A lonely people

A thought, from one person.

There are billions of people in the world. There are likely to be trillions of differing combinations of interests personas and interests. Big cities alone can account from hundreds of thousands to a few million people within them.

We are surrounded by people.

There was the dream, the big dream. A dream where we are all one people, walking hand in hand together towards the pursuit of harmony and the promise of the future. Look to your left, or look to your right, somewhere we will always yet find another soul. Only the remote parts of the world can be truly solitary, yet even then most people live in communities still, no matter how small but never just one.

The believe is thus we are not alone. We can rely on others, as they do on us.

Or is it?

People are individuals, with individual concerns. If the nature of one is the pursuit of one's many goals in promotion of one's self, then the successful aim of the collective is thus nothing but a coincidence where a number of people can find their individual goals aligned. If that is so, are societies, communities nothing more than a collective of individuals with coincidentally aligned interests? Are friends therefore nothing but defensive mechanism of a person to provide for their individual insecurities and safety, like wearing a life jacket when travelling on a boat, only to be discarded when we have not the need to be assured of our own security?

Is this what they mean when they say that if you want something done you have to do it yourself? Because only you would care for the entirety of that particular deed?

Don't we after all discard so many people from our lives as we move on? People we once called... friends?

There'll come a time when we face something, anything, and all we would want is for someone to come and reach out a hand. But no one comes. No one answers the call. No one wants to answer the call.

It is different from death. In death we are alone, and no one can come for you. But then there are times, other things, seemingly less trivial than death, but no one wants to come. Is that not much worse a thing?

Truly we are a lonely people.

Games and I: Final Part

And Beyond....

I can now sit and game, in my own chair, under my own roof, in front of my own PC. What a far cry this is compared to the first days of my gaming experiences.

For all ends and purposes, the era of the LAN gaming is in sharp decline, if not over. A-3-3-3 would thus remain a memory, the very spot that was the gaming hub for so many of us now lie populated with people whom we are strangers to. With so many of us scattered and moving to different areas as well as different phases of our lives, there is no place left here to resurrect that old era. Purchase any place, furnish it to your heart's contents; the players are not here anymore.

And with that, even the time of going to Cybercafes has sharply declined. On far too few occasions would ever we head to Blitz, that place which once for a short while tried to keep the torch of LAN gaming burning but a while longer. And even then without the complete, familiar casts that we have known for so long.

It will never be the same again.

But gaming marches on.

Time may be a commodity I have in lesser supply than previously, but with that scarifice, other opportunities arise. Being self-funded now, there opens the door to one gaming arena that has somewhat fascinated us but never dared we step to it, not whilst our resources remain uncertain. But now, with somewhat steady resources for the time being, I indulge myself in EVE Online, an MMO focusing on flying starships across the largest online universe available. I spent close to over 2 years already investing in EVE, and I am happy enough to have the ability now to fly a lot of different ships, and own a dozen or so vessels in my hangar.

EVE is persistent, online and thus making it very much a long term gaming commitment, though one you can do at whatever pace you decide. EVE is also harsh, full of dangers and populated with a multiple groups who seem very militantly elitists. And to that end, surviving in EVE is about being smart, being able to gather friends and allies, and personally I think, being thick skulled enough to argue/stand arguments about 'how others think you should play the game'.

I think one of the prevailing arguments is the 'what's best to focus on' argument. Without a doubt so many things in EVE has been labelled as FTL (for the LOSE) and a select few ships and weapons are deemed suited for the Epic Wins. I think some people would not approve of my training to fly almost all ships and use a lot of differing weapons. Recently, I have managed to enable myself to fly all four races' Tech I sub-capital ships. It's not focused, true, and I can fly but a handful of the higher-end ships, and I reckon I'll take a year more before I think of starting capital ship class training.

Besides I think focusing too much is for power players, and its not a lot of fun. EVE can be dangerously competitive, but in the end, I just cannot see it as a... military regiment or such. A mock, virtual militia maybe, but one where the idea is to have fun. And I don't have fun by just being able to use so few things only, regardless of how adapt one can get at it. Of course, diversifying takes a heck of a lot of time, but I think I can make time for EVE.

That aside, I am not stupid enough to claim EVE is sufficient enough for one's gaming needs these days. EVE is long term, true, but I think best taken in moderate doses, and not slaving away hours upon hours, day after day playing it. For that we have other games.

Being able to afford and save up for my own hardware, which as I have mentioned is pretty awesome at the time of writing, the options of what game to get is quite literally HUGE.

I have installed and played on my PC games like Sacred 2, Command and Conquer RedAlert 3 with its expansion, Fallout 3, Supreme Commander, Dawn of War 2, Empires Total War, Mass Effect and quite recently Borderlands and Dragon Age: Origins, both of which are less than a month old since release (Dragon Age is barely a week old) and both games I can now play on a system that can support relatively high graphics setting, of which I own, and not have to bow down to the whims of others who can but cast me out at their will whenever they want to use their PC. Oh, yes, it's all fair to argue that it is their right as owners of the PC to do that, but it does not make it any less upsetting to be booted out, regardless what is seemingly 'right'.

But now no longer.

The world has been set right.

What holds in store for the future of gaming? Or specifically, my gaming? New games are constantly pushing the frontiers of computing technology and with it greater levels of experience and interactivity.The leaps gaming industry has made astounds me sometimes, and I am gleeful over the exciting possibilities of what the industry will offer next, and whether I can still keep up of course. It's a fierce race to keep up with the latest technological innovation in computing. For now though, I can allocate sufficient resources to keep up. I pray I can keep it up in the future.

Almost time to go. Work ends in a bit. I'll have to hurry home. I have darkspawns and dragons to slay.