Good and Evil, Whatever

My father always asks "What are you learning from all your playing of PC games?!" So, as the obedient son as I am, I'll be documenting what I'll learn from games whatever format it comes in. If soldiers and airline pilots are trained in simulators similar to video games, what prevents us learning from Crash Bandicoot or Grand Theft Auto?

Experience Points gained from Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic II: Sith Lords.

What we immediately pick up from watching the Star Wars movies is that the Light side is good, and Dark side bad. Jedi good, Sith bad. Rebellion good, Empire bad. Then good always wins in the end. The game adds immense depth to the good/evil duality through the fallen Jedi Kreia. She shows you that a simple act of kindness of giving money to a beggar, results in his murder by an envious peer. Threatening him will scare him off, but he will pass on your cruelty and murder the other man instead. In another scene where you help a man from thugs, she explains that by helping him you deprived him the opportunity to make himself stronger, leaving him more vulnerable to another threat. How much are we really helping when we give to the needy?

The Jedi aspire to be empty of all passion and emotion, no love nor hate, distancing themselves from human nature. It is by this they believe the way to control of the Force and understanding everything. It is these teachings that led to their downfall, when the Order was split between those that wanted to help in the war, and those that wanted peace by doing nothing about it. You cannot after all, achieve peace by countering violence with violence; at the same time, millions of innocents are being slaughtered by Mandalorians. Would you side with peace, abandoning those people to death; or would you side with action, responsible for the death of thousands to save millions?

It doesn't really matter how much we do to save the world, something along the way will eventually happen and mess it all up. We just have to do our best, ignore the critics and cynics, be responsible for our every action, and just learn to deal with the sh** when it comes. Sometimes, the good things are what keeps us from being better. Freedom, for example, prevents order and unity; therefore peace is a long way behind. Or maybe us Filipinos can't handle what we have, yet still clamor for more.