Packaged Problems

The Introduction

I was wondering to myself the other day: What is it about strategy games that people love or hate so much? I personally love playing any kind of strategy game. From board games like Risk or Settlers of Catan, to video games like Final Fantasy Tactics; people go crazy over them.

From here, my question broadened; it comes down to more than just strategy games, it has to do with our love of movies, television and books as well. You see, from what I can tell about myself and most of the people around me, we like to solve problems. The only problem is: we don't like to have problems. So, we create problems which are easily solved, and then set them up like dominoes to play out as they will and practically solve themselves. We do this through movies and games.

The Body

We don't want a game that's too hard to figure out, or a movie where the ending was so completely unrelated that it would have been impossible to figure out on our own. For example: in a movie, what if the main character was trying to find some artifact during the entire movie, and then at the end he discovered that some other villain (that we had never before been introduced to) beat him to it? What would we do? We'd feel cheated. We'd feel like we had worked so hard, emotionally, along side this hero for two hours, now only to be robbed of this thing by someone that we didn't even know! However, had the two been competing for the artifact during the entire movie, and then he beat the main character to it-- but maybe the main character gained some spiritual lesson or something from the whole thing-- then we'd feel okay.

It's all got to make sense! When we spend an hour looking for our keys, trying to retrace steps, only to find that someone else accidentally picked them up, or moved them... it makes us angry. "How was I supposed to find them in the refrigerator? I didn't even open the refrigerator today!"

What if we could magically introduce problems into our lives? Well, the truth is; I don't think we'd want to. What if you got the call, "Hello Neo, do you know who this is?" ...No thank you. Without the luck and the movie world's sense of justice and logic, we wouldn't last two seconds!

However, through watching these movies and playing these games, we gain a keen ability to solve problems like these! I predict that if most of us were placed in situations where quick thinking or puzzle solving were called for, we'd be surprised to find out how able we are to do so. I think it would be fantastic if we could somehow have "multiple lives" and try to put ourselves in these situations where we could see if we could survive. I predict that we'd surprise ourselves.

The Conclusion

In the end, it all comes down to a struggle between our deep desire to feel the excitement of teetering over the edge, and our even deeper fear of falling over that edge. Different people are comfortable at different distances to the ledge, but very few people actually want to toe-up to it and peer over it.

A little life-and-death situation seems tempting sometimes, but right now, I like my dire problems the way they are: predictable, logical, and with an "off" switch.

Book Review: Rocannon's World by Ursula K. LeGuin (1966)

I've decided to occasionally review books that I read, after I've read them. I enjoy reading old science fiction, so this probably means that this won't be anything cutting-edge... but I think there are a lot of books that get overlooked, and these are the ones that I'll try to review.

Okay, first up: Rocannon's World by Ursula K. LeGuin. Ah the 1960's... I can't claim to have been around them, but from all the books I've read, that must have been a golden era for a science fiction fan! I think Ursula K. LeGuin is an amazing and often overlooked science fiction and fantasy author. This book is the first in a series of books called "The Hanish Cycle". But the series isn't really a proper series... each book can be read independently. They are about multiple expeditions to different planets, so each one is basically unrelated to the others.

Anyway, Rocannon's World. The book takes place on a planet that is kind of a medieval/fantasy realm. There is a human-like race (the "Liuar") that lives in castles, and then there are dwarf-like creatures (the "Gdemiar") that live and mines. A group of modern, human explorers comes on a space ship, but then the crew is attacked by some unknown enemy, and there is only one survivor, Rocannon. So, he finds himself stuck in this world without any access to his technology. So, he now has to find a way to contact his planet to send for help against this enemy which has all the technology in the universe.

LeGuin's stories are always more than meets the eye. More than just thinking, "what would happen if we had this interesting technology, or went to this interesting place", LeGuin's stories always deal with some different, intensely emotional or psychological element which abstraction rarely enables us to discuss, but is made possible by her uniquely created worlds. For example, in her book, The Left Hand of Darkness, another Hanish Cycle book, the inhabitants of that planet are all one single sex, and display the attributes of male and female together. In another Hanish Cycle book, Planet of Exile, she explores racism and the rejection of things people don't understand. In Planet of Exile, the native inhabitants of one planet reject the explorers and their ideas and technologies as "witches" and refuse to treat them as equals.

In Rocannon's World, there are some interesting issues discussed. In the first part of the book, there is a queen who knows nothing of space or technology, but unknowingly travels on a spaceship to another planet, but when she returns, she finds herself in her own world, but many years later. She is then driven to madness because everything she ever knew was now gone. This part of the story is actually labeled the "prologue" (and apparently was published elsewhere previously), but is really one of the most intense parts of the story.

As far as the LeGuin's writing style goes, it fits the story perfectly. Her tone is usually fairly solemn and unhumorous, not detailing any one moment or scene too much. However, it doesn't feel as if you're missing details, rather it keeps the story's pace moving (many of her books are fairly short, around 100 or 200 pages). However, she has quite a way of describing simple, common things in a way that make you see them in a new light. Her writing never feels rhetorical or biased to me, or like she's trying to make a point or a moral. She just lays out the story, and lets the reader take whatever they want from it.

Also, you've gotta love the classic cover art and taglines on old science fiction books! Check these two alternate covers out:




















All in all, I would recommend any book in the Hanish Cycle (although I haven't read every single one yet), but Rocannon's World is a definitely a highlight. Plus, it's the first one in the series, so you might as well start with that one anyway!

If you've read this book too or have any comments about this post, please leave a comment!

-Nick



>>You can also read my Korea Travel Blog here!

The First Blog

This is the first post in my blog. This is where I tell you what this blog is going to be about, or what I think it might be about, and then comment later about how the blog turned out completely differently than I intended it.

If you're one of the initiate, or are at least someone who has spent enough time making fun of nerds like me to know what a twenty-sided die is, then you at least know that much about me from the title of this blog... but don't worry, I'm not going to spend this whole blog talking about Elves and Dwarves and epic warriors of the imagination... although that might come into play from time to time.

The intention of this blog is just for me to have a place to write about interesting things I might think about the things that I think are interesting (and hopefully others will want to discuss some of those things with me).

Here's a quick "About Me" section for those interested: My name is Nick, I'm 24, I have a BS in Electronic Media (Video Editing), I'm currently living and teaching English is South Korea with my wife Jennyfer. I enjoy creative writing, especially short stories. I also like to play guitar (but who doesn't these days?), and enjoy a good strategy game or RPG from time to time (pen-and-paper, board game, or video game... they're all just great!) I like electronic music (and most other music genres as well), and I'm also a devoted follower of Jesus, and try to follow Him every day however I can.

Now, all of this and I still haven't said anything about what this blog is going to be about, right?! Right!

-Nick



>>You can also read my Korea Travel Blog here!