Also some players get a total rush playing games, especially PvP.
Without the essentially adrenal reactions, it's doubtful PVP would be a sufficiently stimulating exercise to drive an entire industry. It would be purely logical tactical--a West Point exam--something some players say they aspire to, but not many ever truly reach.
Ditto horror films :P
Self-pity imprisons us in the walls of our own self-absorption. The whole world shrinks down to the size of our problem, and the more we dwell on it, the smaller we are and the larger the problem seems to grow.
Games and gaming only say that nothing has changed, just the technology.
OP posts a quote about Rome and the arena, our desire for entertainment and distraction from the more mundane aspects of life is still ever-present - we've just advanced the medium by which we take it in. It's been that way since the beginning of civilisation, people like entertainment.
Originally posted by Icewhite Er....our ability to create tempests in teapots and complain about nearly anything, is essentially without limit?
The complaints on these forums tell us that games don't quench our thirst for excitement and adventure.
If I wanted excitement and adventure I wouldn't be playing minesweeper on a computer. I'd be in Serbia sweeping for actual mines. They have a shortage of volunteers for some reason. I want games to stimulate my imagination because I can't afford the real thing.
The reason you'd rather play WoW than sweep for mines in Serbia is due to the amygdala in your brain.
The amygdala in your brain is totally adverse to real risk (that could harm you).
Playing WoW etc isn't real risk, so your amygdala doesn't fire off.
I'd rather sweep mines in Serbia than play WoW. I'd still be jumping out of perfectly good airplanes for entertainment but my knees won't take it any more. The reason I'm risk averse isn't brain chemistry. I'm just as capable of winning a Darwin Award as anyone else but I have obligations to other people. You're grossly oversimplifying the human experience.
This is interesting. The fact that sweeping for mines or parachuting doesn't bother you suggests that you must have undergone lots of training, so the experience is acceptable to you.
Nevertheless, the amygdala fear response is deep seated within us. For example, imagine you are walking along in the jungle. You are thinking about the finer points of mine clearance in Serbia or the daily quests in WoW. Suddenly you see a tiger. You would freeze as the amygdala interrupts your frontal cortex - You don't want to continue to think about clearing mines or WoW as you prepare to flee from the tiger or fight it.
Originally posted by tarodin playing games ussually destroys the youth power to change the world.
And that is exactly why games were created. Entertainment is used to dumb down the population.
...Assuming Big Brother is behind everything...
Very Orwellian philosophies, this morning.
"Senet has been found in Predynastic and First Dynasty burials of Egypt, c. 3500 BC and 3100 BC respectively"--hmm, nope, don't think games have anything to do with sinister Them motives.
Self-pity imprisons us in the walls of our own self-absorption. The whole world shrinks down to the size of our problem, and the more we dwell on it, the smaller we are and the larger the problem seems to grow.
Originally posted by tarodin playing games ussually destroys the youth power to change the world.
The world would change even if humans didn't exist. Self-importance is the quintessential human delusion.
"This journey
Without time
Always the beginning
Yet perpetual end
I found we never left...." -gwar
That is not the kind of change he is talking about. I am addicted to the games i won't deny it. Many times i think what if i used all these hours somewhere else? i could be working for some social cause, travel the world and help people, maybe write a book or finish that painting i have been working on for past 6 months.
Maybe who knows if i am able to beat this addiction i might inspire someone..even if just one person and i would say i made some contribution to this world in my short life. I hate myself sometimes for wasting so many hours.
So yes gaming is nothing but a drain on youth and their ability to inspire and do great things in life.
How would you know the world exists if there were no humans to see it?
Utilitarian philosophy now.
Self-pity imprisons us in the walls of our own self-absorption. The whole world shrinks down to the size of our problem, and the more we dwell on it, the smaller we are and the larger the problem seems to grow.
Originally posted by tarodin playing games ussually destroys the youth power to change the world.
The world would change even if humans didn't exist. Self-importance is the quintessential human delusion.
"This journey
Without time
Always the beginning
Yet perpetual end
I found we never left...." -gwar
That is not the kind of change he is talking about. I am addicted to the games i won't deny it. Many times i think what if i used all these hours somewhere else? i could be working for some social cause, travel the world and help people, maybe write a book or finish that painting i have been working on for past 6 months.
Maybe who knows if i am able to beat this addiction i might inspire someone..even if just one person and i would say i made some contribution to this world in my short life. I hate myself sometimes for wasting so many hours.
So yes gaming is nothing but a drain on youth and their ability to inspire and do great things in life.
