Dynasty
Space Core
- Joined
- Jul 2, 2004
- Messages
- 4,976
- Reaction score
- 17
havent posted an argumental post for a while so here goes, as this is a topic that drives me insane...and yes i know this kind of thing has been posted before:
Every time a violent crime is committed by youths, such as the latest school shooting in Minnesota, the media always seems to conjure up some sort of 'videogames are linked to or cause violence' argument that shines us gamers in a negative light. I mean most of us know that the typical 'hardcore' gamer is a lonely, awkward kid who is weirdly quiet at school and races home to spend hours playing games by himself, door closed and locked.
Well I'm tired of this pathetic idiocy. Anyone who spends 5 minutes playing these games understands the fallacy of the media's portrail of gamers (us). While yes it may be true that some gamers DO spend a hell of alot of time playing games, the games themselves are hardly a solitary experience. Some of the most popular games today, such as WoW and CS, are entirely about the multiplayer experience. These games dont just encourage social gaming, they REQUIRE it.
Let's use WoW as an example. First of all, MMORPGs simply dont have a viable singleplayer game. They are instead typically built around quests, and most of which are simply flat-out impossible to complete by yourself. So, naturally all the best items are dropped by the toughest monsters. In fact, some of the toughest require raids of upto 30+ people (all of the highest levels), working together for HOURS to bring it down. Before you start, you must ask buddies for a hand or make new ones through chat channels.
Also, singleplayer games open themselves up for critisism if they dont have an online component. The criteria for games nowadays seems increasingly bound to having a singleplayer and a working multiplayer environment. The draw of these games is that the game is never the same twice as you're playing against REAL people, instead of that sometimes clumsy AI running into walls and shooting at invisible pigeons in the sky. I mean, I personally feel uncomfortable playing a singleplayer when i have the opportunity just a few clicks away to play any other game with, or against, another person on possibly the other side of the world.
Perhaps its just me when i find the whole loner stereotype to be offensive as ive met more people through gaming than in real life (and so have you even though you wont publicaly admit it, and will tag along with the insults when someone else throws one at me for saying that
). Most gamers now PREFER playing with mates and making new ones for even more playability in their favourite game(s).
Sure there will always be solomly singleplayer games, but the way things are looking now, its only going to get more social. Wireless networks are simply going to be taking over. WoW has around 1.5million subscribers and still growing, and MMORPGs have encountered unpredicted popularity increases since their development. People like to play together. It doesnt take a psycology degree to know that. Its true for kids running around in the playground playing tag. Its true for wolf pups and lion cubs. Play is an activity often best when social.
As the world becomes more connected, gamers will be on the front line using these new technologies being developed all the time.
Humans are social creatures. So to the media:
'Why should gamers be any different???'
Every time a violent crime is committed by youths, such as the latest school shooting in Minnesota, the media always seems to conjure up some sort of 'videogames are linked to or cause violence' argument that shines us gamers in a negative light. I mean most of us know that the typical 'hardcore' gamer is a lonely, awkward kid who is weirdly quiet at school and races home to spend hours playing games by himself, door closed and locked.
Well I'm tired of this pathetic idiocy. Anyone who spends 5 minutes playing these games understands the fallacy of the media's portrail of gamers (us). While yes it may be true that some gamers DO spend a hell of alot of time playing games, the games themselves are hardly a solitary experience. Some of the most popular games today, such as WoW and CS, are entirely about the multiplayer experience. These games dont just encourage social gaming, they REQUIRE it.
Let's use WoW as an example. First of all, MMORPGs simply dont have a viable singleplayer game. They are instead typically built around quests, and most of which are simply flat-out impossible to complete by yourself. So, naturally all the best items are dropped by the toughest monsters. In fact, some of the toughest require raids of upto 30+ people (all of the highest levels), working together for HOURS to bring it down. Before you start, you must ask buddies for a hand or make new ones through chat channels.
Also, singleplayer games open themselves up for critisism if they dont have an online component. The criteria for games nowadays seems increasingly bound to having a singleplayer and a working multiplayer environment. The draw of these games is that the game is never the same twice as you're playing against REAL people, instead of that sometimes clumsy AI running into walls and shooting at invisible pigeons in the sky. I mean, I personally feel uncomfortable playing a singleplayer when i have the opportunity just a few clicks away to play any other game with, or against, another person on possibly the other side of the world.
Perhaps its just me when i find the whole loner stereotype to be offensive as ive met more people through gaming than in real life (and so have you even though you wont publicaly admit it, and will tag along with the insults when someone else throws one at me for saying that
). Most gamers now PREFER playing with mates and making new ones for even more playability in their favourite game(s).Sure there will always be solomly singleplayer games, but the way things are looking now, its only going to get more social. Wireless networks are simply going to be taking over. WoW has around 1.5million subscribers and still growing, and MMORPGs have encountered unpredicted popularity increases since their development. People like to play together. It doesnt take a psycology degree to know that. Its true for kids running around in the playground playing tag. Its true for wolf pups and lion cubs. Play is an activity often best when social.
As the world becomes more connected, gamers will be on the front line using these new technologies being developed all the time.
Humans are social creatures. So to the media:
'Why should gamers be any different???'
