Convenient Paranoia

Cory Doctorow’s, Little Brother is a spell binding book. Definitely one that I grabbed, glued my eyes to the pages and buried my nose between the spine of. I still have the scent of printed paper in my nostrils lurking around. Reading other books are interesting but you don’t see many using high school students that are extremely technically savvy and going against the odds. It seems like a book that could relate to me and that’s why I picked it up and could not put it down. This book gives off a sense of paranoia, in almost every form of government that a student could be afraid of. I could recall some incidents where I was felt or that I knew I was being watched or be caught at any moment, and sometimes did get caught.

Well I could recall, going to high school as a sophomore and thinking that everything was fine one day. Basketball season was over and the end of the year was closing in very soon. The principal was the head coach of the football team and he was a very strict individual. That year, I had a computer typing class with this girl that I was dating and we would chat a lot using instant messages. I don’t think the computer teacher minded too much as long as we finished our typing lessons or if it was open lab after school. Well, to tell a story short, I was using the computer for more than just chatting. One magnificent evening, I was in class and over the intercom, a nice voice spoke out “Brandon Stockton, could you please come to the principal’s office”. I didn’t think nothing of it since I was on the football team and that year we won the championship. So, I stood up, strolled down to the principals office as slowly as possible to miss as much class as possible to only see the face of one of the angriest men I had ever seen. I thought I had got caught for cutting class a week before but this was different. Apparently, the principal had access to all the student accounts, could read chat logs and monitor anything a student downloads. So thankfully to say I wasn’t suspended, but my mom and dad were furious. The principal sentenced me to twenty hours of community service or suspension for 3 days. I took the community service. That was when my paranoia about schools began.

My friend told me about an interesting video one day. The video was research a person had done about the incidents before, during, and after “9/11“. The video was about movie length filled with lots of interesting data about the government. After watching this video, honestly I felt a sense of dishonesty and that something did seem missing from that incident. So of course I had to watch the movie again to see what happened again. The movie was very convincing and the person telling the documentary sounded very educated as if he knew what he was talking about the whole time. My thoughts came to a contorted crossroad, of what I should believe or not; The person that was feeding me facts or the government in which I live under. Certainly, I have my thoughts and theories about the government, but this was different. This was important. I guess I’m still standing at that same crossroad today in my mind.

I know that most movies aren’t real but a couple movies that really stick into my head are usually government conspiracy movies. Those movies some of the best movies, because they are so action packed with tons of suspense and action until you really find out who’s pulling the strings on the evil puppets; the government. A couple movies to name were Enemy of the State, Conspiracy Theory and The Bourne Series. All of which really sticks into my mind this day because after watching them makes you wonder about the government. The tracking systems that they use to watch people. The instant data that they could obtain about you in less than five minutes. Makes you wonder, does that all really happen when someone is being watched by the government. I think the government are pushing people have credit cards and traceable information so that whenever they need to apprehend you for any reason, they could do so in less than 10 minutes. Almost makes me want to never buy a toothbrush with my debit card ever again.

Little Brother, did bring back these same feelings while reading it. I guess I could place this book upon the shelf of memories about the government that will always haunt me. I don’t think their could be anything worse than one of the three things: nuclear or biological weapons, catastrophic nature apocalypse, and government takeover. Government takeover is probably the worst out of all three because you suffer before dying. The surveillance of mankind is almost inevitable due to technology. The more convenient of technology we create, the easier the tactics are for the government to keep track of us.

Not Far At All

Just to think that my grandma can be in a virtual world makes me giggle vigorously. In Halting State the future does not seem far from it. The technology of Halting State is the sort of technology that is at everyone’s grasp and some people are afraid to use it because of it’s power and influence. The next generation of people seems fond of interactivity and hands on learning instead of reading from books. The economy could be virtual if it wanted to be, it’s only a matter of time.

Technology is an interesting thing, and everyone seems to find it interesting one way or the other. I remember in James Bond movies that Q would show 007 a room full of gadgets that he could use in awkward states of emergency. No matter how you look at it people are getting used to it more and more and sometimes without noticing. Have you ever been to someone’s house and have been told to use the microwave? Funny thing is, usually you could get the general grasp of what to do but the interface is changed from your own microwave so you don’t really know what to press. After 1 minute you’ll usually get the hang of it, because you’re starving or you’ll ask your friend how to turn on the damn microwave. The same goes for new cell phones, play with a cell phone for 30 minutes and I’m sure you’ll be fluttering through text messages like no other. It does not take long to pick up a new interface of some new technology for many people to pick it up and run with it. New technology is to make life easier in some way but why are some people so afraid of it? Is it because driving with a cell phone almost seems more dangerous than driving drunk or could it be that some people are afraid of change. Virtual or not virtual people change their interfaces all the time except some of them don’t really call it an interface, they would rather call it a dashboard, stereo, I-pod, cell phone, or computer screen. Getting used to them isn’t the problem, it’s what kind of damage that can be done with it that scares people so much.

It’s the abuse of technology that scares them even more. Several people are scared to shop online, because they think some computer hacker is going to get their credit card information somehow and take all their money. But whose to say that a burglar couldn’t come into their house and take their things. Robbing a house is just a bigger interface than hacking a computer system and a lot more hands on. I also remember when camera cell phones came out, and thieves started taking pictures of peoples credit cards in stores while shopping in line at the cash registers. That was a pretty clever stunt when I heard about that one. Thus, the reason why some people don’t like new technology, because it is another way to harm someone else.

