About Birthdays

Since I have a birthday coming up, it had me thinking about how The Tribe did not deal with birthdays or any kind of rite-of-passage milestones in the lives of our favorite characters.

Oh sure, the writers showed us the consequences of unprotected sex in the number of characters who had babies or came close to having them. (Mostly those consequences seemed to be all on the female ... strange ...)

Anyway, I was thinking more about traditions & life passages. Like birthdays. Or like major holidays. I don't know ... it used to be a big deal to turn 16 & get your driver's license. Or turn 18 & vote. Or turn 21 & buy a beer. The closest we came wasn't too bad -- watching Cloe go through her early-teenage bad-girl stage with Ved. It was such a tantalizing tidbit tho' & there wasn't enough of it!

Yeah, ok, we can all probably understand WHY The Tribe writers went the way they did. Keep the story focused on the action/situation. Move forward not backward. And the main character was always The Virus.

I'm glad we haven't totally ignored life-milestones in our game. KTDA has tipped the hat to birthdays, to love & loss, to Christmas & kinda sorta to Thanksgiving/harvest festivals. Our game has a lot of great action, but we also take the time to develop characters & take their backstories into account. Since you can't visually "see" our characters, that development does give them more life than just 2-dimensional playing.

I'm glad. I like our characters.

-Chyna

photo source: copyright Cloud-9 "The Tribe"

Entitled? Says who?

Ok, I'm not exactly sure where this is comin' from right now, but it's rant-time.

Why why WHY do people think they ought to have something -- money, services, things, whatever -- simply because they are "entitled" to it?

Entitled how? Says who? I am so totally tired of dealing with the Entitled Generation, those who expect privileges just because they exist.

"I graduated college, so my 1st job should be company president & I should start at a million dollars." Really? "What do you mean, no discount? I'm over 50!" Seriously? "Everybody else my age (10!) has a smartphone, so I have to have one too--right now!" Oh give me a break...

Yeah, yeah, these are very simplified examples but I see it everywhere including my own family. And for those who know Chyna, they know exactly how I react when I hear it -- I laugh myself silly.

People, we all know it's a hard world out there. The economy tanked & "privilege" often means actually having a job with benefits or being able to pay your electric bill or buy food. And yes, we all try to maximize our situation any way we can. But seriously, expecting people to just GIVE whatever because you're you? What makes you that special?

At least Tribe-world makes more sense. "Entitled" means something totally different. Zoot was "entitled" to whatever he wanted because you knew he'd kick your ass if you said no. Right? In our game-world, you get what you get because of who & what you are, not just because you're breathing. (Well, yeah, Villa gets what she gets because you know she would kick your ass, too. That's just Villa. And she totally made me say that!)

All right, rant over.

And yes, I do feel better. Thanks!

-Chyna

photo source: copyright Cloud-9 "The Tribe"