Games bring us together
Not only as friends or family, but as peoples, and nations
Throughout history, they have served as a way to communicate and understand
one another when all other forms of communication have broken down
Now, more than ever, we need that
Can the games of today still be used for this?
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Somewhere around 2,700 years ago
a group of young Peloponnese gathered to run a foot race
for over a thousand years, Greeks would gather at that site
to compete, trade, talk, and be entertained
And over that thousand years, this simple footrace
grew into a whole host of games
Games which we now refer to as the Olympics
and this event served as far more than just a gathering for games
It grew to help create a cultural identity
It brought all the Greeks together, even during the toughest times
Even during their incessant wars
Here, they could gather to express themselves
and meet firsthand the people that they had been fighting against
And in doing so, they had the opportunity
to see their opponents as human beings
rather than just some faceless foe
And the right to attend these games was made sacred
No matter what war was in progress
it was sacrilege to lay hands on those attending these games
On at least some small scale,
these games brought peace
And perhaps most of all, for just a moment
these games gave Greece a place where they could
compete without violence
Where rivalries and conflict could be expressed
through physical prowess, rather than the
edge of a sword
These games ended under Roman rule,
but 1,500 years after the last Olympic games
took place, these ideas still held sway
And so they were revived in the waning days of the 19th
century
Throughout the 20th century
these games continued, sometimes they would fail
in bringing us together, like in the 1936 Olympics
although, even there, they did show us
the triumph of the human spirit
and the failure of racist ideology
And sometimes, the Olympics would serve
as a resounding sucess
Like, during the Cold War, where the games
served as a place where the superpowers
could compete, not by nuking each other into atomic slag
but by training and demonstrating the best that humanity could possibly offer
During the Cold War, the games even warmed up relations between China and the United States
Ping Pong of all things was the path
back to diplomatic relations between the most populist
country in the world, and the most wealthy one
Games have time and again been used to
bring us together, to create a space
where we share an experience
Regardless of culture, nationality, religion, or
any of the other factors we so often use
to draw lines to divide us
So what about today?
The games we have now
are inherently connected
and almost as a matter of course
they see us playing with people from all around the globe
Shouldn't it be even easier to bring us together with these?
It should be, and I have heard plenty of
stories about times where it has been
One that always sticks in my mind came from a
young woman James met at a convention,
who told him that she was never very concerned about
international affairs
That she just wanted to go to school and
play her games, and let the rest of the world
sort itself out
But then one day, one of her World of Warcraft
guild mates stopped showing up to raids
A week went by, then two
And then she started asking around to see if anybody
knew this person
Finally, she found out that they lived in Iraq
Noone quite knew what happened to them
but she kept hearing that they had been caught in a blast from an IED
This was a wakeup call to her
She started to get involved
and by the time James met her
she was one of the senior staff
for a congressional campaign
By just being exposed to one another
By interacting and learning about eachother's lives
We can see the similarities between us,
and find compassion through sharing play
In our games
we can connect in a much realer way
than by seeing some abstract statistic on the news
Or, as is the case for many
by simply hearing the opinions of those around us
And in our modern world of esports
we may yet be able to carry this further
Actually sending teams around the world
to be watched by tens of thousands as they compete
By having exhibitions and competitions
where our most famous esports stars engage with
players from around the world and interact with them with respect
and dignity
We can connect to people and cultures we might never
otherwise get to interact with
We can come to understand them, not as foreign, but as human
In all of the ways that they are both similar and unique
And with professional players being traded across borders
and with all regions being watched internationally
we can create heroes and sports stars
who don't look or sound like us
Who young people can look up to regardless of what nation they're from
But for all of this hope, there is still a downside
Everybody watching this knows that online spaces
can just as easily serve to reinforce stereotypes
and serve as gathering points for the bigotted
and the closed minded
Where in the past, professional athletes competed with each other as professionals
with sportsmanship and dignity
Today we take the competition directly into our own hands
sometimes forgoing that mutual respect that comes from
two professionals competing at the top of their craft
Private competition can just as easily
devolve into toxicity
and counterproductive antagonism
If we want to use this incredible
tool to its utmost,
We have got to be more vigilant against this
As an industry, we have got to more carefully curate
the spaces we create
and give our players the tools necessary to build communities
and as individuals, we need to be ready to
reach out to those that we encounter in our games
that come from around the globe
To be that welcoming voice
so that we can learn just a little more about them
Even if it's just learning what brings them to our server
and of course, I'm not saying that
professional sports are perfect either,
Gender balance and sexuality
and a whole host of major issues
still persist, even in the Olympics
where they've had a committee specifically built
to address problems like these since the 90s
and yes, I admit that I am painting a very
optimistic picture here
but,
We have been handed an incredible tool in online gaming
and we can use this tool
that we all enjoy so much
to communicate, to create shared experiences
and through doing so, to foster understanding
It is just on us to reach out
See you next week!
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[English Subtitles by Assume Correct]
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