart: A Story About God-Game Economic Narrative

I've always wanted to do a post on god-game narrative because it's such a fascinatingly depressing kind of realism. Sure, god-games are all about creating your own imaginary civilization or country. They do present a fun way to experiment with, in some cases, quasi-realistic economies.

I'm not an economics major--I'm an English and journalism grad. If I knew more about economics maybe I would believe economists like Kevin O'Leary when they say "greed is good." But probably not, because greed is not good. It doesn't take an economist to follow the consumerist line of thinking through to where it should lead. God-games have simply accelerated and simplified the process.

It has been said that greed drives everything in society (I wouldn't argue that) and in so doing, all the wealth the greedy people make trickles down to the average working person. Consumerism keeps North America going.

But I don't shop at Wal-Mart.

Realism and Red Baron

The first videogame I ever really played was Red Baron. I had the Windows95 version and it was one of the only real games we had at the time.

Being quite young, I didn't fully understand the concepts, much less the design, but it was fun to fly around and the aerial battles were, for a game of its time, pretty thrilling. I always loved flying tri-planes.

My father taught me just enough about the menu to get me into a game, and I picked up a little bit more on my own over time. The campaigns were great, but there was one part of the game I could never get the hang of.

Oh, the dreaded "Realism" menu.

Mimicry and the Derivative: Read More, And Ignore

It has been said that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. I really hope that's true, because this week I've wasted at least two hours holding my head in my hands agonizing about originality.

Innovation or Originality? What am I Talking About and In What Language?

"'It is really, really hard to come up with solid game concepts and great characters,' said John Baez, co-founder of The Behemoth, an independent video game developer based in California."

That quotation is from a CBC.ca (yes, I'm a journalism student) feature by Peja Bulotovic entitled "Indie games counter sequel-driven market" and published on Feb. 22. That quotation is, in fact, the lead of the article, so right away, you know it has significance. And it does, for all the wrong--but just a few of the right--reasons.