My Thoughts on the U.S. Gun Debate

Happy Friday everyone! I hope you are having a great day before Christmas is here. As usual, it’s time to cover another topic at “Delvarian’s Assorted Stuff”. Today’s topic will be my general thoughts on the debate on guns in the U.S. Like every other article on this site, your mileage may vary – you may have other opinions on this topic. And seeing how heated this debate is and how passionate some of the arguments are on both sides, this is a must have. But enough with the disclaimers and whatnot, time to dive into the topic at hand.

As many of us can recall, gun debates have been happening all across the U.S. Not just simple ones, but serious ones. As in whether if people should have guns at home or should be prohibited from carrying or owning a gun. One of the proponents’ (for having guns) arguments is that guns are needed for self-defense and without them, security will decrease. On the other hand, opponents say that it will be misused and people will go crazy. On both sides, cries of government doing too much or too little and people’s rights being violated are thrown into this heated debate. It has gotten so huge that even state and government officials fight for either side – leading to some states having different gun regulations. But, one of the main problems of this major argument is that many people cite that gun regulations have a black or white morality or something related to this. When in reality, morality with guns is more or less in shades of gray.

Guns have a proper usage and an improper usage. They can be used for hunting and self-defense or they can be used for criminal acts. Yet, the main problem is with the person, not the gun itself. The gun is just a tool and therefore, has no morality attached to it – it doesn’t make any decision. Rather, it just follows the demands of the wielder. On the other hand, the person holding the gun has a morality and acts by him/herself – in other words, he or she is sentient. Thus, he/she has the ability to follow the right path, follow the wrong path, or most commonly, follow a mix of the paths. They can make the gun a tool of benefit or a tool of death and destruction. So, if politicians wanted to eradicate the gun problem, the best solution would be to fix the nature of human beings – an impossible task. But, the main point is that, the human, not the gun chooses to make a decision, and that decision is most of the time, morally gray. Therefore, gun debates cannot use the saying that there are only good and bad ways to use a gun. There is a proper usage but, when used with other people of shady morality, the “correct” decision becomes hard to determine.

For example, let’s say a criminal were to break in a home and threaten the residents with a loaded gun. In this case, if someone had a gun and was willing to the protect his fellow residents, then he had permission to take out the intruder for the sake of saving more lives. Here, the decision taken was not sparkly clean (in most morality systems and religions, killing is generally wrong) but, he averted a possibly more tragic outcome of many or all people being killed. Imagine if guns were restricted and not allowed – the outcome will have been totally different and would be based more upon the criminal’s morality. So, the argument and belief of the usage of guns having a black and white morality is completely false. Nothing in life is completely right or wrong – sometimes people cannot even tell what some decisions’ outcomes will be.

So what can we do to fix this issue? Well, first off, education is a must. Most of the time, people who argue in this debate are misguided due to not having a clear viewpoint or an open mind. Fixing a closed-mind may prove tough to accomplish, but the main point would be to educate the masses on both sides of this issue. People can demonstrate how morality for guns, as with everything else, is gray, not purely right or wrong. But most importantly, emphasize that the debates aren’t bad in themselves - it is just the miscommunication and misinformation that are bad. Proper gun laws have to be put in place to make the country better. However, it must be done in the proper way so it balances the right of the people and the safety of our society. Of course, any change will bring controversy and outrage. But, it’s just that we, the people of our nation, how will have the final say on this topic and how the nation will move forward in the years to come.

Thanks once again for staying with me folks. I hope you enjoyed my general insights into the gun debate. The topic is more complicated than what it appears to be. But, this provides a brief look in what needs to be improved or fixed. Well then, like usual, comments, suggestions, and corrections are always appreciated. I hope you all have a great Christmas beginning tomorrow! This is Delvarian from “Delvarian’s Assorted Stuff” signing off! Have a wonderful holiday!

My Thoughts on If Video Games Are Works of Art

Welcome again to “Devlarian’s Assorted Stuff”. Today’s topic will be on the very controversial issue on whether video games are a form of art or not, and some of the surrounding arguments. Remember folks, considering how controversial (and flame-bait worthy) this topic is, take into mind that your mileage may way. Your thoughts on this issue will vary in some way or another. This is why it is (highly) not recommended to start a discussion on this in many sites or forums. But without further to do, let us delve in and explore this interesting topic.

Looking at the humble beginnings of video gaming, video games were intended to be for entertainment for kids – nothing more. As seen by this early (first) era of gaming, most games were made for arcades and arcade-like systems. Of course, the market shifted to Japan after the Great Video Game Crash of 1983 with the introduction of the Nintendo Entertainment System or the NES for short. Even then, most if not all games, were intended for entertainment and for kids – though the stories improved in this time period. As the years went by, technology improved leading to better systems (such as the SNES) with better graphics, sounds, and gameplay, as well as other things such as story and mechanics. All in all, it was considered by many veterans to be one of the best time-frames in gaming thanks to all the amazing (at that time) advancements. However, it is key to note that as mentioned before, stories began to improve and became (for the most part) more complex, and had more moral and philosophical meaning. For example, instead of the simple save the princess plot, it was more like save the world from the evil empire with many people having their own agendas – slightly simplified though. The game developers were dipping into deeper parts of telling a story and providing an impact to life like a book or movie.

Of course, even at that period, most people considered it to be for entertainment and children – not a work of art. It wasn’t a bad thing at all considering that most plots were still simplistic and only a few – could have been considered a work of art. Thus, there were not enough examples to convince the populace into moving onto deeper concepts. As the time went by however, companies began to trudge into more complex storylines with connections to real world events. Many people applauded these changes yet, some critics and activists defied this stating that it would “ruin society” or something similar. This was the start of the age of T-rating games, exploration into deeper concepts, and the beginning of video game controversies and the general stupidity of activists and critics.

Here, developers wanted to push forward into deeper more moral ideas like in movies and books but they further they went, it seemed that more issues came up from the stupidity of the populace. Take Mass Effect 2 from the fairly recent day. Many (misguided) people (including FOX News) decried it as a “porn simulator” and cautioned people to keep their kids away from it. The same thing happened with Grand Theft Auto IV, where critics decried it as a “murder simulator” (though there were slightly right, but the game wasn’t about random murdering or the simulation of the act). In fact, the content was much subtler and was more or less (for the case of Mass Effect 2) implied never shown on screen. But of course, critics and activists still decried and complained about it. This has happened to several games over the years and many companies have been afflicted from these people’s misguided crusades. Even some states over the years wanted to pass laws several regulating gaming and pushing back M-rated games.

The main issue with this is that people cannot decide whether video games are a form of art or not. Consider books and movies, and how they can show touchy and controversial issues without the same level of complaining that ensues when video games show it. In fact, this problem also stems from the fact that video games are still perceived by many to be for the children and that a lot of video game enthusiasts back down from defending. Heck, the issue has gotten so heated that even the Supreme Court has opened a case to see whether video games are protected by the First Amendment (freedom of speech). Many fans, critics, and activists on both sides fight on whether video games are art citing many examples and counter-examples with no avail on either side. Some people cannot wrap their heads around the idea that video games have matured to the point that not all are for kids – some are, but others are for more mature-minded people.

Because of this huge debate, if a game were to cover a controversial topic (e.g., war, genocide, fear, torture, etc.), it would face a huge deal of controversy unlike books or movies. Books and movies have already covered many hard-to-read topics, so why not video games. As many have said before me, we need to stand up for our medium and push forward and “mature” our medium. If books and movies have done it beforehand, so shall our medium. For this to happen, we need to defend our works when faced with controversy, try making more meaningful stories, and provide enough evidence that video games are in fact, a form of art. The Supreme Court’s decision will have a major impact on gaming, and will either improve or destroy the genre. But no matter what it will come to, we gamers should rally together and stand up for our genre and educate the masses. If we push forward, our medium will never be the same again – just like entering adolescence or adulthood. As they say, “beauty is in the eye of the beholder” – anything could be a work of art but will vary depending on the viewer.

