Does Gaming Have Benefits? [Column]

The following is the rough draft of my eGamer column, which is due to go live tomorrow. Tell me what you think, I really want feedback on this one.


Reader! I have something truly ridiculous to tell you! This column ISN'T going to be talking about Call of Duty! Believe it, for it is the truth! In what is quite a monumental step forward in my writing career, and ultimately my overall development as a person, I have indeed decided to cover a topic other than the one I have been harking on about for the past six months or so (for those who didn't pick it up, the topic in question is that of Call of Duty). Anyways, enough about how I'm not going to be talking about Call of Duty, otherwise this is introduction is going to become very counter-intuitive very quickly.

Instead of talking about Call of Duty (last time I'm saying that, I promise), I'm going to be taking the liberty of using my next few columns to expand and otherwise further discuss issues pertinent to the realisation of a concept which I referred to in my previous column as 'The Dream'. For the sake of continuity and in the hopes of generally not confusing the living nonsense out of you, I'm going to keep referring to it as The Dream. Only without the apostrophes.

Anyways, for those of you who forgot or didn't read what I wrote in the aforementioned previous column and are too lazy to dig around the eGamer archives looking for it (I don't blame you, it's a pretty fat mission), here is a convenient linky-link to the column in question.

Now that I've got a few extra views on my last column (and as such, now that I view myself as a more worthwhile person), let me quote the particular extract I am referring to:

“For now, accompany me as we envisage ‘The Dream’… what on earth is the dream? The Dream is gaming popularised. The Dream is to turn on the TV and see Super eSport showing the highlights from a recent StarCraft 2 match. The Dream is professional gaming being a viable career. The Dream is ultimately gaming becoming as fully integrated into our society as sport is.”

Lol.

Hopefully you get the idea of what I'm talking about from that, 'cause devoting an entire column to defining something which can essentially be described as the popularisation of gaming in general (boom! Inadvertent yet effective clarifications of definitions for the win!) would be somewhat of a cop-out in my opinion.

So, to kick off this general theme of the realisation of The Dream, I'm going to be using my next two or three columns to discuss some of the more fundamental attacks on video gaming as a hobby – after all, only once the arguments against video gaming have been thoroughly rebutted and gaming's critics been ruthlessly silenced can we truly see The Dream fulfilled.

Before I actually get started, level with me here: did that previous sentence not sound like an extract from a speech given at a political rally for a Big Brother-esque, autocratic dictatorship. Just saying.

Anyway, let's get started for real now.

The attack I'm going to be discussing this week is that of the point or benefit of gaming. It is without any shadow or semblance of a doubt that I am able to state that behind every corner lies a member of the Family Policy Institute, in every alleyway hides a menopausal female columnist and in every classroom rules a teacher, all of whom would tell you the same thing - “gaming is stupid, you're wasting your time and you could be doing something far more beneficial for yourself.”

I believe that many articles which argue in defense of gaming in this regard go about it in completely the wrong way. Instead of attacking the assumptions and implications behind the argument being proposed, they opt instead to try and present some sort of paltry evidence showing that gaming can have benefits – if you make a simple Google search of 'the benefits of gaming', you will see that many of the arguments and proposed benefits are pretty situational and rather inapplicable in most instances.

The reason I believe them to be generally useless defenses is that they focus on over-specific benefits; for example, some games help surgeons with their motor functions, games can help rehabilitate patients recovering from injuries or suffering from pain, games improve one's hand-eye co-ordination and reflexes... the list could go on, but none of them really provide tangible, everyday benefits that apply to the average gamer.

All of what I've mentioned above may well be good and true, but for the most part it applies to other people – if someone accuses you directly of wasting your time on games and you're not a surgeon or in the rehabilitation process from a major injury, those aren't going to give you much in the way of rebuttal.

The reason for this is simple: gaming as a hobby does not provide much in the way of tangible benefits. This does not, however, mean that it is inferior to other hobbies or ways of passing time as the aforementioned attack would suggest.

If you are a casual gamer (we'll get to more hardcore gamers in a minute), then take a moment to think about what you would spend your time on if you didn't game. The chances are that you would simply browse Facebook idly, chat to people on Mxit, maybe do some light reading... who knows. The point is, you aren't really spending that much of your time playing games, and if you aren't spending that much of your time playing games, then if you were to stop playing games and devote your time to something else instead you wouldn't really be able to see yourself gaining any sort of tangible benefit from it, because you simply wouldn't be able to put enough time in to get anything out.

In the case of the casual gamer, gaming usually assumes the role of a relaxation or de-stressing mechanism, which is totally legit. All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy... and I'm pretty sure that Jack is a casual gamer.

