by Chris Billowsin Republic of Bloggers0 commentstags: Defining Life, Human Condition, Meaning of Life
An open letter to Chris Bateman responding to his blog-letter Every Cause of Death Matters at Only A Game as part of the Republic of Bloggers. Feel welcome to provide your own input via the Comments. Dear Chris, I want to commend you for taking on a topic that is wholly lacking in our sensationalism-driven, hyper-sensitive COVID-19 fixation thanks to our modern media. You elaborated eloquently about how we don’t have a rational relationship with reporting on the causes of death and this leaves us poorer and more vulnerable to false information. I could not agree more. I’m believe you exaggerated your position to in order to make your point and in doing so lost some of the nuance that I feel compelled to address. You alluded to it in your statement: This principle does not mean that we are wrong to care about some causes of death more than others – on the contrary, it would be reckless to replace it with a principle that ‘every cause of death matters equally‘. I’ve known you long enough to recognize you are pitching a position with the hope that somebody will engage with it and so I will happily […]
by Chris Billowsin Republic of Bloggers0 commentstags: Components of Human Nature, Human Condition, Human Mystery, Virtuous Discourse
A response to Chris Bateman responding to his blog post The Power of No at Only A Game as part of the Republic of Bloggers. Feel welcome to provide your own input via the Comments. I made a quick on-blog comment to Chris’ post but felt there was more to share. The idea of three different responses, each with their own power was something I wanted to delve a little more into. Chris eloquently explains that The Power of No as represented by four women philosophers give us a powerful beacon to see the importance for a small number of people to raise their voices in opposition to absolutism. It is necessary for there to be principled opposition to majority because majorities are not without fault or ignorance. Human nature being as it is, is well served by a conscience and the Power of No is this practice. Yet human nature is a multifaceted thing for the Power of ‘no’ is challenged by the power of ‘yes’ and the power of ‘maybe’. ‘Yes’ is the desire to belong to certainty in a world full of uncertainty or horror. It is a powerful magnet and it does not matter if the […]
by Chris Billowsin Political Ponderings, Republic of Bloggers0 commentstags: Corruption of Democracy, Political Opinion
An open letter to Chris Bateman responding to his blog-letter Considering Politics at Only A Game as part of the Republic of Bloggers. Feel welcome to provide your own input via the Comments. Dear Chris, I’m writing this blog-letter to one of your really old articles – Considering Politics you posted way back in 2006! I stumbled on that article a few years ago, bookmarked it, forgot about it, then re-read it, and started drafting a response about three years ago. Some fascinating ideas are worth coming back to, especially these kind of idea starters that prompt us to look at things from a new perspective. I love your idea of meta signals/temperaments that cut across political movements. Your analysis makes sense and is possibly one of a few factors that driver voter participation and attitude towards politics. I also think that there may be an overarching factor that affects all of those signals/temperaments. I have a theory that voter disinterest, increased amount of non-voters, and general disdain towards politicians and politics is because Western Liberal Democracy does such a good job of creating comfort and disinterest. Let’s call it Too Comfortable To Care. We have systematically created more and more […]
by Chris Billowsin Playstates Theory, Republic of Bloggers0 commentstags: Change of Mind, Games Analysis, Playstates
An open letter to Chris Bateman responding to his blog-serial on Game Dissonance at Only A Game as part of the Republic of Bloggers. Feel welcome to provide your own input via the Comments. Dear Chris, First of all, thank you for your kind reference to me. It gives me joy to know that my enthusiasm for your work has helped you. Your work to me has been invaluable as it helped evolve my understand of philosophy and video games. We have been able to create a digital pen-pal relationship that honours the Republic of Bloggers. Thank you for doing what you do. Now onto my response. As you have consistently stated, stories exist in more than books and films and prove this by successfully operating a consultancy that offers narrative design showing how stories can be told via video games. These stories sometimes are not knitted well to game-play and your article explained how dissonance occurs in those situations. This made me think further on the ideas that I’ve been teasing through a few recent posts that video games do not need to be Art or Literature to be meaningful. Video games are their own medium and thus need […]
by Chris Billowsin Republic of Bloggers0 commentstags: Defining Life, Human Condition, Virtuous Discourse
Thank you Chris for inviting others to suggest a topic for your Virtuous Cyborg project and thank you for your treatment of my suggestion on nostalgia. Your post elicited my own nostalgic experience. It is as if you mentioning Micronauts acted as a chemical trail to other memories such other action figures, comics, Choose Your Own Adventure, D&D, and Fighting Fantasy. I remember vividly being at home during the summer break in 1982, lying on a bed, watching music videos on a small box television, and playing Final Fantasy/Sorcery books. It was one of those moments in time that is seared in my mind and brings a smile. Thinking about the past in this way initiates a sub-routine program in myself. This is not simply a bunch of electrons firing off, there is an actual change in my mood which has been documented in people who are exposed to nostalgia. There is no doubt that computers are chemical creations (drawing a circuit board alters the state of it) and I would propose that establishing nostalgia is like the etching of a circuit board in our nervous system. We know that nostalgia makes us emotionally settled but what is it […]
by Chris Billowsin Playstates Theory, Republic of Bloggers0 commentstags: Game Philosophy, Games Analysis, Playstates
Over at Chris Bateman’s ihobo blog a great discussion was had relating to Video Games. Are Videogames Made of Rules? I inserted my two cents as you can see below. Hi Chris, I believe you have teased out a continuum of how humans interface with each other or solitarily with play. There is little doubt in my mind that Rules are required, but the fidelity they hold depends on what people want to get out of their play experience! Which is exactly your point. I believe that Rules are just one part of what I call the Imnersion Accords. I think you will find the following blog post validates your perspective: https://journals.billo.ws/the-immersion-accords/ As many have said in the comments, Rules are more tightly bound to when competition is a focus of play. What I would argue is that Rules exist to track measurement, which is what is unique to Games. You roll two dice, not three, or one when you play Monopoly. Forcing one player to roll a different amount of dice is unfair. But why is it unfair? Because the measurement of movement is so critical to the game space of a board game and all participants should […]
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