post apocalyptic steroid use

image nabbed from Gamespy's review of Gears of War.

ok so i'm a geek. no surprises there. so with that obvious factoid out of the way, onward.

i love computer games. not just playing them-i've toned the hours spent playing them down-but the entire concept many of them base their virtual-escape around. one angle more often used than others in sci-fi games is the post-apocalptic war-torn future of our planet - or a planet awfully close to ours with humanoid's much like us. i grew up reading sci-fi so the illusion is no great leap for me. in fact the cynic in me thinks it's a fairly reasonable step for this virus in shoes called mankind. what is a great leap for me are the human's muscle mass in many of these 'futures' portrayed. it's hilarious.

looking at the image above you see two battle hardened, brick-shithouses with guns. first impression is yeah, so? of course they're big. they're the 'army'. ever actually seen our armies? caught a few hours of CNN lately? sure there's a few big bastards but the general soldier is more fit and strong than massive. massive can't run a mile with full ammo and rations too often. now you could just say, well they're special forces or genetically modified to be huge. i'll buy into that. i'd buy into any weak-ass explanation. the only thing i want a detailed report on is how are you feeding 'em everything they need to be both healthy and massive? the entire premise is a 'post-apocalyptic future', famous mainly for being fucked up. no civilisation of great note, no major crop harvesting (unless radiated dirt is somehow edible) and no great amount of walking food (cows, beavers, budgies or platypuses). also, no supermarket's to buy 12 full chooks and no protein powder. i mean it's been shown through the history of war that if you cut an armies supplies you'll have 'em on the ropes in no time. they waste away and in one of this species funny twists, muscle burns away before fat. so somehow in a ballsed up environment of meagre supplies and an uncertain future these guys both eat enough to gain bulk but also have a gym nearby. wow. i feel like more of an underachiever every second i think about this.

these games are designed by nerds just like myself. the same subspecies that designed Lara Croft's enormous, gravity defying breasts. i think it's safe to say the designs come from an ideal rather than any fact or reality. it's all part of the allusary universe of 'what we'd rather be'. still, i think the first developer to create a game that actually shows us in a true light within the set situation will be making a giant step forward for us game geeks. that and i won't feel so weak and fat. it's all about me after all. captain insecurity out.

quote for the day:
"Nothing exists until or unless it is observed. An artist is making something exist by observing it. And his hope for other people is that they will also make it exist by observing it. I call it "creative observation." Creative viewing."
- William S. Burroughs (1914 - 1997)