Arts & Culture

Modern Soma

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Mustapha Mond says, “People never are alone now…we make them hate solitude; and we arrange their lives so that it’s almost impossible for them ever to have it.” I fear this is what our technology is most likely pushing us toward.

addiction

JONES | Dragonbored: The Saga of a Skyrim Addiction

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I bought Skyrim for PC in the summer of 2013. The first thing I remember doing in the game, after the opening-scene dragon attack, is trying to kill a blacksmith who was hosting me in his home, and then frantically running away from the town, across a huge plain and into snowy mountains as the sun set. Many fans of “open-world” games probably have similar experiences the first time they play. Open-world games purport to give the player total freedom; the premise is that any decision that the player makes can be supported by the game, and make sense within its world. You can play as a hero, an anti-hero, a villain or simply commit random acts of violence and kindness as you see fit, and in a perfectly-executed game any of these decisions would have ramifications on the progress of the narrative.