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Exalting Love, Romance, and Women in Video Games

Dr. Elliot McGucken, Blogger

July 28, 2009

23 Min Read

The following excerpt was taken from:  System and method for creating exalted video games and virtual realities wherein ideas have consequences

 --http://www.faqs.org/patents/app/20090017886

Opportunities abound for exalted character, depth, romance, and love in video games; as love alone conquers all. 

The Greats’ distant thunder trumps today’s shapeshifting, fiat MBA/game designers/economists in defining entrepreneurial game design with, “Omnia vincit amor; et nos cedamus amori.  Love conquers all—so let us surrender to love,” for what postmodern fiatcrat has created more wealth than Homer, Virgil, and Dante?  Mises wrote “(the) heroic spirit cannot be bought by inflation,” Joseph Schumpeter penned “the stock exchange is no substitute for the Holy Grail,” and while the heroic artists, statesmen, and scholars—the creators of untold wealth—have ridden forth with thousands of faces, they have ever been united in the unyielding love of truth and honor that drives that ever-westward journey towards liberty’s exalted idealism; a love which exalts courage—Aristotle’s primary virtue, as by courage alone are all other virtues possible; and it is courage that allows one to keep the higher ideals above the bottom line—to speak truth to power—come hell or high water.  This unyielding love of honor, though oft outnumbered in its own era, forms a fellowship over millennia; and while outmatched in their own times, Socrates (sentenced to death), Dante (penned the Inferno in exile), Aristotle (fled Athens so that Athens would not sin against philosophy twice), Jefferson (traitor to the King), and Mises & Hayek (exiled from the academy) ride on towards eternity in a fellowship which one can join freely by falling in love with the heroic quest for honor. 

It is not the love of our neighbour, it is not the love of mankind, which upon many occasions prompts us to the practice of those divine virtues. It is a stronger love, a more powerful affection, which generally takes place upon such occasions; the love of what is honourable and noble, of the grandeur, and dignity, and superiority of our own characters.   –Adam Smith, A Theory of Moral Sentiments

 

But tragically, too many are tempted to forgo the permanent things via fleeting titles and awards, which can be gained by simply kneeling before debt for a fiat degree whose worth has declined in proportion to the fiat dollar; instead of standing like a man.  Like Socrates, the Greats all recognized that honor and virtue do not come from money, but that wealth and every lasting good of man comes from the rugged pursuit of virtue—a classic precept Jack Bogle manifested in the rugged creation of Vanguard—an immutable precept which resounds throughout Bogle’s books and speeches as sure as it does through the very character of his soul, letting the students know that Odysseus can yet make it home, alone string the bow, and rid Wall Street of the false suitors; should they only go forth like Telemachus and find their true fathers.  In both eloquent word and rugged deed, Jack irrefutably demonstrates the primal role of classical ideals in our contemporary lives, and while his Battle for The Soul of Capitalism is the only text from a living author on the syllabus, it is not the only text penned by an eighteenth century man.

 And the soul’s natural, unyielding quest for virtue—which Socrates deemed wealth’s wellspring—is captured in a common, epic mythology which the fiatocracy naturally had to replace with their dumbed-down, soulless curriculums; as a fiat currency is a jealous god and will have none others before it.  The last thing Wall Street wants is the priceless catharsis of Aristotle’s third act.  And so the free, classical, and natural heritage every student deserves—the thundering, foundational, Constitutional context which our universities were founded to serve, was by and by displaced by fiat dollars and marketing degrees as bottom-line debt was exalted over the higher ideals; as small souls—gleefully buoyed by unprecedented debt (student & national)—rose to the top via consensual decline, believing themselves rich even as their currency and culture were debauched and their fellow citizens impoverished, collecting all the greatest paper degrees and  honors a fiat currency could buy on their common descent.  

