Idle Musings of the Active Mind

For the uninitiated, go to AION Online and check it out…then come back and read this.

It was a dark time for the gaming masses. Although World of Warcraft continues unabated, a few brave souls have driven the fog of insanity from their hidden footholds in the cerebral cortex and pursued a new course toward gaming freedum. Evading countless would-be critics and their lunatic fanatacism for Blizzard’s games, a group of stalwart gamers led by a strong conscience has established a new stronghold in the Abyss of Aion’s realms. The evil lords at Blizzard, obsessed with squashing this young upstart of a game, have promised new quests and envisioned new lands for its zombie subscribers to explore…

No doubt about it, World of Warcraft has and will continue to hold a solid place in gamers’ wallets. As smurfy as it is, the game is casual enough to be played by a LOT of people (and admittedly hardcore enough for the raiding crowd…though anyone with EQ–the original!–raid experience will likely scoff at the thought of WoW “raids”).

AION, though, has a chance I think. I’ve played it for a few days now off and on. I’m slowly discovering some of the nuances of the game that may give it a fighting chance. So far, the PvE parts of the game are engaging and the quests are challenging. As long as they don’t nerf the shit out of it in the coming months and make it all smurfy like Blizzard did to WoW, it may be able to compete. There are still EQ and EQ2 players out there looking for an MMO alternative, though, and I’m not sure AION will fill the bill.

Even so, there is another crowd of players who are bored stiff with WoW and want another reasonably casual game…something different…something… 

AION might be it. I know it has piqued my interest enough to dedicate some time to continuing to explore and discover. So far I can only see 2 things worth bitching about:

1) the gold spammers are ruining chat for anyone new who creates a character and logs in. You’ve only got a half dozen lines of chat per “screenful” and there is enough spam going on that you have little or no chance of reading anything meaningful as the spam spews on forever…or until you figure out how to right clik on the names and block them.

2) The “feel” of the game is lighter in atmosphere than Warhammer, but so far it also feels almost as linear. I can’t tell if it really IS that linear, but so far it seems like there is one road and you follow it from one leveling area to the next. If you want to strike off on your own and get off the beaten path, you find mountains are in your way and you can’t go any farther. Bummer. I wanted to explore and take my chances with the repetitive death roulette wheel.

In the final analysis, though, only time (time spent gaming in AION’s world) will tell the tale of the tape. Will it’s gamine rubber meet the proverbial road to success? Or will it just drift around like so much hot air in a balloon, only die a certain death from the pellet gun of the people’s fickle fancies?

As for me, I’ll be gaming a bit to see for myself.

Ok. If you haven’t seen or heard about this, then stop now and go watch the video. Here’s a link.

Kids Sing Obama’s Praises

Whether you are “for” or “against” Obama, this video should be closely scrutinized–or rather, the act of teaching it to children and having them sing it should be. Flat out, it’s malfeasance on the part of the teacher.

Why, you ask?

Because regardless which direction your political views run–left or right or simple squarely in the center of the road–it should be acknowledged that children this young have no concept of whether or not anyone in political office is doing a good job. Even adults can’t agree on this. So teaching a song that positively reinforces the actions of a particular politician is, at best, irresponsible and, at worst, a gross misuse of power.

For the record, the song could have been a cheeky version that pokes fun at Obama or one that outright calls him a good-for-nothing bastard and I’d be equally against teaching it to kids this age.

Some of those who would want to remind me that the context this song was being taught within was during a Black history and awareness event; that such an event makes celebrating Obama as president somehow less of a violation of these kids’ civil rights, less inappropriate and less irresponsible. And I might agree, if the song’s lyrics were focused on the issue of race and the office of the president. The lyrics were not, however, emphasizing and celebrating the attainment of the office of president by an African American; it celebrated Barack Hussein Obama. Period.

I have a firm conviction on this issue: children should not be taught things that carry a message of political rightness or wrongness. In the same way I would not want my pre-teen child taught that that it was, in some way, a good thing that Joseph Alois Ratzinger was elected as Pope Benedict XVI to serve as the Sovereign of the Vatican City State.

When it comes to matters related to politics, children need to be presented with facts, not opinions. They don’t have enough information or even the mental equipment at this young age to be able to think critically about such matters. Teaching them a song like this is tantamount to teaching them that Barack Obama is the best president to ever hold office. They will remember–perhaps only as democratic echoes in the years to come–that the best president a country can have is male, African American and a Democrat.

I don’t care about race. I don’t care about gender. I don’t care about party affiliation. I care whether or not the person doing the job is qualified and doing it in accordance with my wishes. But what I want is likely not the same as what everyone else wants…including these kids who, when they grow up, will make their own informed decisions about who they think would be the best person for the job.

I’m open minded enough to want kids to be presented with all the information they can be given–facts, mind you, not just some bullshit spewed by the talking heads on TV–and armed with that information be taught how to apply reasoning and critical thinking skills as part of their personal process for coming up with their own opinion. Kids, as we all know, are impressionable (and when I say “impressionable” I mean it literally!), particularly so at this age. Doubt this? Think about how completely COOL superhero X from Saturday morning cartoons is to an 8-year old.

So when it is discovered that someone is teaching our kids to sings songs praising a politician, I want that person to be held accountable.

Every day people do things without thinking about the consequences of their actions. I’m confident that this teacher had good intentions in mind; that she was simply caught up in the excitement of what it meant to finally see an African American be elected to the highest political office of our great country. I know I was excited about it. And though it is purely speculation, I can envision this teacher getting swept up by this excitement and wanting to share it with the people she is around most of her day. Her students.

I can understand it. I just can’t abide it. Nor should any of us. There need to be limits and complete accountability where kids are concerned.

Here’s a question: What did these kids learn? How it will affect their future? How will it influence the realization of their dreams? Did it in anyway alter the way they look at their dreams? And did it in any way change what dreams they might have for themselves? …for others?

If any one of those kids end up in politics, would anything this teacher might have taught them about Barack Hussein Obama have something to do with it?

We do not yet know how history will remember him. We do not yet know if he’s a good president or not. And more importantly, it is not this teacher’s place to teach such things to the kids; it is a parent’s.