Go

I played my first game of Go tonight against Bessie. I work for a game company and have spent (or wasted) a great portion of my life playing all sorts of games, but I was uniquely awed by the subtlety and beauty of this Chinese masterpiece. Simple rules. Timeless asthetics. Fathomless depth. When I spend my money and time filling my life with typical video and board games, I sometimes question how selfish and empty gaming is. Games can be a more viceral fantasy reality than any type of fiction because they're first person experiences. Games can be about making someone feel smarter, more talented, stronger, and/or more powerful for some fleeting moment before they return to their less exceptional reality. Besides a small (mostly synthetic) ego boost, games don't really add people's lives; they rarely enlighten the player about themselves or the confusing real world.


For some reason, Go was different. Maybe the sharp contrast of quality makes me think Go is more than it really is - like going from perusing the latest issue of Aquaman to digging into Paradise Lost. I dunno.