A Game called Kudos & the American Definition of Success

YESTERDAY, because my brain needed a serious break from academic and seriously conceptual work in my photo classes, I decided to play some computer games. I know, I know. This counts as procrastination. But, and I don't quite know why, sometimes playing blindly until I'm sick of a game actually helps me get back to my other tasks. I could be deluding myself. But it is respite. And as long as I delete the game after a session of play, I can safely "not" play it again.

And so, last night I was playing this Yahoo! game called Kudos. It's a simulation of social interaction/success. You create a character, decide on his or her general disposition and then make decisions for him on a daily basis. What intrigued me was that, while creating the character, the game's formula was based on the rule that the more intelligent a character is, the less happy he or she is going to be.

Hmmmmm...

I created character X, a hardworking waitress who wants to be a doctor someday. Character X attended night classes after her restaurant shifts and went out with friends at least once a week. But even as her pay scale rose, she stayed poor and friends eventually left her for other friends. What was curious too was that the game had no family element. It assumed that all characters lived away from family and id not interact with family at all. Character X eventually became a doctor, but was judged by the game as a failure because, well, she did not party with more than two friends at least four times a week.

Next I created character Y, the total opposite of character X. This one was male, erhm, white and partied with at least four friends all days of the week. He was a waiter and did not attend college, and for a while had no intention of becoming anything else than a waiter. And so, I ask, why did character Y earn more money than character x, despite the nightly parties and pizza and beer?

The game bothered me. First because I was character X. I did not want to be a doctor, but I'm build from the same mold. The person who loves books, who wants to be learning all her life, who is actually in a good profession she loves and would rather be wih a small circle of close friends than a melee of acquaintances.

Second, I had seen this social model elsewhere in this country. I've seen it in its crudest form in high school story movies where to be a geek was as worse as being a minority. These kinds of movies always feature the social battleground called the school cafeteria where sitting alone was one of the worst things. Whenever I see this scene, I wonder if it is true and if most American adults had experienced this. And after this, I think to myself how lucky I've been to grow up in the Philippines, where childhood is childhood and our teenage years aren't plagued with such an intense pressure to be popular or to be liked.

Thirdly, I wonder if this is the social framework I will have to deal with should I decide to work here for a while. To be fair, I haven't been in a work situation where I've seen a similar social dynamic. I guess that's party because I move within academe, within artistic communities, where most of us are like character X.

But what bothers me most about the game is not anything that has to do with me. If I have a child and if I raise that child in this country, that is the social battleground that will be waiting for her. I am almost sure. Almost positive. Maybe even if I were rich enough to send her to a private Catholic school. I think of this, and I wonder if my high school friends, who are married and with children, think of this.

If I can manage it, I'd like to raise my children elsewhere where there is no threat of other children carrying guns into school premises. Where that concept is inconceivable. Where my child will not be discriminated on just because she is darker and has dark hair. Where there is no question about her right to be happy. I would like to raise my children in Asia where childhood is gentle and innocence is enjoyed. Where the cafeteria is a place to eat, trade jokes and spot crushes, and not a place to get emotionally scarred.