Today marks the first day of my 28th year on earth. Exciting! You know what I did today? I went out and looked at guitars, hit up a Borders and bought a new copy of The Idiot, came home and made some tea, played a little guitar, then read the new intro to my book. Later tonight I’ll be watching the Criterion Collection’s new release of Mishima, a film I’ve been trying to get a copy of for the past 4 years or so.

As if that wasn’t boring enough, get this: when reading the new introduction to Fyodor Dostoevsky’s The Idiot I learned a new word and instantly thought of how to apply it to videogames. Sometimes I feel like slapping myself. So anyways, the context is that part of the book examines the Russian Orthodox Church. One of the cruxes of this sect of Christianity is kenosis, the Greek word for “emptying out” in relation to Christ.

The Kenostic character model: Any character in a game which has been already emptied out of emotion, family, memory, or some other very personal experience. This allows the player to nicely and comfortably fit inside their mentality. Frequently seen in RPGs.

There, happy birthday from me to you. A new term for videogames.