of asteroids and existentialism...

     Well I'll be - dear reader, I've discovered that here you can play a fairly authentic version of the classic arcade game Asteroids. Now, when I was a young man, say around 12 or so, I loved Asteroids. I even gave it a heroic backstory or three. Some days the brave pilots (you always lost some don't you know) were fighting to save the Earth from the ravages of a great storm of asteroids that would otherwise destroy the planet. Other days, my fleet of fighters found themselves having to blast their way through an asteroid field to get to their latest Daring Mission.
     Yes, I had an active imagination.
     Having just spent a few minutes playing the game, I realize the cold truth of it all. The square within which the triangular ship finds itself is in fact a prison, and the hapless pilots must forever fend off ever greater numbers of rocks in order to survive another few minutes. When one ship is destroyed, another prisoner immediately takes their place, until that group of inmates is eliminated. Then, the game resets, and others are sent to their violent doom.
     Thus, you see that when a pilot plays especially well, they are merely extending the meaningless loop of their Sisyphean imprisonment. Surely some of them realize the absurdity of it all, and turn the game into a suicide run. Others, seeking to make their own meaning from this mashup, will fight to the end for reasons all their own, wracking up more and more points, for the amusement of the doubtless millions who watch this for entertainment like the gladiatorial combats of old.

     So, the next time you decide, for the sake of nostalgia, to start this deadly game, remember that you will shortly be required to define life's very meaning, or lack thereof, by how you play and when you reach the game's end. Asteroids, indeed, is the ultimate existentialist entertainment.