The Final Frontier

 

By David Shamah, The Jerusalem Post, Friday, April 29 2005

 

At some point, the excuses are not going to work anymore; those kids are not going to forget that you owe them. Hey, don't blame them – you were the one who suggested playing Afikomen "hide the matzoh" on Seder night; just because you forgot you promised them goodies for coming up with the matzah, thanks to that super wine-tasting you conducted (admit it: you went way over four cups!), doesn't mean they forgot.

 

Possibly, the kids were distracted over this week's vacation, so they only reminded you twice a day that you promised them a reward. But when they go back to school next week and start comparing notes with their friends about who got or is supposed to get what, expect to be prompted, nudged, and eventually haunted by pleas, cries and demands for "something," until you break down and give them custody of your wallet. And that's not all: The longer you wait the more specific the thing they are going to want is likely to be. "Something" is going to turn into a fancy bicycle or an electronic gewgaw of some sort (expensive, to be sure). Or even worse, you'll find yourself taking pointless walks down the aisle in numerous and sundry toy stores, as your kids mine the shelves looking for the junkiest, poorest quality, and ugliest toys in the store – at the highest possible price, of course.

 

Take it from one who's been there: The only way out of this is to take the initiative. You need to pick something YOU can talk the kids into wanting and figure out a way to sell it to them. The best way to get off this rather expensive hook you've put yourself on is to find something you think would be useful, fun enough to attract them, and cool enough for them to show off to their friends – at an affordable price, of course.

 

Then there are the other considerations: It would be nice if the thing you got them was educational, maybe even cultural. Since an afikoman gift is associated with the Seder, it wouldn't hurt for it to have a Jewish connection as well.  And it's got to be something that will keep them interested and busy; if they don't use it for at least awhile, they won't recognize it as being "the" something that seals the Seder deal you made with them.

 

Let's see: Cool, useful, interesting, Jewish oriented, and – maybe most important of all – cheap. When you start narrowing down the possible gifts, you find that getting something that fits all these criteria is not so easy! The cool stuff is expensive, and while there are interesting things that you can get for cheap (like books), chances are the kids have something different in mind.

 

Allow me, though, to make a suggestion that I believe will cover each and every one of these requirements. There is a great, exciting computer game out there that you can download for free that has enough excitement, thrills and chills, and action to keep kids (and adults) busy for hours! It's eminently affordable (in fact, it's free!). It's educational, fun, cultural, and even has a (remote, admittedly) Jewish connection. It's… Netrek!

 

Netrek is the GPL (that means free to use license) video game edition of Star Trek. It's so Trekkish, when you start the game up and connect to a game server, you hear the voice of William Shatner going on about space being the final frontier (I assume somebody paid the copyright owners a fee for using the theme of the original show). You play it on-line, with other players all over the world. Each crew consists of eight players, and together, you fight it out with your opponents until you plant the Federation flag in a new quadrant of the galaxy, or get vaporized. Each officer in the crew has a position – like ensign, captain, or first mate - and you earn your stripes with hard work and experience.

 

You get an array of weapons, battleships, shields (as in "shields up" when there is an attack), phasers, cloaking, warp speeding, and of course, beaming (as in "beam me up, Scotty!"). It's about as close to the real thing as you can get without signing up for a stint on the Enterprise.

 

If you really get into the game, you can join a league, of which there are dozens. Having been around in one form or another for decades (the latest incarnation is about six years old), there is a wealth of information about how to play the game: strategies, battle plans, beginner and advanced manuals, etc. Strategy and team play definitely count for a great deal in NetTrek, and the fact that you're playing with and against real people makes it all the more fun and interesting – and more likely that your kids will be interested in playing this game than a lot of other toys you could buy them.

 

I know what you're thinking, but you're wrong: Star Trek is not just for geeks – and chances are your kids will like the idea of playing Netrek, even without a heavy marketing effort on your part. If there's one pop culture phenomenon that spans the generations, that both you and your kids can relate to, it's Star Trek, starting with the original show in the 1960's and going all the way through its various offspring, new chapters of which are being produced and/or planned even as we speak. The various Star Trek series are not the domain of just middle aged people with fond memories of Kirk and Spock; kids must be watching one or another Star Trek series, if the networks are still bothering to make them. I don’t know if kids would call any of the shows, or the people on them, "cool," but they are usually a lot of fun, which is almost as good as cool. But Netrek is cool, and your kids will probably agree – they may even try to get their friends to sign up so they can play against them!

 

And Star Trek, the show, is full of adventure and surprise – just like Netrek, the game. Oh, of course you know that Kirk or Picard or Janeway are going to beat the bad aliens and save the galaxy, but the way they do it – and seeing which extras are going to get rubbed out in the process – is fun and exciting. In Netrek, of course, there is even more adventure, because you could actually really get captured or killed off.

 

Playing this game teaches you a lot about human–alien, not to mention human-human, interaction and cooperation, since you are essentially in an army where the captain sets out a strategy and game plan, that can only be brought to fruition if everyone works together – kind of like in basketball or football, to which Netrek has been compared. And Star Trek it’s a pretty clean show, too – you can let the kids loose in front of the TV, or in Netrek, for that matter, and not worry about excessive violence, sex, etc.

 

What about the Jewish connection? Well, besides the obvious moral lessons that are presented in many of the episodes, there is of course the Vulcan version of the Jewish priestly blessing (complete with two groups of fingers held aloft, just like our Cohanim), and its famous trademark phrase, "Live long and prosper." Interestingly, every Star Trek descendant – TNG, Enterprise, Voyager, etc. – has had at least one Vulcan crew member. Then there are the obvious Jewish oriented episodes, like the one in the original series that pitted the obviously Jewish "Zeons" against a bunch of alien neo-Nazis, or the recent Voyager episode that featured even more alien neo-Nazis. Yes, it's tenuous, but it's got a lot more Jewish content than you see on about 98% of other TV shows – and offers a jumping-off point for more serious discussion of an issue, if you're so inclined.

 

And did I mention that Netrek is free? All you have to do is download, install and start playing. You can download client software to join in games on an existing server, and even download server software to set up your own game network. Netrek is a great game to play at Afikomen time – or anytime!

 

Download Netrek from http://www.netrek.org. For all Windows, Linux and Unix systems.