I do it for the escape. It's really the only media that gives you control over the material, therefore I find it the most enjoyable.
Why do you play video games?
- Thread starter Tenkage
- Start date
Recommended Videos
Life truly sucks so I live in a make-believe, fantasy world called my computer. In this world I can be anything I want to be. I can be a confused MIT graduate who unleashed an inter-dimensional alien slave-holder race upon the world; to a racing car driver using the latest and most expensive cars.
Life sucks, gaming is fun.
Life sucks, gaming is fun.
They're something I can do outside of the real world. I can be a cowboy, or a space marine, or fuckin' God if I want to be. Being able to let off steam through video games helps me deal with my problems (or maybe just avoid them).
I played online FPSs (key examples being Battlefield and Planetside),
to feed the pseudo-sociopath/sociologist in me that likes studying people and trying to predict what they'll do next and take advantage of it. This probably sounds wrong, but it's the best way I can describe it. (and yes, I've also "used" fellow teammates if it meant a win)
There's never been a more satisfying moment in my gaming, than knowing for a fact that I completely fooled a guy into giving me his vehicle by faking him out with explosives and getting him to think that by him moving, he'll die. So, he bails out, I disarm the mines and the tank's all mine. I just single-handedly turned the tide of this mini-battle to the point that our ticket bleed/capture/whatever went through and we won. Pretty much just trying to be a one-man army in general and actually pulling it off. Playing in clans 'n tournaments has made me not as good at this over time though, I think. And I haven't been serious about online gaming since playing Global Agenda, so yeah.
Single player games are a different story though. I play them to be immersed in the world created and to see the story through to the end, and maybe talk about it with someone as interested in it as I am.
to feed the pseudo-sociopath/sociologist in me that likes studying people and trying to predict what they'll do next and take advantage of it. This probably sounds wrong, but it's the best way I can describe it. (and yes, I've also "used" fellow teammates if it meant a win)
There's never been a more satisfying moment in my gaming, than knowing for a fact that I completely fooled a guy into giving me his vehicle by faking him out with explosives and getting him to think that by him moving, he'll die. So, he bails out, I disarm the mines and the tank's all mine. I just single-handedly turned the tide of this mini-battle to the point that our ticket bleed/capture/whatever went through and we won. Pretty much just trying to be a one-man army in general and actually pulling it off. Playing in clans 'n tournaments has made me not as good at this over time though, I think. And I haven't been serious about online gaming since playing Global Agenda, so yeah.
Single player games are a different story though. I play them to be immersed in the world created and to see the story through to the end, and maybe talk about it with someone as interested in it as I am.
I too have autism, along with a few other problems, and yet nobody who doesn't study autism and the like can tell. So ya, don't let them hold you back, and don't let your condition get the better of you. Act like it isn't there, that's what I always do.Tenkage said:
Also, fun, friends, and art. I love gaming, and I think some day it may be recognized as art, and crank out stuff that somehow manages to trump bioshock and alan wake with ease.
For the majority of my life my answer to this question would have been simply, "because they're fun". However, as an increasingly politically aware young adult (with an increased understanding that the content of our media ultimately influences our culture, perceptions, internal beliefs and actions - and vice versa) it's becoming harder and harder as time goes on for me to accept, or at least push to the back of my brain, the way in which women, non-white ethnic groups, and homosexuals are depicted or not depicted in the overwhelming majority of games.
I think games are a great past time and stress reliever, and the medium itself holds great artistic potential. I believed throughout my adolescence that I wanted to become part of the game industry, and now at 19 am in university and majoring in 3D animation with hopes to achieve that goal, but I find myself internally conflicted as flip flop between believing I shouldn't indoctrinate myself into an industry that frequently reduces women to boob physics and black men to car-stealing criminals, and believing (very naively) that as a 19-year-old female I have a duty to become a part of the industry so that I can contribute my viewpoint and do my own part to assure that intelligent women are present in video game culture, doing something besides fetching coffee for the bigwigs or using their sexuality as booth babes to push garbage merchandise on horny teenagers.
On a completely separate note, although I have never sought out any medical examination or diagnoses, I have always been suspicious that I have high-functioning* autism, and idea of exploring human interaction in a controlled, digital environment appeals to me much, much more than its real world equivalent. To each his own, right?
*I apologize for using such badly-defined and loaded "medical" terminology. Even doctors/researchers can't agree on what bumps someone up into the "high-functioning" category of autism, so it's really a useless distinction. My point is merely that I lead a normal life.
I think games are a great past time and stress reliever, and the medium itself holds great artistic potential. I believed throughout my adolescence that I wanted to become part of the game industry, and now at 19 am in university and majoring in 3D animation with hopes to achieve that goal, but I find myself internally conflicted as flip flop between believing I shouldn't indoctrinate myself into an industry that frequently reduces women to boob physics and black men to car-stealing criminals, and believing (very naively) that as a 19-year-old female I have a duty to become a part of the industry so that I can contribute my viewpoint and do my own part to assure that intelligent women are present in video game culture, doing something besides fetching coffee for the bigwigs or using their sexuality as booth babes to push garbage merchandise on horny teenagers.
On a completely separate note, although I have never sought out any medical examination or diagnoses, I have always been suspicious that I have high-functioning* autism, and idea of exploring human interaction in a controlled, digital environment appeals to me much, much more than its real world equivalent. To each his own, right?
*I apologize for using such badly-defined and loaded "medical" terminology. Even doctors/researchers can't agree on what bumps someone up into the "high-functioning" category of autism, so it's really a useless distinction. My point is merely that I lead a normal life.
I play videogames because they're fun, they are mentally engaging (I play RPGs, not FPSs, so the story and characters and stuff are great for mental engagement, and the more you can empathise the better), and because if my mind isn't occupied with something, or I'm not being challenged, mentally or physically, I tend to get a bit hyperactive in the 'Claustrophobic tiger pacing the cage" kind of way.
I started;Tenkage said:
A) Cos they're wicked good fun
B) Cos I was socially awkward as a kid
C) I awlays loved the challenge they presented
BTW one of my good mate's cousin is also autistic. He struggles socially, but has made his value well known. He beta tests like a ninja and is one of the most fucked up crazy good programmers I've ever known. I mean the guy can read binary, recognise the programming language and identify flaws just by having 1' & 0's streaming over one of his three screens. He's a bloody LEDGEND!
I have actually read up on introversion, and though I fit a lot of the criteria (for example, finding social interaction draining/time alone energizing, like you said), I also have dramatic symptoms like incredibly discomfort making eye contact and complete inability to hold a conversation (and admittedly a complete lack of understanding for the structures of conversation), which are more associated with Asperger's/Autism than simple introversion.believer258 said:
It's really a fine line though, especially in a culture that assumes extroversion as the norm and has little understanding of internally-driven personality types.