Question of the Day, August 15, 2010

[Gladion]

Are those things qualities of gamers?

You'd be surprised. While the "casual gamer" is indistinguishable from the average Joe, there are gamers who are quite imaginative/intelligent/gifted at various things. Whether this is a result of or complimented by games, or that it has nothing to do with games, is debatable.

This is what I was going for. There are so many millions of gamers now it's inevitable there are some that are true geniuses. I say this has very little to do with them playing games.

Why? Experience tells me. Imagination? See people do nothing but play Modern Warfare or Counterstrike. All creative energy dies within them. Endurance? Check a versus game of Left 4 Dead. Problem-Solving? Is what we have gamefaqs for. Teamwork? In clan matches at most (and probably restricted to there) but be honest: What number of gamers do play within clans most of the time they game?

Man this post I just made is depressing myself alright.

 

[Misterian]

I'd say all of the above.

Including endurance, if you'll count playing single games in a bedroom that tiny and is around 80*F hot.

 

[gnomebard]

wow. when I voted "endurance" I was surprised that it was a minority answer. in my experience we gamers stick with a problem until it works. no mater how long it takes.

sure we may leave in the middle and come back later. but if we are focused on it we always come back to try finishing it.

it's also true of hard core "FPS" players. always coming back to find the way that can defeat all their opponents.

players of RPG's and WoW also have endurance it spades.

as for how this applies to "saving the world," lots of problems need clever people (Problem-solving and Imagination) to figure out what needs to change. and no problem can be fixed alone (Teamwork).

but problem-solving, imagination, and teamwork, are all in a days work. "Rome was not built in a day." and like wise the world can't be saved in one day. it takes dedication to the work that need doing that make the big difference in the end. it fails to make the big headlines. but with out "dedication to the work that need doing" the USA would not (I my personal opinion) have 'any' freedom of speech.

 

[Jark212]

A combination of imagination and problem-solving, with enough of both the applications to society could be limitless...

I'm kind of an optimist...

 

[SonicKoala]

I really have to question this idea that all gamers have a great imagination. Seriously, I have a terrible imagination - I couldn't even design my own level in LittleBigPlanet, and I know I'm not alone (I think this is well evidenced by the fact that only 20 people selected the "other" option, when the four options provided were pretty lackluster. "Imagination" my ass.)

If I was to pick one of the four, I'd say problem solving, but above all else, I think that gamers tend to be some of the most open-minded and accepting people you'll ever meet (if this website is any indication, anyway). And after all, isn't it closed-mindedness and ignorance which causes most of the problems in our society?

 

[Chainsauce]

The fact that we take time to just "play" and have fun is a big plus in my book.

 

[Random Argument Man]

http://media.photobucket.com/image/Solid%20Snake%20Imagination/BaconRaptor/ImaginationSnake.jpg (Link if the image doesn't work.)

Because "Team and work" only exist in certain games.

 

[nerdpride]

Forgive me for being Devil's Advocate again and again, but other forms of media appear to have been incapable of doing the whole "change the world for the better" thing. I think games are just a hobby for pleasure, even less enlightening than others, and also only appealing to a niche of society.

 

[Twilight.falls]

I said imagination.

It takes great minds to come up with (and enjoy playing) many games out there.

Mario, Katamary Damacy, F-zero, Starcraft, Warcraft, Team Fortress, Fallout, Half Life, Command and Conquer, Mass Effect, Oblivion, Zelda, Pokemon, Final Fantasy, Street Fighter, Kingdom Hearts, Bioshock, God of War, Earthbound, Diablo, Left 4 Dead, Rise of Legends, and Spore.

That's just a list of games I plucked off the top of my head, and all of them are incredibly creative and imaginative. Truly gifted minds thought all that up, and will continue to do so until gaming dies.

 

[sapphireofthesea]

To Quote Spongebob.

"IMMAAAGINAAATTION!"

Calumon: Why did Jack just draw a rainbow with his hands?

Because he is magical (or mad) ^^
10 points for cuteness Calumon.

OT: Imagination I think is gamer best quality and the one most likely to have an impact. Because games are alreay geared to think outside of the box and try crazy idea for solving things or just plain used to odd and interesting things happening, they are capable of thinking of many different ways of doing things or providing a desired effect.
This is not to be confused with problem solving, in this case it is the tabling of ideas and concepts that their large exposure to different gaming environments would allow that is the key advantage. Even if the concepts as they stand my not offer the final answer it can awaken a new train of thought in others that would bring about the desired result.

That is alot of words XD. Simply put while everyone is thinking fish for dinner, the gamer will say dinosuar and then someone will start thinking about other kinds of meat.

 

[Comma-Kazie]

I almost said "imagination", but I think a combination of all of those qualities is the best answer.