So, let's stop and just take stock of what I've said so far. If you're following, skip this paragraph. We've established that the criticism of gaming we're addressing is one made using an argument of comparative benefit, which is a really douchey way of saying that people like to criticise us as gamers because we could be doing something better with our time. However, what we've seen in terms of casual gamers is that in the majority of cases they don't actually spend enough time on games that if they were to stop gaming and take up another hobby, which they spent the same amount of time on (guitar, for example), they would not find any sort of tangible benefit, because they simply wouldn't be spending enough time on their new hobby.

Everyone following? Awesome.

Now let's take a look at hardcore gamers. Hardcore gamers are characterised by three things: they tend to focus more specifically on a certain game (CoD4, DotA, StarCraft 2, WoW, etc), they tend to spend more time on that game and they tend to specifically try and improve their ability in that game.

The interesting thing about games like the ones mentioned above is that as soon as you start getting into them, playing clan matches and trying to improve your play, tangible benefits begin to pile up. What is even more interesting is that the benefits don't come in the form of over-specific skills (like increased finger dexterity, or something equally retarded), but rather come in the form of lessons which one can apply to almost any situation you find yourself in, in life in general. Too many 'in's in that sentence, but whatever. Moving on.

One such example of a life-applicable benefit is the development of a correlation between effort and reward. Gaming is remarkable in that the more effort you put in, the better you get at what you are trying to do. Any hardcore gamer worth their salt should be able to look at where they started, then look at the point they have reached and realise that it was one thing, and one thing alone that got them there: hard work. Putting in hour upon hour behind your PC, blowing people's faces off. Said gamer would then be able to apply the same logic to their work environment: the harder they work, the further they get.

Other examples come in the form of things like strategic thinking, learning to work well in a team and learning to interact as a member of a team.

In terms of my own experience, I am able to draw direct parallels between what I have learned in my time playing StarCraft 2, and the benefit it has in my life. Foremost among what I have learned, I would say that StarCraft has taught me effective problem solving; when confronted with a problem in StarCraft, one analyses it in a logical, rational manner – if you keep losing to a specific strategy, you man the hell up and figure out how to beat that strategy, by thinking through all of the options at your disposal.

I find more and more that I am applying that same methodical though process to my everyday life, and I really am beginning to see just how tangible the benefit is.

Naturally, this is a topic of truly enormous debate, and I have barely scratched at it's surface. My intention with this column was not to cover every argument and rebuttal in the book – I can see plenty of places where I should do deeper analysis, where my arguments are weak and where I've oversimplified matters – but rather to expose you as the reader to some of the basic thought and argumentation which could go into an issue like this, and ultimately spur your own thoughts in terms of how to defend the point of your chosen hobby.


The end.

Duncan
Out

PS: Posts should be coming in more regularly now, as I'm through the bulk of my work - more on that a bit later, though.

Respawn Studios - Respawning My Dreams

Who didn't (and doesn't) love Call of Duty 4? I mean, really, that game was so full of win that I practically lost my virginity to it. I don't know how that is biologically possible, or even how that statements creates logical concord, but there you have it.

Point is, CoD4 was an awesome game, in the truest, most pure sense of the word - which is why the announcement that Modern Warfare 2 would feature no LAN play or dedicated servers and run through steam probably caused more than a few adolescent suicides. The game wasn't really a bad game... it just didn't deliver like everyone had hoped. I don't think it was because fans had unrealistic expectations, but rather because veterans of the series (and people who pretend to be, like me) felt betrayed by their most loved developers - the Inifinity Ward crew, headed up by Jason West and Vince Zampella.

As anyone who can use a forum will know, many rages and rants did ensue (admittedly, more than a few were my own) and Infinity Ward was generally hated upon.

But wait, there's more! For it was then that the whole legal debacle began, with allegations being thrown around left right and center - pretty soon it became clear that Zampella and West had been plotting and scheming with EA, but using Activision's boardroom or something to do it, because Activision found out and got pretty jealous. And when Activision get's jealous, their lawyers get itchy. And when lawyers get itchy, people get sued. People like Jason West and Vince Zampella.

Amidst the poop-flinging, pretty much everyone who was anyone at Infinity Ward decided to up and quit, leaving the coffee boys and interns to hold their own back at the shell of Infinity Ward. Anyways, those who quit Infinity Ward headed over to join West and Zampella at Infinity Ward 2.0 Respawn Studios, now under the wing of EA.

At first I was skeptical of these relative newcomers, assosciating them with what was, in my perception, the blasphemous bastardisation of my most loved and cherished franchise. Eventually, however, I was persuaded by a combination of boredom, curiosity and a need to procrastinate to visit the Respawn Studios website... contrary to my expectations, I was pleasantly surprised.

