18 years since then

I had only been in the United States for 2 weeks or so. 1st day of high school in New Jersey trying to figure out why a bunch of kids kept on using the word "lockdown" with the little English I could understand then. I can remember asking what's going on with the little English I could speak then. One of the security guards telling me "you do not get out unless we tell you".

Walking up the stairs to what should have been my 1st class ever in this country only to look out the window at what seemed to be darkness falling and spreading over the horizon. As I was sitting at my desk wondering about about what I saw, this teacher standing at the front of the class with a confused look on his face tried explaining more things I could not understand yet I remember being able to feel the weight of it. And the day went on with "regular" classes until we were allowed to leave and go home.

Eventually in the evening my sister explained that the place I could see in the horizon was New York City and the darkness was smoke from fire and debris... Planes had crashed into the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center. I remember feeling a sort of sadness I had never felt before and saying to myself "how can this happen in a country like this one?!".

About first person shooter etiquette...

As it is the first person shooter I play the most these days, I mainly will be focusing on Destiny as my main example. When I speak of etiquette, I’m referring to the things that a player should or shouldn’t do when playing first person shooters online. Online gaming has become a gigantic community with its own set of rules, which although mostly unwritten, increases in importance on a daily basis. Although these rules govern a complex set of expectations, this article will only include five basic concepts mainly aimed at helping Destiny players.

We’ve got our own stats and our own personal standards when rating our performances. If you are playing with a team, however, the individual still matters but the team should become your priority. At the most basic level, don’t do anything to your teammates if you would dislike the same being done to you. You may end up getting less kill and more assists, but your teammates also are likely to die less to balance things out. Even when we get deep into our online personas or avatars, we all still have feelings and we all are trying to enjoy this gaming experience, in which concepts like death hurt. If you don’t care about any of that, single player or free-for-all game modes could be a better choice for you.

I understand that the internet is full of obnoxious and mean-spirited people but I still suggest using your mic with or without a fireteam. That is a good way to learn how to communicate and improve your teamwork. Of course you might be able to make some friends as well. Thoughtful communication is the foundation of all positive relationships, including the ones in team dynamics. Even without going into detailed “MLG-sweaty-tryhard” callouts, letting your teammates know what you are doing, where the opponent is, or if you are going to attempt capturing an objective can be helpful.

At more advanced levels, map awareness can improve both your solo and team gameplay. Try inventing or adopting names for various areas of maps so that you can more accurately direct your teammates. Familiarizing yourself with commonly used sniper sightlines and covered locations can help you and your team survive especially at the beginning of games. In order to avoid traps and to also create traps yourself, learning where choke points are on the map is necessary. Spending time exploring maps will improve the number and quality of your team’s angles of approach and sightlines. With practice, this also will help you understand where to go in relation to the rest of your team.

Regardless of their given name, special weapons in Destiny very often abandon their intended secondary purpose to be used as primary weapons. Their ability to eliminate targets instantly sometimes even from a relatively safe position, arguably makes them more valuable than primaries. Given their importance, controlling special ammo spawn locations and sharing it with your teammates by letting them know when you’re picking it up, can greatly affect battles.

The last concept I’d like to discuss has to do with super use. Destiny has a unique concept in which you can charge your super meter but picking up orbs generated by your teammates’ super use. Some supers create orbs open activation and other require specific action such as landing kills. With the smart and accurate communication, being an attentive and caring teammate will help create a flow of orbs. Whether you save your supers to counter other supers, to aggressively push and control heavy or special ammo spawns, or to get out of a sticky situation, let your teammates know where you’ve popped and where your trail of orbs is.

As long as I can remember, I’ve been what I like to call a natural observer. So in college I was drawn to various areas of social studies and that’s where I seemed to fit. Basically I’m very interested in understanding what people do, the meaning of it, and why they do it. Video games also have been a huge part of my life on both a casual and sometimes competitive way. When you consider what people play and how they play you can tell a lot about who they are since the technology has become advanced enough to simulate various aspects of human success and struggle.

About gender ambiguous characters…

This is a summary of my thoughts following a discussion on various gender ambiguous characters in anime/manga and videogames. For the sake of this post, I will be using the Capcom character known as Poison as my main example.

I like the way Poison looks no matter what the character's gender is since that's just a social construct. And I’d like to say that this applies to everyday life situations too.

I pursue women and I can’t remember it ever being any other way. As a result, just like anyone else, there are certain features I look for in them which constitute what I and probably ONLY I consider to be a good woman or more precisely a good mate. Those features can relate to a potential mate's physical or behavioral attributes. Whether natural or man-made, some of Poison's physical and behavioral attributes that I'm aware of are attractive to me. At the same time, there are some that are not.

It can be conscious or unconscious but we all do it: we prefer associating with people that we are attracted to, be it sexually or simply friendly.

What is wrong with appreciating someone or something that displays some (or all) features you are attracted to? Some societies would say that you are right as long as it doesn't leave the boundaries of the gender they’ve assigned you since birth. A gender that is almost always based on sex.

To me this all really is about acceptance, labels, and confidence. I feel that I’m able to understand that transgendered individuals seek a better, happier, or healthier life as it is what everyone does. In their attempt at happiness, they certainly shouldn’t require anyone’s approval or acceptance but only people’s understanding and acknowledgement.

Whatever label has been cast upon someone doesn’t define that person as a whole. It only summarizes a minute part in the middle of so many making up an entire complex being.

In the end, I’m lucky to be confident enough to appreciate any attractive facet of a person. I don’t think it’s reasonable to assume that we always chase or even commit to what attracts us since those attractions vary in type and in intensity.

Some FPS concepts adjusted for Destiny PVP play

Camping - creating a fortress by focusing your forces on a specific area of the battlefield to control strategically advantageous resources or territories. On even battlefields with even starting positions, some form of pushing initially is required to achieve efficient camping.

Pushing - attempting to gain map control or eliminate the enemy by invading neutral/enemy territory

Aggressive pushing - conceptually a high risk/high reward strategy to enter enemy territory with more overwhelming approach to eliminate the enemy or limit his options For primary weapons I would suggest using auto riles and hand cannons as they are mostly meant to excel at closer ranges. For the same reason I would also suggest using side arms as well as shotguns in the special weapon slot.

Passive pushing - a low risk/low reward strategy to draw/lure the enemy out of his territory with safer approach to eliminate him or limit his options. It is obvious that in passive play primary pulses and scouts would be a good choice and special fusions and snipers on the side.

For all loadout creations, reaching some sort of balanced combination is very important to cover most if not all engagement ranges. Two very popular combinations in the current metagame would be an auto rifle with a sniper rifle or a scout rifle with a shotgun.

Logically, aggressive play should work better with striker, voidwalker, bladedancer, and nightstalker with their various quick tricky movement and aggressive grenades. stormcaller, sunsinger, gunslinger, sunbreaker and defender would be more suited for passive encounters using their arguably strong suppressing or control abilities.

However the combination of armor choices, perk selections, weapon loadouts can create less obvious options that can be just as effective. As an example, a sunsinger can play a very aggressive game when running a build based on flame shield and firebolt grenades fueled by maxed out strength and discipline.

These days...

I don't think evil can be quantified. If I were evil, I would want people to approve of the "lesser" of evils hoping to somehow gradually achieve some sort of change. 

I would not want their conceding approval to become rejection and for their primitive hope to turn into action. Because if that became truth for the masses, a revolution would follow.