This is the first time that I have made a post that appears to be too large to be done in one go, so I'll break it up lol Oh the irony, I used notepad and have to edit the formatting so it is readable :P

[i]"Far out in the uncharted backwaters of the unfashionable end of the Western Spiral arm of the Galaxy lies a small unregarded yellow sun.

Orbiting this at a distance of roughly ninety-two million miles is an utterly insignificant little blue green planet whose ape-descended life forms are so amazingly primitive that they still think digital watches are a pretty neat idea.

This planet has – or rather had – a problem, which was this: most of the people living on it were unhappy for pretty much of the time. Many solutions were suggested for this problem, but most of these were largely concerned with the movements of small green pieces of paper, which is odd because on the whole it wasn't the small green pieces of paper that were unhappy.

And so the problem remained; lots of the people were mean, and most of them were miserable, even the ones with digital watches.

Many were increasingly of the opinion that they'd all made a big mistake in coming down from the trees in the first place. And some said that even the trees had been a bad move, and that no one should ever have left the oceans.

And then, one Thursday, nearly two thousand years after one man had been nailed to a tree for saying how great it would be to be nice to people for a change, a girl sitting on her own in a small cafe in Rickmansworth suddenly realized what it was that had been going wrong all this time, and she finally knew how the world could be made a good and happy place. This time it was right, it would work, and no one would have to get nailed to anything.

Sadly, however, before she could get to a phone to tell anyone about it, a terrible stupid catastrophe occurred, and the idea was lost for ever.

This is not her story. " ~ Foreward from The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams[/i]

Not in as I have one of the largest game collections in the existence of unemployment and gaming history :)

Thank you for creating this giveaway. I linked this thread to the person who introduced me to GOG(he's never posted here) to exemplify what it is that I love about this community as this sentiment is rarely shared to the extent on the internet(especially on a gaming forum) as I have experienced it here. I still haven't read the entire internet yet, so this is merely my subjective perspective :P

Given who I am, this will most likely be my typical long-winded post that draws all manner of subjective experiences and ideological perspectives to conclusions that to some may not see as relevant (I'm a big picture kind of guy) and may draw praise or criticism and appear rather negative in the presentation of my views. I most likely won't respond to either as neither are important to me. So with that said, let me preface it by saying that I am okay, I know my path in life and what my "job" is. My intention is not to engage in debate but rather to share personal stories as I love to do in order to provoke thought and encourage change.

If you'd rather listen to a song with poignant lyrics which has a similar theme to some of what I am saying, then I'd highly recommend listening to Everlast - What It's Like. Don't judge another unless you have experienced what they have in life, for you cannot comprehend what it is like. Also read this article on Cracked.com that illustrates the points I am making about inequity and placing the blame on the unemployed or poor for being that way.

Unemployment (Quest :P to relate it to gaming) is generally such a contentious topic when discussed as all manner of judgements and conclusions are made and generally little is actually achieved in terms of producing results that are beneficial to those who suffer the most from unemployment, namely the unemployed. So much of the discourse centres around economic rationalist thought that is devoid of a human element. Economics as I learned during my university studies is not purely mathematical and the majority of discussions I have partaken in regarding this topic have an agenda that is counter-productive to the survival of our species. The blame for the poor being poor or the unemployed being unemployed is almost ALWAYS placed on the poor or unemployed individual.

I was raised by a relatively wealthy family who came from a poor background and thus initially embraced this capitalist ideology. My father is an orthopaedic surgeon. He works very hard and given his position in society is rewarded very well for his endeavors. I was that kid in school with the shiniest of toys that drew the attention of others. I had some of the most expensive toys a child from a middle class upbringing could have and I defined myself in many ways through my father's wealth. We went on expensive holidays and I was very fortunate to have an education that allowed me to succeed in school with very little effort(when I wanted to) as I had superior mathematical and language skills and decent social skills that allowed me to communicate with others. I can clearly remember my goal when I was 13 years old and had just started high school. My father asked me "Blake what do you want to do in life?" whilst driving in his fancy Mercedes that had a car phone(the only one I ever saw in the 80s). My response was "I want to be a millionaire by the time I am 18 and I don't care what I do to achieve that." That was how I defined success. Money = success in life. Money = happiness. Money = the solution to all problems.

I couldn't have been more wrong and I am glad that life has thrown so many challenging experiences my way to help me to develop compassion and understanding and to put it bluntly, to not be as much of a self-centred and uncaring fuckwit as I was. This is a life long journey of change. I have a lot to learn still and a lot of changes to make in my life to be the me I wish to be.

What wasn't seen or even comprehended by me at the time was the toxic environment I was raised in and the damage that it did to me and how I then mimicked(and still do) that behaviour and passed my hurt onto other beings. Anyone who has been through an abusive upbringing will understand what I mean without me going into details or passing on blame. My parents did the best they could with the tools they had from their own upbringing and life experiences. I started to release this pain by punching walls when I was 12. By 15 I started drinking and smoking. By 16 I was cutting myself and suicidal. Love helped me to survive to 19 and when my first girlfriend ended our relationship(and rightly so, I was passing on the abuse I had been trained well in) all I wanted to do was die. I couldn't bring myself to take the fast way, so I chose the slow one of drinking and drugs from dusk til dawn, getting into fights and harming myself and others. But surely coming from a wealthy background, this must have been my choice(and yes I did make choices).

When I was in love at 18 and had finished school and was offered a place in education at university, I turned it down to follow my passion - writing. I spent 10+ hours per day for 6 months writing an epic post-apocalyptic pen and paper roleplaying game. I researched anything and everything as I wanted it to be the most comprehensive and realistic RPG. I dabbled in various forms of programming later as I have always had this desire to create and saw pen and paper gaming dying compared to CRPGs.

I was constantly told that I should get a job when I was 18 but didn't understand why. I was working. Why would I want a menial job when I had the opportunity to create and become a "success"? My mother owned our house. My father was absent from 14 onwards but there was enough money for food and bills and I thought following my dream was the best way to go.

So I gave in to those pressures and tried to get one. I figured publishing was the way to go given my writing endeavours, and cold called every single publishing house, large or small in Sydney. It was the same response over and over "experience and qualifications". I offered to work for free for every job as a trial run. I almost landed one after a 40 minute interview until I was asked "So what did you do during this period?" The true answer was that I was writing and reading and playing games by day and partying and socialising and enjoying love by night. I couldn't think of an answer that was relevant in the spur of the moment so I stumbled and faltered in my reply and was told "Until that answer, the job was yours. Goodbye." I cried. I had put so much energy into trying to get a job and I couldn't understand why it was so difficult. Just give me a chance! Shit I worked at McDonalds when I was 14(the youngest one can legally work in this country) until my parents forced me to quit it as they thought it was interfering with my studies. You can't get much worse (in my mind) than working at Maccas.


(last part to come)