From the Acadian Sash to the red square.

I am of Acadian descendance. English-speaking readers might be more familiar with the Louisiana Cajuns.

If I had any sort of decency, I would write this in French, which is my first language as well as the common language of Acadians and Louisiana Cajuns. I am a firm believer that the culture of a nation must be shared and presented to other cultures if it is to stand the test of time; Writing this in French would limit my point to people who were already familiar with many of the points I am about to make. Sure, it might reinforce their pride but that is not the point of this post.

If you are as open-minded as I suspect you might be, please sit back and enjoy this tale of origins and destinies.

Beating a dead horse : Violence in Video Games

The argument of violent video games leading to real-life violence is as pointless as the whole 'are games art?' debate; Video games, violent and non-violent ones, have a powerful effect on the gamer's psyche. That is one of the strengths of the medium.

Brushing aside the idiocy of those asking that Mass Effect be banned for promoting violence, what struck me about the recent event was that the disturbed individual 'du jour' did apparently play 'violent' games, isolated in a world which reflected his own mindset.

The argument I've heard on most broadcast news was that video games desensitize us to violence, that GTA is, of course, a murder simulator and that ALL modern games are violent. I've even heard some news anchor mention a new 'study' which took children and split them into two groups. One group went on to play video games while the other group went on to play non-violent video games. The 'scientists' then reunited both groups and noted that the children who had played violent video games were more agitated! No shit.

I have chosen to approach this subject by illustratating the supposedly diseased mindset from my own point of view. In other words, what happens when an individual with a high capacity for 'reality abstraction' voluntarily or involuntarily immerses himself into a digital world?

Yet another Ultima VII Christmas

My long-term memory is strange; it seems that I can relate certain past events with extreme precision and attention to detail, as long as I can tie the memory to a video game.

I can recall the weather, the flow of conversations and several other trivial details that happened when I first laid eyes on Mickey Mouse's Castle of Illusion. I remember the smell of the carpet and the layout of the living room's furniture when my brother and I first booted up our Sega Master System with Afterburner.

I remember a time when I loved Christmas; the break from school, the family reunions, the TV specials, the food and the extenuating anticipation of Christmas gifts which we had asked for months in advance.

In simple algebra, Simon's best Christmas memories = Ultima 7.

Metro 2033 : A First Person Final Phantasy

To this very day, standing on a hill, looking at the bright lights dotting the expansive spans of dormant cities is like a drug; my brain immediately conjures images from an imagined future painted in Blade-Runner-esque hues. You could say I have a very active imagination, one which often finds pleasure in overlaying fiction over the more mundane aspects of life without the courtesy of notifying me beforehand.

Tablet gaming : So Bleh...

I do not have a smart phone; or a dumb phone, I have a land line, that's it. Being an aspiring game developer who visits gamasutra.com often and who reads Game Developer from cover to cover every time a new issue arrives at my door, my eardrums have been ground into a fine dust with all I've heard about the wonders of tablet and phone gaming.What with developers touting insane sales numbers and every game design 'expert' running his mouth about how tablet game design is really where it's at, it's no wonder that I was somewhat curious about this craze.

As with Assassin's Creed (more on that in another post), I've waited for years until I joined the popular fray. I've shown up fashionably late and as with A.C., the only thing I have to say is 'This is what all the fuss was about? Are you Kidding me?'.

Apocalypse then and now

As December 21st, 2012 looms closer, I have to reminisce about my experience with this 'prophecy'.

In 2003, I began researching occult things; I had been laid off from a job in the video games industry for no apparent reason and couldn't foresee anything professional coming my way in the near future.

As many others, I grew up with ghost stories permeating every aspect of my life, the Roswell incident and UFO abductions were fact and I even had the privilege of having some random dude walk off the street one time to tell me about the Philadelphia experiment and how at that precise moment, he felt an impossible wind push his car on the freeway...in Montreal. He also mentioned how he had been brought to planet Wolf 359 by aliens. I didn't know at that time that Wolf 359 is actually a star and neither did he.

What I'm trying to say is that I was a gullible idiot. Some call such men 'conspiracy theorists'.

Voting with your dollars : Independence and Utopia

Cynicism has been one of my defining trait for most of my life. "I don't care" is one of my most uttered sentences.

When it comes to voting in Canada, I don't think that one vote has an actual meaningful impact as people usually don't vote for what they want or what they believe; They vote strategically or at least they think they do. What's worse, many people vote for 'their guy', others even cast their vote based on their religious beliefs. If most people are playing such a game, my vote serves little purpose in the grand scheme of things other than making me feel better.

What is even more disheartening to me is how politicians usually think of their careers, not of the well-being of the people they are supposed to represent. Most politicians are also professional lawyers, trained to argue convincingly whatever point their boss tells them to oppose.