You might be interested in a torrent pack – search for Jonathan/Adampants at your favorite torrent site. I think it’s about 200-300Mb, doesn’t take too long to download with a high speed connection.

There are many reasons why a comic book might increase in readership that don’t require a paranormal explanation. If anything it’s most likely that the only way the wankathon affected the circulation of the comic was through the publicity of the stunt bringing awareness to the comic.

Participants in video games willingly give up control to be entertained. I don’t see how this is different than watching a movie, or a TV show, or reading a book. I don’t think there’s anything about video games that gives them any more power than those mediums.

In fact, the appeal of GTA to most people in not following that yellow line. As soon as I had the chance to I left the yellow line, and had my own adventures in the world of the game. And I think that choice and participation in games are a good thing, not a mechanism for mind control. Granted, the choices we have a few… Leaving the yellow line in GTA usually means going on an orgy of vehicular mayhem, but we have the choices nonetheless.

I believe that games have a potential beyond just being an entertaining diversion. I believe that they can have the power to change people’s minds, and make them think, and feel things that are not possible in other mediums. I don’t think games have even scratched the surface yet of what’s possible. However, the idea of using video games as a mechanism to effect change through paranormal energy that most likely doesn’t exist just seems like a waste of time in my opinion.

(This is a weird posting under which to file these comments, but hey!)

The game is so solid – remarkable creation – I understand the way the game works completely but I really think the key handling in Fickle Companion has a glitch around the level. Particularly around ladders.

PLEASE TELL ME I AM WRONG, I LOVE THIS GAME.

I open a board box and it says dole out pieces/cards as follows, roll dice, etc. I do so, based on an expectation of where it’s going. Same goes for TV. “tune in next week….”.

You can blow that trust and have no mind control left. TV news has blown it with me. “Is your home full of cancer and evil? tune in after the break!” – no thanks. Same can happen with games that ask too much of you before providing some reward, etc.

And for the rewards being imaginary, that doesn’t make them inherently less meaningful than “real” rewards. This is because the experience is often more important than the eventual reward, or it is the reward. For me this goes in both games and real-life. I for one would never do a job I hate just because it pays well. Of course this is a choice that many people don’t even have, since they would starve and be homeless. But then having a crappy job is a much better experience than starving in the streets.

This is a rant, which means it is not supposed to be an ironclad argument supported carefully from beginning to end. It’d be very difficult to do that for any idea of significance in 3 minutes, anyway. The goal was mainly to get ideas flowing. And to be entertaining.

In consideration of the time limit, I would probably try to find some simple idea that I can convey clearly in that time span. And I’d probably avoid tangents.

I suppose I was abusing the phrase ‘not even wrong’ — mainly I just meant that the “paranormal” bit evokes hundredth-monkey nonsense in my mind and it annoys me.

To address the essay in specifics, the ‘video games as mind control’ part is a bit interesting but not new to me and I think the essay ignores the clearly limited scope of the ‘mind control’ just to sound dramatic. The paranormal stuff is just silly. The Bertrand Russel quote is cool, but a stretch.

As for Not Even Wrong, that only applies to science, and the majority of the world is not science (at the present time).

If the game says collect gold coins, if the gamer is just getting the same experience over and over again, then he will quickly master it and because there is no limit, quickly get bored/give up.

Introduce a coin limit and now there is incentive to get all the coins, because maybe after collecting X coins, you will achieve a new experience.

Vary the number of ways to collect all the coins on a level with different difficulty/technique/etc and you are giving them even more experiences.

Make the coin limit such that the gamer has collected enough coins to get a feel for a range of experiences but not so many that it becomes monotomous and you have a fun game to play because something new is always offered by the game.

Gamers want to be given experiences, the commands are just guidelines.