Game People Calling: You Are What You Play

[BrotherRool]

The in-game settings you choose also give away a lot about your persona. If you invert your Halo/Modern Warfare look controls so that pushing down looks up, your subconscious is behind your head - associated with a removed scientific world view that thinks before acting. If you don't invert your controls so that pushing down looks down, your subconscious is in-front of your head, representing an involved artistic approach to life - act first, think later. The smallest difference in how you play games says a lot about who you are.

Is there a source on that? That's very interesting, I used to play inverted when I was younger then at some point tried switching to 'normal' and haven't looked back. I'm gonna play TF2 now with my mouse inverted and see how it affects my game.

On the other hand, I normally just play whatever the game default is and it takes a minute tops to readjust. Not only that but some people invert x-Axis and don't invert Y and all that sort of thing. So whats that supposed to say?

There are two reasons why I think, that even if scientists have actually said this, they weren't doing it through thorough experiment.

1. The statements are far too "neat", imagining I'm outside my head leads to a detatched scientific view? Well I can just as easily say "outside my head leads to a detatched, impractical and more imaginative art type of mind." You can as easily argue science is more involved as it is more detatched and I'd cast doubt that we've even developed the skills to be able to make that sort of connection yet. I mean, since there hasn't been much "scientific method" for the vast majority of human existence (couple of thousand years for arab/chinese socieities, a couple of hundred for European societies)is it really even a fundamental concept.

2. Both views are vague and positive, like fortune telling everyone is able to interpret the sresult in a way that suits them and compliments them. I do physics, maths and further maths yet I'd've got the "arty" interpretation if I were more inclined to one or the other but I'd then go "Yeah I do have an imaginative brain, I write stories" because it's a compliment.

The whole thing is like those facebook quizzes where they tell you you're awesome depending which colour you picked.

 

[Kuchinawa212]

Huh. So a nerd that has a liking for shooters.
Hmm...nerd I agree with, but I'm no gun nut

Well the article was intending to be non-judgemental and seemed to gloss around associating people with the type of games they play. Probably because that could rapidly get offensive, even if it was accurate. Truthfully, people CAN be judged by their preferances.

Aww I was just having a little fun =[

 

[300lb. Samoan]

1. The statements are far too "neat", imagining I'm outside my head leads to a detatched scientific view? Well I can just as easily say "outside my head leads to a detatched, impractical and more imaginative art type of mind." You can as easily argue science is more involved as it is more detatched and I'd cast doubt that we've even developed the skills to be able to make that sort of connection yet. I mean, since there hasn't been much "scientific method" for the vast majority of human existence (couple of thousand years for arab/chinese socieities, a couple of hundred for European societies)is it really even a fundamental concept.

I think what they meant by "outside the head" was the actual motor coordination of it. Up=Up in a FPS corresponds with eye movement, where Up=Down would correspond with head movement, i.e. in-head vs out-of-the-head. Imagine if your mouse was the avatar's head, or that your avatar was mounted on a joystick, pushing it forward would make him look down. I agree that it's probably not based on an experiment, but it's a practical observation.

Leading from there, you can also imagine that an "inside the head" player takes the perspective of the avatar as their own, which makes sense in a first-person-shooter. But for someone who visualizes the game as a player-avatar relationship, then they would be in the "outside the head" position (positioned directly behind the avatar's head, as the article mentioned) and inverted controls would make more sense.

Also, I absolutely got my ass kicked trying to play in inverted view. I think the only reason I was ever able to do it was because I started with Descent, where the inverted controls make sense because you equate them with cockpit controls.

EDIT: rereading your quote, you almost sound like you took offense at the mention of "scientific" and "detached" in the same sentence, and it seems because of that you missed the point completely.

 

[Freede14]

first now i understand why i play so boring game but the reason i play boring game is i don't have MONEY!

 

[AvsJoe]

What sort of gamer are you?

As of right now I'm not a gamer at all. I only own one game and I don't own the PS2 that supports it. Actually, I guess you could say I'm a casual gamer considering nearly 100% of my gaming over the past half-year has been on Facebook.

 

[Chadling]

Well, my top three games at the moment are Baldur's Gate 1/2 (I swear, I'm finally going to complete it this time, honest), Hearts of Iron 2, and EVE Online. And in EVE, I'm doing exploration and scouting--arguably the most arcane and obscure mechanisms in a game that's already known for its absurd learning curve.

It only says what I already know. I'm overly-intellectual, I enjoy planning things out days (weeks?) in advance, and I like obscure and overly-complicated mechanisms to study. Go figure; grad student in biology speaking here.

 

[gim73]

Let's see, no nintendo system after the SNES: check
Bioware, Black Isle, Interplay, Working Designs, Enix, Squaresoft, Konami, Blizzard, Crave, Atlus, Namco, Koei, Westwood, Sega, Sony, Activision, Capcom, SNK, Microprose, Bethesda... I guess I could admit that I own halo also.

I'm an rpg fan. I get the system that has the most rpgs. By generation, these have been:
Nintendo
SNES
Playstation
Playstation 2
Xbox 360

No doubt some of you were enjoying Shining force on the genesis, Panzer dragoon saga on the sega saturn, Skies of arcadia on the dreamcast and knights of the old republic on the xbox. I know I do, but those systems didn't get nearly as much play time as the five listed above. It's always been about the story to me. You get to play tales of vesperia yet? One of the first jrpgs where the hero actually isn't afraid to get his hands dirty. A solid game with a great story, well worth playing.