 Facilis descensus Averni:
noctes atque dies patet atri ianua Ditis;
sed revocare gradium superasque evadere ad auras.
hoc opus, hic labor est. It is easy to go down into Hell;
Night and day, the gates of dark Death stand wide;
But to climb back again, to retrace one's steps to the upper air -
There's the rub, the task. –Virgil’s Aeneid, Book VI, line 126 

And if we are to turn the tide—if we are to truly study and inspire entrepreneurship and the creation of enduring wealth, freedom, and prosperity via video games and gaming, we must follow the riders of the immortal soul and heed Martin Luther King Juniors’ words, “If we are to go forward, we must go back and rediscover those precious values—that all reality hinges on moral foundations and that all reality has spiritual control.”  If we are to learn the secrets of billion-dollar Hollywood franchises or trillion-dollar Wall Street Titans, let alone win the “battle for the soul” of classic American Capitalism, we must study the great mythologist and teacher Joseph Campbell—who inspired Star Wars and The Matrix—and listen to Jack Bogle who “left twenty billion on the table” (Economist/WSJ) in forming Vanguard so as to better serve his clients and crewmembers: “But even as I ask you, as I did my grandchildren in the dedication to Battle, to enlist in the mission of building a better world, I remain eager for the excitement of the chase; the idealism of a cause worth betting one’s life on; and the joy of honoring the values of the past as the key to a brilliant future.  So dream your own dreams, but act on them, too.  Action, always action, is required on the ever-dangerous odyssey that each of our lives must follow.  Be good human beings.  Respect tradition and study the great thinkers of our heritage.”

 

 

 

4. System and Method for Female Video Game Characters With Soul and Virtue and Male Characters With Soul and Virtue:

[1622]Imagine video games that presented female characters with the depth of soul and spirit owned by classical characters such as Penelope, Beatrice, Mary Magdelane, the Virgin Mary, and The Mona Lisa.

[1623]Having female characters behave and act morally, while others don't, would provide a novel form of gameplay. For instance, in the Odyssey, Agamemnon's wife cheats on him, and the man she takes in ends up killing Agamemnon. This is contrasted to Penelope, who remains faithful throughout, thusly ensuring that Odysseus's life and home are preserved. So it is that in this novel form of video games, women will be shown on both sides of the moral premise, and not only that, but their moral choices will be fundamental to the eventual victory or defeat.

[1624]Opportunities abound for deeper, more profound female characters, as fanboys such as Cliffyb and Wyckyg are yet focusing on breasts, as Wired reports: [1625]"Speaking to Wired.com at Microsoft's recent media event, the designer (above left) says that Epic Games is trying to make their upcoming Xbox 360 shooter more appealing to the casual audience. The game's female characters, he said, won't have "ginormous tits." And the lauded kill-alien-swarms-with-a-buddy cooperative mode will let you adjust the game's difficulty on the fly depending on who's playing. How do you make a game girlfriend-friendly? You do jump-in, jump-out co-op. You have configurable difficulty settings for the other player. You have very cool and bad-ass main characters that have a very human side. And you make sure that the female characters in your game don't have ginormous tits and aren't bad stereotypes. What are the female characters in Gears 2 like? I've always made sure, working with the art department, that Anya is strong-willed but also very mother-like to the squad. She has a very modest chest and doesn't look like some sort of heavy metal movie fantasy."--http://blog.wired.com/games/2008/05/cliffy-b-gears.html

[1626]Well, that is vast and resounding progress. Boobs are mentioned three times in the above passage, although nobody mentions the vast importance of the moral woman's character in the realm of classical, epic storytelling. No gaming expert has yet ever suggested that the ultimate woman character in a video game ought behave morally, like Penelope. In our dumbed-down, spectacle-driven society, morality is seen as a bad thing--the exact antithesis to art. And so the best the fanboys can do is make the in-game character's breast-size smaller. There is no mention of making them faithful, nor having them speak intelligently, nor making them weave and unweave a tapestry, as does Penelope, to keep the suitors at bay, while waiting faithfully for Odysseus. So it is that games have yet to achieve higher, classical, epic art. And so it is that this patent, by instilling deep ideas and ideals within the game's context and AI, will allow for superior gameplay.

[1627]Female Characters with Soul and Virtue: Every year Play Magazine publishes its Girls of Gaming collection which states at http://playmagazine.com/thegirlsofgaming/index.html, Girls of Gaming Vol. 5 "is jam packed with hotness from every corner of the gaming universe and when you sign up to go digital you'll get our 20-page Best-Of Girls of Gaming absolutely free, along with bonus mature content too hot for print. The print edition is something special as well, featuring embossed, spot varnished covers and top quality materials." Year after year Play Magazine publishes this work, and year after year the industry creates games; but they are missing soul on both the masculine and feminine levels. A game that showed a character being seduced, but resisting, as did Penelope in The Odyssey, could enhance game play by inspiring and exalting the main character to make it on home. Imagine cut-scenes that showed women reading exalted poetry, or lines from Shakespeare' plays, representing virtues. They could be contrasted to evil women and temptresses throughout literature. [1628]1. Imagine cut scenes that showed women acting with virtue to inspire the player to make it on home. For instance, seeing Penelope behaving virtuously and resisting the suitors could inspire the player to make it on back to the damsel in distress. [1629]2. Imagine cut-scenes that showed men acting with virtue to inspire the female in-game-character to also act virtuous. For instance imagine a character of Penelope witnessing Odysseus's resistance of the Sirens, or his other noble actions and refusals of temptations.

