More thoughts in modern-gaming

[Shatterhand]

I'll post that in the shmups forum later too...

Last week there was a feature on TV here, talking about games that looked a lot like real life. There was a huge coverage of Counter Strike.. then I saw people playing it on a lan.

I thought "WHAT THE HELL?" People aren't smiling, they don't provoke their friend when beating them, they don't even BLINK their eyes..they were cold as ice ...

I mean. I think people completely lost the point of gaming. The guys didn't seem to be having ANY fun. It was like "I HAVE TO WIN, I HAVE TO WIN, I HAVE TO WIN.." What's the point in playing games like that? I think gaming is a way to have fun, to "leave" the real world for a few minutes, and shoot some aliens , or jump in a turtle's head, and then come back to real life with a little more joy or something.

Then I just say that in the IRC channel I usually hang around, about games, in Brasnet (irc.brasnet.org .. channel #emuladores )
. A guy there says not only that's the right way to play games, he also says he wants to LIVE playing games... he wants to EARN money doing it.. he says he STUDIES to play games, the only thing he wants to do is TO PLAY games (Only Counter Strike, I think)... and how he hates when the other guys from his CS team made stupid things, and how he want to get sponsored, and how he met his girlfriend playing CS ,

WHAT THE HELL AGAIN? Play games as a JOB ? If you want to test games, fine, I can understand that, but have a job to WIN championships of games is just plain stupid. I think even athletes do good things that deserve sponsor, but playing games has NO use in society to deserve to be a "job" .. games are supposed to be a hobby, to make you have fun, and not to be treated like that... he even said that gaming was like his "cocain" ... this isn't a hobby anymore, it's becoming an obsession...

You have no idea of how sad I get when seeing people like that. Do you want to know what kills nice gaming? It's not money, it's not big companies... it's those guys....

Just my 2 cents...

[th4t1guy]

It is a proven fact, beyond a shadow of a doubt, which should be taught in schools, especially at early ages, to everyone, everywhere that Counterstrike sucks.

[Twistin'Ghost]

I just don't understand these crazy kids today. Their games, their music, their movies, their TV...we've spawned a genration of mutants without souls, the blank generation sucked into a void non-reality. On paper, it sounds like pulp science-fiction from alarmists for the future. But look around you...

[blackcornflake]

I dunno, Twistin'. Maybe those kids' attitudes are more prevalent in the USA than elsewhere, as I think your view is a little pessimistic. How can one generalise about an entire generation?

Case for the defence of younger gamesplayers: my younger brother (let's call him minicornflake) is by the standards previously described a paragon of old-school values and attitude. Has overview of gaming world; not a blinkered fanboy. Doesn't fall for hype. Never cheats. Gracious in victory or defeat. Has sense of humour. Treats games as games, nothing more.

Is absolutely excellent at anything he picks up, too!

Is he the only one like that in the world? Doubtful. Therefore, perhaps there is hope after all in this strange 21C world of mass media.

[Twistin'Ghost]

Well, part of my generalization was meant to be tongue-in-cheek (hence the "these crazy kids" snap). At the root of it, there's a great deal of truth about the manufactured mentality with today's youth. I know a lot of kids and I actually talk to them. The things they say and do, the attitudes they have towards the world, their values...it is stunning. They wear their apathy like a badge of honor, like it's yet another tattoo or belly-button piercing. They celebrate stupidity and nihilism. They hate having to learn new things. They hate old stuff (anything from anyone else's past other than their own).

I make a point to talk to kids, to see where their heads are at. The attitudes I describe above are mainly from the teens I talk to. These attitudes are obviously formed before they hit adolesence. I reckon teaching values is not popular these days. Maybe it is a USA problem. Maybe I am pessimistic (wouldn't you be if you were exposed to these zombies nearly every day?) But my tongue-in-cheek generalizing can't be considered an indictment for an entire generation. There will always be exceptions to the rule.

But look around you...

[blackcornflake]

I know you were half-kidding, Twistin'. My post was going to be light-hearted, but I thought that as this is a big subject (which is a lot bigger than we can touch upon here), I would put my serious hat on. Go for some gravitas or something. (Says the guy who goes on about being a breakfast cereal).

Still not sure about 'Generation Zombie' as a demographic, though...when did this happen, exactly? Am I unaware of some sepia-coloured time when life was better, which we have fallen from?

Are people generally really any less intelligent, or literate, or for that matter, compassionate or unpredictable than at any previous time? Some people are no good at learning - has this not always been the case? I mean, the world hasn't been short on morons throughout its history...

Is nihilism and angst really a modern phenomenon?

And are disposable, lightweight attitudes not just the natural result of 60 years of teenage pop culture in a wealthy society?

Can I finish on a rhetorical question, do you think?

Edit: Better not.

[Twistin'Ghost]

I will assume that last question was rhetorical...

