Sound and Fury

If you have met me in person or are one of my personal friends, you probably know that, for the most part, I take a pretty light and open view of the world and life in general. I tend to approach things with mixture of Carpe Diem and Laissez Faire attitudes. Basically, I try not to take things too seriously and to accpet them as they come. I also try not to inject my personal life, trials and tribulations into what is in essence a gaming blog. I am well aware that few people want to read about my problems or hear me whine about what a crappy day I have had. With this in mind, I wish to provide a disclaimer to anyone reading this: If you wish to avoid my personal observations on larger issues, I strongly suggest that you stop reading now.

With that said, there are a few things that have been on my mind lately and I wish to put them out there, into the world, so that I won't internalize them and consequently build up stress and pressure that would eventually come out in unexpected and negative ways.

First on my mind is the concept that Life is Short. This is a tennent that I have lived by since the death of my grandfather, one of the best friends that I have ever had. I was lucky enough to be able to spend a considerable amount of time with him in the month leading up to his passing and I am will be forever thankful for his blessing. I had the chance to ask him many of the questions that one typically puts off until it is too late and our loved ones are gone. The BIG questions about life, family and purpose that no one really has THE answers to, but that can best be given insight by somone who has spent the better half of a century on this planet. My grandfather was a unique man who usually said very little, but when he did speak, you knew what he was going to say was important, something that you definitely wanted to hear. I have always admired this aspect of his personality and work to emulate this trait to this day.

So how does what amounts to stoicism relate to the concept of life being short you might ask? As I get more involved in various aspects of 2old2play and the Greater Gaming Community at large - with the planning of events, covering competitions, doing interviews and posting articles - I find that I have less and less time to actually play games and enjoy the reason that I got into all of this activity in the first place. I typically work an 8 - 10 hour day, come home, try to connect with my girlfriend, eat, and then head to the computer to catch up on forums, emails, edit content, post blogs, work on my side business selling vintage games or do whatever needs to be done. My days "off" tend to be spent working to get ahead of the curve, which of course I never do. In the process, I am exposed to quite a bit of content coming from other sources. Twitter feeds and podcasts consumed on the train rides to and from work, reports from E3 caught on my Blackberry or on breaks during my day, blogs read while consuming lunch. And the one thing that I see more and more of in all of this content can best be described by a quote from Hamlet - "Life is a tale told by an idiot. Full of sound and fury, signifying . . . . . . nothing."

Now this is not to say that there is nobody out there producing quality content for gaming, because there is. This past week I was listening to the latest episode of the GamersGarage podcast, which featured JVB from www.sfx-360.com. Crash, JVB and the cast of the GamersGarage were discussing Community Vs. Press and how it relates to events such as E3. Specifically, they were discussing the fact that as the Greater Gaming Community at large continues to grow and attract new people, the number of new podcasts, gaming related web sites and bloggers is also increasing. At the core, this expansion is a good thing, bringing more content, new perspective and general diversity to what can often become a stagnant industry. However, one of the unfortunate side effects of this increase in popularity and attention garnered by Greater Gaming Community is that some people are entering into the fray with ulterior motives, be it to acquire free swag from development companies, to develop personal fame or simply to stir the pot and create as much drama as possible through instigating flame wars or pitting one community (in lower case to indicate an indivual web site or group) against another. I am not trying to indicate that everyone new to the Greater Gaming Community comes into the game with specific motives beyond learning more about games and increasing their enjoyment while playing them. Hell, we were all new to this gig at one point or another. But what I am seeing, in certain circles and with more frequency, is a trend toward vitriol and purposeful conflict within gaming content in general.

Two recent events really served to highlight this trend for me. The first was the overwhelmingly positive experience that I had while covering the 11th Annual International Classic Video Game Tournament at Funspot in Laconia, NH this past weekend. As I have stated in my Twitter feed and this blog on several occasions, I have never met a more welcoming and friendly group of people than those in attendance at this event. From the staff of Funspot and the American Classic Arcade Museum who organized and ran the event, to the players and long-time participants in the coin-op scene like Todd Rogers, Walter Day and the staff at Twin Galaxies, everyone exhibited one common trait, a deep-seeded love for gaming. This was evident from the start and remained the central focus of attention during the entire weekend. Sure, there were a few personalities whose main intent was to create a name for themselves or pump up their standing among the world's top video game players (we find such entities in all walks of life, do we not?). However, the vast majority of these folks were there simply to reconnect with old friends and have a blast playing the games that they grew up with and love.

The darker side of the current state of the Greater Gaming Community at large was brought to my attention as I followed Steve Wiebe's attempt to set a new World Record for Donkey Kong at E3. As I could not be in LA to attend E3 for a variety of reasons, I had to follow Steve's efforts via the Live Fee from G4 and by following the Twitter Stream when my connection to G4 would go down (which it did frequently). At first, most of what I saw and read regarding the event was positive, support to Steve encouraging him on his efforts. However, after Steve's final attempt to break the record (which was unfortunately unsuccessful), things started to get pretty ugly in the Twitterverse. Vitriol and foulness were cast in all directions, both at Steve for not breaking Billy Mitchell's record and even more so toward Billy Mitchell for his all too well publicized personality. Now this is where I like to recall the phrase "You can tell a man by the company he keeps", because my normal Twitter Feed, and the comments that I saw from my friends and those that I normally follow were deevoid of this type of garbage. However, I was amazed at the amount and exessive nature of the negativity that I saw coming in from the general public. Just do a Twitter search for #wiebe, focusing on about 6pm est. June 2nd, and you will get an idea of what I am talking about.

These two experiences really got me thinking about my involvement in what I keep referring to as the Greater Gaming Community at large and why I find myself here at 2old2play. I have never been so happy to be a member of this site and to be associated with other great communities such as SFX-360, the 10K and to be building new friendships with folks from communities such as Twin Galaxies and Penny Arcade. Anyone in my clan Art Of War, and many of the other members here at 2old2play already know my view on the subject of community. 2old2play is my home, my neighborhood and AOW is my online family and I have a wide and ever-growing group of online friends, peers and associates from the communities that I mentioned above, as well as other top-notch groups too many to mention. I greatly admire and wish to thank Doodi & Co. for creating this haven from the madness. I also wish to thank everyone in that Greater Gaming Community at large who strives to maintain integrity and a level of class in the industry. And to those out there who only wish to add to the drama, to contribute to the "sound and fury" in the community, if you are reading this and asking yourself "Is he talking about me?", then you are probably (probably, not necessarily) part of the problem. Ask yourself why you do what you do. Is it for the love of games or for some other reason?

The real impetice for this piece comes from the fact that I am facing the imminent loss of an entity very dear to me. In all the chaos that makes up my daily life, it usually takes something like the concept of saying goodbye to a dear friend to shake me out of my stupor and really take stock of what is important. Life is short my friends. We often loose sight of the fact that tomorrow my never come for some of us. So please take a few moments to look around and really take stock of that which makes life meaningful to you. Embrace your loves and cast off the rubble that would drag you down. En coelo quis est - In Heaven there is rest. Live now, not tomorrow.

To anyone who actually made it all the way through this wall of text - thank you for sticking with me.

Peace - Waterborn