"It's Just a Game"

[Asuka Soryu]

Video games are serious biz.

 

[Rastien]

"It's just a game" is an excuse I hear too often when I ask people to perform next time better because our defeat was in many parts their fault. Instead of just taking the advice (I always give advice how they can get better) they block with stupid shit like "It's just a game".

Please tell me you don't actually tell them that the defeat was their fault, but offer to give them this advice in a pleasant tone, rather than just...telling them straight up.

If not, no wonder they don't appreciate your "advice"...

Not in the slightest i never blame a defeat on a single person, i know full well i could have done 5 things better in each game. Games that i loose i re-watch in dota and pick out what i did wrong personally.

I greatly dislike people ragging on 1 person, i was literally trying to offer up some help to the guy. Usually its fine giving advice but for some reason this guy seemed to think i was making a personal attack against him : /

-edit Also i see alot of mention of joining a group/guild so ill ask here anyone intrested in playing some dota 2 matches usually about in the evening UK time for a few.

 

[Adam Jensen_v1legacy]

If it's just a game and you don't care, then don't play the fuckin' game.

It is never just a game. It is something that you're doing at the moment. And if you're doing something it is probably important to you. If it's important to you then you should learn how to do it properly instead of making excuses for your incompetence.

 

[TheLizardKing]

Why do people hate it when you take games seriously? When i get pissed off at Dark Souls and my brother tells me "It's just a game", it pisses me off even more.

 

[Syzygy23]

Generally i see this used, in my case when im trying to offer advise in dota 2 on how someone could improve there play. For example trying to convince an Anti-Mage to keep back as hes just gonna get cc'd down. All i got in reply was "LOL Nerd! its only a game don't take it srs"

God fucking damn it, I hate it when someone does this in DOTA. Look, yes, its just a game, but most people want to win and you can single handily make that impossible by acting like a dumbass again and again.

If you don't care about winning, don't play MOBA games. Thats just my two cents.

Don't you think that maybe these DotA games are just poorly designed if all it takes is ONE bad player to ruin the fun for everyone? I mean c'mon! In almost every other competitive multiplayer game ever made, one bad player can be carried by two good players, or one exceptional player.

If it's just a game and you don't care, then don't play the fuckin' game.

It is never just a game. It is something that you're doing at the moment. And if you're doing something it is probably important to you. If it's important to you then you should learn how to do it properly instead of making excuses for your incompetence.

That argument falls apart when closely examined. There are degrees of importance we assign to the things we do, like getting to work on time. That is something your average person learns to do properly. Those same persons(people) might also like playing sports, but unless these people are pro athletes, sports won't pay the bills, so while they might play a round of rugby/soccer/etc. in their spare time, they don't really have much incentive to play it competently. The simple experience of playing at all is good enough, and probably all they have time for.

So lets apply this logic to videogames. What do videogames accomplish for any given player? Entertainment. Nothing more. Videogames won't feed you, bathe you, or pay your electric bills, it's a luxury we distract ourselves with because we find it fun. Whether we play them 'competently' or not is ultimately irrelevant, winning or losing is irrelevant, because there is no tangible benefit other than whatever the individual player decides(decided) was/is fun to them.

Just because I play videogames doesn't mean I should or need to invest the time to become ultra-skilled at them just so some asshat across the internet can feel good about his team winning. If someone is dragging your team down, YOU can quit the game and find a new team, or play a different game.

 

[Last Hugh Alive]

If I'm playing online and I'm playing competitively then I'll accept defeat if I lose, I won't pull the "its just a game" card when I lose. However, if I'm just casually playing online and some jerk is swinging his dick around talking down at me for not matching his skill, then yeah I ought to tell him to settle down and point out how it doesn't really matter. Nothing really outside of that context though.

 

[Daveman]

should just follow it up with "and you're shit at it".

 

[Syzygy23]

Generally i see this used, in my case when im trying to offer advise in dota 2 on how someone could improve there play. For example trying to convince an Anti-Mage to keep back as hes just gonna get cc'd down. All i got in reply was "LOL Nerd! its only a game don't take it srs"

God fucking damn it, I hate it when someone does this in DOTA. Look, yes, its just a game, but most people want to win and you can single handily make that impossible by acting like a dumbass again and again.

If you don't care about winning, don't play MOBA games. Thats just my two cents.

Don't you think that maybe these DotA games are just poorly designed if all it takes is ONE bad player to ruin the fun for everyone? I mean c'mon! In almost every other competitive multiplayer game ever made, one bad player can be carried by two good players, or one exceptional player.

And almost all coop oriented games can be fucked up by that one guy. The if coop is the carrying feature then you can say that it is "poorly designed" because one guys performance can save the day.

In Left 4 Dead or Killing Floor even ONE good player can carry a team of newbs to victory, and yet those games can still remain a challenge to everyone involved.

