Thursday, March 6, 2008

A Gaming Life part 2 - Shade's point of view

I felt like writing my own type of "gaming styles" post since i disagree with Devil on some points and wanted to bring this topic to a different, more psychological light.
First off, what Devil names "gaming styles" are actually different types of attitudes taken when gaming. We stop having common thoughts about this at this point: i feel like there are many more and much more complex personalities out there than you observe at first sight. Stereotyping them is not something i'm too inclined to do, as you'll always see one person which doesn't fit into any "class", so to speak - but not classifying them would make one ignorant of the fact that there actually are types of people out there with similar minds. But the internet has much more complexity, even in the more retarded people, than just noobs and... emos, the latter i feel being only a term for Devil to have something else to hate. In truth, emo people are probably too preoccupied with cutting their wrists to sit around and play games.
Instead, i'll just put all the good and bad people together, eliminate those 2 terms and judge them only by the way they act while playing or surfing the internet, starting with the worst. Just remember that except for some labels, these people might actually be bearable or sociable IRL.
1) Scum - not a researched or approved term, i just felt like naming them that. These people are your usual scammers, griefers and con artists of the internet - people you do NOT want to be with no matter who you are (unless you're in league with them), people who cannot be trusted, who profit most from the annonimity of the internet and who make lying their second job. The moral explanation behind this type of action is most usually "the internet is just pixels and pictures, it's not real life, and doing wrong stuff on the internet doesn't mean it's wrong irl as well. And people shouldn't feel bad because they don't lose anything but pixels". Unfounded and misguided of course, since we all know there is another type of value that you put into your account or character - sentimental value, and it carries as much weight as any type of money - at least to some people. Some types of "scum" will use net or game tranzactions for real money, and some will even steal irl money via the net - these have virtually no excuses, or ones that are so shallow that even they don't believe them. But they keep lying to themselves, always ignorant. I've seen and dealt with many of these in my life, and they are about the only people who i'd beat to almost death IRL if i saw them on the street. The world is better without them.
Scum are the opposite of the tragic no-lifer class: they cut off any emotional ties they would have to the game or the net and view it as a way to get richer, and it's ok if they do it off other people's backs - who cares, they're annonymous.
Some scum get their pleasure out of ruining others' playstyle, buying chars that they didn't make themselves for real money and using the superior gear to kill people who are inferior to them in every aspect, or griefing and generally causing havoc to bolster their own ego and pride.
2) Retards - about in the same pit with scum, but these are a bit more morally understandable. That doesn't mean they're likable though. To be honest, i really don't think that they are actual retards - they just behave like them. You'll know them when you see one: whenever you see a comment posted on youtube that leaves you saying "why did you have to post that!?", whenever you see someone use their class with so much lack of skill that they butcher and destroy all it stands for, whenever you try to teach someone something and they don't listen, doing the same idiotic thing over and over with no apparent care for the group's well-being (and thus, their own), having an interest in discussion but never saying or doing anything smart, acting like kids... and the examples could go on. God knows the internet is full of them, and they usually borrow traits from the other types resulting in even more frustration (especially when they decide to act like scum). It's good that you don't always have to deal with them, but sometimes there are situations in which you don't have a choice.
Seeing them irl would make me slap them in the face and restrict their access to the internet. It is not for them.
3) Clueless people - these are usually the type of people who always act like they know everything and judge others rashly with a huge lack of facts. Most noobs fit in this cathegory, in fact noobs are just a combination of clueless and retarded - but not all clueless people are retarded, indeed some are well-spoken and well-taught. Yet this type of personality implies that they always jump to the wrong conclusions with the smallest amount of facts. Examples of these would be people on an internet forum who instantly consider you a retard because you made a simple typo, or people in-game who will quit because they lost... once. Or because someone told them that you usually lose in that type of event unless you're affiliated with a certain faction, and they aren't.
4) Tragic no-lifers - the type of people who put a lot of feeling and soul in playing a game, and will lash out emotionally at the weakest sign of something going wrong. I dislike these people a lot, because they tend not to see the difference between feeling sad that you lost a match and constantly sulking for the rest of the day because of it. In-game death is a tragedy to these people, and loss of an in-game item will almost always attract rivers of tears and whines. The "no-lifer" type comes from the fact that they seem to put more soul in this game than they do in real life, thus exchanging their priorities, thus making them lose focus with the real world.
5) Usual no-lifers - this type encompasses a lot of other sub-types, such as the hardcore gamer, the friendless fatso or the high-school geek. Overall, they are not at all a bad type - on the internet, you can form lasting friendships with them as long as you share a common goal. You can profit from their addiction by using them to group together, for instance. This group is offset however by the fact that, alongside the retarded people, is the most criticised group on the internet - criticised often by retards themselves, but also by social people who seem to view the fact that these people have little to no friends as a sign of weakness and wrongness. But not all of them are lacking friends, their biggest problem (to others) is that they spend too much time in-game. I would probably fit the closest in this category, even tough i have friends and my time is pretty short right now - still, i'd love to be a no-lifer again someday, playing 20 hours out of 24 and not giving a damn about anyone. Might be dangerous to my health, but hell, all drugs are if you look at it from that point of view.
6) Loners - you may find one of these people here and there in the gaming scene. They're rare, but an awesome sight if you catch one. This group represents the people who spring forth from time to time, having excellent progress and great skill, knowing every in and out of their class and having accomplished more than casual gamers could ever dream of, at the same time being so obscure that no one heard of them. Like i said, they are rare, and usually no-lifers - but they deserve respect for getting where they are without asking for help, without whining, doing things on their own terms, without giving a damn about what everyone says or does.
7) Socials - people who join the online gaming scene for two things: other people, and CHAT. They LOVE to chat, though the chatter types are usually girls, and can often seen quitting the game for the sole reason that their friends also quit, or they don't have anyone to play with anymore. They desire the companionship of another human and will always act on a group consciousness, following, taking examples and sometimes leading their like-minded friends. Beware though, some of them might also be retards or scum, and usually when these types of people are present, scandals and real-life threats happen. Yet the best fact about socials is that this is perhaps the group with the widest range of personalities, all socials borrowing traits from all other groups.
8) Leaders - actually a mix of loners and socials, these are the people who are born to lead, and use their gaming experience to gain the upper hand. Leaders will be found bearing the burden of their clan/guild, coordonating others, giving advice to newbies and being the best of their class while the others are still struggling to understand it (this can happen when an MMO is in its early stages). The will of a loner, and the popularity of a social - but not all of them may have clean or just principles.
That would be about all the groups i can think of. Please note however that the complexity of a human mind is so great that no person can possibly be of only one group (with the possible exception of scum). We are a mix of either 2, more, or all of them. This is the factor that gives us diversity as human beings.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Keep up the good work.