A Short Review of Video Games, and Their Effects on my Life

Despite what I may lead people to believe, Halo is far from being my favorite game. I am not obsessed with it, nor do I even play it every day. I enjoy the total war series as well, whether it be Rome or Empire. I like having to think alot in a game, planning your moves years in advance in those games. Tribal wars is somewhat similar to that, only in that you cannot play the battles yourself and you absolutely must play it with a calculator in hand. And then there is Ace Combat 5. It is more of a movie than a game really. To this day, whenever somebody asks someone else "what happened?" I will always reply to myself "Yuktobania just declared war!" Now onto a brief summary of the game:

You play as a fresh pilot in the Osean Air Force. After some mysterious movement along an ally's border, it becomes clear that the forces of Yuktobania and preparing for an assault. The war goes on, with Osea only barely in the lead when the Pilots of Sand Island (your squadron) discover that the war was started by the once mighty Belka through a careful series of misunderstandings. When you try to tell your superiors, you find that the government has been infiltrated, and you are now on the run from your own people. You then fight whoever opposes you, whether it be Yukes or Oseans, as all that you want at this point is peace. The war eventually ends with the invasion of Belka, and the reinstatement of the Yuktobanian and Osean leaders.

Now you may be thinking, "why did I just read that? I could have looked that up on wikipedia or something". It is because that made me realize, that all people really want, is to have peace. While there are a select few that would dream of nothing more that a world dominated by conflict, humanity strives for peace. I did not fully understand what the idea of "world peace" was until I played this game. From that, after several months, I decided to write a book. I had written a few before that. They were nothing special really, very basic story lines, little detail, and arbitrary reasons for arbitrary actions. I was not a Communist before I started writing the book, I had no real political affiliation. If anything, I was leaning towards the right. Every morning of 10th grade, I would get to school as early as possible, get into my physics class at least a half hour early, and just write. I started writing about what Russia would look like in 20 years or so if they were to have another revolution. I figured that the world would not allow this to happen, and at the first chance that anyone got, there would be a full scale invasion. So, I wrote about the war following the revolution. I thought it was good, but I didn't feel that it was good enough. I hinted that this was not your ordinary Communism, so I wanted to elaborate on that a little bit more. I thought to myself, "how could I fit that in there?". I figured having a prologue, about the revolution itself, would be the best way. As I wrote about this, and the beliefs of the college dropout Peter Vostov, I slowly began to take these beliefs to heart. Every day I became even more obsessed with the book, which translated into my believing the ideals of this fictional character. It came to the point that I saw myself within him. I based him off of what I would do myself if I were to be in his position, even though he ends up being taken advantage of by one of his best friends.
Ever since the day I started writing part 2 to my book, I have been proud to call myself a Vostovian Communist. I find the topics of Lenin and Stalin fascinating, but I will end most conversations with the disclaimer "In no way do I support Stalin or any of his actions". Many people around me think that my loyalties lie with Russia, in the dream of the rebirth of the Soviet Union. This is entirely false, as my loyalties do not lie there, but with Peter Vostov, and the Räznovian Revolution of 2012.