Alternative Identities
Will accepting that you are a gamer help you accept other beliefs?
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Will accepting that you are a gamer help you accept other beliefs?
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Alternative Identities
- Thread starter Mark J Kline
- Start date
I have to congratulate the questioner for overcoming a debilitating condition and also accepting themselves for who they are.
I can't say that I've been through either but I have friends how are battling or have won that fight and it is hard.
Good luck in the future.
OT: The way that adults use the 'game' part of 'video game' in that basic sence to help sort out complex problems is intriguing.
I was wondering what stops adults having overt 'play time' to release inner convictions.
Or perhaps they do just using the abstract worlds of games.
Well, just me musing, correct mr if I'm wrong.
I can't say that I've been through either but I have friends how are battling or have won that fight and it is hard.
Good luck in the future.
OT: The way that adults use the 'game' part of 'video game' in that basic sence to help sort out complex problems is intriguing.
I was wondering what stops adults having overt 'play time' to release inner convictions.
Or perhaps they do just using the abstract worlds of games.
Well, just me musing, correct mr if I'm wrong.
Huh. It's interesting sometimes when you spot patterns on a website.
Although, on one driven by a community such as this one, that might not be as strange as it initially appeared.
I cen certainly relate to using games and game-like social environments to experiment with issues around identity, and it's probably one of the earliest indicators for finding myself a similar situation to whoever prompted this particular article.
Then again, I tend to retreat into fantasy even without games... Reality can definitely be painful at times.
Although, on one driven by a community such as this one, that might not be as strange as it initially appeared.
I cen certainly relate to using games and game-like social environments to experiment with issues around identity, and it's probably one of the earliest indicators for finding myself a similar situation to whoever prompted this particular article.
Then again, I tend to retreat into fantasy even without games... Reality can definitely be painful at times.
Pardon my digression, but when you said you had a patient build towers of good and evil. I immediately thought you where doing some experimental therapy using Minecraft. Then you mentioned he was just a little boy so i discarded it.
It would be cool to build things with some characteristic like that in Minecraft, to this point I've been building thinking more about function than form and feel.
It would be cool to build things with some characteristic like that in Minecraft, to this point I've been building thinking more about function than form and feel.
This was my e-mail. I'm so happy! ^^
I don't have much more to say (Outside of my own personal gender rant) I'll sign off.
~Asurnasurpal, the Lesbian Gamer Tranny~
I don't have much more to say (Outside of my own personal gender rant) I'll sign off.
~Asurnasurpal, the Lesbian Gamer Tranny~
I used to have that problem, too, but I found marriage to be an excellent cure -- albeit more expensive than therapy.
More seriously, it is nice to see gaming and thinking about gaming portrayed in a more positive mental health light than just as unhealthy "escapism". I would think that the opportunities to create various online personae and socialize in different ways with different groups of peopple help people work out self-identity issues.
That actually sounds like a Tale of Tales or individually-authored text-based interactive fiction game. Someone should write that -- a fantasy portrayal of divorce seen through the eyes of a young child.
No. Someone should make a game out of it.DojiStar said:
Think about it.
...
Got it?
Good, isn't it?
"For many adults and people who don't play, the gaming world is a bizarre, strange place populated by addicts, people obsessed with violence, and losers who aren't able to make lives for themselves in reality."
Sadly, this is really true. If you don't believe me just look up matches of various online games on YouTube. Read forums that aren't heavily monitored or full of mature people. Need I even begin to mention the Barrens chat or Goldshire Inn incidents? The classic "kid plays TF2/CS:S" videoes? We as gamers have failed to uphold ourselves to the high standard of maturity necessary to be portrayed as anything less than people who refused to grow up. There is nobody to blame but ourselves, no matter what others tend to say. We have made a mess of our room and cleaning it up is going to be much more difficult and time consuming than messing it up. The only way Video Games are going to be accepted is to throw out, shun, excommunicate, however you want to put it, the trash that makes up nearly the entire online world. To quote Extra Credits: "Talking about skull******* someones mom because he prefers the 360 over the PS3 does not paint us in the best light as a group." I know this sounds completely off topic but bear with me. Finding ones true personality is the hardest challenge known to mankind and many will not find the truth until they are too old to do anything with who they are. We as gamers take on fantasy scenarios and situations that non-gamers don't. We (theoretically) put ourselves into the footsteps of another person, then influence it with who we truly are. RPGs such as Neverwinter Nights or Dragon Age really allow us to whittle down the main characters base personalities to find our own. Once we find our own personality we expand upon it, possibly making our way to becoming popular people in MMOs and even projecting our personality to others in the real world. I know I personally never finished the dark side of the stories in many RPGs because my personality conflicted too much, or I would even wish I wasn't a Paladin because I didn't like following the strict law all the time. Games allow us to find ourselves in ways other media has been unable to, but what the good Doctor has said about the gamers picture to the world is not supposition, but cold, ugly, honest fact. I feel it's time to change that, but I don't have the power to change things alone.