 

[Estarc]

I don't think gamers can be said to have any one group of qualities. I mean, the type of people that play different genres of games can be vastly different. My two favourite types of games are RPGs and RTSs, and I think that I am quite a different person than those who count FPSs as their favourite. Additionally, what of those people who only play World of Warcraft? Or even Farmville?

I'd say the best quality I offer the world and society is a keen mind, with a knack for problem solving. But others with interest in MMOs might instead offer good social skills and teamwork. Or they might not - the different types of people you can encounter on an MMO is staggering.

I don't think that gamers are unified by any quality other than the fact that they play games as a source of entertainment.

 

[JEBWrench]

I said other, the other being the ability to buy products that often last only hours before they become far less entertaining at insane prices.

I'm going to go with this one. It helps keep the economy going.

Either that or an extremely inflated opinion of oneself?

 

[Ragsnstitches]

Are those things qualities of gamers?

You'd be surprised. While the "casual gamer" is indistinguishable from the average Joe, there are gamers who are quite imaginative/intelligent/gifted at various things. Whether this is a result of or complimented by games, or that it has nothing to do with games, is debatable.

This is what I was going for. There are so many millions of gamers now it's inevitable there are some that are true geniuses. I say this has very little to do with them playing games.

Why? Experience tells me. Imagination? See people do nothing but play Modern Warfare or Counterstrike. All creative energy dies within them. Endurance? Check a versus game of Left 4 Dead. Problem-Solving? Is what we have gamefaqs for. Teamwork? In clan matches at most (and probably restricted to there) but be honest: What number of gamers do play within clans most of the time they game?

Man this post I just made is depressing myself alright.

You got me all depressed too

But yeah, I agree to an extent. The trendy gamers (those who hop on to the latest CoD game and others such) are probably the least likely to gain anything from games. Left 4 Dead is notorious for "rage quitters" so that sort of pops endurance. Gamerfaqs does negate problem solving.

But even these are only a fraction of the overall community. Comprehensive RTS's, Deep RPG's, Various levels of puzzle games, complicated story driven games, all exist in the gaming world and do indeed have an audience who keeps them alive. These people must be in some way, affected by the more challenging side or the more personalised side or the more complicated side or the more inspired side of gaming.

I wouldn't count myself as a genius, but I know games have broadened my appeal on certain topics, have made me look at things in a different way, have encouraged me to seek my own ideas, have taxed my brain with complicated scenarios or have inspired me with powerful stories.

You must have played a game where you came out from it feeling better then before you came in (which isn't the case for the likes CoD, where I usually come out feeling pissed off).

 

[Anarchemitis]

42% of people think the highest aspiration of man is Engineering. They're probably right.

Reminded me of a joke. In this world, there are a lot of questions that the answers hinge on exactly who you ask. Engineers, for example:

Ask a math engineer what Pi is, they'll tell you they need a bigger team and a bigger budget to answer that question.

Ask a architectural engineer what Pi is, they'll tell you that it's roughly 3 1/4.

Ask a civil engineer what Pi is, they'll say it's F4 in the vending machine.

Ask a mechanical engineer what Pi is, they'll divulge the number to a certainty of 5 digits [http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/MouthfulOfPi].

 

[2fish]

Problem solving is the answer. We have suffered through game logic so much that we look for answeres where other people would never think to go. Plus in TF2 I always have to play where I am going to place my traps, how I am going to move, and how I am going to get the team to act like a damn team.

 

[klaynexas3]

you think gamers have teamwork....BWAHAHAHAHAHAHA wow, i have yet to play a game with people that don't just leeroy jenkins everything. plus, this isn't bob the fucking builder, in real life, most people tend to look after themselves, and in teams, tend to find the best way to come out on top in the end and screw everyone over. seriously, i have very little hope for the humanity in people who actually have a hold on this world, and if you make it to a position of power over the world, you lose the humanity you wanted to use to change for the better, but then it just changes for the better for you.

OT: i'd say imagination. it sort of goes hand in hand with problem solving, so if you have imagination, you can most likely solve problems well, because you can think outside the box. i can't say it works so well the other way around, which is why i went with imagination. besides, it'd be fun to actually have inventors use their imaginations and make stuff like jet packs and virtual reality. it may not sound original or imaginative, but since we have yet to see these two things, it would be very original

 

[joshuaayt]

Imagination. Problem solving is obviously a must, but it's not like problem solving is a new thing. Gaming requires (no matter what you hear) a large heaping of imagination- the idea of turning a superficial image into a whole world would seem mind boggling (and pointless, as my father snidely just pointed out) to those older generation types, in a way that a book might to a Neanderthal. As the world gets more and more complex, so too does the problem solving required to help it- we need imagination to have the incredible ideas, so problem solvers can make them credible.