Are games inherently wussy?

[Darkmantle]

"Yet consider what genteel skills the game itself requires. To succeed, you need to be adept at aiming a notional cursor and timing a series of button-pushes. It's about precision and nimble fingers. Just like darning a sock in a hurry. Or creating tapestry against the clock."

from the article



Consider what skills it takes to watch movies. To succeed you need to be able to stare directly ahead of you. just sit there and vegetate. So I guess movies (like Delta Force starring Chuck Norris.) are inherently wussym because you are not doing anything.

This guy is an idiot. All modern entertainment is about the story and content, not the skills required to use the medium. And stories are not inherently wussy, in fact the earliest stories were always of warriors and knights etc. And his rational for MW3 being homoerotic is just retarded. "hey look I caused a visual glitch I guess that makes the game gay".

I'm sorry bud, but if you have a pathological need to crawl up prices ass when he asks you to follow him, maybe you are the repressed one.

 

[Zack Alklazaris]

Yea I love ME for the same reasons you do. Now I do play BF3, but its a time killer and nothing more. I'm currently in a dead zone of video games. So a good online time waster is a nice way to go. I'm more into story driven video games I don't particularly care what they come in whether it be a fps or a rpg.

Not a Skyrim fan, I take it? My "time killers" are Skyrim right now and my never-ending subscription to Dungeons and Dragons Online... played since 2006 and sometimes, not sure why I still do.

Looking forward to getting The Witcher 2 sometime soon. Love those games.

Looking forward to checking out some of the extra content on Dragon Age 2 though I am not sure how to patch my game with DLC since I got it originally from Steam and now EA doesn't play well with Steam... hmm.

As for upcoming MMOs, looking forward to Knights of the Old Republic and The Secret World - for different reasons.

I wan tto play Skyrim, really bad actually, but I need to play that series from the beginning.
Oh and yea I already Pre-Ordered Old Republic. Knights of the Old Republic series was very nicely done.

 

[Fishyash]

1) Movies have neither a "wussy" or "machismo" stigma attached to them; neither do books. As activities, both men and women read books and watch movies in fairly equal numbers. It's possible there used to be a "nerdy" stigma attached to reading books but... really, "reader" never quite conjured up the same image as "gamer" - now did it?

What about "Bookworm"? (okay poor joke aside)
I was referring to the 'machismo' action packed movies, like he is reffering to the 'machismo' action packed games... Neither of these are the majority/actual representation of the whole medium. I assumed his reasoning for the claim was "you're not doing the real thing". Well, you're not doing the real thing for books or movies either.

2) For you to agree with his point about games being wussy might require a lot of self-confidence in your own lack of "wussy" if you are a gamer. It's not something many men admit to other men - "Ya dude, I totally knit on the weekends; I'm in a knitting club." How manly does that sound? Why is gaming more manly than knitting? Gaming is sitting in a chair pushing buttons while you control an on-screen image.

I must be weird for this...
I would not mind admitting to certain people if they were interested in seemingly less productive or relative pastimes that I would be in a knitting club. I don't really have many inhibitions in regards to what I say, since I speak before I think usually. I like to think for the better at times. If I did it for a living, I would admit to it easily.
If I was talking to someone (mad or woman) who knitted in his/her pastime, and I didn't have any expertise, I would gladly follow up on it and listen to find out more about it.

Nothing is inherently wussy except acting like a wuss (which is subjective) which is why I mainly disagree with his point.

But... (this might be the same as before but said slightly differently) these games tend to attract real people who seem to be overcompensating for something... and it's really annoying.

 

[Sir Thomas Sean Connery]

Also, after reading the article, I think the writer fails to grasp even the most basic concepts of what gaming is about.

Explain, please. What "basic concepts of gaming" is the writer, as a fellow gamer, failing to grasp?

1) Shooters do NOT represent all of gaming. The writer seems to think they do.

2) The "Needle-point" simulator sentence.

3) From the way he words it, he doesn't like war and violence in the first place and then criticizes the game for making him kill people.

The entire article seemed like less of a review and/or pointing things out in gaming, and much more just plain troll-bait. No matter what the subject is, if you call something "Inherently Wussy" you are just welcoming people to get mad.

 

[Brawndo]

That was a good article, I lol'd throughout.

Some of you need to stop getting so butthurt just because he made funny observations of your entertainment medium of choice.

