The term gamer has historically had a sort of weird association. In the 90’s, gamers made up a small part of the pretty obscure subculture of computer nerds, along with hackers and phreakers. By 2000, gaming consoles had become widespread, and PC games were gaining popularity. Tournaments for games like StarCraft: Brood War began, where competitors could win money by playing video games. Even so, in the past twelve years, gaming has completely changed.
Gaming is defining our generation. We live in a world where video games have overtaken card games and board games, and are more popular than many sports. Once an uncommon hobby, gaming has become an international pastime. The word gamer has evolved, and is no longer associated with age and gender stereotypes. Gamers today are young and old, male and female. We are intelligent and ambitious people. Many of us are students, scientists, engineers, or doctors. We come from different backgrounds, nationalities, and languages, but are brought together by a common interest. The person you’re playing against online could be from almost anywhere in the world, and you might not even give that a second thought. Never in our species’ history have we seen anything like the past decade or so.
Consider Starcraft II, the most popular of eSports. It’s a game of mental ability and skill, and is being called ‘the chess of our generation.’ People of all ages and skill levels play, but the best gamers are respected by the community for their mental prowess. Professional matches are broadcast live on TV and streamed over the internet. In Korea, Starcraft matches can be watched even on basic cable. It won’t be long before this trend reaches North America. Competitors in these matches can win tens of thousands of dollars. In 2011, the GOMTV Global Starcraft II League had over 50 million viewers and gave out more than $1.2 million in prizes. This is just one of many international tournaments. Many of the pros are considered celebrities by the gaming community and are sponsored by companies, just like in traditional sports.
I don’t know where the world of gaming will go from here, but our generation’s lucky to be able to experience it.
Monday, March 5, 2012
Tuesday, February 14, 2012
Journaling
I've wondered for a long time about why I keep a journal. I've filled up a few books by now; I started writing when I was in junior high school as a result of being bored in class, and afterwards I just kept making entries. Some of them are a day or two in between but most are weeks or months apart.
Some people write journals as though they're writing to a penpal. "Dear Diary, here's what happened to me today." I don't really do that. I don't write for the purpose of myself or someone else reading what I write at some point in the future. I just find that I think a lot late at night, and if I have recurring thoughts that I can't get out of my head, I just write down those thoughts in my journal.
This blog is similar. Only a handful of people (if any) read it, but that doesn't bother me. I don't write for the readers, mostly. Mainly I write entries here because I type faster than I can write, and sometimes I don't have my journal handy. If I have thoughts that wouldn't be terribly embarrassing to admit publicly, this is a convenient place for them.
But why bother writing these thoughts down? It's not so I have an archive of my life. It's not so I can look back and see how much I've grown; to be honest, I'm consistently ashamed of entries I've written even a few months ago, of the decisions I made or the things I said or did, or just my outlook on life in general.
I suppose some of life's issues are too complex to think about all at once. Humans in general are terrible at looking at the big picture. We prefer to focus on one thing at a time, fact-by-fact. This might be easier but it also leads to having a biased outlook on pretty much everything.
If I write down all my thoughts as they come to me, not in any particular order, eventually there's enough on my pages to externalize the issue and finally see the big picture. If I'm thinking about a problem in my head, it's just this confusing web of thoughts that jump from one to another for God knows what reason. Once it's all on paper, it's just a math problem. A logic puzzle. I can look at everything at once and decide what to do next.
It doesn't apply only to decision-making. I use it to form opinions about the world. I suspect the approach could be used to figure out just about anything.
If you're reading this and you don't keep a journal, start. You'll come to realize your own biases and learn how to account for them. You learn how to look at issues from every point of view and start to see the big picture. You do sort of have to force yourself to write at times, but it gets easier, and you won't regret it.
Some people write journals as though they're writing to a penpal. "Dear Diary, here's what happened to me today." I don't really do that. I don't write for the purpose of myself or someone else reading what I write at some point in the future. I just find that I think a lot late at night, and if I have recurring thoughts that I can't get out of my head, I just write down those thoughts in my journal.
This blog is similar. Only a handful of people (if any) read it, but that doesn't bother me. I don't write for the readers, mostly. Mainly I write entries here because I type faster than I can write, and sometimes I don't have my journal handy. If I have thoughts that wouldn't be terribly embarrassing to admit publicly, this is a convenient place for them.
But why bother writing these thoughts down? It's not so I have an archive of my life. It's not so I can look back and see how much I've grown; to be honest, I'm consistently ashamed of entries I've written even a few months ago, of the decisions I made or the things I said or did, or just my outlook on life in general.
I suppose some of life's issues are too complex to think about all at once. Humans in general are terrible at looking at the big picture. We prefer to focus on one thing at a time, fact-by-fact. This might be easier but it also leads to having a biased outlook on pretty much everything.
If I write down all my thoughts as they come to me, not in any particular order, eventually there's enough on my pages to externalize the issue and finally see the big picture. If I'm thinking about a problem in my head, it's just this confusing web of thoughts that jump from one to another for God knows what reason. Once it's all on paper, it's just a math problem. A logic puzzle. I can look at everything at once and decide what to do next.
It doesn't apply only to decision-making. I use it to form opinions about the world. I suspect the approach could be used to figure out just about anything.
If you're reading this and you don't keep a journal, start. You'll come to realize your own biases and learn how to account for them. You learn how to look at issues from every point of view and start to see the big picture. You do sort of have to force yourself to write at times, but it gets easier, and you won't regret it.
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