Gamers Detriment - Attack of the 'intellectuals'

[squid5580]

Huh couldn't it also be said that the book princess is just an objective as well? Save the princess progress the story. A good writer can make you care about the princess regardless of the medium. And the writer can make you not give a rat's ass about the princess if they suck at thier job.

 

[solidd]

mmmm nah i disagree - its such a generalisation, games are evolving, sure there are still the casual gamer sorts of games where the storyline is well...lacking.. and as a result you dont really care, you just wanna shoot shit up (GoW) But in something like FF7CC, you get preeetty attached to Zack.

EDIT: was meant to be a reply to an above post:
"Sounds like she understands games just fine.

Whether the prize at the end is a princess, a prince, delicious and moist cake, "A winner is you" announcement or OMG PONIES, it's pretty much the same thing unless somehow loaded with more significance. Which most games have no need to do."

 

[A Weary Exile]

That is the most asanine, misinformed thing that I've heard anyone say in a while. How does interacting with character in a semi-physical way make them harder to attach oneself to? It doesn't! It does just the opposite, interacting with characters makes you grow more attached to them because you experience a level of interaction that no other medium provides.

 

[Space Spoons]

Sounds like News stations doing nothing more than looking for ways to blow a few minutes of their show.

Exactly what I was thinking. Nothing livens up a slow news day like a sensationalist report on those scary gamers and their deadly, brainless murder simulators.

 

[SimuLord]

Truth be told, I care a lot more about characters in games than I do characters in books, because the kinds of games I like to play allow me to impart a tremendous amount of personal attributes and traits onto those characters.

Legends such as Flavius Julius, the Rome: Total War general who lived past eighty and conquered all of Gaul, all of Spain, and a good chunk of turf in Germany that the real Romans never managed to penetrate into, achieved a 10-star general's rating, and kicked so much ass that if a real person had done everything ol' FJ had done, he'd be regarded right up there with Genghis Khan and Napoleon.

Legends such as my Oblivion and Morrowind characters---no explanation is necessary if you've played those games.

And finally, there's Dogmeat. The defense rests, "Baroness".

 

[MiracleOfSound]

She's obviously never played Ico.

 

[jamesworkshop]

really it sounds more like someone who hasn't played a videogame in 20 years

 

[Acaroid]

Ive brought this topic up before, but its come to my attention once again through more media coverage. Basically, theres this 'Baroness' - Susan Greenfield - and she's done all this 'research' into gaming and young minds. One of her statements was as follows: "..well when you read a book, you care about the Princess [who you're trying to save], but in a game, you don't care at all, do you?" To which news reporters and talk show hosts ignorantly nod their heads and agree. Um..on behalf of the gaming community, do you have any clue what the hell you're talking about??! What are your thoughts guys, I come here, to you because this is a great forum for gaming discussion, especially of this sort.

We shall let her play halflife 2 and see how she feels.

or plenty of examples in the FF series...

She obviously hasnt really played any realy games, she probably thinks we all still play pong..

 

[TsunamiWombat]

I'd like a game where the pricess doesn't need rescuing, she's kicking ass somewhere and you look foolish.

 

[Guitarmasterx7]

And this proves....what? Like, what is she trying to get from this research? If she's doing the standard jackoff argument that games cause violence by pointing out that you're emotionally unattached to the game, that really contradicts her point, doesn't it?

 

[Valiance]

No one touches my princess!

LIGHT WARRIORS? You impertinent fools. I, Garland, will knock you all down!

 

[FallenJellyDoughnut]

I will punch that ***** out! How dare she badmouth my princess?!

 

[Thaius]

...

Wow.

Just...........

...

Wow.

 

[Diserasta]

Pffft. Sounds like another reporter taking a grab at parents and conservatives. God, if that woman had actually spoken to a gamer or two, she'd realise how wrong she is. Yea, I'm not attached to characters in say, GoW, due to the characters in that being stupidly unrealistic, but in most other cases I do care, quite a bit.
I found myself feeling sad for Alex Mercer, or more exactly, ZEUS and I even cried during a scene in Star Ocean 3 ( I'm a guy, mind you ). That pretty much derails her agruement right here. And, to top it all off I just finished a 8 hour quasi-marathon or Baroque and let me tell you, I feel fucked up.
The thing that makes all of these emotions stronger is the fact that I'm the one doing the actions at hand, whether it's slicing people into salami, putting a bullet through my mentor's head or killing my own brother... thrice.

 

[AndyFromMonday]

The woman's an idiot. I will care about the "princess" in the book if the book is WELL WRITTEN and gives me a reason why I should care, one that I can relate to.

Same goes for games. I will care about what happens to my team in CoD 4 because I can relate to them, but I won't care what happens to my stupid idiotic cousin in GTA4 because he's an idiot.

How stupid can she be? Seriously?

 

[Cabisco]

I challenge this Baroness to find a character that people care about more than Dogmeat.

She will fail.

On topic, it's a shame really i just don't care much about this kind of news anymore i'm simply not surprized in the slightest. It's like hearing that fox news is fear mongering again, only last week they had a story about how kittens give you aids and i just didn't care less and went on to continue having sex with kittens.

 

[EMFCRACKSHOT]

I challenge this Baroness to find a character that people care about more than Dogmeat.

Cpt Price

And this woman is clearly wrong. People can get equally attatched to characters from any medium. She, (as you say she is a baroness i assume she is in the house of lords),like many in the house of lords are out of touch with this kind of thing. The head of the house of lords information committee on 'youth culture' admitted this to me himself.

 

[badgersprite]

Who the hell ever got emotionally attached to Rapunzel? Or any other fairytale character?

I care more about characters in video games, even dimwitted Princesses who get themselves locked away in castles, because at least they're my objective. I have some sense of attachment to them. And at least video game characters can sometimes break the cliche, like Zelda/Shiek.

I really get sick of people judging things that they don't understand or that they haven't experienced for themselves. It's condescending, and it shows they aren't well-versed in the subject to make a valid judgement. It becomes more about bashing for one's own sake and self-promotion than actually making a bloody point.