Running David Fincher's The Game, again, and asking myself why. It's one of those films that I'm not entirely sure is good, but which we've felt compelled to study anyway because of some feeling of personal relevance. 2019's Serenity is even more like that, for example. That one definitely isn't really a good movie—and it's not made with David Fincher's level of skill—but how could I not be drawn into watching and re-watching a movie about someone who figures out he's died and went to Hell, or Purgatory if we're charitable, in a virtual world his son created?
We have issues with games. There's a bunch of issues at work, like all the time we've wasted on games, often playing games compulsively to the exclusion of real-life demands, blowing off school, dawdling instead of looking for work, whatever. And we've had our encounters with toxic gaming culture (very mild ones, comparatively). But the most serious issue has been this: without getting into details, we've had too many experiences of the way in which abuse is often framed as "just playing a game"—maybe a game that you didn't know you were playing until afterward, when "it was just a game" gets tacked on as an excuse, something that's supposed to shut you up for good. It's like being told "I was just joking". You're supposed to swallow it, and prove that you've got a good sense of humor, and not make a fuss.
But maybe all of life is a game, isn't it? That's hardly an original idea; tons of people have made the comparison. It's an especially attractive notion if you've got any ideas about theodicy (divine justice) or being judged for one's actions upon death. You life your life, you're forced to go through a bunch of rituals and routines, you're presented with challenges, and at the end Osiris and Thoth and their buddies (or someone equivalent) works out your score and tells you whether you win or lose—just part of the game. There's a whole pack of computer and gamer geeks out there, people in finance and management and technology and every other sort of capitalist profession, who believe they've mastered the secret to success because they play games. Games involve cunning and daring and split-second decisions, and so does success—at least, success in the eyes of capitalist society.
People have said this about cards, I'm sure. And chess, and baseball, and every other game that's ever been important to people in respectable society.
You know what? I want to be successful, too. A modest amount of Success™, capitalist success, would suit me down to the ground—as long as I'm forced to endure living in such a world, and even if La Revolución started ten seconds from now it would not mean any instantaneous disappearance of capitalist social norms and institutions. It would be nice to have some money, take some burdens off Gravislizard, fix the house up better, all that stuff. So maybe it's time to stop being so pissy and weird about games, even if there is some good reason for it.
There's something to be said for getting good.
~Chara