Comments and Video Games - Writing Update by Greg Luti
Updated: Aug 27
A writing update that blends personal reflection with creative thinking. In “Comments and Video Games,” Greg Luti discusses getting past social media spam, the unexpected value of reader comments, and how looking at life through a video-game lens helps him make sense of both writing and the world.
Out of Facebook Hell
I have some good news on the writing front, and that is I am out of what I called Facebook Hell, which is when the spam on the page was so bad the very page was dead. No comments, no shares. Nothing. Only me posting stuff for basically myself.
After much clicking and blocking, the page is getting some people actually responding to it. I like reading comments because they are never really something that I think about when I am writing something, whether that is a blog post or a story. I write up something, take out a few quotes for the social media pages, and then someone responds to that line, which has its own meaning. As I was writing, I never thought the one line would get a response, but here we are…
Feeling Like a Video Game Character
My progress on the Facebook page made me feel like I was a character in a video game, where I now have some decent equipment. I can go around the map and kill some things. I can actually have some fun in the game, rather than just praying that the zombies don’t get too close to me, or I die in a random way because my character is too weak. Nope, I am not there anymore. Thank god for that. I was getting drained from the project, honestly. I swear there was a book I was going to publish recently, but the page was more dead than a corpse, and I had to remedy that issue.
Video Games as Analogies
I then got to thinking about how video games are quite a popular thing in our society, so much that we like to relate many areas to them, even though we all don’t play them. I have a few examples too.
The SAT and Video Game Design
Did you know that the modern SAT is modeled after video game level design? Yeah, I am not kidding there. The test that will determine the fate of millions of students has the same setup as a Zelda game. There is a certain irony in that our education system’s most important test takes from video games. See, in video games, you have to get a certain score to move on to the next level. You don’t get the score, you can’t advance. It is that simple. (This is not for every game, but for the most part, if you want to get to the harder levels, you have to prove that you can beat the easy ones)
The SAT is like that now. The only way to get the best score possible is to get to the hard module, and how do you get the hard module? You have to get a certain score on the first module you take. No certain score on the first module means you are stuck on the easy module, and your total score is limited. And that school you want to attend is out of reach. I would like to think that there is a video game designer out there that one day thought his game setup would help be a prelude to the SAT test, as a way to get the students prepared for it. (He probably was more worried about the appearance of the game’s newest guns.)
Napoleon’s Waterloo
Then there was a time I was talking to a buddy of mine, and I mentioned a part of history, and I related it to video games. The event was Napoleon’s Waterloo, the notorious last stand for the French general. I told him that Waterloo is like when you beat a game, and then have an extra level, where the game puts your character back to level one strength with no upgrades and a basic weapon and expects you to fend off all the toughest enemies in the game. That is Waterloo. You really aren’t supposed to win. The odds are too stacked against you. Even the greatest general needs some advantages in a battle.
Are We Living in a Simulation?
Then there is a third way we use video games, and I have seen this example more than the other two. It is about our reality. I am not sure if you noticed, but your life looks a lot like a Sims character's life, or is it that the Sims character’s life looks a lot like your life? People play video games so much and have watched The Matrix one too many times that they are starting to think that maybe, just maybe, we are in a video game. It is one of those ideas that a character I write about would say in a scene, or flash fiction, as a way to introduce a radical idea to the narrator as a way for them to see the world differently, but not as an absolute truth. The concept is great if you want to teach someone to open their mind and view things from a perspective they have not considered, but not if you want to really get to the bottom of things. The more I think about the simulation theory, which is what it is called, the more the boring answer that we are in reality right now is more likely.
You would figure that someone from outside the video game we supposedly are in would enter the game and tell us. “Hey, by the way. You guys are all in a video game. Yup. Video game. That is all this is. I am a developer in the game.” There is no one who ever said that, and probably never will. (Say what you want of religion, they at least have a few individuals who claimed to be from other worlds or places) I also heard someone ask the intriguing question, “If we are in a simulation, how much energy would be required to run a simulation that large? Does that amount of energy even exist?”
So yeah, video games are great for analogies and explaining things in life. Also, for shooting things at an unhealthy quantity, but let’s stick to the other two and move away from video games altogether.
The Contest I Missed
I have a funny story about a recent story I didn’t write. There was a contest for a Freewrite device I was going to enter, and for those who don’t know what that is, it is a laptop without the internet, basically. It is supposed to help with getting into the flow of writing. I have used it a few times, and I do like the device, which is why I still get their emails. There is a Hemingway edition that is really a flex more than anything. I would have it just to show people I had it, and then mention something about him. (But I gotta be real, I am not that much of a fan of the guy. I would do it for Shakespeare though.)
Anyway, I waited for the announcement for the contest’s theme to get one of these devices. Oh yeah, I forgot to mention the contest was for a flash fiction piece. I thought I'd do that on my site, so why not spend some time on one for the contest? I went to the YouTube channel where they announce the prompt, because I work during the day and was not going to listen to the livestream for that. I skipped to the part of the video where they named the theme: haunted. I had to write about something haunted. Now, I don’t really do haunted, in case you haven’t figured out my style. I don’t like haunted stories. I never did. I couldn’t get through Frankenstein. I don’t like scary movies. And I never even read King. I don’t do haunted. Now, I had to come up with a story with that as a theme?
I went back to my email, the original one that had the submission date, so I could see how much time I had for this contest. The theme lingered in my head. Haunted… you mean like a haunted house? Who the hell wants to write about a haunted house? What is this Halloween?
I came up with a funny idea, not even a haunted one. Everyone mocks haunted houses, even me, for the apparent exaggerated tales and misleading information, but no one would want to spend a night in one. I thought I could work with that and was eager to write up the story.
I checked the submission date. It was yesterday. I missed it, probably because I was too busy blocking spam accounts on Facebook and thinking about freaking video games. But yeah, I never wrote that story, and I don’t plan on either.
Another New Story Idea
I actually came up with a cool story idea about a week or two ago. I have a good outline set for it. I am putting the scenes together. And… I just realized this is about the third time I told you guys that. “Hey! I have this great story idea. No words. No chapters. But you have to trust me on this!” That is me explaining every new idea I have. Maybe I should start telling you about the bad story ideas I have, just to change things up.
Learn Analogies
And now for something that you can take with you. And no, I am not going to give you video game advice on what level to play to upgrade your character faster. Wrong site. Here is something: Learn analogies. Seriously, learn them. Learn how to relate things that are not seen as connected. By doing this, you can help yourself better understand both topics. Start with things that you do every day, and see if there are ways they are showing the same thing. If you want to help make the world easier for you to grasp, learn analogies, and the concepts you thought were too complicated will start to appear much simpler.
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