The DeanBeat: Paris may give us a moment of clarity about who we pretend to be

MONTREAL — Video games are not detached from the real world.

We use them to remind us of real life, or sometimes to escape from it. As I was traveling this week, I thought about this multiple times as the world mourned the loss of life in Paris. The Canadian flag in Montreal, where I attended the Montreal International Game Summit, was flying at half-staff. In the airport, CNN was blaring with reports on the aftermath. On the floor before my hotel room, the Montreal newspapers stared up at me with images of horror. In games such as World of Warcraft and Splatoon, players honored Paris with their own tributes, much like people put French flags over their pictures on Facebook.