For those who remain curious beyond knowing my professional background, in my spare time, I\u2019m a video game nerd with a passion for fantasy, strategy, and roleplaying games. Beyond that, I have a long history managing and leading communities in massive multiplayer online games from big MMORPGS like Guild Wars to annoying browser games such as Grepolis. The classic perception would be that video games harbour anti-social tendencies, I\u2019ve found it to be the opposite. I\u2019ve met some of the most talented and loving individuals online. People from all walks of life can log into a virtual world and share an experience akin to that of our legendary tales, from the safety of our households. We build communities, organized for the purpose of furthering each other\u2019s experiece. I\u2019ve played with soldiers; teachers; lawyers; accountants; single parents; desperate teenagers; wealthy businessmen; people suffering from mental and physical illness; people of colour; LGTQ+ people; drug addicts; and at the end of the day I\u2019d call all of whom I\u2019ve encountered online friends. Gaming, online and offline, has been a hobby in which has provided me connections and stories that a country bumpkin raised in rural British Columbia would never had been able to encounter without the digital world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
My passion for history began in video games. Franchises such as Assassins Creed and Total War are engaged immersive experiences that give a player a snapshot of history in an engaged way. In my studies, and to my knowledge, History often falls short of an engaged audience. People often see it as boring, but considering the rise and fall of civilisations, the clashing of the culmination of distinct cultures, and even the smallest most human of stories can not possibly be boring. History for many is locked in the pages of history textbooks and to old stogey historians.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Historicizing our world, a process in which we comprehend our present situation by understanding the history in which leads up to our contemporary world offers so much. As youth we are taught to learn from our mistakes, but western civilisation has a tendency to brute force solutions, caring little for the nuances of a situation and how the conclusion is the equation of a millenia of experience. Ignorance is the blight on civilisation in which we forget where we came and lose sight of where we must go to thrive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Moving forward, my passion is to study the past and gift that knowledge to others so that all might benefit. In Canada we live in the greatest resurgence of culture of North American civilisation, and yet the past is both disregarded and misunderstood. Steps forward are always focused on dealing with the real and visceral experiences of a largely deconstructed people, but fails to breath life into the heart of the issue, that which a people have been severed from history. There has been a reclaimation of culture and stories but it fails to address the massive hole of the 20th century in which people were segregated outside of western civilisation. I wish to address the issue of indigenous veterans. In the wake of the greatest conflicts of western civilization, Indigenous peoples fought and sacrificed their lives, and yet Canada has forgotten why. Were it as simple as patriotism or protection of a threatened country, but it fails to consider those that fought as equally sovereign allies, or as an attempt to rekindle royal sympathies, or out of pure desperation due to the loss of economic autonomy. The traditional war eulogy further perpetuates colonial ideologies on a marginalized people who are forced into the settler narrative in a way to solidify assimilation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
While to some there is no clear intersectionality between video gaming and my passion for history and indigenous resurgence, there is so much that these have to offer humanity that is often disregarded.
Video games create a story in which one can be immersed in situations of gravity while shielded from the consequences of dangerous adventures, mis-management and misfortune. The most beautiful is when a community comes together from all walks of life and locations in the world and comes together to pursue a goal beyond the capabilities of a single person. These communities might last half an hour, sometimes they last months. Occassionally it ends in success, often it ends in failure, but each time the whole becomes stronger than they were before. Inside the code of virtual enviroments is hyperaccelerated civilisations in which expand our perceptions of ourselves and others.
History is the collective memory of mistakes and atrocities made by humanity. Beyond the documents, beyond the written accounts is a experience that humbles and grounds us. We don\u2019t have the opportunity to save and go back, time is the dimension in which we can only move one direction. In video games we more often than not have the opportunity to go back and correct a mistake or try again. In our current lives all we have is the stories of our ancestors and predessors to move forward and walk without falling through the ice.
To overcome our current challenges we must think outside our current experience and embrace the shared experience of humanity. Collaboration offers a world where we can all live harmoniously, and the greater the parts of the collective effort the greater the heights that can be achieved. Indigenous people had their voices hushed but those that survived now can become part of those that lead the world forward to a greater success than when we were silenced.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
For those who remain curious beyond knowing my professional background, in my spare time, I\u2019m a video game nerd with a passion for fantasy, strategy, and roleplaying games. Beyond that, I have a long history managing and leading communities in massive multiplayer online games from big MMORPGS like Guild Wars to annoying browser games such […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false},"categories":[11,12],"tags":[9,5,10,7],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mindofthelost.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mindofthelost.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mindofthelost.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mindofthelost.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mindofthelost.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=58"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/mindofthelost.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":90,"href":"https:\/\/mindofthelost.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58\/revisions\/90"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mindofthelost.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=58"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mindofthelost.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=58"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mindofthelost.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=58"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}