In the older Unreal games one or two good players could carry an entire TEAM. All of the above games require just as much if not more situational awareness than any MOBA out today and yet the ratio of good players per team remains more balanced and less stupid. If anything, they don't involve the concept of 'feeding', which is a terrible mechanic and is the cornerstone of the shitty MOBA design.

Seriously, how can you defend a game that won't let the good players be good at the game because everyone on the other team managed to make their numbers high enough to shrug off anything you can throw at them because you had ONE new guy just learning the ropes on your team?

Last time I checked, being skillful at something is supposed to be FUN and REWARDING, not an exercise in impotence and frustration.

 

[Rastien]

Don't you think that maybe these DotA games are just poorly designed if all it takes is ONE bad player to ruin the fun for everyone? I mean c'mon! In almost every other competitive multiplayer game ever made, one bad player can be carried by two good players, or one exceptional player.

Nah, it's part of what makes MOBA games so great. Have to be aware of your surroundings and concentrate for an hour straight, one person out of 5 fucking up can cost you the entire game, etc.

I don't know if DOTA was intentionally designed that way or it just kinda turned out that way by accident and they went with it, but if it was different, I wouldn't be playing DOTA.

Unfortuntley its the way it is, and its great fun but has one of the steepest learning curve ever to climb. The thing is good players will quickly pick out the lame duck on an enemy team and begin to "feed" off them constantly hunting them down and killing them to get a ridiculous advantage.

I do agree with smash here its what makes DOTA and other MOBA games so much fun, it revolves around team play and a harsh enviroment where a couple wrong moves and greatly give your opponents the advantage

Generally i see this used, in my case when im trying to offer advise in dota 2 on how someone could improve there play. For example trying to convince an Anti-Mage to keep back as hes just gonna get cc'd down. All i got in reply was "LOL Nerd! its only a game don't take it srs"

God fucking damn it, I hate it when someone does this in DOTA. Look, yes, its just a game, but most people want to win and you can single handily make that impossible by acting like a dumbass again and again.

If you don't care about winning, don't play MOBA games. Thats just my two cents.

Don't you think that maybe these DotA games are just poorly designed if all it takes is ONE bad player to ruin the fun for everyone? I mean c'mon! In almost every other competitive multiplayer game ever made, one bad player can be carried by two good players, or one exceptional player.

And almost all coop oriented games can be fucked up by that one guy. The if coop is the carrying feature then you can say that it is "poorly designed" because one guys performance can save the day.

In Left 4 Dead or Killing Floor even ONE good player can carry a team of newbs to victory, and yet those games can still remain a challenge to everyone involved.

In the older Unreal games one or two good players could carry an entire TEAM. All of the above games require just as much if not more situational awareness than any MOBA out today and yet the ratio of good players per team remains more balanced and less stupid. If anything, they don't involve the concept of 'feeding', which is a terrible mechanic and is the cornerstone of the shitty MOBA design.

Seriously, how can you defend a game that won't let the good players be good at the game because everyone on the other team managed to make their numbers high enough to shrug off anything you can throw at them because you had ONE new guy just learning the ropes on your team?

Last time I checked, being skillful at something is supposed to be FUN and REWARDING, not an exercise in impotence and frustration.

Last time i played left 4 dead 2, 1 bad player can wreck a game and i was kicked constantly from versus for this : / because i was bad. No on offered advise just raged at me (usually in french?) then kicked me gave up on left 4 dead 2 after this happend for a good 2 days.

Also i play a huge amount of TF2 (competivley for a time) and whilst you do need decent awareness, its nothing like DOTA. Keeping track of all lanes, enemy heros, working out where they are/where they are going to be, even if in the rare case your team is helpful and call mia/ss you still have to watch like a hawk.

 

[Rastien]

should just follow it up with "and you're shit at it".

lol, i would but i really don't like to be an asshole online anymore as funny as i find that adn i would laugh should i see it ingame i try to avoid behaving like that hehe

 

[justnotcricket]

Otherwise its the good old "internet courage" at large.
Goes into the large pile of "shit you wouldn't dare say to a guy in person"

Which is why I will only ever play local co-op. It's limiting, to be sure, but I refuse to play multiplayer unless said other players are within throttling distance. I've never had a problem with people being rude or unpleasant during competitive multiplayer/co-op for this reason. Most, if not all of the problems of the internet are caused by (perceived) anonymity. If you remove this, you remove the problem.

As I said, however, it is limiting =P

Also, to put a less negative spin on it, I also just happen to like the cameraderie of actually being physically in the presence of people I'm playing a game/hanging out with. =)

OT: Since I'm not really a competitive person, I don't tend to have this problem much. As in, to me (and generally anyone I'm playing with) it is literally just a game. However, if it were a truly competitive environment, it's not a phrase I imagine would go down well. I might wheel it out if someone was getting dangerously, negatively competitive, however - not in the mocking sense, but in the 'Dude, chill. Reality check.' sense.

