(or: Not the Wind, Not the Flag)<\/p>\n
[Thanks to the emails generated by\u00a0my previous Modern Warfare 2 rant<\/a>, I’ll revisit the game. \u00a0Here are five Modern Warfare 2 multiplayer koans<\/strong> vaguely in the style of The Gateless Gate<\/em><\/a>. \u00a0Mumon is a Chinese Zen master (1183-1260). \u00a0I did not write verses because I am lazy.]<\/p>\n While playing free-for-all (FFA) on a small map, stop stalking someone and turn around suddenly. \u00a0You will see that someone has been stalking you<\/strong>, and unknown to him, behind his back you see someone stalking him in turn. \u00a0But maybe it doesn’t stop there? \u00a0 FFA on a small map is a chain of soldiers arranged in a circle. \u00a0Everyone stalks the person in front of them who is facing the other way. \u00a0They spawn, stalk, shoot and are killed from behind … then it repeats until the round ends at the score limit. \u00a0This is what you make possible as you jab at “X” to respawn as fast as you can. \u00a0You are shooting yourself in the back and the other players are your instrument.<\/p>\n Mumon’s comment<\/em>: It is a repetitive ritual: spawn, stalk, shoot, die. \u00a0But it is no more compulsive than Farmville<\/strong>.<\/p>\n When something unusual happens while you are playing with strangers (mercenary or FFA) an exceptional kill will cause your enemy to exclaim out loud–they have forgotten that their headset is on. \u00a0Just as you press the trigger you hear an “aawwww!” or, if it is something weird, more of a surprised “oh!” \u00a0 It’s a sound that you forced out of them<\/strong>. \u00a0Maybe if the XBox headsets were more sensitive you would hear this more often. \u00a0Maybe you could hear the sharp intakes of breath that you cause.<\/p>\n Mumon’s comment<\/em>: \u00a0That is the sound of a stranger breathing for you. \u00a0Mostly it is swearing<\/strong>.<\/p>\n In multiplayer you will discover your perfect match. \u00a0You will come upon each other in an open courtyard. \u00a0Each of you will empty your clip, firing at short range, while you strafe and dodge this way and that. \u00a0As the last rounds are fired and you both start to reload, no one has been hit! \u00a0You both switch to knives and leap backward and forward. \u00a0As the sweep of the knives finishes this strange little dance, no one has been hit! \u00a0This might even produce a momentary pause. Or even peace.<\/strong> Or was it lag?<\/p>\n Mumon’s comment<\/em>: Then you will both be killed by a Predator missile from the sky. \u00a0The sky is always the victor.<\/strong><\/p>\n You will see the crosshairs perfectly centered over your opponent. \u00a0You will fire. \u00a0You see the report and feel the recoil, but you are the one who has died,<\/strong> even though you know in your heart that you fired first. \u00a0When it happens you will blame the lag and cry out at this injustice.<\/p>\n Yet there will be other times. \u00a0Other times when you achieve an uncanny fluency. \u00a0You can do no wrong<\/strong> as you score point after point. \u00a0Every bullet of yours finds its target. \u00a0This, you think to yourself, is skill. \u00a0I am unstoppable.<\/p>\n Mumon’s comment<\/em>: Skill is the opposite of lag<\/strong>. \u00a0Is skill the opposite of lag?<\/p>\n \n Capt. John “Soap” McTavish asked: “When I call down a care package, am I enlightened<\/strong>?”<\/p>\n Capt. John “Soap” McTavish asked: “When I call down an emergency airdrop, am I enlightened further<\/strong>?”<\/p>\n Mumon’s comment<\/em>: When you defend and retrieve every one of the crates from an emergency airdrop–even on a busy map filled with enemies–you are still 108,000 miles from a good killstreak reward. \u00a0At least that’s usually my luck<\/strong>.<\/p>\n Capt. John “Soap” McTavish said: “Tango down<\/strong>.”<\/p>\n The Model 1887 is the false Zen. \u00a0It is overpowered and there is no honor in it. \u00a0To rely on the Claymore is to tie yourself without a rope<\/strong>.\u00a0If you camp in the back of the plane on Terminal <\/em>you go astray from the essence. \u00a0If you camp in the front, you oppose the principle. \u00a0If you neither camp in the back nor the front, you are a dead man breathing. \u00a0Tell me now, what will you do<\/a>?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" (or: Not the Wind, Not the Flag) [Thanks to the emails generated by\u00a0my previous Modern Warfare 2 rant, I’ll revisit the game. \u00a0Here are five Modern Warfare 2 multiplayer koans vaguely in the style of The Gateless Gate. \u00a0Mumon is a Chinese Zen master (1183-1260). \u00a0I did not write verses because I am lazy.] 1. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2132,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_hide_featured_image":false,"_jetpack_featured_image_duplicate_dismissed":0,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[48405],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-260","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-geeking"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4M7Bm-4c","jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/niftyc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/260","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/niftyc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/niftyc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/niftyc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2132"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/niftyc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=260"}],"version-history":[{"count":17,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/niftyc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/260\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":271,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/niftyc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/260\/revisions\/271"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/niftyc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=260"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/niftyc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=260"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/niftyc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=260"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}1. The infinite chain of FFA<\/h2>\n
2. The exclamation<\/h2>\n
3. The dance of equals<\/h2>\n
4. The opposite of lag<\/h2>\n
5. The Care Package of Enlightenment<\/h2>\n
Appendix: Mumon’s Zen Warnings:<\/h2>\n