Sadly, this is really true. If you don't believe me just look up matches of various online games on YouTube. Read forums that aren't heavily monitored or full of mature people. Need I even begin to mention the Barrens chat or Goldshire Inn incidents? The classic "kid plays TF2/CS:S" videoes? We as gamers have failed to uphold ourselves to the high standard of maturity necessary to be portrayed as anything less than people who refused to grow up. There is nobody to blame but ourselves, no matter what others tend to say. We have made a mess of our room and cleaning it up is going to be much more difficult and time consuming than messing it up. The only way Video Games are going to be accepted is to throw out, shun, excommunicate, however you want to put it, the trash that makes up nearly the entire online world. To quote Extra Credits: "Talking about skull******* someones mom because he prefers the 360 over the PS3 does not paint us in the best light as a group." I know this sounds completely off topic but bear with me. Finding ones true personality is the hardest challenge known to mankind and many will not find the truth until they are too old to do anything with who they are. We as gamers take on fantasy scenarios and situations that non-gamers don't. We (theoretically) put ourselves into the footsteps of another person, then influence it with who we truly are. RPGs such as Neverwinter Nights or Dragon Age really allow us to whittle down the main characters base personalities to find our own. Once we find our own personality we expand upon it, possibly making our way to becoming popular people in MMOs and even projecting our personality to others in the real world. I know I personally never finished the dark side of the stories in many RPGs because my personality conflicted too much, or I would even wish I wasn't a Paladin because I didn't like following the strict law all the time. Games allow us to find ourselves in ways other media has been unable to, but what the good Doctor has said about the gamers picture to the world is not supposition, but cold, ugly, honest fact. I feel it's time to change that, but I don't have the power to change things alone.
I'm sorry, I had to stop reading after the quote at the top of the article. The part of his personality he was having trouble accepting was that he likes video games? He was embarrassed about that?
...Mind blown.
[small]That being said, more power to ya and all... it's just, well, one's perfectly socially acceptable and the other... not really.[/small]
...Mind blown.
[small]That being said, more power to ya and all... it's just, well, one's perfectly socially acceptable and the other... not really.[/small]
I really think a lot of this has to do with how diverse the "gamer population" has become. It's not locked into one particular demographic anymore, yet the label still has a way of uniting those labelled. As a result, when a person feels accepted into the gamer culture, they see that people outside of their town/school/church/etc. are actually far more tolerant and accepting. This is reassuring, and has the side effect of giving gaming itself an even more therapeutic effect.Mark J Kline said:
Additionally, the gaming and online forum culture provides anonymity. It's an enormous confessional. You get the chance to "test the waters," and you see they're not quite as awful as you were led to believe by earlier experiences. If it backfires, you can disappear, or maybe drop a "Hehe, just kidding," so there's the sense of an escape route that you don't have face-to-face.
I'm really not so sure it's the content of the games themselves that really leads to this, outside the relatively superficial "whether or not you enjoy the game" element. I think it owes directly to the increasing inclusiveness of the definition of "gamer."
No, no, I get it. I never said anything about the other issues at all. When I did, I got beat up and learned to suppress them. However Gaming has only tangential(sp?) acceptance, which is how I felt embaressed but learned to accept it as a normal part of me. Subsequently, I learned. ^^summerof2010 said:
I'm glad to see that being a gamer has helped other people figure out their gender identity. I'm FtM and a gamer. Being able to accept my "nerd" identity along with being able to play as a male avatar in a vast number of games really helped me come to terms with the fact that I was male (and attracted to both men and women, but that's a story for another day...)
It's great to see The Escapist publish something like this.
It's great to see The Escapist publish something like this.
*hugs*Asurnasurpal said:
I went through a similar situation with my sexuality. I gamed with mostly girls (tabletop rp, for the most part) and some open-minded guys who helped me to explore myself through my characters. After working up the courage to play a physically and mentally tough lesbian doctor in a Firefly game, I was able to come out to myself, my friends, and eventually my family. It gets better. In fact, it gets good, and games help.
It seems more and more as I spend time around the less cesspool areas of the net I find people finding acceptance through various geek activities. Also more trans people come out of the woodwork. I have to say games, especially RPG's, i have found to allow self expression and exploration, and it seems that more than a few people have worked out gender dilemmas this way. I have to say in particular WoW (yes i said wow) helped me not only solidify the fact that im a huge geek and a gamer, it also helped me with my dilemma. If only more companies would make games or provide experiences in games that allow such exploration.
Any competitive group that involves thirteen-year-olds is also going to involve a lot of stupidity. The only difference with gaming is that it permeates the internet and the buffoonery ends up being public.DaHero said: