Howdy, Stranger!
It looks like you're new here. If you want to get involved, click one of these buttons!
Quick Links
Let's stop with the "no-life" thing
Goronian
Member Posts: 724
I'ev been on these forums for about a year and a half. Since then, I've seen countless accusations of being a "no-life" directed at someone.
Thing is... It's bloody hilarious.
Look, yes, older games were more of a grind and required bigger time investment and as you graduated colleges and became busy, you couldn't keep up, since you had a life now.
Now take a deep breath. Take a deep breath again, just to check if you can actually do it.
"No-lifes", people who play religiously up to and not limited by 16 hours a day will exist in every single game, released on the market, and will be there as long, as the genre is alive. It's not a demographic, but almost (Dramatic drums) an age group.
Another thing to take note of. I remember back in... 2006, I think. Mass media discovered WoW. You remember how many jokes people made, about WoW players being obsessive "no-lives", who played it religiously, wasted ridiculous amounts of time on it and, gasp, raided? Remember that one South Park episode (no, I don't like SP)? It wasn't about EQI, you know. From the perspective of masses, every single one of us is an obsessive loser, without a life.
Thank you, and goodnight.
I hate WoW because it made my plush hamster kill himself, created twin clones of Hitler, punched Superboy Prime in reality, stared my dog down, spoiled my grandmother, assimilated me into the Borg, then made me into a real boy, just to make me a woman again.
Comments
omg ur nerdy jokes u have no life!! lol not.. i'll admit i usually go about 4-8 hours a day on my MMO/video game of choice.. sometimes more when i don't have work the next day..
I still have a life.. Even if that life pretty much equals work, video games, and sleep; maybe with a shower inbetween and not always in that order.
Currently Playing:
Rift + Starcraft II + Gears Of War 3 Beta
I graduated and play games 16 hours a day so fu.
Benefits ftw!
Get a life!
all those people saying "get a life" are just too jealous to realize, that some people are content with for e.g. playing games most of their free time. imo don't even bother with those kind of people.
Those people whom you call "no life" are the richest ones in the game... Some because of botting. Also, some sell their accounts for lots of money.
Everyone has a life or they wouldn't be playing or posting. Well unless they are zombies or computer simulations but then I read we all might be a big simulation. So does that mean we all have no life even though we think we have a life because the simulation says we do even though we don't because we are not, you see?
I like the zombie thing more though, just imagine when the zombies get bored of playing MMOs and decide to run around saying brains and such, good times.
"No Lifer" is an apt description of the most addicted MMO gamers but most of the time "No lifer" is over used as a petty insult by trolls. Calling someone a "No Lifer" on this forum is like calling someone gay.
Ex: Poster 1 "AION players are a bunch of no lifers."
Poster 2 "WoW players are gay."
It is not something to be taken in the litteral sense. It is just an insult.
its still stupid..
and what person with any kind of 'life' gets on mmorpg.com forums? i mean really.. i know people who've played mmos almost their whole life and dont even know sites like these exist lol. So really we're just a bunch of geeks/nerds gathered together. I think we're all in the same boat here.
F'ing no lifers >.<
(btw its 6am and i'm on these forums.. my wife is behind me watching tv like "bed time yet?" and im like "no women theres people on these forums! and they must hear my words!)
But you have to admit.. Often the discription fits.. It's more of an internet thing, the anything.. Especially in games that are designed with the mechanics of keep up or stay home, like WoW.. WoW is designed that there is only ever ONE hot "raid" , and the old ones end up being forgotten, or only used for Alts (which is not all that common).. WoW went from Naxx, to Ulduar, to ToC, to ICC (I'm not counting your mini raids fights that only have 1 or a couple mobs).. Games like WoW where guilds promote raiding, and attendence is required IF you want to be selected force people to log on, or LOSE OUT.. I have known hundreds while playing WoW that virtually had no life OUTSIDE playing WoW and being on Vent/Team Speak..
One way to combat this problem short of putting a time limit on the games.. Is to stop designing the game that encourages players to play.. Meaning, do not use psychological toys, that make the player feel he's losing out, or missing something when they are not logged on.. Allow and promote players to log on and off at will, without giving them the feeling they just missed out on a raid drop, etc etc.. Until you do so, "no-lifers" will always be exploited and visable..
