Zipzip the Penguin said:
I think this is taking it more than a bit far and just ends up looking very silly.
I find think pieces usually fall down this particular rabbit hole. Especially when examining something as vast in scope as a wider culture, it's hard not to look really pedantic about examples. I love gaming culture, but it is quite uncritical about the sort of brusque, goal-first mindset it can bolster sometimes.
But yes, in general, I'm quite silly.
Tatsuki said:
... I have noticed my computer gaming habits crossing over into my tabletop games where I stop playing the game and start gaming the game subconsciously.
The metagame gets to us all sometimes. I actually use a lot of speedrunning techniques when I play platformers. I don't mean to, but it's a genre I've spent hundreds upon thousands of hours in over my life, and it starts to become reflex after a while. To the point where sometimes I don't spend the time I should with them.
Jadedvet said:
Interesting topic and one I would like to see explored further.
Much of the cause for players not treating game worlds and their inhabitants more like the real thing is because game worlds and their inhabitants rarely react like the real thing.
I've spoken on this topic a few times, it's always a fun exploration for me. There's a lot to explore, in terms of subconscious behavior that games can instill in us. Someone below linked one of my pieces for Haywire Magazine that speaks on the same subject from a slightly different angle, so it might be up your alley if you want to see more stuff on this topic.
Also, I don't disagree that people treat games and individuals differently, but I think there is some overlap in mentalities. Gamers aren't sociopaths, really, but they are predisposed to seeking out and finding faster and easier methods for problems. MMOs are a great example for this, because the difference between a high level guild officer and a crafting and aesthetic enthusiast is indicative of the mentality divide.
The guild officer has high energy, high expectation for his players, tends to use immediate programs like Mumble or Teamspeak, speaks in curt commands and expects more focus and technical skill from his subordinates and peers. A crafter, by comparison, will usually be less expectant of other players and more willing to bend. They both have high passions for their work, but guild officers direct the energy outward. They have expectations for capability and reliability, and they likewise demand up to date skillsets and talents. Crafters will direct their energy inward, spending huge resources and time into research and crafting idealized equipment.
Neither of these play styles are wrong or bad, but there is a clear distinction between calling a player's cell phone to make certain they'll show up for an evening's scheduled raid and exploiting a glitch in a mining system in order to insure higher quality materials or bargaining harder for better quantities. In gaming culture, the latter has fewer "victims" than the former, but the former tends to be more highly regarded, and generally seen as the more "hardcore" (or "better") gamer.
So yeah, there is something there, but it's not necessarily a bad thing. It's just an aspect of the competitive, solution-forward nature of competitive and hardcore gamers.
Skatologist said:
Nice job Nuke, really good article and all. Hope to see more work from you and I find this to be a suitable sister piece to
Game. Play?
Heh, they are rather similar, aren't they? Two different results of the same kind of mindset, applied both internally and externally.
