Together Alone

I had a chance recently to ask Eliot Fish about the origins of the word ‘blau’. I am unsure, exactly, as to how it came to be that I felt this was an important thing to find out, but – in its own small way – I suppose it is a piece of Hyper’s history. It frequently filled the pages, oh, must be about 100 issues ago now. That general era, maybe a bit earlier? Or a bit later? Shows how much I know…

Of all the captions in the magazine’s considerable captioning history, my personal favourite would probably be a series of three, placed neatly below screens from what must have been a fairly unmemorable shooting game, because I have no memory of the title itself. The captions, however, simply read thus:

“Blau!”

“Blau blau!”

“BLAU!”

Eliot doesn’t know why it’s so funny, either. But he was laughing when reminded of the caption. Nor does he know of the exact origin of the word. He does, however, feel it may have originated with Cam Shea. I’d not expected that, but it started to make sense as I envisioned the word being called out around the office like some kind of pre-Internet meme. Or at least pre-4chan. I’m having trouble recalling a world without the Internet at this point in time.

Around me, Wilks is re-telling stories that shouldn’t happen to actual, real people. Gameboffin is wondering if it’s yet time to buy more beer, and Moe has easily worked his way into a clique of people that I am, personally, wholly unfamiliar with. I am, at this moment, reminded of the personality that Hyper has managed to carry – changing slightly, but always present – through the years. Of that sense of character that somehow existed in a monthly publication that pre-dates its own forums and, yes, seems to see its forums fall over all to frequently in the present day.

This sense of character may just be an important part of gaming as much as it is many other aspects of your life. It’s the stuff that memories are built of. Recently, the Left 4 Dead games went on sale for less than ten dollars. I have a small group of friends who regularly play these games in PC cafes. They also have computers that should be able to run Valve’s titles without much trouble.

However, I expect that they passed the offer up. There’s something that’s too irreplaceable about being in actual strangling distance of a person. There’s something irreplaceable about sharing the game with people who you get along with. It creates stories; things to talk about. It generates a kind of buzz that can saturate even the walk down the street to the PC centre.

I can’t play Left 4 Dead with this group of people any more, not in the face-to-face capacity that I used to. All that’s left is the memory, and a collection of facebook contacts. Knowing only too well that, by the nature of its formation, this particular gathering of people will eventually drift from being in the same physical proximity, I do feel a strange hope that I will someday meet them online. Perhaps the desire to frag zombies will cling to them, and Steam will become installed on a handful more computers.

Will the experience be comparable in a world where we have been playing in PC cafes prior to being forced online? I’m unsure. But perhaps personal chemistry can survive? It’s helped people outside of the office relate to a magazine for some 200-odd issues, after all. As such, I’d encourage everyone to get together with some friends for the shooting of zombies, or Nazis, or zombie-Nazis, or whatever. See if it strengthens bonds, and all that stuff.

BLAU!

Tags: Blau!, PC, Valve