 

[kyogen]

Charlie Brooker wrote an interesting article about the quirks of a particular game, extended his criticism rather credibly to the genre of that game, and then made an over-generalization about all games that is certainly debatable and tends toward the inappropriate. I don't play a game like Okami to be "manly" in the first place, but I fail to see how it is somehow "unmanly" to seek out certain types of mental and physical challenges (hey, timing is a challenge for some of us) and come up with solutions. Or are weightlifting and shooting the sole definition of manliness now? Are they even manly to begin with? Are women who lift weights or have dangerous jobs "manly" by definition? Step back a little if you try accusing them of it, gents. Some ladies don't take that well.

 

[Thaius]

Nope. I see no validity in what he is saying. None at all.

The main thing he does incredibly wrong? Apply the weaknesses of a single game to the entire freaking medium. The things he's saying about all of gaming can't even apply to most games, and yet he's acting as though his experience with a single game from a single genre reflects on the entire medium, across genres and stories. And that's just plain insipid.

As for the wuss comment specifically... it's probably not incorrect, but the simple need to express that games are wussy (read: not stereotypically manly and hardcore) represents a level of ignorance about video games and prejudice against them that is simply stunning. Many, many valuable and important activities could be considered "wussy," but that does absolutely nothing to devalue them. I'm pretty sure Roger Ebert or Stephen King wouldn't mind being called wusses, and neither do any self-respecting gamers I know, including myself. Gaming may not be about physical activity, burly muscles, and pain tolerance, but its value as a hobby and artistic medium give it value that anyone who would even bother to call it "wussy" is probably just incapable of comprehending.

 

[Erana]

So, gamers... What are the game designers overcompensating for?

Lord knows; I never enjoy mindless violence and stuff. In fact, I wish they'd go and make make family-friendly (As in Pixar and Mario, not "For children") shooters that could take the gameplay and stick it in environments I'd enjoy more.

I don't get it. There's a few violent video games I like, yes, but God of War gameplay would be fun if it were about Egg Cratos fighting the God of Mattress with his feathers of good hygiene or something like that.

 

[Strain42]

I agree to an extent, but there's a small flaw in his line of reasoning.

What exactly is a manly pursuit? Would working out count? Getting buff for the ladies?

Then by his own logic, not only are not all video games inherently wussy, but the Wii Fit is the most manly macho thing to ever come out of the game industry.

To me games are about doing something you can't do in real life. That's why I don't really understand hunting or sports games. But...to use a recent example. I've been playing a lot of Saints Row recently. I love that game, and yes, the game is a total power fantasy on my part. I'm never going to be the leader of a kick-ass gang that owns an entire city.

Because I'm not gonna run around stealing cars and blowing up old ladies with guided missiles.

 

[Michael Hirst]

Yeah games are inherently wussy so are things like having emotions and treating women equally only limp wristed pussy ass liberals believe in stuff like that, real men smoke cigars and only use women for sex and for recreational activity they go and shoot defenseless animals, if they can't dodge the bullets they're obviously sissy. /sarcasm

Seriously it's just a hobby, a bit of fun not much different to watching a movie or listening to music. People who overly worry about how wussy/sissy something is have some serious problems.

 

[darkfox85]

There?s already been a thread dedicated that Charlie Brooker?s article on this site, and it gathered just as much controversy there.

Although I can?t comment on Modern Warfare, I do know that Brooker generally knows what he?s talking about for sure, and for the uninitiated, here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1GRk_GEBv1Q

Stop referring to him as ?the writer,? or ?the reviewer?. Like it or not he?s an important voice that gaming really needs.

I?ll add to the discussion that I feel that every escapist medium (when indulged in by a perceived level as too much) has something inherently ?wussy.? Stories *are* inherently wussy. Books and films are no exception and it?s just unfortunate that games have a harder time than they do.

I suppose ?real? men are too busy chopping down wood and doing real physical sports & activities and saluting flags and polishing their shotguns and eating mountain lions and drinking a pint of fermented t-rex piss and not being gay. Tossers. Give me Fallout 3 any day.

 

[ediblemitten]

Are toasters inherently puerile?

Are alarm clocks inherently racist?

Are novels inherently pious?

Are plural nouns inherently adjectives?

 

[targren]

I wan tto play Skyrim, really bad actually, but I need to play that series from the beginning.

