Poll: Have gamers lost touch with "playing for fun?"

[Kilo24]

...
Please state where I made any mention of the word "correct", "right", "true", etc.

And I'm not trying to convert them to my personal view... I'm pointing out the hypocrisy of them saying they play for fun but in reality are playing to win.

Fun can come in many different flavors. Playing to win is playing for fun if the player has fun with it.

Achieving something that the game recognizes can be just as fun as achieving something that the game doesn't recognize. If they weren't having fun with the game, they wouldn't play it (unless you've got someone else nudging them into it, or some other meter like Gamerscore that motivates them.)

 

[XandNobody]

I have a story for this one, it is depressing, and not how everyone is, but how some people really are.

I have a friend, lets call him Tony. Mostly because I have no friends named Tony and some part of me thinks that would be cool. Anyways, on topic, he plays video games his entire time off from anything. It is what he does, it is his hobby. Note how I'm ignoring the words "because it is fun", there is a reason for this. See, his life is, even I'll admit from my own low ass standpoint, crap, mostly for long term reasons that won't go away anytime soon for him. Because of this, he plays games to escape reality. Nothing new, I do the same, as do more than a few here I imagine. Thing is, he doesn't do it just to escape, he does it to replace, reality. How is this different? When he loses at a game, it isn't the "lets try again" reaction, it's the "as if life wasn't bad enough" emo rage reaction that would make a siren cover their ears and has made the stereotype XBL emotionless twelve year old cry. The vitriol that this man spews because he is using the game not for fun, but a replacement for his crap-tastic life, has actually made him not able to see his nephew for a while, because the kid beat him at Mario Cart once, and he just went off verbally.

I share this mostly because if there is anyone else who has lost the fun in videogames for a similar reason, please, look at your life, and try to understand that replacing it with a game, that you can and will lose from time to time, is generally a bad idea.

 

[Fugitive Panda]

I said yes, because I definitely have, and it's really depressing.

I used to be able to boot up a Zelda game and write my own damn story, and it was awesome. But lately every game I play is triggering my OCD. RPGs especially. It seems that if I'm given any sort of meaningless "flavour" choice I obsess over it far more than I should.

Ironically, taking games too seriously has made me play them less and less. If I'm not having fun, I stop playing.

 

[Dreiko_v1legacy]

Ever think that "playing to win" is actually fun for some people? Everyone is still doing what they find fun, even if it's not what somebody else finds fun.

So who the Hell cares?

They're not even playing to win in this case, they're playing without a coherent plan.

 

[Gaiseric]

Some have(my younger brother) and some haven't(me).

I only play games to have fun and relieve stress not to add to it.

 

[Dreiko_v1legacy]

whoops, double post >_>

 

[yndsu]

Different games for different things.
Multiplayer games more for the winning.
Singleplayer for the fun.

 

[Quantom Quak]

I think "playing for fun" will never really be lost with medium to hardcore gamers. It's always been a part of the gaming lifestyle, but that doesn't mean there aren't other options. I've replayed some games so many times I've seen their underlying messages and themes that they're as familiar to me as Cave Johnson saying "combustible lemons."

 

[floppylobster]

They all seem to about 'story' these days. Like games were ever a great medium for telling stories. If not that then it's about collecting achievements. The playing to win crowd have always been there.

 

[razelas]

I don't think we've lost touch with playing for fun, we've just started judging other peoples idea of fun.

I won't deny it, I am judging my friends. But that doesn't negate anything I said or observed, does it?

 

[Zantos]

I think that people seem to not understand that other people find other things fun to them. This is evident in the OP as, so what if they got it handed, if they were enjoying enough to keep fighting losing battles then they got to what games are about, having fun and enjoying yourself.

I get this sort of thing all the time from people I know. Constantly I get the same conversation come up: "Why are you playing ? It's rubbish, its only a short campaign and there's not enough character development. Why not play <insert game here which without being a trolling prick, is pretty much always a valve game>? It's got puzzles and the plot's great and all the characters are really deep and interesting!" To which I normally reply "Fuck off, I just want to blow shit up for half an hour."

You might enjoy learning all the moves to win every battle, but if they're really enjoying just button mashing and occasionally getting a victory who are you to say they're not having fun?

 

[Skratt]

I don't think we've lost touch with playing for fun, we've just started judging other peoples idea of fun.

I play to have fun. I have friends that judge me for games I play for fun, and I both resent it and turn around and judge others for the same thing. You are spot on, but I'm cool with it.

 

[Magikarp]

Yes, it's depressing that people do things like camping just so they can boast about thir K/D, but the call of combustable lemons is just too strong.

 

[ProtonGuy]

Everyone wants to win, everyone wants that shiny useless achievement for some reason. It probably has something to do with how easy it is to fight other gamers on the side of the planet with today's technology, but right now I don't really care because I have a Super Nintendo with Earthbound. Now that's playing for fun...FUZZY PICKLES!

 

[XandNobody]

*Self-snip*

How old is this person? Does he have some sort of mental problem?

It sounds like you need to talk to him. Get a few buddies together and take him somewhere, get him a drink or something (remember that "drink" doesn't necessarily mean alcoholic). This does sound sad, and he won't come out of it without someone else's help.

He's like 30, and we've been working on it, but not to much success I'm afraid. The type of person he is, what he really needs is his real life to get better to break the delusion, but that might be a while, so, yea. Figured it was still worth warning people about it though in-case they know anyone seeming to go that direction, including themselves.

 

[Witney]

This was said up top:

"But apparently, getting frustrated and using the same approach is their idea of "fun." They say they like to "learn in the heat of battle" but all they're really doing is learning a few attacks/combos and then using those few moves over and over and over...

This kind of narrow-minded thinking upsets me a little. It seems that they aren't playing the game... they're just winning (or losing, mostly); in other words, it's a competition and winning is all that matters. While I've come to expect that from anonymous people playing competitively online, it's kind of hard to deal with now that it's in my face. What's even scarier is that there's no ranking/scoreboard to spur these guys on."

This reminds me of a study I once read. A group of children were given a video game without instructions, and had their head wired into a device that gauged their brain activity. As the children were still trying to figure out how the game worked, how the manipulate the control properly, and how to solves the puzzles, the meter signaled increased brain activity. However, as they continued to play, and the controls became more natural to them, their brain activity decreased until it was equal to that of watching television.

Jus' sayin'...

 

[Darius Brogan]

I don't play to win, I play for fun. I lost every match except one, because I refused to spam and button mash. And of course they care about winning, because apparently for them the ends justify the means.

They are spamming moves, not caring about combos, and losing frequently. They are not "playing to win".

That guy camping in room with one entrance in the corner of the map in Team Deathmatch, waiting for someone to cross his field of vision so that he can get easily get a positive K/D ratio...he's playing to win.

Hey! Not fair! That's how I play!

I don't give even a quarter of a damn about my K/D, but I play the way I believe any military game should be played, with tactics, care, and stealth.

Yes, I play to win much of the time, but I find it more fun and rewarding to try playing like a real soldier, with only one life, then 'OKAY WE'VE STARTED!!! RUN IN RECKLESSLY AND DISTRACT AS MANY AS POSSIBLE SO I CAN KILL THEM ALL AND ***** ABOUT HOW YOU DIDN'T PROVIDE ANY SUPPORT WHEN I GET SHOT!!!!'

Admittedly, I do get habitually frustrated when I lose, but that's more of an ingrained response from having an older brother that rubbed any losses in my face for three weeks after the fact from the ages of 4 - 15...