Yeah, sure I also play SOME fps like Half life 2.

 

[hansari]

The titles on your game shelf say a lot about who you are.

What if you don't have a collection? Or own any games longer than a few weeks/month.

My friend plays games, then trades them in.

 

[Supreme Unleaded]

I don't really know what kind of gamer iam from this article.

Because i have games from the FPS genra, RPG genra, and Racing Genra.

I do have sequles of games but not their orignal, but to be fair i did have most of the orignals on my Xbox before i sold it.

But seriosly, i like team play, things like Resistance 2 Co-Op, me and a friend driving a helicopter in BF:BC or more recently BF:BC 2 Demo. I'm one of the best helicopter pilots your ever going to find, i can fly at 5 feet and keep us alive. When i get under fire i dont just clib and run away, i drop to the ground and run the heli practicaly on the ground and avoiding fire.

I can do so much in that thing, even the Black Hawk i can do some crazy shit.

But other then that i don't invert, and i play support roles such as the Medic or Engineer and heal people/vehicles more then kill the enemy team.

The Stack (my stack of games) is in the order of whic they were played. Meaning the bottom game hasnt been played in the longest amount of time. The game on top is the current game in the console.

Simple.

 

[Ravek]

When I but a game, I rip the DVD to .iso, store it in my Games folder, together with a .txt file containing the serial, and chuck the box and DVD somewhere out of sight.

What does that tell you about my horoscope?

 

[Bobipine]

What kind of gamer am I... actually I'm not sure. Most of my games are "new", meaning I didn't wait for a price drop. I keep even my "regretted choices of games" but those are in the bottom of the piles, piles which are classed by console they play on. I enjoy RPG's for story or characters (prefer the original Parper Mario to the thousand year door, enjoyed Tales of Symphonia, not much with Dawn of the new world). I'm starting to collect visually artistic games it seems, not realistic looking ones, more like Okami, Muramasa... Only multiplayers I really play are either fighters, hack and slash (Castle Crashers, where I solely raise my character toward survive and heal your team) and also the only FPS I really play, TF2. And my virtual console is filled with platformers (megaman, DKC). And I cleared Devil may cry 3 at Dante must die difficulty.
anyone have a category to fit me in?

I possibly have a loyalist side, since I have the NES, SNES, N64, Gamecube, Wii. along with the remake of Punch-Out!

 

[Eatbrainz]

I'm a medieval knight who killed a scientist and stole his time machine.

 

[sidereal_day]

As soon as I'm done with a game I pawn it. I have no idea what sort of gamer that makes me.

 

[Therumancer]

Huh. So a nerd that has a liking for shooters.
Hmm...nerd I agree with, but I'm no gun nut

Well the article was intending to be non-judgemental and seemed to gloss around associating people with the type of games they play. Probably because that could rapidly get offensive, even if it was accurate. Truthfully, people CAN be judged by their preferances.

Aww I was just having a little fun =[

Sorry, sometimes I go a little too overboard, and get too serious.

 

[Kuchinawa212]

Huh. So a nerd that has a liking for shooters.
Hmm...nerd I agree with, but I'm no gun nut

Well the article was intending to be non-judgemental and seemed to gloss around associating people with the type of games they play. Probably because that could rapidly get offensive, even if it was accurate. Truthfully, people CAN be judged by their preferances.

Aww I was just having a little fun =[

Sorry, sometimes I go a little too overboard, and get too serious.

Nahh no worries. It's fine.

 

[RebelRising]

Interesting...I display all of my PC games, many of them Collector's Editions and such, on a tall shelf. But the shelf itself is located behind the door to my study, so that when someone opens the door, the shelf is immediately shielded by it; plus it is in a corner of the room, so it rarely sees the light of day.

Is this representative of an introverted personality that subconsciously yearns for open expression?

 

[Gladion]

Well I'm actually an artist playing with y-axis inverted. Ha!

Although I do consider myself rather analyzing and "think-before-act". Meh.

On a sidenote, I think I only play like this because Metroid Prime forced me to. Yes, you could actually change that, but try to find that 'options' menu on that fucking game!

Geez, that's already seven years ago... I'm getting old.

 

[Flamingpenguin]

Hmm... This is interesting.
Well, on my shelf there's... Mirror's edge, Bioshock, Time Splitters 2(although I lost it T_T), Pikmin, Gears of War, Sonic Adventure 2 Battle, Okami, Katamari Damacy, DDR games. (to name a few)
What I need: Good story, new mechanics, interesting art style (Not better definition brown worlds), and intuitive controls are a big +.
So I guess I'm a purist and an invert. Grinding sucks.

 

[pitasgame]

That was a pretty neat article! I would say from my own collection, I'm the type of person who needs to tie up loose ends (FF Everywhere!) I also love a good story and my love of observations would be suggested by my love of JRPG. I find that they are quite the little voyeurism games.
I have my PS1 still and the PS2 my husband bought me. I still have my PSP and we have the Wii as well as the PS3. I will wait to buy some games until they lower their costs (my patience), but some games I MUST have immediately (again FF).

My husband is more the purist as well as the repetitive gamer. He will play on most consoles including the computer/laptop. He prefers quality over quantity and will play a game for a good story as well as the amazing graphics and ability to talk to other players. I say he's the all around gamer. His games are wide and varied and brand new as well as classics that he waited patiently for. Our gaming shelves, which are in the entertainment units, are on display for everyone to see. We love people knowing just how much we love our gaming!!