The very expensive wine was flowing freely at the type of dinner that cost a small group of five over $2500. It was the type of thing that business professionals and political science majors spend many thousands of dollars in college hoping they’ll achieve some day. The minds were powerful; the participants were dressed in their latest fashions from Nordstroms, and the topics were at the top of discussion in any level of human endeavor. It was a power dinner and at 8 PM in the evening my wife sent me a text………..”are you done yet.” I replied, “not yet, I’m about to wrap it up. I’ll be home very soon. Get everything ready.” The handshakes concluded and all members of the small party left into the parking lot by different trajectories as I headed for my motorcycle parked far away but in clear view of the restaurant. I do this so my enemies cannot tamper with my transportation while I’m involved in these kinds of activities. I never sit with my back to a crowd, and I never sit somewhere where I cannot see my transportation at all times. It is an old trick I learned from friends I who were “hit men” during the 80’s working for a branch of the mob stationed in Chicago responsible for the Chester Road portion of business coming out of Sharonville, Ohio. Precautions no longer necessary I headed home quickly and within 25 minutes was in front of the same computer station that had been set up 9 months prior for the solitary purpose of playing an online game called The Old Republic. My wife and I have duel computers built specifically for heavy online gaming, and she was waiting for me with both units powered up and ready to go. I sat down and we began to play the same video game that we had played almost every day since the previous December when we started our journey into a galaxy far, far away set in a time, a long time ago.
I consider the time my wife and I have spent playing that game together to be far more important than the value of the dinner described, or any other dealing I’ve been involved with at any point in my life. The reason can be seen in the above video. In the real world that we all live in there are veils of deceit that permeate everything—even the dinner mentioned. There is a sense that nothing is as it really is—that everything is dressed up to disguise the ugliness that is left unmentioned. Our society is at war, but nobody discusses it—the war is not over racism, equal rights, or even political ideology—but over philosophy—even religion. It is a war over values which nobody discusses. However, in the Star Wars game my wife and I have spent well over a thousand hours playing together as one of our favorite past times, values are the theme of the entire game, and I relish the environment.
I feel most comfortable on the space ship I have in the game in the middle of space away from the noise of the busy metropolis worlds, or the baron outposts that exist in the outer rim. The ship is mine, the space is mine, and the control I have of what goes on within it are for me and me alone. Of all the cool things to do in The Old Republic my favorite are the space missions. They are not traditional flight simulators, but the graphic combat is absolutely astounding. I never tire of them. In that place the perspective of existence is easy to see. The values of the game make sense to me, and the war between the factions eluded to in the above video are those of our modern age, which go unsaid in the dinner meetings previously described. In such meetings it is permissible to discuss football team power rankings, baseball playoff scenarios, and the latest in fashion, but not the things that really matter—philosophy. But in The Old Republic, my wife and I can play side by side on many far flung worlds against players who adhere openly to the opposite philosophy, the fight between statism represented by the Imperial players, and individual freedom represented by players of The Old Republic. The fight for freedom versus control is out in the open and obvious. Those attracted to the Imperial faction tend to support statism, while those who support the Republic tend to support individual freedom, and within the confines of that game, it is easier to see the boundaries that exist in the real world—and I relish the honesty.
I have said it on many occasions, I believe Star Wars and their movies, the television shows, the many novels, the comics, and the video games are bringing a philosophy to tomorrow’s world that will have far-reaching consequences deep into the future. Those consequences are stepped carefully around during dinner meetings as nobody feels comfortable discussing them in public, because most people feel unqualified to express their feelings about philosophy. But philosophy is the foundation of thought, and without firmness in a manner of belief, people have a tendency to drift in their convictions. However, in the world of The Old Republic, the characters are not shy about their beliefs, and they are willing to fight to support them—which for my wife and I, is why we’d rather play that game together, than do just about anything else. Meetings like the one I was engaged in do not impress her. But beating a terrible villain on a remote world in The Old Republic does.
When I arrived at my game that day my wife had snacks lined up by my keyboard ready for two or three hours of gaming. Her computer sits right next to mine and our characters link up online so we can travel together in that virtual world the way we would in the real one. We both love the game for its honesty—and for the commitment to goodness that The Old Republic stands for. I enjoy fighting for that Republic the way I’d like to fight for the American Republic—if only people in the real world were as honest with their beliefs, as they are within the world of a video game. Under such conditions, I will choose the honesty of fiction over the falseness of reality.
There is a freedom in the of The Old Republic that does not exist in the real world of current, but it should. The philosophy of America articulated through The Constitution allows for that freedom, but in practice, it has been surrendered to discussion about sports teams, and redundant trivia—leaving the most important things in life unrepresented. In The Old Republic I am free to punish evil, and stand for good without the worry and concern of confrontation with statist government. In the real world there is constant worry about arrests, legal costs, and social castigation for doing the right things—and standing up for what’s right over what’s wrong. In The Old Republic, such concerns do not exist, which is why my wife and I prefer that environment over all others. That is the reason even after a long day associating with the kind of people young professionals dream of growing up to correlate with, and dinning in luxury among—my eye was on the clock dreaming of getting home to my wife who awaited me at the spaceport of Corellia. It is then that we experience freedom, and justice the way the human mind desires—away from the failed philosophies, and political corruption that leads to war, and the suppression of freedom in the real Republic of America. It is in the fictional world of the computer where real freedom resides, and why video games in general are so popular—and hold so much power over the minds of tomorrow. I foresee a literal day when the video above comes true as shown, in the world of the living, of the real. The statists are out to destroy those who cherish freedom, and the fight has not yet manifested beyond unspoken words over wine glasses and sports trivia. But it’s coming……….trust me. For now, the only world that matters is the one in The Old Republic—where honesty is clearer through the lost art of philosophy accompanied by the sights, sounds, and action from a computer generated world that is freer providing relief from the real world we are all chained to.
My wife and I have never really returned from our vacation that started so many months ago during the cold December months of late 2012. I have cut back my personal meetings and interactions to a bare minimum in favor of this fictional world because the vacation has been that good, so good that not even the indulgencies of opulence conducted under luxurious and socially acceptable conditions hold a candle to tasting freedom within the purely imagination driven world of The Old Republic.
Rich Hoffman
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