GAM3R7H30RY

Wark, McKenzie. GAM3R 7H30RY / McKenzie Wark / Version 1.1.
http://www.futureofthebook.org/gamertheory/?cat=1http://www.futureofthebook.org/gamertheory/?cat=1&paged=2

This story is set up in an easily read short, in fact only paragraph long, chapters. We are immediately drawn into common scenes of a neighborhood, then into a neighborhood store. From here the story darkens quite literally. We have moved into a local area network chain, we are gamers and have been since we were children. We have retreated into a darkened room called The Cave and while admitting there is a real world "out there" we are engrossed in this sensory world of network gaming. Facing the real world proves too dazzling even for those willing to return to it. In the end someone must not only pull us out but keep us there. Gradually we can see the real world and begin to realize the image of reality that has kept other gamers immersed in The Cave. So we go back and try to convince those still in The Cave to come back into the real world beyond the game, to live their lives, not play them. But it seems the more you are in this real world, the more it parallels the shadow world of the games. "You find that this other world is in some curious ways rather like The Cave." I seems in the real world, we are wrapped in images and we become easily obsessed with accumulating commodities. Our lives too easily become a battle of us verses them, our games no longer require a place to play them only the opportunity to play them out. In our real lives we become players, selling out to be a team player. In the end even our children are immersed in team play.At a time when they should be playing only for the sheer enjoyment of it, their lives simply shift from one event or sport to another. And what are they learning? To become a team player or pin unrealistic hopes on what should only be a game. So where is reality and where are the shadows?
Interesting. The world of The Cave is dark and shadow like. It draws us in as children but it draws us in as adults too. And it is in the end only games. Or is it? The images created in each succeeding chapter seem to draw worlds more and more parallel. First it ids the "wisdom of Playstation: 'Live in your world, play in ours'." Then the outside becomes too dazzling, we need help getting out. When we try to help fellow gamers reenter the world we "talk or text to other gamers about this outside world." But the world, we find is "in some curious ways rather like The Cave. If there is a difference, it may not be quite what it seems." While McKenzie remembers " the immense, immersive games of The Cave and what passes for wisdom amongst those still stuck there", he seems equally concerned about the dog-eat-dog world our children often have to inhabit as an alternative. But I don't think he feels all is lost, not here or in the gaming world. Mostly, I believe, we need to realize that our concerns about internet games and fantasizing are the concerns we need to have in real life in real life.