OFF This City

Over the course of winter break, a couple of things got my gears going. For one, I finally got around to playing OFF, the 2008 RPG Maker game by Mortis Ghost. I played through the game twice for different endings, but also for other bonus contents/hidden items, etc. You start the game controlling an entity called The Batter, assigned to “purify” a set of three zones before a finale in The Room. Without spoiling the game too much, The Player is forced to reconcile with their use of The Batter from a moral standpoint, either standing to the end with The Batter and his mission or siding with The Judge.

The other thing is that I finally ordered a copy of and read This City is Killing Me by Jonathan Foiles. Earlier this year I had seen it at a used bookstore, but instead picked up a couple of other books I’ve discussed previously. The 2019 nonfiction work describes five different patients Foiles has helped while working as a therapist in Chicago’s West Side. It raises questions about what exactly needs to be done in order to help people who are chronically prone to trauma and stress, and how the systems in place now are clearly insufficient. While the two are over a decade apart and might seem to have little in common, I think these pieces of media at least complement each other, and I’ll try my best explaining myself. If anyone is actually reading this, then this is an official spoiler warning, don’t read ahead if you haven’t played or read through these two works yet.

I might go into detail later on, but throughout 2020 I realized my political identity and have been mustering up the courage to put into action what I feel is best for society as a whole. Essentially, I’m far left, to the point where I think capitalism needs to be abolished entirely and society needs to basically restart in order to get a grip on what’s actually important. No more money, no more soul-sucking bullshit jobs or careers, instead, focusing on the environment and community health both mentally and physically, healing the wounds that have been made by outdated, born-to-fail systems that continue to tear people apart.

With that, OFF gave me a slight sense of euphoria to play through. While playing as The Batter, you experience and respond to the different dynamics that form between the Elsen, the zone guardians, and ultimately, The Queen. The Batter single-handedly reforms, rather, “purifies” the world from problems a majority of its citizens might not even see, which leads to a massive moral dilemma that only the player can respond to in the end. It’s painful to see the mostly peaceful zones deteriorate because of our actions, but there’s the glimpse of hope that the future societies will be better, and will operate with transparency and sound ethics. It shows that while, yeah, things need to change in order for the world to get any better, and yeah, adjusting will suck for a lot of people, status quo changes that are initially painful can be more beneficial in the long run. It also shows that major societal change can’t come from just one person, or even a small team of well-meaning leaders, of course it can’t. Both options of The Queen’s rule and The Batter’s resetting of the world aren’t ideal, the Elsen don’t have any real opportunity to be happy in either world, which is what I see as the most important overall. But that’s the question, would it be better to die or to continue on in misery? Of course, life isn’t and shouldn’t be as black and white as OFF portrays, but I think it’s important to consider what changes are truly necessary to make the world a better place.

On the other hand, This City is Killing Me is an unfortunate dose of reality. There’s systems in place like Child Protective Services or Social Security benefits or Medicare that are supposed to help people in need, and yet they repeatedly fail and fall into unproductive cycles that consistently churn out traumatized citizens. The world isn’t able to be reset in an OFF or Noah’s Ark way, and we can’t get rid of capitalism that quickly either. The United States was entirely structured for the benefit of middle class, white, Christian males and the consequences of their selfish decisions continue to plague and punish modern generations with horrible ideologies and systems. It’s so easy to fall into a “doomer” mentality because of this, and I feel this way almost daily. Global climate change is worsening by the hour, a pandemic hit last year and is being gravely mishandled by the United States, and now we’re trying to heal the nation with a new creepy old white male president, if you aren’t negatively affected by these things, then you might be a toddler, if not completely ignorant. Just like Elsen, a lot of people are negatively affected by their leadership yet turn hostile at the idea of living any other type of life, possibly choosing to completely ignore any alternative that might benefit them or citizens other than themselves. Voting barely works, and it’s difficult to be politically active all of the time, I know, but again, what is the alternative? Where’s the happy medium? Should humanity just try and restart?

Although I’ve probably overwhelmed you somewhat, I have a few suggestions for changes you can make. First, there are several leftist organizations you can join, such as Food Not Bombs, or the International Workers of the World. I’m being a hypocrite currently as I’ve not joined these groups yet, however, as the pandemic becomes less of a concern and I join the working world, I hope to be able to make time to join and actively participate. I think a lot of people around my age are in the same predicament as well, so I’ll also suggest playing OFF for yourself if you haven’t, as well as reading This City is Killing Me. The book doesn’t nearly cover as much as I’d like, but it’s a good start. For other books, I would suggest We Were Feminists Once by Andi Zeisler, and all three of Caitlin Doughty’s books but especially The Smoke Gets in Your Eyes. I might post someday about Doughty’s works because of what they mean to me, but until then, thanks for reading. I could probably type eons more about both, and should’ve probably posted separately about them, but I also think it’s important to apply fictional narratives to the real world in order to derive and analyze the theme in depth. Anyways, for real, thanks for reading and have a good week.