18 June 2013

I Play For Fun?

Although this is not really role-playing game related, it is pretty good if you're into video games, especially competitive video games.

It's titled "I Play For Fun- The Four Dumbest Words in Video Games," and if you've never encountered somebody who insists that they are not poor players, they are "just playing for fun," then I envy you.

From the article:
Some pursue their goals more passionately than others. Thus, “I play for fun” was born, and we were all dumber for hearing it. It’s an excuse that would never be tolerated in any other form of recreation and only gets a free pass because “it’s video gamez lol why are you takign this so seriously??” So, allow me to be blunt here: If “I play for fun” is one of your talking points, you really, really need to shut the fuck up. And yeah, that may sound a little bit crass, but I’m not pulling punches on this one. The phrase needs to go.

And from a little later on:
Most people who use the moniker “I play for fun” describe themselves as playing the games casually. They don’t give much thought to the development process and don’t quite care about being the best video game player who ever lived. That would be okay, if not for one important consideration: There has to be a reason that you announce this to your peers and contemporaries. You don’t hear people say they read books for fun or watch films for fun or play sports for fun. Maybe they play sports “for the exercise”, but not “for fun”.

Good reading for anybody who's ever encountered anybody who refuses to admit the truth- that everybody is playing for fun.

Just for your information: There's nothing wrong with being bad at things or being ignorant. There is something wrong with refusing to admit (or correct) being bad or being ignorant, though.

3 comments:

  1. I would actually draw a distinction between those who "suck" and "those who play for fun".

    Those who suck are people who cannot for whatever reason overcome an inability to play a game, they play often, they try, they may pay professional gamers to help them learn some tricks, but they just can't get ahead.

    People who play for fun are those who play enough to derive enjoyment, but are not in it to win it. They don't devout time to be good at the game (let's look at this rationally, if you put time into being good at basketball you will have coordination and cardiovascular health as a reward, not so with Call of Duty). They don't see winning as a big enough enticement to put in time that they would see as a chore. Also, this is usually a retort to vitriolic opponents online, who really don't deserve a retort because of their obnoxiousness.

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    Replies
    1. I think the article discusses that, although it might do so in a bit of a slantways manner.

      There's nothing wrong with playing for fun. But declaring that you play for fun, and thereby implying that another person does not, is a completely incoherent statement.

      I agree with you about the retort bit, but it's not really necessary. You can still call them a variety of names, but taking a sort of high horse because "you play for fun and they're just being high tier cheap characters" is just kind of bizarre.

      After all, if you played for fun, surely you'd still be enjoying your defeat.

      Delete
  2. Read the article: but the guy who wrote it exsudates so much of "You're doing it wrong!" and "that's badwrongfun!" that the only thing I want to answer him is: "I just play for fun!" just to make him enraged (and for fun...)

    The grand majority of people play video games for fun. The only debate is how much fun one is having. And I would propose the player that seeks to learn every strategy, every nuance, and every counter is probably having more fun than a pair of sloppy players who “play for fun”.
    Seriuosly? Sounds like a colossal douchebag to me...

    ReplyDelete

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