The Meaning of Treasure

The notion that we should seek treasure for the sake of treasure appears time and time again in video games. The player, venturing forth, uncovers a treasure chest. This is, invariably, for the player. Players could ask themselves “why do I want this treasure” or “why does my character deserve this treasure”, or “what does this treasure mean”. Do they?

For most games, the world exists for the player; it is inert without the player. The player’s presence brings it to life. Reality is different. Reality is largely indifferent to your existence. The relationship between the player character and the game world is often obscured; the player character’s motivation is, simply, the act that is most fun for the player to perform.

We Carry

Two years ago, Johnson & Johnson cynically bought the top-level domain .baby (dot baby), seemingly in an effort to corner the concept of babies on the internet. A top-level domain can be purchased by anybody if they pay ICANN enough money. They’re also hilarious and charming, and every time I hear about an idiosyncratic TLD, I fire up my domain registrar’s admin panel and put a few in to see if I can pick up a cool newly-available domain name. This practice is getting increasingly dated as more and more TLD’s hit the internet.