You may want to think again on that. You do know that The Elder Scrolls series dates back to the DOS days, don't you? It'd probably be a PITA to get Arena and Daggerfall running on a modern OS.

 

[EvilPicnic]

Guys, I think Charlie Brooker might be making a funny.

To paraphrase my post from the other thread:

Charlie Brooker is a hero and pretty much the best champion of games in the UK media.
Seriously, he writes one of the leading opinion columns in one of the biggest print broadsheets in the world and he decides to do 1000 words on VIDEO GAMES.

The content is almost immaterial - it's the kind of serious attention gaming needs and the guy does it with a lot of love for the hobby and culture. Behind the hyperbole and humour of the article is a valid opinion and rather sensible point about the state of the modern FPS. Right or wrong, it's just an opinion.

And Gameswipe needs to return.

 

[emeraldrafael]

Because a very large percentage of the human population currently alive (and certainly now dead) arent complete and total dicks.

Alright, I guess I'll agree. Sitting and playing a video game isnt as dangerous or testosterone inducing as say playing rugby, but then again, rugby isnt as manly as being a soldier, or a firefighter. everything is ultimately inherently wussy like when compared to something else, but thats the reason the human species thrives. Most of us realize when something is dangerous and we dont actively peruse it.

 

[EvilPicnic]

[CUT]

Oops, I quoted myself instead of editing o.0. Sorry.

 

[Talshere]

Eh, play Penumbra/Amnesia. If you manage to finish those games you're far braver than any ordinary person.

I could say the same about getting through watching the entire "Saw" series of horror flicks on the TV.

Saw test your ability to hold the contents of your stomach down, not an unnatural reflex for anyone not used to being around self mutilation, tbh, Id go so far as to say a healthy reaction. Like the human centipede it is sickening not scary. Amnesia fucks with your head. Like Eternal Darkness.

My general aversion to this article is that it gives the impression that its refering to all game.. Its not and statment like "What I do object to is the dick-swinging machismo that infests games like this." though I know right now many people will read this and apply it to all games.


Also, what the fuck,

Well, for one thing, games are inherently wussy. The stereotype of the bespectacled dweeby gamer is an inaccurate cliche, but there's no denying games are far from a beefy pursuit. Which is why shooty-fighty games go out of their way to disguise that.

I think this dudes ideal of manliness is out of date by like 200 years. At the very least this ideal end with the 60's. And thats being amazingly generous I think. Here I was assuming we were in an age of enlightenment where knowelge was as valued, if not more so than raw power. But what do I know?

Two points:
Second point - games are going to start being seriously treated as art when they stop caring about the media furor. Bioware having Anders be an "open bisexual" was a large step towards this. Games like "Six Days in Fallujah" - which I haven't played and can't comment on - are disrespectful to soldiers exactly how? By trying to form a game more realistic to the genre we're disrespecting actual soldiers? Bah. I say to Hell with what the "media" says.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BFsQM6o4uoY

This will tell you all you need to know

 

[shadow_Fox81]

Eh, play Penumbra/Amnesia. If you manage to finish those games you're far braver than any ordinary person.

I could say the same about getting through watching the entire "Saw" series of horror flicks on the TV.

No not really, i guess if you played the games it would bbe clearer why.

i guess i should talk about the actual topic...damn i just wanted to represent for frictional.

ok...um.(reads topic)

i guess that would be a bit broad, i mean we have gordon freeman as our bespectacled crusader of science to combat this mentality. But there are as many examples to the contrary, its just selective collation of evidence i guess to emphasise a particular trait apparent in gaming which is in full swing in the mainstream.

i mean mario is an plummer.(why arn't there more tradies in gaming(oh wait i see why because no one wants to fantasise they are a plummer))

 

[Vegosiux]

So, gamers... What are the game designers overcompensating for?

Wrong question.

The questions is: What do the game designers believe that the average gamer wants to overcompensate for?

 

[Canadamus Prime]

Every soldier in every game I've ever played is a dick. A dick that sounds like a 14-year-old boy reading dialogue discarded from an old-school Schwarzenegger action movie for displaying too much swagger. They seem like a bunch of try-hard bell-ends, desperate to highlight their gruff masculinity. What, exactly, are they overcompensating for?

You can't really blame developers for knowing their audience so well.