Changes

I think it's important to bear in mind that the extreme likelihood is that, although the coordination with 42 Entertainment has clearly been going on for a while, the album was written before any of the ARG back-story was. TR probably had vague ideas about the current Christian vs. Muslim war escalating to a nuclear disaster, enabled by the sort of fiercely ignorant nationalism we see that is so rampant today, and the hand from the sky (that we know is a recurring image in his subconscious) cleaning it all up. And he probably wrote the album just trying to capture that place in his head. All the individual characters and storylines in the ARG are most likely entirely the product of 42 Entertainment after they heard the album, and had TR describe his mental imagery to them. This is what those guys do for a living, after all. Certainly the storyline they've created is brilliant, and creepy, but they couldn't have done it without Trent's haunting music to go by. I just think it's important to remember that Year Zero is a very important album because it is directed to us, the human race, in the present. It's a warning, like 1984 and Brave New World before it, about what will happen if we keep going down the path we currently are on. That's the difference between 'art' and 'entertainment.' 'Year Zero' is most certainly a work of art, and I believe it stands just fine on its own even without the silly internet game.[[User:Simulatedbear|Simulatedbear]] 19:54, 8 April 2007 (EST)