The same people who think gamers have no life are clogging up Facebook by posting pictures of their fluffy god damn cat staring intently at the new goldfish ($13.99) swimming around in the new goldfish bowl ($24.99). The fish will be dead in two days. Then they'll post pics of the poor thing floating belly up. And their friends (who also presumably have lives) will take plenty of time to post sympathetic comments chock full of
emotes.
Who has no life again?
I am convinced there is only one way to eliminate these grave evils, namely through the establishment of a socialist economy, accompanied by an educational system which would be oriented toward social goals.
~Albert Einstein
This is a really immature thread.
Save a life!
If a person works 80+ hours a week, they are considered to have no life.
If a person posts 24/7 on Facebook or on a message board like this one, they're considered to have no life.
So yes. If you play a game 16+ hours a day constantly, you HAVE NO LIFE.
There have been times when I've done all the above. And during those times I can admit, I had NO LIFE.
If that's what you wanna do, fine. Embrace it. Don't pretend that the person who observes it and states the obvious is in the wrong. Don't pretend it's a positive or even neutral thing to be obsessed with something that has little or no real world value. At least a workaholic tends to get paid well...
There's some truth to this.
I played these games hardcore, regularly putting in 40 hour weeks on EVE, CoH, SWG, and EQII. Yes, I had no life then, so I used the games to fill up the time.
Funny thing about these games. They are attractive because you are able to put forth some time and some concentration and see tangible results for your time and concentration. It's the way life is supposed to work, but often times doesn't, especially in this time of uncertainty.
So to say that the games are a proxy for life is not altogether wrong. They are, or at least they can be. When life is in a holding pattern, the games are a way to get something done that means something. It's a way of taking charge of one's destiny when the world seems hopeless. I don't mean to portray this as unnatural or wrong. It's probably the most natural reaction a person could have to a world that doesn't seem to respond.
When things started moving again in my life, I no longer had interest in the games. Life was just so much better. No need to retreat to the online world when the real world was so much more satisfying. But it wasn't always that way, and I recognize why I spent so much time in the games. It was a way to experience something I could control at a time when my circumstances were, for the most part, out of my control.
__________________________
"Its sad when people use religion to feel superior, its even worse to see people using a video game to do it."
--Arcken
"...when it comes to pimping EVE I have little restraints."
--Hellmar, CEO of CCP.
"It's like they took a gun, put it to their nugget sack and pulled the trigger over and over again, each time telling us how great it was that they were shooting themselves in the balls."
--Exar_Kun on SWG's NGE
Wow, logic and insight. Where am I again?
What?!?!?!?! You don't like Southpark?!?!?! Get a life!
There are those of us who play video games (And MMOs) in our spare time and have a very balanced life of work/family/choirs/fun/and games. But you are forgetting a main demographic that is highly drawn to video games, the loner with poor social skills.
There have been enough studies that show the people who have poor social skills and have a hard time making friends/starting a relationship are drawn to video games as an escape. As such those people tend to play an excessive amount of time and let it get into all aspects of their life (like following all the message boards, the beta leaks etc etc because their life revolved around it). Those people would almost always be classified as having no life and they are a major section of the video game market. It does not mean that all people who play video games have no life, but obviously stereotypes will pop up around those people. Getting upset over it doesn't change anything.
I actually only use these boards while I'm at work and I want to take a break for a few minutes, I don't have enough interest in these types of boards (and the conversations they cause) to waste my free time on them. However, there are people out there who take boards like this seriously because they're life revolves around gaming and could waste hours on end trolling here. Does that mean everyone who posts here has no life, spends too much time on these boards, and takes gaming too seriously? No. Is it a stereotype that would pop up because enough of the people here do? Yes.
'No Life'
why people get so offended by two little words? terms like these are usually used for those individuals who get obsessed with a certain activity let it be gaming, face book or television and ignore other responsibilities in life like friends, family, job, studies etc.
