He played a game, now he thinks he's an expert...

[zirnitra]

I know what you mean. I was going to make a joke about kids playing a racing game and breaking their neck ploughing into a lorry or playing GTA and thinking their a criminal master mind but then it would sound like I though games actually influenced people into doing those things.

The thing which really annoys me about those people though is they seem to develop what I call Jeremy Clarkson syndrome where they learn all the technical names for weapons and military hardware then try to reference them a stupid amount of times in a regular convocation and just sound like an arse "(sigh) the dog needs a walk. I should just take it through the woods in a FV4034 Challenger 2 main battle tank" luckily they grow out of it pretty quickly.

 

[WolfRocker]

This is so true people become "Experts" after playing a game. like my friend for example he played ninja gaiden 2 and now claims to be an expert on katana's. now i used to take sword fighting classes and he wanted to fight me using wooden swords promising that he could beat me. i accidentally broke his arm. :|

 

[Conqueror Kenny]

I'm not sure about games but after 300 came out everyone became an expert on Sparta.

You know I died inside when that happened. For years I have been studying ancient Greek cultures and mythologys, suddenly everybody was telling me about Sparta. Honestly ask any one of them to name three spartan kings without using the internet they would name Leonidus and that would be it. I would seriously stab every person that claimed to know alot about Sparta just because they have seen 300.

 

[Solo508]

I've met some CSS guys who have started talking to me about bullet calibers. They were like 12.

There is a mod for Battlefield 2 called Project Reality (www.realitymod.com) that uses all the real weapons and vehicles used today and if any game is going to teach you about real life then that one is.

Still, lets not forget that games do offer a lot of knowledge, if you have ever played games like Rome/Medieval/Medieval2 total war then you will know what I'm talking about. Those games have actual historical events happen in it that you get to read about and you get to learn about the different unit types used in battle and read descriptions about them and where they come from. Its actually fun! Its all actually very well researched and accurate too. So I guess some games can teach you a lot, but nothing can teach you "everything".

 

[Radelaide]

I have a buddy who got really creepy after playing The Darkness, and I just could not spend any time around him before feeling the urge to hurt him while explain to him that it was not real and there is no way there is some ancient evil haunting his family.

I wouldn't show him the comic book then...

*edit, edit, edit*

I'm a bit of a computer hardware geek, and it really annoys me when friends think they know more about hardware than me just because they've got a job assembling computers for Dell or HP or whoever. Yay, you can follow instructions and put together fairly fool-proof systems, but that doesn't automatically qualify you to debate about differences between motherboards or whatever.

Also, people who have a little bit of experience with JavaScript or Flash and then think they can program just about anything they want.

Eller

I have one of those friends. He actually argued with me over developing games on different platforms because he hears something or reads something off the internet or through a friend and thinks he knows all about it. Whereas I am a real game programmer who does it for a living at an actual development studio and the pinnacle of his programming experience is a java course he took in university. And he just won't give it up.

Arguing over whether developing for the PS3 vs Wii vs 360 is better... no, man, no, just stop.

I know Eller in real life, and we have that same argument about Xbox vs. PC, don't we Jerkface? He generally gives up. But I must admit, I suffer from occasional twat syndrome. We must find a cure!

-Rad

 

[The Wooster]

I'm not sure about games but after 300 came out everyone became an expert on Sparta.

God after that movie came out I had to listen to friends and others who "thought" they knew anything about history say things that made my soul die a little bit.

One comment that made me cry a tad on the inside was and I shall quote, "Yeah it was a good movie but it wasn't historically accurate.". I followed that statement by trying to explain that the movie 300 was based on a graphic novel by a man named Frank Miller who only loosely based the story on historical events. After stating that I was again treated to this persons thoughts; "Yeah I know that but I really doubt there were guys like the one with blades for hands or that one that the Immortals brought into battle." to which all I could do was /facepalm.

Sorry for the rant but that comment brought back some memories.

You do not want 300 to be historically accurate.

yeah, 300 as historical accurate would be horsecrap

It would be brokeback mountain meets a child called it.

Haha, I remember about 5 years back before the movie came out, having a project on that particular battle, then when the movie came out, all my friends thought they knew about the battle, and I had to try and tell them...

How ******* stupid they were...
Funnn timesss!

That was my point I tried to get through to my friend in our conversation. I should have gone into detail about the fact that if it were trying to be historically accurate it would involve a lot of guys that weren't incredibly buff that were also quite filthy having gratuitous sex before and after battles.

They also worse pretty thick armour and generally had long hair.

Essentially the 300 guys were anti spartans.

 

[NeedAUserName]

I dunno if this counts but I sat through the whole Rocky series (1-5(6 wasn't out at the time)) and decided I would be a really good boxer.

 

[Spartan Bannana]

I've fired a small rifle, it was only about 15 pounds, so not very heavy, I assume that other rifles are probably heavier, but I digress.
One of my friends thinks that he's such a good sniper he could do it in real life, and he can with water guns, but he's never tried to fire a real rifle, he doesn't know how different these things shoot compared to toys.

 

[Copter400]

he still hasn't came out of godfather phase lol

Godfather, eh? That must be pretty entertaining.

