Thursday, September 18, 2008

Bases Loaded, as requested

Do maladjusted programmers build spite into a video game's control? If not, why does Boston always sock about four straight homeruns immediately after I get a lead? Screw that, computer. And why an unskippable shaming after each one? Seriously, the homerun takes about two seconds, and then your pitcher spends the next minute and a half doubled over, face in glove, as the impudent batter circles the bases, making a last-minute stop to lavish high-fives on teammates lined up to receive his glory like fratboys at a train.
Also, the play is flagrantly unrealistic, in that I, totally unschooled in the sport, can wipe out five innings worth of batters just by throwing to a particular corner of the strike zone at a certain speed. That said, I really like watching a guy I just beaned get ejected from the game for fighting with me. That was a nice touch, and decorously in the spirit of our petty programmers, who spent years and friends and girlfriends, or just years, planning and designing and manufacturing a game that perfectly reflects and endlessly instantiates their insecurities and minor aggressions toward an indifferent and better-looking world . . . to a new generation of sports nerds who, no doubt, will grow to program even pettier, more hostile games in the face of greater indifference and superior beauty.

I love this version of whatever baseball is.

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