Just finished watching a Law & Order episode were they convict a video gamer for murder. His defense was that he didn't know he was in real life; though he was still playing the game. They were obviously alluding to Vice City.

That got me to thinking. I don't really like Vice City as a game, I found no entertainment value in beating up hookers and passerby. I did find enjoyment in stealing cars and driving them around the city at high speeds. I found the best enjoyment when I ramped a car of a bridge, jumping out just before the car left the roadway. Do I think that destroying a car and endangering the lives of the other drivers on the road is fun? Sure, in the virtual world of pixels and bytes. Would I do this to my own car, with real people in the world? Absolutely not.

I thought further. What games DO I like to play? Well I love RPG's: Slaying orcs and demons, watching the blood fly from vampires and werewolves. But wait. Is it proper to take enjoyment from the death of even pixelated beings, entities that defend themselves with every hit? My mind slipped to the ever enternal conflict of racism. Is it fair to say that Orcs and Goblins, Kobolds and Giants are inherently evil and much be wiped from the face of whatever planet and time they live on and in? Is this not genocide in the virtual world? My avatar, my virtual being, does not understand the ramifications of his chosen profession. Benefiting financially from the death of beings he does not understand. I wonder, as the director in this macabre play, directing this avatar, do I hold some deep fear of cultures that I do not understand? Is there a suppressed beast inside my real world self that would wander the streets with sword in hand destroying those that would stand before me? No.

I know that the virtual world and the real world are still seperate. If I use the controls of a console system to drive a car of off a bridge in a video game, I have not endangered the lives of real people, nor myself, nor my bank account. When I control an avatar in an RPG and direct him/her/it to slay "evil" without a second thought to their families, life goals, or society, that does not mean I will roam the streets of the city and wipe out muggers, gang members, fraudsters, child molesters or internet child porn traders. The country at large and the social taboos as well as my own moral code do not allow for these actions. But, that's me.

BLOG Lemming

Well, I've decided to jump over the cliff and start my own BLOG. A lot of close friends of mine have been doing it for a while. Seems like it's what all of the cool kids are doing.

My plan is to blog my thoughts on technology and how it relates to my life and yours. This will not be a forum to bore you with the mundane aspects of my daily life. Although, you may get a glimpse into the bits floating through my neurons.

I should be doing actual work right now so I'll sign off for the moment.

...end transmission...