It Seems I Just Broke The King of Dragons’ World Record Score--All Because of a Toothache
(Nobody was watching though)
Let's take that out of the way already: if Dan Cook's 2044500 mark is still up I got past it yesterday live on Twitch--I intend to break down the process in more details soon, but for now the run is available here.
That said, gosh, the aching teeth. It's been months since it started hurting just to signal a deeper bone issue that brought surgeries, bleeding, stitches--and then it all again without a hint of "normal" on the horizon. (I guess by "normal" I simply mean... feeling nothing?)
Anyway it got to a point I can't do a thing anymore. Aside from... patiently? paying my patient dues. I could pray, but that would be hypocritical on my side without a faith under my belt and I don't really want to delve into such procedures--at least I was able to keep that at bay up till now. The thing is, I decided to allow myself indulging into some comfort gaming lately because, well, fuck it.
As a pseudo-productive society (I say so because most of the “need” behind our production “demands” is itself manufactured), we’re used to equate “escapism” to “alienation”--in a pejorative way, of course. Recently I was watching a short speedrun video (NES’ DuckTales in 7 minutes or so) while reading the comments section, which consisted of people fighting over the futility or not of pursuing stupid objectives such as videogames’ records and such. The video ended before I reached the bottom of the scrollbar, of course.
The thing is, what if there’s no “greater meaning” for some people? What if real life is just too much? I can’t begin to imagine how tough it is to live with chronic pain, for instance–right now I’m only a spoiled brat complaining about an issue that can’t be measured against some people’s real lifelong struggles. Well, if that’s the case–or, truth to be told, if that’s solely what you want it to be–art can BE life. It’s absolutely possible (I’d say “probable”) to have a better time reading a book than plain looking out the commute window for 1 hour straight watching a never-ending line of lamp posts wired together going by over the greyish big-city polluted sky backdrop. Personally I could go far enough to say humans’ “utility” (or what sets them apart from other animals in the way we like to think of it) is exactly the ability to “story” (as a verb if that existed in this language)--creating, living, reliving, imagining, registering, narrating them. But that should be better left aside for another article–or, more likely, another ominous Google Chrome tab forever draining RAM memory out of my setup.
Well, videogames can be just that–with the frequently overlooked (outside “initiated” circles) advantage of allowing the player to be IN whichever shoes they choose to for the amount of suspension-of-disbelief time they desire to. My relationship with Capcom's The King of Dragons can be traced back to when I was 11, but I’ll leave that to yet another unfinished doc. For now I’ll close this with the thought that even being able to escape some shitty reality for one hour a day has been a blessing on my side–one I won’t let pass for the fear of incurring in capital (as in “capital-ism”) deadly sin.
(Also, go support HanDcapableSean if you can. The guy is awesome.)