I'm not entirely sure what I expected to see - probably something along the lines of a frontpage welcoming you to the site by explaining Respawn's lawful-evil moral code (with bureaucratic tendencies) and a background of mutilated corpses of labrador puppies. What I found instead was a lively blog post detailing the journey the team had been through in the renovation of their office. While it may have been exactly as boring as it sounded, there was certainly no evil afoot there, and I really did try to read between the lines.

What shocked me even more than that, though, was the company section of the site. Upon scrolling down, one is greeted with a small bio of each employee - what really scared me was that upon reading them it seemed as if these people actually enjoyed their jobs and moreover, had a passion for what they do. After a stiff cup of rooibos tea to settle my nerves, I realised that the only logical conclusion was that these people really do love their jobs, and really are excited about making a game which they hope the community will enjoy.

That is a prospect which really inspires the optimist inside of me. We will probably never know exactly what the hell went down with the whole Infinity Ward vs Activision thing, but I'm okay with that. It means that I can blame everything I didn't like about Modern Warfare 2, like the lack of LAN support, lack of dedicated servers, lack of modding tools support, Steam and the lack of a freaking lean function (in all honesty, that's about everything I didn't like about Modern Warfare 2), on Activison. Whether it is true or not, I couldn't care less - it makes me happy.

What also makes me happy is the hope of a game devoid of all of the nonsense us gamers have had to face lately; one that let's me pew pew more and QQ less. Perhaps this is a hope born 90% of the simple fact that I am in love with the people who brought me the game that got me hooked on gaming and 10% the implication made by Jason West's bio (you'll have to go the site to see it, unfortunately, but it'll be worth your while), and perhaps I still have some pent-up fanboy rage issues to deal with, but this is all said in the hope that maybe, just maybe I'll be able to say "Told you so!" when Respawn's new game finally is released.

Post ends here. If you enjoyed it, please feel free to subscribe via either RSS or email, or follow with your google account - and recommend it to your friends, of course. Commentary is always welcome, and I've fixed the comments so that you don't need an account to post. If you didn't enjoy it, please don't hesitate to criticise - but please try and keep it constructive.

This is an article contributing to a daily feature call 'Reader's Digress' at eGamer.co.za. It should be going live with the other submissions tomorrow.

Duncan
Out

The Call of Duty Hype Machine, Fish and Other Things as Well!

*Edit: Comments are now fixed, so you guys can comment regardless of whether you have an account*

My column went up! Here is a copy of it, conveniently on my blog for your convenience (otherwise, you can click here to go to the actual article on eGamer.co.za):



Due to the fact that far too much of my time has been taken up by my school’s infamous (and rather enormous) reading project (cue dramatic music), I managed to forget until today (or yesterday, assuming it is Friday when you read this) that I have to write a column for tomorrow (or today, once again assuming it is Friday when you read this). It is because of this (and my reading project induced panic) that I had originally planned to do what anyone who has read my blog will know that I do best – rage about how Activision, the shell of Infinity Ward and the Call of Duty series from Modern Warfare 2 onwards have begun a long and tragically uncomplicated series of events which will ultimately lead to the death of destruction of us all. However, just as with my previous column, I’m not going to be doing that! This time, though, it isn’t going to be out of self control as much as out of a genuine maturing process in my outlook on all that nonsense.

You see, as I was mapping out my rant, I had a moment of such great epiphany that, had I not been already seated I would probably have had to sit down. So great was the epiphany that I no longer hate Modern Warfare 2, and now honour it with capital letters in writing, just as any normal proper noun deserves. Once again, if you read my blog you would know just how big that is.

“But Duncan!” you may be asking no one in particular as you sit in front of your computer, reading this column, “Are you not the same dashing young man who warned us never to tread near the path of Call of Duty ever again, just as a concerned parent suggests their child stay off the lawn of the convicted paedophile?”

To which I would reply, “Why yes, extremely complimentary reader, yes I am. That, however, was before my aforementioned epiphany!”

To which you would reply, “So tell me what this damned epiphany is, already!”

All right, all right. Long winded, fluffy introductions and arbitrary dialogues with my imaginary reader (who, from this column forth we shall name Martin) aside, let’s get down to business.

The realisation that has really changed my whole perspective on this whole issue is that the games industry is not one entity made up of one part, but rather one entity made up of a number of parts. But more analysis on that a tad later.

For now, accompany me as we envisage ‘The Dream’… what on earth is the dream? The Dream is gaming popularised. The Dream is to turn on the TV and see Super eSport showing the highlights from a recent StarCraft 2 match. The Dream is professional gaming being a viable career. The Dream is ultimately gaming becoming as fully integrated into our society as sport is.

While the matter presented in the above paragraph could fuel several columns all on its own, let’s ignore the debate for now and assume that The Dream can become a reality.

