Just a suggestion here, I think you should number these, so people can tell them apart by title.
wow I was just thinking this.Eric the Orange said:Just a suggestion here, I think you should number these, so people can tell them apart by title.
Obviously, the column will get redundant if every edition is about gaming less. Probably a good way to go extinct if you write a column for a gaming journal as well! I actually do not have a mission of getting people to game less--I accept we will all probably be gaming lots, and I truly believe there can be much good about it for many of us. I find myself trying to help people develop what I call a "healthy integration" between their gaming lives and their real lives, though I also know many folks who have become so engrossed and even addicted where this seems impossible. For them, its got to be less gaming or there are serious consequences.Playbahnosh said:That was really interesting. I really like tips and how you handle these questions, Doc.
I really like this column, this is something different from the everyday gamer culture things that are around here on the Escapist, and I would definitely would like to see more, but how will this column, while certainly interesting, avoid the obvious trap of having the same "game less, live more" theme in every issue?
It depends on the people. I work in retail, so I come across 400 odd people a day; and to them - and people here - I'm chatty (sometimes too chatty) but put me in a room full of people and I tend to slink off.Vodka Dude said:Is being afraid of people a huge occurrence?
POOF! And jus' like dat, eet ees done!Eric the Orange said:Just a suggestion here, I think you should number these, so people can tell them apart by title.
In keeping with the general TF2 theme - ENGINEER IS CREDIT TO TEAM!Susan Arendt said:POOF! And jus' like dat, eet ees done!Eric the Orange said:Just a suggestion here, I think you should number these, so people can tell them apart by title.
This is exactly why I quit World of Warcraft. I was never addicted in the classic sense (eg. I never felt a compulsion to play that was stronger than wanting to watch my favourite TV shows), but I was utterly reliant on it as an escape. I very rarely interacted with others for long periods of time via that game. I was only ever in one guild. I interacted a little in random 5-man groups and usually felt a false sense of accomplishment from that. I'm now careful to stay away from games that might give me that same feeling, because I know that they'll only be harmful in the long run.mkline said:The other issue, pointed to by this post, is that some people are simply more anxious socially--there are actually studies that show certain babies are more shy and reticent than others (I want to say some of them were by Jerome Kagan at Harvard, who did seminal work on infant temperament, but my memory is a bit foggy so I can't vouch for the reference). For folks with particularly shy and socially anxious dispositions, gaming may provide a tremendous respite and relief, and it may be a conduit to a kind of social life that is tolerable. This is mostly to the good, but what if it provides so much comfort that the social anxiety issue is never really addressed, at least as much as it could have been? That's where I worry it becomes a dodge. Game all you want to, but don't give up trying to achieve the optimal social adjustment possible for you in the real world. After all, there are some social experiences that we haven' t yet been able to simulate with games! And there are good treatments for social anxiety disorders which I have seen make a huge difference in many clients' lives.
Try telling someone something completely true while rubbing your ear, putting your hand over your mouth, without making eye contact or with a stuttering voice.UnclGhost said:I've always kind of wondered whether the "80% of interpersonal communication is nonverbal" statistic is true. Does that mean that an utterly charming, completely extroverted person could talk about pie charts and convey the same thing as someone telling a joke whose body language was only 80% on the mark? I mean, what calculates the percentages?
This. Well, mostly, anyway.Noelveiga said:Both bits are on communication and social interaction, and how this is altered by games and the Internet is very interesting to me.
I wonder, though, if our kind of people (because I am immensely socially awkward, also about to turn 30 and a gamer) really learned to cope before or just dealt with the awkwardness before gaming offered such an easy release.
Movies seemed to have its share of geeks before gaming was viable, comic books have been a traditional geek refuge for decades and Miguel de Cervantes wrote about an escapist geek who mixes his empowerment fantasies with reality... in the 16th century!
I'm sure many would-be geeks bit the bullet and did the best they could in society, awkwardly coping with lifes without release valves, but I don't know if that's a good thing. Gaming offers all this pseudo-social interactions, like local and online multiplayer gaming that are actually a nice way to meet people and find common ground. Looking back, pretty much all of my friends throughout childhood and adolescence were people with whom I traded or played games. In retrospect I don't think I would have moved on to play more football with the jocks had I not been able to play games. My guess is I would just have been lonelier.
Of course, as you grow up you learn to widen your circle a bit. One of the most interesting things about the geek generation is that we are starting to reproduce now. Gaming blogs are full of pictures of proud dads with babies now, and parenting is becoming a thing in gaming and for mature gamers. It will be fun to see what comes of it.
Sounds a bit like me.Meemaimoh said:I love these articles. They're such a good idea.
I can absolutely relate to the first guy. I'm only 22, but I've essentially been a recluse for the last five years thanks to severe social anxiety. I'm starting to work my way out of it, but already I'm starting to get that "ship has sailed" feeling. My university colleagues are all younger than me, my highschool friends have moved on, and I have no social network beyond my family and boyfriend. I know it's ridiculous - I'm only 22, for god's sake - but in my worse moments, I still feel it.