Monday, December 28, 2020

call of duty: situationalist international

I just landed in Verdansk, Kastovia. I check my map: i'm in the middle of a field, in an area simply called 'farmland.' I can see some houses, some buildings, and a ridge that forms a natural border. 


I look at the map again - as a gust of toxic gas is incoming, I know I must head north-west. I can't decide what route to to take or what I am looking for beyond a possible 'zone.'

My only goal is to move in this vague direction.

I walk - no, I meander - towards some hay bales. I slowly cruise from bale to bale, glancing right towards some silos. I consider exploring them but just mindlessly cruised by instead. I continue moving 'mostly straight but to the right' before realizing I have gone the wrong way. I enter a house through the front door and immediately leave through the back. I turn around and walk along a ditch. I see two people stalk a solo character above me. I choose to mind my own business and continue my walk. 

Am I running aimlessly? Well, sometimes. Sometimes I run without knowing where i'm going until I 'get there.' There is no strategy except to move. Should I call this a dérive? Is this the same thing - I mean, this is as close to a pointless stroll as I can have - what, with the current lockdown restrictions due to some pandemic or whatever. 

Is my wandering in Warzone a byproduct of me not knowing how to play the game? Do I want to play this video game because it replicates a possible reality? Is this a waste of time?

The first person shooter, or FPS, is based around very simple concepts: move without being followed, kill without being killed. Easy enough, right? You win by moving somewhere you can't be found. An intimate knowledge of the map is neither a blessing or a burden - while the terrain is static, the circumstances that fill the environment change in a matter that is both unpredictable and chaotic. 

Obviously, Debord was not thinking of the 'Theory of the Dérive' in relation to a unreal world - but he did consider war to be a game. He invented a board game, cleverly titled 'The Game of War,' which is more suited to be compared to chess than a FPS: how could he plan for wars that were fought on a MSI NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 Super Gaming X 8GB GDDR6 video card? 

Did I tell you about my PC debacle? Have I told you about this? Yeah, so I pulled the machine learning laptop out because I realized I could play Call of Duty on my computer at work. So I pull it out and I realize why it was put away in the first place: it didn't work. So I spend hours flashing the hard drive and installing a new OS and installing all the drivers before I realize I installed the 32-bit version of Windows 7. SO I format the hard drive again and make a verified Windows 10 64-bit installer and it's not working so I run and buy a new SSD to fresh install it, see what happens. 

Nothing happens. It took me a lot of time to do nothing. What was I saying?

I open my copy of Mario Vargas Llosa's 'Notes on the Death of Culture' and read five pages before finding my mind wander.

I walk to the living room and turn on the PS4.

Beep.

Time is running out today, yes - I have to make dinner for my partner. She wants cauliflower coconut curry and rice and I don't have any idea where to start. I haven't gotten down to the meat of what i'm trying to say - i'm running through a 3D world but I don't know where i'm going. I can have a rough idea of a starting point, but I have no idea where I will end. The shapes appear vivid as I approach.

Yes, it's true, I will have to shoot my way out of this one.

When I write, I have a tendency to walk around my point instead of standing still. Sometimes I walk right past my initial point and settle on a new one. More often than not, I just cruise past all possible points with nothing more than a casual glance.

Is letting my mind wander the same as wandering through an urban labyrinth? What about just letting my joystick drift? 

'A technique of rapid passage through varied ambiences,' Debord says. My ADD raddled brain says YES, my mental gymnastics extend to an isolationist dérive. 

I am a smart person; I do smart things. I play Call of Duty because I am smart. I am keeping busy. I am learning something new.

I get shot from behind outside of the stadium. I replay my death once. I am a very smart person.

call of duty: situationalist international

I just landed in Verdansk, Kastovia. I check my map: i'm in the middle of a field, in an area simply called 'farmland.' I can se...