No, this article is not made by me, and it will neither be copied directly into this blog, instead I will be giving you a link to it very soon, but only after a few opening words about what you’re going to read in a few moments (hopefully).
If you read this blog, you’re most likely a gamer. You should, in that case, know Steampowered Forums. Sure there are a few “noobs” there and here, crying about how overpowered the Team Fortress 2 Demoman is or how they got “VAC-banned unreasonably”, but some of the users there can really come up with very nice, in-depth articles on gaming. This is one of those articles.
The article we’re talking about takes the general idea of how video games are today’s literature, and goes more in-depth into the adventures of Gordon Freeman, the story of the Half-Life series. Wait, wasn’t it just some random aliens spawning in after a test turned into a resonance cascade? Surely there’s nothing more in-depth in the story that we could learn from, right? RIGHT?
mimaz98 proved me and surely many others wrong.
“What I am here to prove is whether or not the Half-Life series can be analysed to uncover deeper meanings within the story and how that may relate to our society today and the society that is to come and, in turn, subtly relate it back to this idea that Video Games are perhaps the new, modern medium through which these stories can be written and analysed.”
The article is called Half-Life – An Analytical Overview.
His article brings up so many great points that I’m surprised that I’ve failed to see any of them after the numerous times I’ve played through the game. I guess I don’t think much when I’m whacking things with a crowbar…
The article is a great read and I recommend it to any fans of Half-Life that love in-depth thoughts / thinking themselves, but if you’re one of the “tl;dr” dudes, please steer away from it unless you can make an exception of it. It’s by all means the most interesting article I’ve read in a long time.
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From gaming to personal life. I PROMISE THIS’LL STAY AS A RARE OCCASION.
I’m currently under a TET. It’s basically a little duration of time (two weeks) where we go to a real working place to familiarize with actual working practices. I chose to go into an electrics-based office “complex” to familiarize myself with the usual office work and atmosphere. Obviously it’s not really a 100% accurate picture since I’m pretty much just an assistant, but it’s been a great experience for the first three days. I even got my own cubicle! My dad works there and sorts out “little” chores for me to do, including having to sort around 400 Microsoft CDs from 2003 to this date into their own directories, and then some papers into his directory. It wasn’t actually half bad. Having a computer, a computer-related magazine and of course lots and lots of coffee next to me helped.
And hey, only around 15 out of those 400 Microsoft CDs will probably ever get used. There was some very random stuff in there, like a few copies of HEBREW and ARABIC versions of Windows Vista Beta 2. Yeah, I’m sure someone will need a HEBREW or an ARABIC operating system in a FINNISH office. There was a lot of golden stuff too, like a CD with Windows 98 Second Edition. Golden, but I highly doubt anyone would need that either.
I guess that’s about enough of my TET experience so far.
Next time, more gaming, and possibly more about my TET experience. Bare with me, it’ll only last this and the next week, then we’ll be 99% gaming again.
Until next time, keep the flags high and be sure to play your daily dosage of awesome video games.
And read the god damn article or I’ll have a Bullsquid eat your computer.
