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The chicken or the egg
mgilbrtsn
Member EpicPosts: 3,430
Before I get into the actual purpose of the thread, I apologize ahead of time. I tend to create threads that are geared towards people more than the games. As I see a trend in my mind, it starts itching until I as a question. So I tend to create too many threads and I apologize.
Ok, whats itching my brain THIS TIME. I notice that a large percentage of posters on MMORPG tend to be on the extreme sides of arguments. This can easily be seen in just about every game. SWTOR, DFO, Mortal, <insert game name here> are all examples of games which will send a thread quickly spiraling into fanaticism on both sides of the coin.
So, my question is whether places like MMORPG attract a lot of extreme people, or do people get more extreme in their views after they start participating in the forums and are sort of converted into extreme cyberphiles. I realize that the vast majority of players don't come onto sites such as these, so I am discounting those. I am just refering to a small segment of the player population.
If anyone can be objective about their extreme views, I would be interested to hear which category you fit into. For those who are new posters, do you see yourself sliding into these kinds of views. Since SWTOR is the epicenter for 'discussion' on the forum, I see a lot of these extreme ideas and from people who don't necessarily have a lot of posts under their belts. Its interesting to me that people would come out from being a regular posting in order to proclaim their utter devotion or disgust for SWTOR.
It may be hard to objectively look at yourself and answer, but I ask that the community try so that I can scratch this stupid itch. Is it the chicken or the egg.
Thx
I self identify as a monkey.
Comments
I just want to say here that I regard your opinions as stated here as relying on premise that I think of as being unfounded and vulgar.
Another thing I want to quickly point out regarding the analogy of the chicken and the egg, is that imo it probably is more fruitful to consider the conondrum of the chicken and the egg (as in asking what came first) as a process and a defined problem as such, more than presumtively conclude certain things in your premis for what you want to discuss here.
Read:
http://youarenotsosmart.com/2010/05/19/fanboyism-and-brand-loyalty/
"So, the next time you reach for the mouse and get ready to launch an angry litany of reasons why your favorite – thing – is better than the other person’s, hesitate.
Realize you have your irrational reasons, and so do they, and nothing will be gained by your proselytizing."
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.
As far as your first point, I apologize if you found it vulgar and unfounded. It wasn't my attention, but everyone reads things a little differently. However, by identifying my premise (there is a large percentage of people who hold extreme views on the site) as vulgar and unfounded, I would ask if you do not see that there are a lot of 'my way or the highway' type opinions. I'm not being argumentative, I would honestly value your opintion
As to your second point, you are probably correct. I do conclude a certain premise in that I argue that many people on this site hold extreme views. Having that as my premise, I tried to make that clear in the beginning that was the case. There probably could have been a better analogy, but I stand by the chicken and the egg. The being the extreme cyberoid and the egg being the pre extrme cyberoid being the chicken. or visa versa (lol, I've started confusing myself. makes you even more right that it is probably a bad analogy.) However, to work with what i've got, Were you an egg first (Extreme cyberoid) or were you the chicken (pre extreme cyberoid). Of course using the chicken and egg analogy you could reverse the egg with the chicken.
As with all things, analogies are not perfect, I just thought this one spoke to my argument, albeit crudely. I thought it was close enough to get some feedback and see what people thought came first. I didn't consider it until you mentioned it, but I would also like to hear from those people who down right refute my argument. That would be very interesting also.
on a side note, I just realized that when I post, I am overly fond of ( ) and 'quotes'
I self identify as a monkey.
It has to do with positions and motivations. Most people enter a forum with motivations (usually subconscious), and after a time, they develop positions based on their motivations (very conscious). A motivation might be "I want to spend time with others", and a natural position stemming from that motivation might be "MMOs should be group-centric" (so I can spend time with others). The positions are often one of many solutions that can satisfy the motivation.
The problem is that when people post their positions, it becomes hard for them to separate their egos from what they write, and every suggestion to the contrary attacks not only their position, but their very person (at least in their minds). In defending thier positions, people begin to identify with thier positions even more and begin to fortify them. Once self-fortification becomes insufficient, they align with others who share similar positions to gain strength in numbers, adopting a communal position. Every fortifying post builds up one position while tearing down another, and eventually extremes evolve. (You can see the same behavior in 2-party politics)
So to answer the OP, I believe people arrive with moderate motivations, and get drawn into extreme positions. I don't think it has anything to do with the "type" of player that spends time on these forums.
People who can't be bothered to care one way or the other are not motivated to seek out forums in which they can expound upon their indifference.
Also, to answer the title, the egg came first. However, it was not a chicken egg.
I think the problem is that we're too "experienced".
Imagine that, if we're discussing a game, and I just say, "hmm, the BGM is good, the character is cute and I like its quest system", everyone will just ignore me. If I say, " it's boring and we should bla bla bla”, an idea comes with some arguments. That's it.
Indie game developer. Passion manifests itself in the games we create XD