On my walk back from uni a guy and a
girl walked behind me. I don't know what kind of conversation they
had before i was in earshot only what they spoke of within
earshot.
The guy was talking about Destiny, the game, and how he was going to go home and play 4-5 hours of this game. To which the girl said, cool. Seeing this the guy continued explaining that he had to because there was something that could only be gotten before 6am on wednesday. To which the girl said, oh yeah? The guy continued, saying that it was gonna take him a while because the new DLC dropped on wednesday so he's gotta work hard to get the thing. To which the girl said, cool, again.
The conversation went on like this until they'd walked past out of earshot.
This game, was to take up the better part of a week of this mans life. This man who was at university, who had assignments, who presumably has dreams and wishes for the future. And yet, here he was, having an entirely one-sided conversation about what is effectively the same as digging a hole and filling it up again. No wonder the girl had no interest in the concept.
It occured to me that these are the same conversations so many of us guys have with non-gamers. The same conversations so many gamers try to have to desperately convince others of the validity of their habits. I know because i've seen it, i've done it.
For a guy, these games feed our impulses as inquistive, intelligent creators. That is to say, they feed our very base human traits. Also, they prey on our even baser bodily traits, a desire for comfort, a propensity to do the simpler thing, a desire for stimulation.
While listening to that guy i can't help but think of the many millions of self-identifying "gamers" who's lives are consumed by their dogged desire to chase they base bodily traits over their human traits.
Our mentalia is based off three aspects. Our body, our mind and our rationale. These three are in a constant war for control of our actions. Our body, represents our base intuition, desires, our unconscious reaction to stimuli. Our rationale represents our base human traits, our sociality, our intelligence. Our mind, is the culmination of habits created by the constant reapplication of actions done by our body or rationale. The body and rationale fight so hard to gain control of the mind. Where the body wants comfort, the rationale wants contentedness. One desires the freedom from bodily needs (food, water, sex, stimulation). Whereas the other wants freedom from nagging self-doubt, inshort, it wants to live according to an ethos it sees as just and befitting itself.
Rarely do the two coincide.
For the gamer, they find themselves with an irresistably comfortable action. One that suffices the stimulation aspect of the body so well that it can get it close to forgetting about all other bodily impulses. This, however, would not be effective were it not for aspects of games that can from time to time convince the rationale that it is chasing contentedness too. It suffices our sociality by giving us endless "friends" to play with. A means of self-imporvement atleast as far as geting better to gain status within the game is concerned. It will also use your intelligence just enough to keep your rationale at bay.
Yet at no time do you gain contentedness. You cannot. Contentedness does not come from the virtual world, it comes from shaping the real world. Something that games, cannot really create.
The process of moving from adolescent to adult is finding who one is, that is, finding what your ethos is and how to pursue it. The game hampers that ability in many of us. Rids us of those silent times of introspection wherein we create ourselves within ourselves and instead provides us with a comfortable white noise where introspection is either impossible or so much harder.
During adolescence we are supposed to learn to control our mind, games through their insidious stimulation give us the option of sitting comfortably within our bodily desire and stunting the use of our rationale.
The gamer is in a state of permanent adolescence. Able to remove themselves from the world and the hard toil of inner-construction they remain children, unable to understand why mentally jerking themselves off can elict no more than a "cool" from anyone around.
The guy was talking about Destiny, the game, and how he was going to go home and play 4-5 hours of this game. To which the girl said, cool. Seeing this the guy continued explaining that he had to because there was something that could only be gotten before 6am on wednesday. To which the girl said, oh yeah? The guy continued, saying that it was gonna take him a while because the new DLC dropped on wednesday so he's gotta work hard to get the thing. To which the girl said, cool, again.
The conversation went on like this until they'd walked past out of earshot.
This game, was to take up the better part of a week of this mans life. This man who was at university, who had assignments, who presumably has dreams and wishes for the future. And yet, here he was, having an entirely one-sided conversation about what is effectively the same as digging a hole and filling it up again. No wonder the girl had no interest in the concept.
It occured to me that these are the same conversations so many of us guys have with non-gamers. The same conversations so many gamers try to have to desperately convince others of the validity of their habits. I know because i've seen it, i've done it.
For a guy, these games feed our impulses as inquistive, intelligent creators. That is to say, they feed our very base human traits. Also, they prey on our even baser bodily traits, a desire for comfort, a propensity to do the simpler thing, a desire for stimulation.
While listening to that guy i can't help but think of the many millions of self-identifying "gamers" who's lives are consumed by their dogged desire to chase they base bodily traits over their human traits.
Our mentalia is based off three aspects. Our body, our mind and our rationale. These three are in a constant war for control of our actions. Our body, represents our base intuition, desires, our unconscious reaction to stimuli. Our rationale represents our base human traits, our sociality, our intelligence. Our mind, is the culmination of habits created by the constant reapplication of actions done by our body or rationale. The body and rationale fight so hard to gain control of the mind. Where the body wants comfort, the rationale wants contentedness. One desires the freedom from bodily needs (food, water, sex, stimulation). Whereas the other wants freedom from nagging self-doubt, inshort, it wants to live according to an ethos it sees as just and befitting itself.
Rarely do the two coincide.
For the gamer, they find themselves with an irresistably comfortable action. One that suffices the stimulation aspect of the body so well that it can get it close to forgetting about all other bodily impulses. This, however, would not be effective were it not for aspects of games that can from time to time convince the rationale that it is chasing contentedness too. It suffices our sociality by giving us endless "friends" to play with. A means of self-imporvement atleast as far as geting better to gain status within the game is concerned. It will also use your intelligence just enough to keep your rationale at bay.
Yet at no time do you gain contentedness. You cannot. Contentedness does not come from the virtual world, it comes from shaping the real world. Something that games, cannot really create.
The process of moving from adolescent to adult is finding who one is, that is, finding what your ethos is and how to pursue it. The game hampers that ability in many of us. Rids us of those silent times of introspection wherein we create ourselves within ourselves and instead provides us with a comfortable white noise where introspection is either impossible or so much harder.
During adolescence we are supposed to learn to control our mind, games through their insidious stimulation give us the option of sitting comfortably within our bodily desire and stunting the use of our rationale.
The gamer is in a state of permanent adolescence. Able to remove themselves from the world and the hard toil of inner-construction they remain children, unable to understand why mentally jerking themselves off can elict no more than a "cool" from anyone around.
No comments:
Post a Comment