[1630]If a player were playing as Penelope, and they did not act morally and took on a suitor as Husband, the suitor would kill her husband when she got home, as happened with Agamemnon. Thus moral actions would have moral consequences; and immoral actions would have immoral consequences.

[1631]A game such as GTA could be enhanced by allowing the player to shoot the pimp and save the women/prostitutes, telling the women to sin no more.

[1632]Such a patent would allow games to achieve higher art, while exalting the female character and form.

[1633]Imagine a video game that let one's live, embody, and enact a Hero's Journey Renaissance: "The stock exchange is a poor substitute for the Holy Grail"--Joseph Schumpeter. Classical Ideals in Innovation & The Genius of Leonardo da Vinci.

--http://www.faqs.org/patents/app/20090017886

 

A New Realm of Exalted Gaming

The Autumn Rangers Video Game Engine

[0010]Imagine the Autumn Rangers video game--a game where being in love was as important as fighting in battle, just as it was in Homer's Odyssey, Braveheart, and 300. Imagine a game which let you speak out for liberty's ideals before fighting for the US Constitution, as did the Founding Fathers, Abraham Lincoln, Martin Luther King Jr., and the countless brave men and women in uniform. Imagine a game which let you defend the spirit of The Declaration of Independence in word and deed, and which united the internal dramatic action and external conflict en route to Aristotle's third act--the thundering, epic showdown.

[0011]Imagine a renaissance in games exalted by classical, epic story and soul. And as "life imitates art," as Oscar Wilde stated, imagine a cultural renaissance--imagine a novel form of video games that had a positive, exalted influence on the culture; as all epic art ever has, from The Iliad to The Odyssey, from Shakespeare to the Bible. "They all fall away, one by one," Thomas Jefferson wrote, "until one is left with Virgil and Homer, and perhaps Homer alone." Imagine a game which allowed one to fight for Virgil's poetry, Achille's Honor, Odysseus's Penelope, and Jefferson's Declaration of Independence:

[0012]We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.--The Declaration of Independence

[0013]Imagine the Autumn Rangers video game--a game where one had to trek through hell to be reunited with Beatrice, as did Dante in The Inferno; and wherein one's fiance was stolen, as in The Count of Monte Christo; along with one's technology, as in the 1968 Iron Man. Imagine a gameworld wherein ideas had consequences, and where although actions spoke louder than words, the pen was mightier than the sword. Imagine a game wherein the words--the mere words the player chose to speak--could exalt peace, avert wars, save lives, end oppression, and win freedom, as did Gandhi's words.

[0014]A coward is incapable of exhibiting love (like all the fanboys who are quite content to hire and kill hookers, but never love a real woman); it is the prerogative of the brave.--Mohandas Gandhi

[0015]Imagine a game which let one fight for the higher ideals and deliver justice in an epic showdown where the few stood against the many, as did Socrates in The Apology, Leonidas and his men in 300, and every lone rider at the end of every Western, be it Clint Eastwood in A Fistful of Dollars or Eminem in 8 mile. And imagine that after reuniting the family and facing down a posse of rifles with your .45 revolver, you could ultimately leave the gold behind, as did Clint Eastwood in A Fistful of Dollars--the first film in Sergio Leone's "The Man With No Name" trilogy which was based on the Japanese Samuri Film Yojimbo, shot in Spain, directed by an Italian who spoke no English, and which first launched Eastwood as an international star.

[0016]The present invention will foster video games in which the player could throw down their golden staff and call out the assembly for having no honor, as did Achilles in The Iliad, or throw down the Ten Commandments, as did Moses, when he found his people worshipping the golden calf, and reasoned that they were not yet ready for the far-higher value of the Law. Imagine that mere words could incite a people to fight for their freedom--eloquent, exalting words such as those penned by Publius in The Federalist, Thomas Paine in The Rights of Man, and Thomas Jefferson in The Declaration of Independence. Imagine that after a band of rebels won their freedom in the game, their leader could turn down the kingship that was offered them, as did General Washington.