[DPainter]

Originally posted by Twistin'Ghost
Well, part of my generalization was meant to be tongue-in-cheek (hence the "these crazy kids" snap). At the root of it, there's a great deal of truth about the manufactured mentality with today's youth. I know a lot of kids and I actually talk to them. The things they say and do, the attitudes they have towards the world, their values...it is stunning. They wear their apathy like a badge of honor, like it's yet another tattoo or belly-button piercing. They celebrate stupidity and nihilism. They hate having to learn new things. They hate old stuff (anything from anyone else's past other than their own).

I wonder what will happen to our generation when we turn elderly? All of today's fashionably nihilistic, social Darwinist teens will be in control when Frederic, Twistin' and I are hunched over in our computer-wheel-chairs blabbering something about 16-bit games.

Our obscure references to Brady Bunch and Different Strokes will not charm them. They will resent us because we enjoyed the last cultural crumbs from earlier generations, when society had form and hierarchy, and the past meant something. And because we will not offer comic relief, neither knowledge nor production of things relevant to the progress of the State (formerly Microsoft), we will become economic burdens and social embarrassments. Starting with Fred, they will throw out our Amiga collections and humanely put us to sleep.

I can see their arms now, covered in mock-tribal tattoos, as they insert the IV into my thin veins. I will murmor something about how wrong it is, how not fair it is. They will only answer, "What is wrong? Might is right." In the glare of the flourescent hospital bulbs I will flashback to long nights hunched over my Amiga keyboard, and memories of EAB and the sense of history and continuity it brought to my life through the shared experiences--digital though they were.

As the life drains from my blood and my vision fades, I see a vision of Fred leading our entire generation as we "Jump the shark"--we have overstayed our welcome and are now embarrassingly obsolete.

Then, inexplicably, in a few decades they will begin to wonder about us and begin to recycle us for the sake of obscure references. Our digitized images will show up for a while as icons, avatars on Internet forums, or T-shirt images. But they won't care about US as we were, only US as we can be used to soften the terror they feel standing over the cultural, intellectual and spiritual void that is overshadowed by the State. :laugh

[blackcornflake]

I detect some irony in the previous post.

What was this thread about again?

[DPainter]

Originally posted by blackcornflake
I detect some irony in the previous post.

What was this thread about again?

I was waxing poetic, ironic and hopefully a little comic all in one. I wasn't too off-topic, but...

As for dead-faced kids playing games, that's probably because they were playing for serious competition. LAN parties can be really fun if you're just there to have fun and not preserve your ego. There's lots of hooting and hollering. I'll admit, it's not a soccer match, but it's still highly interactive.

As for making money playing games, it seems natural to me that some kids would want to become gaming superstars. After all, today golfers can make a fine living putting a little white ball around. As more people begin playing these highly competitive and interactive games, there may be bigger and bigger prizes for the stars as interest grows. Have you ever heard of Thresh, the Quake 1 and 2 superstar? He made lots of prize money and crushed many egos using his left hand on the keys and right hand on the mouse. Anyone who can play Quake reasonably well knows how incredible the hand-eye and strategy skills are of someone like Thresh. I used to download the recorded movies of his battles and get as much of a thrill watching them as I do watching a great boxing match.

Have you ever searched for "Ultima Online" on eBay? I've seen virtual properties and characters being sold on there for more than US$1,000.

Making money playing games sound lame to me. I just despise this kind of opportunist attitude and agree with Shatterhand.

[Dastardly]

I think 'professional gamers' will become more common in the future, but its not something Id like to do. The money would be nice of course, but if you play games for a living, I think the last thing youd want is to play them for fun.

It must feel like being a star

[Dastardly]

Thats different

[blackcornflake]

Sounds like fun. And the gaming does too.

Originally posted by DPainter
I was waxing poetic, ironic and hopefully a little comic all in one.

That's how it came across, DP.

[Shatterhand]

"It must feel like a star" - LOL LOL

How many people can really watch a LAN game? Or can a LAN game be shown in televesion?

And I be Thresh doesn't have half of the fun I have playing games. And what's worse, to be the greatest Quake player in history (As if Quake really asked that much skill), he probably plays it about 8 hours a day. And he is probably so concentrated, he's not having any fun. In most jobs (even playing golf), you can make friends, you can have fun, you can make jokes...


The problems with Kids isn't demographic. Or at least I don't think so... I am from Brazil, a third-country world, in South America, and I see kids being much like Twistin'Ghost said. Maybe in Europe is different, I dunno.

[Twistin'Ghost]

First off, I really enjoyed DP's writing. Wonderful stuff, mate!

Shatterhand really hit on something interesting and that is that he sees the same thing in the kids in Brazil. What about the rest of you guys from this wide-spanning globe? How far does this 'phenomenon' stretch?