Thanks for staying with me folks! I would like to give many thanks to Daniel Floyd, for inspiring me (and other fellow gamers) to speak up for our medium. Keep on rolling Mr. Floyd and as for everyone else, have a wonderful day! Remember, comments, suggestions, and corrections are always appreciated. This is Delvarian for “Delvarian’s Assorted Stuff” signing off for now!

My Thoughts on Internet Trolls

Welcome again folks for today’s blog posting. Today’s topic will be on a collection of people, called trolls – internet trolls to be precise. For safety concerns and the fact that the topic is so broad, I won’t delve too deep into this topic. But, I’ll cover the jist of this topic and on how “we” can stand up to them and reduce the problem.

The Urban Dictionary defines Trolls as “One who posts a deliberately provocative message to a newsgroup or message board with the intention of causing maximum disruption and argument”. As many internet users could tell you, they have encountered one or more trolls in their experiences with the internet. The effect can be either minor or profound depending on the circumstance. But, of course, troll(s) always stir up anger and controversy for their own self-indulgence or pleasure. They go to a multitude of sites on an impromptu basis in either groups or by themselves. No site is safe from their attacks – they can bring down a site by spamming or worse. They sprawl all across the web either active or “lurking” – no one’s safe from their wrath. There is an important thing to note on this matter though, they do not work in groups most of the time. When I refer to them as “them”, I’m referring to these people as a collection, not as a group. They sometimes work together and most of the time they don’t.

However, what attracts these people to particular sites or fandoms? Why are some more vulnerable than others? The answer is that it all has to do with the size of the fandom, the “eccentricity” of the fanbase, and the anonymity of the internet playing a role. Generally speaking, the larger the fanbase the more the fans there will be – which makes the message boards on these fandoms more popular. Unfortunately, this means that trolls will be able to attack a larger audience and a larger number of fans will not be able to resist the temptation of “feeding” the trolls – as in responding to them. The same thing with “eccentricity” of the fans, the more fans like a work, the more the chance they will protect it from criticism. Sure, some fans will accept criticism, but when the eccentricity is at high-levels like in some certain fandoms, they will attack the criticizers without mercy. This will just add fuel to the fire for trolls.

Of course, the other main reason for trolling would be the anonymity of the internet. In most cases, people on the internet feel more inclined to be less “conservative” or more aggressive because of their belief that they cannot be tracked or punished for their behaviors – unlike in real life where these behaviors would have negative repercussions. In fact, on the internet, trolls barely have any repercussions - they could always make another account or go to another site to troll if they are IP-banned or even use other methods.

Any person could become a troll with enough aggravation or desire. However, there are ways of dealing with their antics and the like. The first step would be to ignore them and continue on with the preceding conversations. Trolls love to have attention as it’s their “main food source” to keep going. With ignorance or indifference to the trolls from the targeted members, trolls will grow disinterested, and will either quit or move to another site. As the saying goes, “ignorance is bliss”. Although getting all fans to comply would be extremely hard due to the aforementioned problems on disagreement. The second method would be also decrease the number of arguments on a multitude of things in fandoms. Of course, this according to today’s standards would be practically impossible to achieve due to the human race. A third way and much less popular way would be to bait them away from un-expecting users. As Know Your Meme/Rocketboom put it, they are known as cannibalistic trolls. With enough time and effort put into this (by ironically mostly doing nothing other than education), trolls can be put down safely – unless they have their own agenda(s). Then, we can focus on some of the many other issues plaguing various fandoms.

That’s it for today’s topic folks! I apologize if this posting seems a bit half-hearted or something related – I was having some issues choosing and writing a topic today. As always, suggestions, comments, and corrections are always appreciated. Have a wonderful day folks and I hope to see you tomorrow. This is Delvarian signing off!