[0017]The present invention will allow us to imagine and render a game where the soul of the stolen AI technology--APRIL--could only be saved by the codes on Ranger's ring, and where US Marine Ranger McCoy, after raising his right hand and swearing on the Bible to protect the Constitution, was ultimately protected and saved by folksinger Autumn Wests' faithful love and loyalty--her immortal, pristine soul; just as Odysseus was ultimately saved by Penelope, Dante by Beatrice, and Johnny Cash by June Carter.

[0018]The present invention will allow us to imagine and render a game wherein fighting for moral ideas at the lowest level had resounding and epic consequences. Imagine a game wherein saving New York and LA from nuclear devastation came down to the seemingly smallest actions between Autumn & Ranger--to the romance of their renaissance and the renaissance of their romance--for without Penelope's faithful dedication, Odysseus's long journey on home would have all been for naught; and without Beatrice, Dante would have been robbed of the exalted reason to walk through hell. Imagine a game wherein fighting for moral ideas at the lowest level had resounding and epic consequences.

[0019]The present invention will allow us to imagine and render a game in which Ranger could create a digital rights management system for Autumn as they drove cross country to save APRIL and resurrect her moral OS. [0020]The Congress shall have power to . . . promote the progress of science and useful arts, by securing for limited times to authors and inventors the exclusive right to their respective writings and discoveries;--The United States Constitution

[0021]The present invention will allow us to imagine and exalt a game wherein if Ranger's DRM software allowed Autumn to "further the progress of the useful arts" by allowing her to protect and profit from her art--to realize her Natural Constitutional Rights to own her creations, thus giving her incentives to create, and enriching all world with a renaissance, as she performed the classical ideals in the contemporary context, resurrecting that far higher, forgotten wealth of poetry mingled with epic idealism. For without classical ideals, love songs are not possible, and without living music, love can be read about but never truly known; and so it is that Autumn's music would remind us of the need for property rights; as much as Odysseus's actions in reclaiming his home from the false suitors.

[0022]The present invention will allow us to imagine and exalt a game wherein AI that exalted the classical moral premise in Plot and Character--that allowed the first person player to exalt in Honor and Integrity. Imagine an FPS that rendered the archetypal masculine and feminine--the Odysseus and Penelope, the Dante and Beatrice, the Hamlet and Ophelia--and like Zeus, saw to it that only those who treated strangers and beggars with common decency and respect ever prevailed. Imagine a video game that wore black like Johnny Cash: [0023]I wear the black for the poor and the beaten down, [0024]Livin' in the hopeless, hungry side of town, [0025]I wear it for the prisoner who has long paid for his crime, [0026]But is there because he's a victim of the times. [0027]I wear the black for those who never read, [0028]Or listened to the words that Jesus said, [0029]About the road to happiness through love and charity, [0030]Why, you'd think He's talking straight to you and me.--Johnny Cash--The Man in Black . . .

[0031]And imagine a game that wore black like Hamlet, which brought to life the contrast between "the actions a man might play" and the reality of the deeper soul: [0032]HAMLET [0033]Seems, madam! nay it is; I know not `seems.` [0034]'Tis not alone my inky cloak, good mother, [0035]Nor customary suits of solemn black, [0036]Nor windy suspiration of forced breath, [0037]No, nor the fruitful river in the eye, [0038]Nor the dejected 'havior of the visage, [0039]Together with all forms, moods, shapes of grief, [0040]That can denote me truly: these indeed seem, [0041]For they are actions that a man might play: [0042]But I have that within which passeth show; [0043]These but the trappings and the suits of woe.

[0044]The present invention will allow us to imagine and exalt a video game that followed The Hero's Journey; which called the protagonist to adventure--which beckoned them with a higher calling, and rewarded them for risking all to heed it and serve a higher cause. Imagine a game that inspired the player to venture forth in rendering their ideals real--to press on regardless--mentoring them in taking the high road and walking the straight and narrow, always reminding them that "there is a difference between knowing the path and walking it," just as there is a difference between night and day, and proposed word and rendered deed.

[0045]Imagine a game wherein the protagonist was a man of suffering and pain--carrying a great burden like Sam and Frodo, as the very name Odysseus implies "man of woe and pain." Imagine a game where one could fight for the classical economic precepts in word and deed, and witness them rendered real in the living world. Imagine fighting Orwellian groupthink and freeing the innovator and inventor from the bureaucracy's shackles; and imagine that if one did not succeed in standing for truth and liberty at the game's crossroads, "The Road to Serfdom" would be taken, accompanied by "The End of Truth," "The Worst Getting on Top," and the eventual decline of freedom and liberty.