 

[Adam Jensen_v1legacy]

That argument falls apart when closely examined. There are degrees of importance we assign to the things we do, like getting to work on time. That is something your average person learns to do properly. Those same persons(people) might also like playing sports, but unless these people are pro athletes, sports won't pay the bills, so while they might play a round of rugby/soccer/etc. in their spare time, they don't really have much incentive to play it competently. The simple experience of playing at all is good enough, and probably all they have time for.

But it isn't just a game. And isn't just a round of [insert random sport]. It is something you're invested in at that moment. When you're doing something, in that moment that is the most important thing. If it isn't then you're wasting your time and you should do something else that you actually value. Even if in the grand scheme of things it is irrelevant. In the grand scheme of things everything is irrelevant since we all die in the end anyway.

All I'm saying is, if you are doing something willingly, whatever that is, you can't use the "it's just [insert activity]" line. The mere fact that you're involved in a certain activity means that it's a part of your life that you value enough to invest your time in it.
I may have stepped over the line when I said that you should apply yourself and become more competent in said activity. But that's only because I hate incompetence.

 

[Bertylicious]

"It's just a game" is an excuse I hear too often when I ask people to perform next time better because our defeat was in many parts their fault. Instead of just taking the advice (I always give advice how they can get better) they block with stupid shit like "It's just a game".

Please tell me you don't actually tell them that the defeat was their fault, but offer to give them this advice in a pleasant tone, rather than just...telling them straight up.

If not, no wonder they don't appreciate your "advice"...

Whilst; "You lost because you suck, in future, try to suck less" is funny it is not constructive.

OT= The thing is though that multiplayer isn't just a game; it's a game played with/against other people. Now in a versus game I'd much rather have a good old ding-dong game that's pretty close and, preferably, settled by someone doing something awesome. In that case it transends being a game and becomes an Experience. With a capital 'E'.

If people are just noobing around noobing it up with their noobiness then it isn't fun and that basically means they're stealing my fun away from me.

 

[Trippy Turtle]

If you are playing a game with other people there are going to be people who just want to enjoy it. I sometimes want to win and sometimes I pick up the enemy in a warthog and drive around. If you want to be serious about games then i suggest getting a team you know together or playing single player.

 

[OldNewNewOld]

Well, it is just a game. ^^

But I understand what you mean. I have the same problem with that phrase. It is a game, but it is also a competitive game. And just because it's a game doesn't give you the right to ruin the experience of the other 9 player(I'm playing DotA 2 also).

There is a different between playing DotA 2, TF2 and Super Mario Bros.
All 3 are games, but the first one is a heavily team based competitive game, the second is a team based game where 1 player doesn't make a too big difference and the later one is "just a game" where you can do what you want.

It annoys me when people don't realize that there a huge difference between such games. One intentionally bad player in DotA is enough to ruin the best team simply because the enemy can feed on him. Or even worse, he is the carry and he can't farm, which makes you lose 30 minutes of your life on a game that was doomed from the start.

And the worst kind of player are those who say "it's just a game" when you give them a friendly advise. No flaming, no QQing, not bitching, just a friendly, well intended advise in a friendly tone and good manners.

To clarify. I don't mind if someone is a newbie as long as he doesn't play intentionally bad and/or outright refuses to listen to a advise that he/she clearly needs.

 

[Crazy Zaul]

Most WOW players REALLY need to learn that its just a game.

 

[dangitall]

Yea it happens in League, sometimes doubles standards apply as well, which pisses me off.

For example:
Me playing with this guy
*Guy makes a mistake and dies in a stupid way*
Me: Initiate after our tank next time.
Guy: It's just a game whatever.
Me: Just remember next time, we lose fights with you dying like that.
*10 minutes later, I make a small mistake that gets me killed*
Guy: WTF are you retarded or high or sumthin
Me: Oh, sorry.
Guy: Yea, that was so stupid, I shouldnt be taking advice from a noob like you.

Spoiler: My expression

 

[TehCookie]

When it comes to competitive things, it is just a game. I just want to have fun and not have some random guy nag at me because I'm not taking it as seriously as he is. I don't get why people yell at the screen during sports games either.

However when people say that as I'm playing single player I act completely melodramatic and say it's not just a game, it's a game I'm emotionally invested in and shit just happened! Curse and praise the games that can manipulate my emotions like a puppet. Why is it weird to cry at a game, yet not a movie or book? Can they not posses moving stories?

 

[Don Savik]

I try my hardest at League of Legends, but if its not a ranked game there really isn't anything I can do to be honest. Just have to nut up and shut up. If someone on your team sucks, just try and carry the game as long as possible because you aren't going to win every game. Someone is a dumbass? Just report em.

And Moba games you want to have voice chat with friends to do well in my experience. If you want to play a game seriously, then you need to find the specific modes and servers where people play it seriously. You can't go into a random bullshit game and say "play it correctly noobs" because that is never going to work.

 

[BathorysGraveland]

I do know that term well, for I actively use it myself. Not all of us are competitive or wish to be the top of the scoreboard. Some people, such as myself, simply play games for enjoyment and have a little fun. It's crazy, I know.