All the things i want to do in life..so many things i think about and yet i am always stuck in same cycle.
I feel you. They say its never too late...and one of these days i am going to break the cycle.
Well it is necessary to have a human observer or else we wouldn't even be able to have this discussion.
The trick is (when getting rid of the silly humans) talking the other guy into going first.
Self-pity imprisons us in the walls of our own self-absorption. The whole world shrinks down to the size of our problem, and the more we dwell on it, the smaller we are and the larger the problem seems to grow.
Well it is necessary to have a human observer or else we wouldn't even be able to have this discussion.
This discussion has no bearing on the hypothetical experiment presented. You are again showing the 'self-important' thought paradigm. If you believe the universe cannot exist without humanity then this discussion can go no further.
Well it is necessary to have a human observer or else we wouldn't even be able to have this discussion.
This discussion has no bearing on the hypothetical experiment presented. You are again showing the 'self-important' thought paradigm. If you believe the universe cannot exist without humanity then this discussion can go no further.
I choose to see myself as god because without me being here to have this discussion with you, you wouldn't exist. I let you exist with my participation in this thread.
I don't think the games are as much a commentary on our society as is the people getting so very, very angry about them and about what people think about them. Try telling people that the top five single player console games have a higher level of quality than the top five MMOs and see how angry people get.
I can not remember winning or losing a single debate on the internet.
Well it is necessary to have a human observer or else we wouldn't even be able to have this discussion.
This discussion has no bearing on the hypothetical experiment presented. You are again showing the 'self-important' thought paradigm. If you believe the universe cannot exist without humanity then this discussion can go no further.
I choose to see myself as god because without me being here to have this discussion with you, you wouldn't exist. I let you exist with my participation in this thread.
Well, thank you for your generosity. I appreciate existing because of you. Like i said this discussion cannot evolve anymore than this. A shame you cannot disassociate yourself from your beliefs, as open-minded discussions are the staple of learning and understanding.
It says the human race has mastered survival and we no longer have to pay much attention to it. Instead, we can spend a huge amount of our time & effort in entertainment.
I don't think the games are as much a commentary on our society as is the people getting so very, very angry about them and about what people think about them. Try telling people that the top five single player console games have a higher level of quality than the top five MMOs and see how angry people get.
I think people getting angry about different opinions regarding something as trivial as video game preferences speaks volumes about us too. That said the fact that most people want to play games in which they spend the vast majority of their time killing things also tells us something about ourselves. So I do think the games say something in themselves even though I recognize that as much could be deduced, if not more, from our little flame wars regarding the games themselves.
I remember someone once trying to claim that the insatiable desires people have for MMOs and their reactions to companies unable to keep pace with their wants and needs indicated a failure of capitalism. Personally I wouldn't go that far, and the amount of demand that all of the hype around new games can create might even indicate the opposite even if the result is the masses get restless but I found it an interesting opinion nevertheless. The point is there is much to speculate about what both the games we choose to play and about how us as gamers behave in regards to life and society.
Anyway thanks for all the responses. Assuming people who have posted in this thread are gamers which I think would be a safe assumption for the most part, people have been very honest.
Originally posted by dgarbini That our lives in modern society are relatively unrewarding. And perhaps something about detachment to others.
This sums it up for me, except I would go a bit further and say our lives in modern affluent societies are also alienating at the deepest level.
I've recently being doing lots of free online courses at https://www.coursera.org/ and I'm finding a lot more satisfaction from studying that from gaming these days. Which is not to say that I don't miss the days when I enjoyed gaming, and the escapism it sometimes provided.
Comments
Without the essentially adrenal reactions, it's doubtful PVP would be a sufficiently stimulating exercise to drive an entire industry. It would be purely logical tactical--a West Point exam--something some players say they aspire to, but not many ever truly reach.
Ditto horror films :P
Self-pity imprisons us in the walls of our own self-absorption. The whole world shrinks down to the size of our problem, and the more we dwell on it, the smaller we are and the larger the problem seems to grow.
Games and gaming only say that nothing has changed, just the technology.
OP posts a quote about Rome and the arena, our desire for entertainment and distraction from the more mundane aspects of life is still ever-present - we've just advanced the medium by which we take it in. It's been that way since the beginning of civilisation, people like entertainment.
And that is exactly why games were created. Entertainment is used to dumb down the population.
This is interesting. The fact that sweeping for mines or parachuting doesn't bother you suggests that you must have undergone lots of training, so the experience is acceptable to you.