My Thoughts on the Cause of the U.S. Recession

Welcome to Tuesday’s blog entry from me folks! Today’s topic will be about my opinions surrounding the various financial crisises in the U.S. or in short, the U.S. recession. Just as a disclaimer, your mileage may vary on these opinions. You may agree or disagree, and there might be a better way to look at this. I’ll only cover a minute section of this major world issue, although more articles examining this topic shall come in the future. But without further to do, let us delve on this controversial subject.

As we all know these days, the financial health of the U.S. is in crisis – as is the rest of the world’s credit. The world can be considered at peril if some actions take drastic actions to secure their money back – which could lead to wars and genocide and the like. But before that, let’s go back a few years and see the cause of this giant mess. In the olden days, people used to very rarely borrow, mostly relying on cash at hand for buying or trading goods. Heck, even before that, people just bartered instead of using hard cash. Consequently, little to no debt was incurred and trust was kept in balance. As the years went by however, people began to dabble in investments and loans which at first, mostly went well. However, it eventually reached the point where they became so unregulated that the banks could do nearly anything – they were greedy to put it at best. All those completed rules, procedures, and plans to confuse people when working with a bank to squeeze every penny from the customers/investors. It wasn’t too bad at first, as most people paid off their debts, yet it eventually reached the point (sometime at 2006) where part of the system collapsed as most of the borrowers could not pay off their debts.

Why did this happen? This happened mostly because the banks tricked their customers into picking wrong options to earn a profit. In this age of capitalism, people traded money, and non-existent money or debts. This caused the system to be pretty unstable if the debts were unmet and as proven by history, the financial system had practically collapsed and had to be re-stabilized by the government by bailouts. People could not pay back their loans, so businesses closed down, the economy closed down, and even banks became more stringent in handing out loans. Yet still after cutting down on money, the big companies give huge corporate bonuses… Partly ironic in this age of financial problems.

In fact, the current national debt is 11 trillion dollars and growing. Imagine the consequences of the nation becoming bankrupt. The consequences and possibilities are horrifying to confront at best – not to mention the domino effect ensuing. Yet, as stated above, people are still greedy as before if not partially more and some areas. Sure people are more wary of their money more but, still have their petty issues with greed and pride. In fact, the main cause of this mess was not only due to greedy banks but also driven mostly by greedy consumers. They had the “I want it now!” mentality on having items. Thus, most of them took loan after loan to buy item after item never feeling satisfied – leaving an increasing pile of debt. Where did this lead to? The situation we now all see and encounter today. It did drive the GDP of the country up (short-term gain), but at a huge negative (long-term) cost.

To be even more precise, some keywords here to note would be short-term and long-term. I would go highly into detail on this topic today (I’ll focus on this at another day), but to put it bluntly, people more or less, focused on the short-term rather than the opposite. The majority of the population, low-level or high-level, focused on short-term pleasures and never saved up - eventually causing this huge deficit across the world. This is one the primary faults of the human race and must be addressed (as in more heavily) at one point or another if we wish to survive.

But, many will ask, “Can we escape this crisis?” The answer is yes or no. It depends on whether the people of the U.S. can cooperate, spend less, and save more. It will decrease the GDP, but it’s better than increasing the national debt at the rate we are going. The next thing would be to fix the government policies that waste money and reward the wrong people. Afterward, we must team up with other countries to fix up their messes and eventually hit the green – if possible. Of course, many countries won’t cooperate – but, it is in our best interests if we do. Besides, it is better than having more wars all across the world. On the other hand, we may be able to take out this problem but only for it to come back as “history repeats itself”. Yet, if we (as in, a majority of the world’s populace) can band together to push for a better future we can theoretically, fix this worldwide financial crisis and avert a world war. It is a huge demand to ask for and may be a too optimistic goal for the most of you, but we all got to try. That’s one of the beauties of the human-race, banding together for a common-goal whether it be malevolent or benevolent.

Thank you for staying through this minor-essay of my thoughts! I hope you enjoyed it and I also hope to see you all tomorrow. As always, suggestions and corrections are welcome. Remember to refer this to your friends. This is Delvarian for “Delvarian’s Assorted Stuff”, signing off for the day!