Hundreds of Years in the Future

Many video games take place in the future, sometimes hundreds of years. In these scenarios, the writers paint very unique pictures of what the future holds in store. Some paint a picture of perfection and other, well, don't. Some games show an eminent doom. One such story is Fallout.

In the Fallout storyline, a nuclear war breaks out between China and America. The subsequent radiation kills a large portion of the world's population. The Earth's landscape turns into a barren wasteland, like this:

 

Even though in the end, the hero begins to purify the radiation, Earth will never truly be the same.

 

 

On the other hand, the outlook on humanity's future is not always so grim. In Halo: Reach, humanity has spread throughout the galaxy and many if not all planets are still very beautiful. Earth may have become covered in cities, but Reach, after years of human habitation still looks like this:

 



 

 

So, we must ask ourselves, would we rather peacefully inhabit the planets of our galaxy, or turn our own home world into a wasteland? Like in Beauty Bleak by Miracle of Sound?

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ebF6Fqhq1P4

 

Hope

Thanksgiving was just this past week and we have all been contemplating what we are thankful for. During my break from school I got the opportunity to play Halo 4, which was great, but I also read Bill McKibben's book, Eaarth. What I read was disheartening.
In Eaarth, McKibben is very pessimistic about the future of the environment. He says that global warming is destroying the environment faster than people think. According to him, the one degree increase in global temperature is putting our world at risk right now.
Now, I'll be the first person to stand up in defense of the environment. However, I have to disagree with having such a negative outlook on our situation. It is my belief that if we have hope, we can fix anything.

The Most Powerful Force

One of my all-time favorite ideas in in video games to think about philosophically is the portrayal of what I and many others believe to be the most powerful force in existence: the will of Man. In many sci-fi/action games, particularly the shooters I enjoy, humanity as a whole is forced to put aside its differences and band together against a common enemy, commonly an advanced alien race. In these scenarios, humans are often outnumbered, usualy outclassed, and almost always outgunned by their enemy. However, when faced with seemingly insurmountable odds, the will of Man comes through and with sheer determination and refusal to back down, humanity always rises the victor. I love thinking about this topic and I love finding real world examples. I have found one such example in the Curitiba chapter of Hope, Human and Wild that I mentioned in my last post.

In the book, the enemy isn't an advanced alien race, but lack of money, lack of time, and outside pressure. The city of Curitiba was under pressure to be like the rest of Brazil and be more "modern". Instead, the citizens banded together and with their sheer will, they overcame this and made a city they wanted to live in. This show of force of the will of Man is what gets me excited about the book, the video games I play, and the rest of the world I live in.

Curitiba: What a city should be?

When I was young, I would pass by construction sites time and time again and I would ask my parents, "Why is there never anyone working on the project?". I would always get a response like, "That's the way government works", or "They don't have the money to finish it". Growing up, this was very confusing to me. It made sense that if you want to get something done or built, you make a plan, decide how to pay for it, and just do it. However, in many "First-world" cities, this is not how projects are done. In Curitiba, Brazil, on the other hand, a beautiful city has been built with limited budget and in a short time-frame.

After reading about Curitiba in Bill McKibben's Hope, Human and Wild, I was impressed at how a small, over-populated city in Brazil had grown into a template for what cities around the world can and probably should be. The citizens of Curitiba have taken a limited amount of money and time and under extreme pressure from the outside world, especially the rest of Brazil, they have built a city where everyone is happy, there is little crime, and the people are the focus. It is my belief that if the rest of the world followed in Curitiba's footsteps, the world would simply be a better place.

I think an introduction is in order

This is my first attempt at a blog, however I am excited. I have always been fascinated by the references in video games to the future of not only mankind but to the environment we live in. I figured that this is something that needed to be delved deeper into, so that's what I intend to do. If anyone has a game in mind they would like to learn an environmental connection to, I would be happy to research that as well.