Nevertheless, the amygdala fear response is deep seated within us. For example, imagine you are walking along in the jungle. You are thinking about the finer points of mine clearance in Serbia or the daily quests in WoW. Suddenly you see a tiger. You would freeze as the amygdala interrupts your frontal cortex - You don't want to continue to think about clearing mines or WoW as you prepare to flee from the tiger or fight it.
...Assuming Big Brother is behind everything...
Very Orwellian philosophies, this morning.
"Senet has been found in Predynastic and First Dynasty burials of Egypt, c. 3500 BC and 3100 BC respectively"--hmm, nope, don't think games have anything to do with sinister Them motives.
Self-pity imprisons us in the walls of our own self-absorption. The whole world shrinks down to the size of our problem, and the more we dwell on it, the smaller we are and the larger the problem seems to grow.
That is not the kind of change he is talking about. I am addicted to the games i won't deny it. Many times i think what if i used all these hours somewhere else? i could be working for some social cause, travel the world and help people, maybe write a book or finish that painting i have been working on for past 6 months.
Maybe who knows if i am able to beat this addiction i might inspire someone..even if just one person and i would say i made some contribution to this world in my short life. I hate myself sometimes for wasting so many hours.
So yes gaming is nothing but a drain on youth and their ability to inspire and do great things in life.
How would you know the world exists if there were no humans to see it?
This is the perfect meaning of the line "Self-importance is the quintessential human delusion." Think on
Schrödinger's cat.
Utilitarian philosophy now.
Self-pity imprisons us in the walls of our own self-absorption. The whole world shrinks down to the size of our problem, and the more we dwell on it, the smaller we are and the larger the problem seems to grow.
Without humans there would be no schrodingers cat paradox. Humans are the conscience of the universe and all of it is created in our minds.
All the things i want to do in life..so many things i think about and yet i am always stuck in same cycle.
I feel you. They say its never too late...and one of these days i am going to break the cycle.
That's only because you deem in necessary to have a human observer.
If Cat=Humanity
and vial of poison=Human extinction
with universe=observer.
Would there still be change in the world?
Well it is necessary to have a human observer or else we wouldn't even be able to have this discussion.
The trick is (when getting rid of the silly humans) talking the other guy into going first.
Self-pity imprisons us in the walls of our own self-absorption. The whole world shrinks down to the size of our problem, and the more we dwell on it, the smaller we are and the larger the problem seems to grow.
This discussion has no bearing on the hypothetical experiment presented. You are again showing the 'self-important' thought paradigm. If you believe the universe cannot exist without humanity then this discussion can go no further.
I choose to see myself as god because without me being here to have this discussion with you, you wouldn't exist. I let you exist with my participation in this thread.
I don't think the games are as much a commentary on our society as is the people getting so very, very angry about them and about what people think about them. Try telling people that the top five single player console games have a higher level of quality than the top five MMOs and see how angry people get.
I can not remember winning or losing a single debate on the internet.
Well, thank you for your generosity. I appreciate existing because of you.
Like i said this discussion cannot evolve anymore than this. A shame you cannot disassociate yourself from your beliefs, as open-minded discussions are the staple of learning and understanding.
Have a good day
It says the human race has mastered survival and we no longer have to pay much attention to it. Instead, we can spend a huge amount of our time & effort in entertainment.
We have come a long way.
I think people getting angry about different opinions regarding something as trivial as video game preferences speaks volumes about us too. That said the fact that most people want to play games in which they spend the vast majority of their time killing things also tells us something about ourselves. So I do think the games say something in themselves even though I recognize that as much could be deduced, if not more, from our little flame wars regarding the games themselves.
I remember someone once trying to claim that the insatiable desires people have for MMOs and their reactions to companies unable to keep pace with their wants and needs indicated a failure of capitalism. Personally I wouldn't go that far, and the amount of demand that all of the hype around new games can create might even indicate the opposite even if the result is the masses get restless but I found it an interesting opinion nevertheless. The point is there is much to speculate about what both the games we choose to play and about how us as gamers behave in regards to life and society.
Anyway thanks for all the responses. Assuming people who have posted in this thread are gamers which I think would be a safe assumption for the most part, people have been very honest.
This sums it up for me, except I would go a bit further and say our lives in modern affluent societies are also alienating at the deepest level.
I've recently being doing lots of free online courses at https://www.coursera.org/ and I'm finding a lot more satisfaction from studying that from gaming these days. Which is not to say that I don't miss the days when I enjoyed gaming, and the escapism it sometimes provided.