If you are doing that yes it is unhealthy and there is nothing to feel proud of it. People have lost jobs and families because of their addictions and i am not talking just about video games here. It is no fun being ending up alone without any real friends, a decent job and someone to love or care about. Most of you getting offende by it or feeling proud of your 16 hours a day routine might be feeling proud right now or 'who gives a damn' attitude feels right but when you grow up and realise how much more is there to life i hope you won't end up being depressed. Addiction of any kind is bad and if you think you have one, i suggest start doing something about it right now.
I speak from my own personal experince, it doesn't take much to get your 'no life' life back on track.
I'd add that the cause/effect of what you're talking about is not so cut and dried. Sometimes it's not having poor social skills that tends to draw people into gaming. Sometimes it's a very strong draw to video games that leaves a person with poor social skills.
I'd submit PnP RPG's for evidence. PnP games are by their very nature, social games. They carry the same escapism that video games do, but you can't play them on your own. they often even carry the same audience. However, most video games have lacked this easy social setting. They have the escapism without the social interaction, and if you play them for most of your free time, your social skills will suffer.
MMO's, you might expect would change that, but often they don't, for the same reason that hanging out in the middle of a mall won't make you more social. Folks tend to have their agenda, and you have yours. LFG tools help that alot, linking folks with the same quests, but it's not gonna be the same as a bunch of folks choosing a time to get together and do the exact same thing.
There are people who spend way to much energy on video games. Call them no-lifers or addicts but they have problems.
Let's avoid baiting others in the discussion guys. Thanks! Remember to follow our Rules of Conduct.
Excellent post, Beatnik! Though I'd just say that progress in a game doesn't mean much. It has the psychological impact, like you said, of giving you the notion of progress when RL ventures seem to be in a rut. Guitar Hero caters specifically to this. Can't seem to find your way around the pentatonic scale? Just pop in GH and in an hour you can play Hot for Teacher note for note!
Escapism when you feel like you're in a rut is one thing. Letting your life fall into a rut while you're busy playing is another. Glad you went with the former!
PnP games is just a different form of what I said. They are most often (not always) played by people who are outcast from the popular social circles so they join together since they are all outcasts. It is the same for any sub social group like the people who dressed up in goth or the emo movement. They are people who didn't fit in with the normal social groups and met up with other people who didn't fit in with the normal social groups so they created their own in their search for acceptance. It is exactly the same as gamers joining in guilds/clans etc. for different types of gaming. They get their social needs filled by grouping with others in the same situation.
But as always these situations do not cover everyone. There are people who have well adjusted lives, are very social with everyone, and play pnp games. Just like there are people with well adjusted lives who join gaming groups.
What it does show is where the stereotype comes from. It is the reason why so many kids who dress up like goths, play dungeons and dragons, spend all day playing MMOs, get picked on in school. They generally didn't fit into the social norms. It doesn't mean that they didn't have social skills, and naturally not all of the people who dressed like goths, played d&d, and played MMOs got picked on either. Everything has exceptions. But what appears as the standard is what becomes the stereotype, and most people notice the MMO players who aren't well adjusted.
Then I guess we might disagree on what "having poor social skills" means. To you, it seems to mean that they don't tend to have common interests with folks that are into popular things. Correct me if I'm wrong.
For me, having poor social skills = the inability to get along with/enjoy the company of/be enjoyable company for others. People don't like hanging out with you, and/or you don't like hanging out with them. You tend to annoy/cheese off most of the people you interact with.
That I couldn't care less about who got kicked off of American Idol last week despite that much of the mainstream population does says very little about my social skills, IMO. Now, if I were to alienate them, calling them sheeple because they like it, and talk about how if they don't like the greatest Emo/Ska/Jam/Punk band in the world, "Bacon Double Homicide", they're devoid of intelligence and musical taste, then yeah, that's pretty much evidence that I have crappy social skills. But that I might tend to hang with people that like that band over people that like American Idol, I don't think that really factors in at all.
real ife is way over rated, filled with bugs, imbalances and server crashes. not that intrested
Please do not respond to me, even if I ask you a question, its rhetorical.
Please do not respond to me