Hard War
Last night I went to my friend Mike's place for a party to watch the Ultimate Fighting Championship 52 match on Pay-Per-View.
This was my first time watching a UFC match, but only one or two other people at the party had watched it before, so it was a great learning experience, as the experts were happy to fill us all in on the specifics of the game and the backstories of the players.
In brief, UFC is like Fight Club, the organized sport. Two men get into a caged ring, and brawl for 3 rounds, or until someone taps out or is knocked out. Similarly, this kind of competition seems to give both players a great sense of joy, and a few were almost laughing; they seemed to be having so much fun. After the fight is over, the players hug and congratulate each other for putting up a good fight.
I was a lot different than WWE, which is what most outsiders compare it to when I mention it to them. In fact, it made me realize what pure entertainment professional wrestling of that nature is: the characters are so cartoonish, it's like a soap opera with fighting.
These men, however, were all real. Save the usual sports star/rock star comparison that is so popular now, the fights were about just that - how the men fought, what techniques they were using, and evaluating their weaknesses and strengths.
It made me realize that even full-out brawls can have their Magic Circle. Two individuals agree to fight to their best ability, with no offense taken for any injury that is incured. Sure, you tried to kill me by strangling me, but it was all just part of the game. That foot to the face? What technique!
It reinforced for me the concept that games allow us to simplify our lives for a moment to a basic rule set. I have to believe that in the case of these men, the rule set allowed them to temporarily release their beasts within, without any emotional responsibility or morality issues attached. I will admit that after the few boxing lessons I have taken in my life, I felt a certain euphoria immediately following. Letting short bursts of aggression out in safe spaces can be good for the soul.
This, after all, is what Stewart Brand was addressing with Soft War, which led to the founding of The New Games Movement. Soft War was a way of allowing people to relieve tension by realizing that it was okay to release primal energy into the air without anybody getting hurt. But, if both sides agree that physically hurting each other is okay, then maybe they still get away without hurting in other ways.
Because sometimes, we are still animals that pretend to be civilized.