 

[Zakutambah]

I'd love to throw into this mix something that really, really, really ticks me off.
Anyone that plays games and suddenly thinks they are an expert on how the games industry works, or the process for creating games, or programming in general.
Programming is not easy; yes a seemingly simple bug like say falling through the floor really can take a month to track down and fix.
And project planning doesn't happan overnight either; like programming, it takes years of experiance and education.
And the games industry itself? It is not some fun filled wonderland; yes, if it truly is your passion there is a lot of fun to be had at times, but it's also bloody hard work, and takes years for doing other seemingly menial jobs to build up the necessary experiance. You aren't just going to start out designing the next Halo or Mario there buddy.

 

[Railu]

I'd love to throw into this mix something that really, really, really ticks me off.
Anyone that plays games and suddenly thinks they are an expert on how the games industry works, or the process for creating games, or programming in general.
Programming is not easy; yes a seemingly simple bug like say falling through the floor really can take a month to track down and fix.
And project planning doesn't happan overnight either; like programming, it takes years of experiance and education.
And the games industry itself? It is not some fun filled wonderland; yes, if it truly is your passion there is a lot of fun to be had at times, but it's also bloody hard work, and takes years for doing other seemingly menial jobs to build up the necessary experiance. You aren't just going to start out designing the next Halo or Mario there buddy.

I blame the ads from Career Colleges. There is one here and it literally opens like this:

We want to show you the next great game. The only problem is....... You haven't made it yet!

Then goes on to say 'You love playing games. Why not make them?' There are a few schools that train people specifically for the games industry and some are good, while others are total cash grabs. I studied at one of the reputable ones and graduated as an SE, but the class sizes went down steadily every semester because people realized it was actually very hard work. By the time I graduated, 80% of the students (especially programmers) dropped out.

They try to tell us that anyone can be a game designer in their ads. But what they fail to tell the students that only 5% of them will get a job as a game designer in any form. Most will get stuck designing tiny aspects of a game. The rest end up as QA (game testers). I have friends who went in to study to be game designers who to this day are asking me if there is a job at my company for them.

If you want a try, start off with making a mod for Unreal 3 first. A REAL mod, not just trying to screw around with gravity and weapon damage. Make a partial conversion and if you can handle that with any measure of success, then you can talk.

 

[zen5887]

I know a dude who plays a bunch of games with sword fighitng and martial arts and he watches a bunch of anime.. As a result he things he can use swords.. To the point where we was running around with two of my mokken (wooden training swords) in some attempt to duel weild

"John you should start with one before you try two.." "But using two is soo much cooler"

...

 

[Zakutambah]

Then goes on to say 'You love playing games. Why not make them?'

That there really is the problem. Most of the time, the people that love playing games as a past time are the last people you want working in the industry, purely because they can't translate their fun-filled hobby into a job where you actually have to put in a lot of hard work.
And this is fine, it's the same for almost everyone when it comes to their hobbies/careers, but these 'academies' encourage that mentiality.

 

[Castrate the Heathen]

I don't care how hard "Through the Fire and the Stupidly Long Name" is on the Plastic Gee-tar.

Herman Li is not the b3st geetarist evarrr!!

Shut the hell up.

 

[BlueMage]

I admit, I got a bit that way regarding stealth after Expert'ing Thief and Thief 2.

I was sorta justified - I do have a considerable knowledge of theory and application of stealth, and I'm sneaky enough that I can usually sneak up on a dog.

 

[kingofwolves]

I played DMC3 a while ago, and I read somewhere that Dante uses Aikido. I tried learning Aikido. I failed. Horribly. Now I wanna learn CQC after playing MGS3 and 4 many many times.

I have a friend who's the definition of otaku, and says desu a lot, but he actually knows Japanese, so he knows when it's grammatically appropriate to say it. It's only a problem when my other friend, who's Indian, does the exact same thing, only he doesn't know Japanese and he says it after every goddamn sentence and pronounces it wrong.

 

[BlueMage]

Iwho's Indian, does the exact same thing, only he doesn't know Japanese and he says it after every goddamn sentence and pronounces it wrong.

That's the nature of being Indian

 

[zen5887]

I don't care how hard "Through the Fire and the Stupidly Long Name" is on the Plastic Gee-tar.

Herman Li is not the b3st geetarist evarrr!!

Shut the hell up.

+1

 

[BaronAsh]

I've fired a small rifle, it was only about 15 pounds, so not very heavy, I assume that other rifles are probably heavier, but I digress.
One of my friends thinks that he's such a good sniper he could do it in real life, and he can with water guns, but he's never tried to fire a real rifle, he doesn't know how different these things shoot compared to toys.

15 pounds Holyshit what caliber ?!


The real weapon that will maul its user is a bow, a bow string, if your not careful, will hit your arm just as hard as its firing that arrow.

 

[Anarchemitis]

I have realized though real life application that it is very tiring and difficult to hold a gun perfectly stead while walking, running, swimming and climbing ladders. Either Gordon Freeman has steel arms attached to his neck or he can hold a 50 pound weight straight out in front of himself for over 17 hours without breaking a sweat.