[0046]The present invention could foster a video game which brought the ideals of classical economists to life; so that we might learn what happens in a virtual world when we ignore Adam Smith, F. A. Hayek, and Ludwig Von Mises, as well as when we ignore those far more fundamental economists--Socrates and the prophets of the Judeo Christian Heritage. For one cannot serve two masters, and what does it profit one to gain the world and lose their soul? And with the same courage that Achilles took to battle, imagine a game which allowed you to address the Athenian jury as did Socrates, with a basic treatise on economics that he delivered knowing that it would bring about his death:

[0047]"For I do nothing but go about persuading you all, old and young alike, not to take thought for your persons or your properties, but first and chiefly to care about the greatest improvement of the soul. I tell you that virtue is not given by money, but that from virtue comes money and every other good of man, public as well as private. This is my teaching, and if this is the doctrine which corrupts the youth, I am a mischievous person. But if any one says that this is not my teaching, he is speaking an untruth. Wherefore, O men of Athens, I say to you, do as Anytus bids or not as Anytus bids, and either acquit me or not; but whichever you do, understand that I shall never alter my ways, not even if I have to die many times."--The Apology

[0048]The present invention would afford games that allowed people to act on Socrates' epic, classic ideals, as well as exalt them, and even defend Socrates. The present invention would afford games which called upon the player to match exalted word with exalted deed; and rendered the consequences--both dire and grand--in gameworlds that diverged depending on the chosen path, ending definitively with either with tyranny, oppression, and persecution for those who failed to embody classical ideals our Founding Fathers adhered to; or with freedom, liberty, and justice for those who succeeded in serving the higher cause. Action and dialogue trees could be mapped directly onto historical events such as the American Revolution or onto epic literature such as The Odyssey, and by correctly choosing to speak Odysseus's words, and partake in his exalted, cunning actions, one would be rewarded with faithful Penelope--with the epic poetry's exaltation of the home and family--of private property and the triumph of the hero, owner, and creator over the false managerial suitors living off Odysseus's estate and Autumn's music. And by diverging from Odysseus's words and deeds, the player would fail, as so many of our present-day institutions are--institutions which have chosen to hedge against the great wisdom of the Great Books and Classics, and which are reaping the consequences, cashing out on our vast accumulated cultural wealth built upon words matched by epic deeds--constructed upon the solid rock of honor and integrity, and founded upon treasures that moth and rust cannot corrupt, and thieves cannot steal. The player who gave in to short-term temptations would fail by selling trust, honor, integrity, civility, and marriage on down the river for short-term gains, as they bankrupt a nation, both spiritually and monetarily.

[0049]But too, the players who failed would leave billions of dollars of long-term wealth on the table for the bold and innovative players who went against the conventional wisdom, and who yet believed in exalting the higher ideals over the bottom line; who, like Odysseus, put off the short-term temptations of the Sirens and Lotus Eaters for those far greater precepts belonging to Penelope, the home, and family. So it is that this novel gameworld would be far more realistic than the supposedly open-ended world of Grand Theft Auto where one can steal cars, hire and kill prostitutes, shoot innocent cops and civilians, but never exalt a renaissance. Vast opportunities would exist in this game world for the rising generation to exalt renaissances on Wall Street and Main Street; in Hollywood and the Heartland, in films, books, movies, software, and games endowed with classic, epic soul; just as vast opportunities exist in real life for all those Autumns and Rangers--all those Autumn Rangers who venture boldly into the romance of the fall and autumn's burning leaves. For spring shall soon follow.

[0050]And so it is that tomorrow's game designers ought begin by heeding Martin Luther King Jr.'s words: [0051]If we are to go forward, we must go back and rediscover those precious values--that all reality hinges on moral foundations and that all reality has spiritual control.--M L K

[0052]There is a rising demand for exalted games that this present invention would foster; and for technologies that allow artists to protect and profit from their creations--technology endowed and infused withthe classical soul, just as there is a rising demand for exalted art, film, literature, classes, and institutions. A fellowship is forming to deliver such entities, prepared to back words with deeds, just as Autumn and Ranger heed Leonardo da Vinci's advice in the Autumn Rangers novel, film, and video game.

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