The End Of Everything
Debate Week Special:
SimonBob Strikes Back
Article Eight of Six: The End of Everything
This is the last Debate Week Special article ever. Which is fitting, because it's also about the end of everything. Yes, today's article is going to deal with the end of absolutely everything!
Here's the clever bit, though: the setting for this article is EarthBound. Hah, I'm so clever! Seriously, though, have you ever thought about what must go through the minds of the characters just as the player switches off the game? Powerless to scroll past Ness's father's admonishions to turn the game OFF instead of just pressing RESET, the party can only watch helplessly as their existence is destroyed until the next time someone puts the game back on. And what about the ending of the game? Ness must loathe the way he's taken out of control for all the credits, then suddenly gets to move again in his house for a few fleeting moments before Picky brings him the letter and closes the game once again.
Of course, this brings up some interesting points about whether or not the characters ever really have any free will, since they're being controlled externally all the time, whether they like it or not. "Like" or "hate" might not even come into it, since they may not even be aware that they're under the player's power. And some cynics will even remind us that it's just a game and that the characters aren't real and therefore can't feel anything, and if we think otherwise then we're stupid. I've had a disturbing rash of agreeing with cynics lately.
Well, continuing on this line of thought would undoubtedly lead us deeper into the realms of the psychological and metaphysical than we could safely return from, and since I care about my readers, I don't want to give them the mental version of the bends. So join us next week when PSI322 and I debate moral issues rising from the magazine in the Beak Point house in Onett.
Debate Week Special:
SimonBob Strikes Back
Article Eight of Six: The End of Everything
This is the last Debate Week Special article ever. Which is fitting, because it's also about the end of everything. Yes, today's article is going to deal with the end of absolutely everything!
Here's the clever bit, though: the setting for this article is EarthBound. Hah, I'm so clever! Seriously, though, have you ever thought about what must go through the minds of the characters just as the player switches off the game? Powerless to scroll past Ness's father's admonishions to turn the game OFF instead of just pressing RESET, the party can only watch helplessly as their existence is destroyed until the next time someone puts the game back on. And what about the ending of the game? Ness must loathe the way he's taken out of control for all the credits, then suddenly gets to move again in his house for a few fleeting moments before Picky brings him the letter and closes the game once again.
Of course, this brings up some interesting points about whether or not the characters ever really have any free will, since they're being controlled externally all the time, whether they like it or not. "Like" or "hate" might not even come into it, since they may not even be aware that they're under the player's power. And some cynics will even remind us that it's just a game and that the characters aren't real and therefore can't feel anything, and if we think otherwise then we're stupid. I've had a disturbing rash of agreeing with cynics lately.
Well, continuing on this line of thought would undoubtedly lead us deeper into the realms of the psychological and metaphysical than we could safely return from, and since I care about my readers, I don't want to give them the mental version of the bends. So join us next week when PSI322 and I debate moral issues rising from the magazine in the Beak Point house in Onett.