I don’t doubt that their with be a generation, soon to come, that will be born with keyboards. Zeros and Ones will flow through their veins like blood and they will live, eat, sleep and breath technology. The next generation is becoming so technical it’s amazing. I’ve seen an 7 year-old with a cell phone. Of course she always dropped it but the point being that she knew how to use it is kind of scary and fascinating at the same time. Cell phones are starting to become a infrastructure for something new. Since you can technically access tons of information from them they are very fit to becoming the extension to a virtual environment. The thing with cell phones is that nearly everyone already has them and does not have to worry about buying another console to play a game that seems exciting. The gaming specs don’t seem too far off from a Bluetooth headset with a visor over it, or better than that the old Virtual Boy that was released by Nintendo ages ago. They even have glasses online that lets you watch movies if attached to a portable DVD player or an I-pod. Comes to show that cell phones could easily be a virtual console that could be used for a game.

Since it is already online, why not make your banking a fun experience. I could only imagine logging into my bank screen name and they would have an avatar waiting in a virtual world for my approval to add money to my account. It would be a neat way to have people spend more time banking and straightening out their taxes and stuff besides filling out paper work at a dull looking computer screen or a pile of papers using only a pen. Though hacking is relatively easy for some people and in the event someone should dress up like orcs and dragons to steal from the bank, that would be an interesting site to see, as long as he doesn’t rob me while I’m there making a deposit. Could also make a virtual stock room where players could put in stock and give advice about stock, but this too does also seem like a quirky idea. I wonder how would the virtual world respond to a stock market crash, would be interesting to watch the reactions but not a fun experience at all.

The technology is here for the use. Mostly all the technology is at the tip of our fingers and we have yet to grasp it because of the challenge or because of the dangers. Cell phones could possibly be the next virtual world if someone wanted it to be, due to the fact that it can already communicate to other people, find other people, has gaming applications, has an interface, and can connect to the internet. Interactive banking and virtual economies could be interesting, but still dangerous to open up the possibilities to more clever people to abuse it. I guess in a way I can’t giggle at my grandma anymore because I know several more people that are older than her that plays online games. I’ve never seen them before leaned over at a computer keyboard frustrated with Microsoft Word before either. So I guess I can still giggle at my grandma and I’ll have to let my grandma try World of Warcraft at Thanksgiving.

What Players Dream...

There is actually a very adventurous and social aspect behind the game of Final Fantasy. You have your gamers that just love playing it for the community of friends, players that just want to level every job they have until they have completely beaten the game, and players that want to make as much money as possible from the game. All of these types of players, I would say enjoys the game, but has different motives behind it. Most of the players are driven by their status in the community, meaning that they have played so long that they couldn’t dream of giving up something that has taken them so long to achieve.

Social experience is bar far the most interesting part of the game. You’ll find those rare friends in the parties that you join that will talk about anything under the sun, and others parties won’t be so enjoyable because you have that one prick leader that either doesn’t know what he or she is doing and killing everyone or just a simple prick for no reason. Parties and linkshells are where the fun starts. You’ll always want that party where everyone talks about anything and has huge amounts of fun, otherwise you’ll find yourself drooling on your keyboard from staying up so late in a party that is giving you great experience but bores you to sleep. It is always great to have a party that you always level with, because you’ll know that you’re going to have fun that night and you know that when you have to leave they will also understand. Even when out of the party, you have a friends list to talk to anyone that you’ve met and usually it gets filled with so many people that you have to take off old friends. I remember Mark Stephen Meadows said something along the lines that the community will build itself once the space is provided. This is what really happens. You have people talking in linkshells about their lives and what happened to them today in school, and on ventrillo talking to each other about how to improve themselves in game and outside the virtual world. Your community is as enjoyable as you build it.

The success of being L337. Nothing strokes a gamers’ self-satisfaction than to have his character being among the top in the world. In Final Fantasy, you really only have one character, just different jobs that you can be. Of course you have those players that stay at home, eat chips all day and eyes literally glued to their monitor or television screen for several days straight because they want to find the best party to level from 71 to 75. They probably have missed a day or two of work because they were getting too much experience and almost reached the maximum level of 75. These are the players that have about 7-10 jobs mastered, and mind you, it takes a extremely long time to level a job in Final Fantasy due to the fact that not everything goes as perfect as you want them to be online. They also have the rarest items, and make sure they have plenty of time to play, to gain as much as possible.

On the other hand you have the avatars that other players scorn, the money makers. They farm their little hearts out only to gain something real out of the game. They treat this game as an opportunity or an investment to make something bigger out of it. You have your gil farmers, who camp rare monster spots and receive the rare loot. They sell the item on the auction house and sell they gil for money in real life. You’ll always see on eBay, that someone is selling 1 to 10 million gil because they have made a business out of it. They enjoy the game up to the fact that they can play, and make money out of it. Honestly, it seems like another job.

The players that dream, are the ones that are in the middle of all these other types of characters. They want to be the best, they want to be socially known, and they want to make lots of money but not to sell on eBay. These are most of the people that make up the game. They have played for many years and only play that same game because of the time they have invested into it. The more you play the harder it is for someone to give up, because of their relationships, their goals, and their success. That is what drives the average avatar. Some people that do not play MMOs do not understand the reason why people play these games, and it is the simple fact that everyone, in the back of their minds, wish that they could be something or someone else at some given point in their lives. They may have seen someone famous on television and said “gee I wish I could be as successful as him,” not knowing that probably that same guy said the same thing when he was growing up listening to the radio to another guy. I remember Mark Stephen Meadows saying something like avatars give us an opportunity to take a break from our daily lives and gives us the chance to practice another. Though with this practice, the players never knows how exhilarating and fun it can be to be someone else. To walk in someone else’s shoes, seek out an adventure that you could only possibly dream about, read in books, or see in movies and television shows. They are about living out a fantasy for the most part and secondly, finding others to live out that fantasy with you.