War (of insignficant and hilarious sorts)
What is the meaning of War? It’s rather cliche to begin a piece of writing by asking the definition of the topic for which the piece is being written, but I really cannot think of any better way to begin this piece.
[war-nado]
A look at a dictionary yielded an indredibly long list of definitions, a revelation that is somewhat depressing to think about… a fact that a word so negative can mean so many things and be used in so many contexts. The definition of ‘war’ in the sense I find it most fitting and appropriate, and the meaning which I find true to define any kind of war would be simply, “conflict that leads to struggle.” You won’t find this definition in so many words anywhere, but it is something of an amalgamation of most of the other meanings I found, and it represents best what I have in mind.
What leads me to this somewhat depressing and strangely repetitious chapter of humanity? Well a lot of things that have been going on lately that have led me to many interesting thoughts and I think it was just time I felt like making a post about it. The topic that more specifically led to my study of the semantics involved with said topic was a few of the more heated debates I find on gaming forums and even our very own forum, that being the everlasting console war. The console war is honestly a topic I and few others really care about, but then why does it yet find such a strange place in all of our minds? It’s a topic that I feel most of us believe truly pointless, but then why does it still incessently continue?
Console War. I think it’s aptly named that. As far as I know it hasn’t broken out into actual physical struggle or such, but isn’t that simply the next logical progression? I feel uncomfortable talking about War in general, especially that on a political level because I hardly consider myself as knowledgable on the topic as I feel I would need to be to qualify making claims on the topic, but then it occurs to me that when you consider the fact that it always boils down to conflict that leads to struggle, there really shouldn’t be much that one would need to know in order to speak on it. All war is relatively pointless when you consider it as a struggle that began from conflict. Is it so difficult to resolve a conflict without some kind of struggle? But then, it is the virtue of humanity to be able to have conflict and conflict is unavoidable, nor is a lack of conflict desirable. Conflict is what leads to the betterment of something, an aim to please higher than what is already there, and so we should embrace conflict, but embrace it as means of finding resolve and nothing else.
The console war (like all wars really), is a subject matter somewhat trivial, and certainly not something worth going into physical resolve about, but is it really a fire we should be feeding? Most people are capable of dismissing the conflict, but yet we find such amusement in continuing its discussion as well as creating feeding grounds from which it can spawn more followers and grow ever larger. I speak in part of most of the gaming internet, but more specifically the website that brought this idea to my mind. I was introduced to this site by Penny Arcade when they made a mockery of the site that is clearly a joke. Anyone can go there and see that it’s clearly meant to be condescending and amusing, but at the same time, too many people take it seriously and join forces or forge to fight against it. I think Penny Arcade approaches it well by simply making fun of it since I feel confident to say that that is entirely the purpose the site serves, but conversely, they must be aware they continually feul the fire. Though, I find it thoroughly impossible to not be amused and impressed by some of the things that spawn as a result of the console war.
But on the other hand isn’t that what the competition or the war is there for? And I mean, is acknowledging current preferences biased? And hell, is bias even wrong? I think the answer to both questions is no, the problem though is that far too often people’s actions make them both out to be yes. Anyhoo, like all Wars, I am interested to see how it will all resolve but it is something I wish not to contribute to or feed into. I’m not interested in sales, or numbers or anything, it’s really all about the games and I easily forsee myself needing at least all three consoles to play some of the awesome console exclusives. The real question is where and how I’ll actually manage to find the time/money to play all of these things…
Add comment August 19th, 2007 by Anuj
