Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon: Wildlands is a game about Ludonarrative Dissonance.
A long time ago I was a little kid in the jungle, seduced by science. The wanderlust stuck, I still spend way too much time staring at the night sky wondering what could be.
But instead of chasing the work of systemic functions getting to those twinkling lights I chose the job of getting people from different walks of life interested in the idea of working together without killing each other. I think both are equally important because real talk, we are not gonna make it far in the cosmos the way we are now.
We spend the majority of our time arguing over bullshit like skin color and who is smooching who. If we did find life out there, we would immediately try to kill it, or fuck up the interview. There is no doubt in my mind.
I say that to say I love NASA more than I love any organization in the world, but damn do they need to step it up if they want to survive. Announcing a press conference is a smart move eighty percent of the time, but not when the announcement is light.
I know, the discovery of a habitable solar system is one of the most major discoveries of this era, but science fam, listen, you got a boss that is literally trying to kill you and half the constituency believes the earth is flat, science is a made-up creation of the Illuminati, and Jesus rode dinosaurs two thousand years ago.
Gotta do better hiding the medicine in the cake. Do you truly believe these people are gonna grasp the importance of these discoveries using old school marketing and PR tactics? And if you don't care if they do or don't, and don't think they could in the future, then that's the problem.
The globalization train (Jesus man, like, I get it, but this reads like the origin story of a left wing super villain) is coming into the station. India is breaking world records, Elon Musk is going ham launching private spaceships from NASA launch pads, and every corporation out there sees the money in making science fiction a reality.
How does NASA survive in a world where it's at war with the governmental structure that funds it, a majority of the public it serves is too dumb to (harsh, but true) understand what it does or why it's so vital, and the organization itself is composed of a group of passionate souls that (understandably) feel like they shouldn't have to engage in the base and bombastic eye and ear warfare it takes to get engagement in this ADD-riddled society. I don't know the answers, Sway. All I know is I refuse to be part of the generation that lets NASA die.
Sorry for not being able to link up at GDC information. It's a whole thing, I'll tell you all about it later. Also R.I.P. to Nicki. Remy Ma bar'd you to death, I'm so sorry for your loss. Also JOBZ.
The Protoculture Mixtape : Issue : People : Dilation
