A truism.

This observation was made by a friend of mine while playing Pac-Man in the Oude Kirk coffee shop (alternatively known as the Rasta Baby) in Amsterdam. Like all epiphanies with a genesis in Amsterdam this particular one is both true and worthy of being dismissed.

Pac-Man is the ultimate Born Loser. Not only are the parameters of his (its?) life extremely constrained, it is inevitable that Pac-Man will fall prey to the ravenous wraiths who haunt his realm.

Therein lies the perfection of the metaphor: the game of Pac-Man is Life. No matter what you accomplish, no matter how wide or narrow the limits of your life are, no matter how many enemies you conquer or how many things you consume, you will eventually, unavoidably, be cut down.

However! There is one, and only one example (that I know of) of Pac-Man's status as the Ultimate Loser being refuted: Billy Mitchell. Billy's accomplishment is well documented in the Pac-Man node, so I need not go into details here. Suffice it to say: Billy took Pac-Man all the way.

Does Billy's feat provide proof (or at least more evidence...or more really silly evidence) that transcendence is possible? Is Billy the Buddha, leading us through enlightenment to Nirvana? And, depressingly, does this show us the tragic rarity of such an occurence?

I am not a theologian. I cannot write the scriptures of the Church of Pac-Man. But maybe...maybe in the land of Video Game, all things can be revealed.

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