The question that assumption begs is then what would be necessary for this oh-so-awesome Dream to become a reality?

The answer to that question, given our tragically capitalist society is simply: demand. If enough people ask for it, it will happen. Perhaps not immediately, but we are already beginning to see the emergence of gaming as a far more popularised, far more mainstream hobby. Hell, even here in South Africa professional gaming is becoming a more and more viable occupation as we see new tournament organisation bodies emerging, and more and more companies stepping up to sponsor tournament prizes. Which is pretty awesome. But I digress.

So, we as gamers need demand, right? Right. The thing is, that demand isn’t going to come if the community doesn’t grow… which is where the post-Call-of-Duty-4 Call of Duty series comes in.

The hype created by each successful release of a CoD game is so enormous that I shy at the idea of creating an apt yet witty metaphor to match it. And that, dear reader(s), is exactly what we as the gaming community need. It is because of the massive hype created by games like Call of Duty that they draw in people who have never touched a game before in their life.

Ironically enough, my very own gaming career started as a result of the hype created around Call of Duty 4 (granted, that hype was justified). I saw the posters and huge cardboard cut-outs for it this one time in Look & Listen and realised that it had to be my Christmas present. I had no idea that I was buying what was arguably one of the greatest games of last decade, or just how hard I would fall for gaming at the time – all I knew was that the dude on the poster looked hardcore and had an assault rifle. For me, and many others like me, that is more than enough to justify a purchase that could alter the course of one’s life forever.

You see, those first time gamers / tragically uneducated noobs don’t give a flying fart about who the hell Infinity Ward are, or why dedicated servers and LAN support are so important to the hardcore crowd… all they know is that if they click the left mouse button (assuming they don’t have a completely retarded control configuration), the gun their in-game avatar is holding shoots. And that is awesome.

That is also when the bugs bites. When you play one awesome game, you want to play another. And another. And another. Eventually, you start to stumble across sites like this one, or a copy of NAG catches your eye on the way to the checkout counter. You start to educate yourself, start to form opinions, and take your next steps on the path to becoming a true hardcore-gamer-crackhead.

Now, let’s go back to that thing I mentioned earlier about the games industry being a multi-faceted entity. Now that we’re back there, let’s compare it to a fishing scenario!

So, the hook hangs in the water. Acting as the bait is a freshly caught, fat, juicy, delectable worm probably drowning to death as I write this. A fish of undefined species swims idly past, but returns upon catching the scent of the aforementioned freshly caught, fat, juicy, delectable worm (by now it should be dead). It sniffs (I think fish sniff?) at it a few times and depending on its temperament and level of sustenant satisfaction will either take a bite or leave it alone. Let’s assume this fish recently escaped from a gulag, and so it’s pretty hungry. Our gulag escapee takes a bite, and the hook drives into its fishy flesh, the barb securing a purchase. The fish is hooked, and the fisherman on the surface awakens from his stupor and begins to tug wildly on the rod, and reel the fish in. The fish breaks the surface of the water, suspended by the fishing line on the hook, and the fisherman reels in a tad more and, when satisfied that he can easily reach out and grab the fish, ceases to reel and surveys his catch.

Now, let’s analyse that rather narrative, probably a tad long-winded metaphor. The fish is, of course, our prospective gamer. The hook is the game itself. The line could be considered the level of their passion, with the amount they have been reeled in being directly proportional to the amount of forum posts and opinions they have under their belt. Finally, when the reeling in is complete, we have a fully matured hardcore trout gamer, just like the rest of us! The bait is, of course, the hype surrounding the game in question.

Naturally, there is a metric ass-ton of hype surrounding the release of Modern Warfare 3 (for example), and so the above scenario would be happening en masse. And if it happens en masse, we get more demand, which ultimately perpetuates The Dream!

You see where I’m going with this? Exactly!

With both of these scenarios, however, there is a price to be paid. In the scenario of the fishing trip, the dead worm was the price. In the scenario of attracting new gamers, it means we have to tolerate bureaucratic, backstabbing nonsense from a company which has forgotten how to listen to its audience.

While it may be a rather annoying price, I don’t think it foreshadows the way forward for gaming (thankfully), and ultimately if it leads to the realisation of The Dream, I will gladly pay it.

Besides, by the time those metaphorical fish reach the end of the line, they will have learnt the error their ways anyway.



For those unsure, the column just ended

Apart from my column (which I hope you enjoyed), please head over to my good friend Greg Grack's new blog, all about his adventures in the wonderful world of StarCraft 2! You get to it by clicking here, by the way. Give the man your love and support :D

If you enjoyed the read then please subscribe to me via either RSS or email (in the right hand panel over there) and/or recommend this blog to your friends. As always, I welcome criticism, praise, general commentary, debate and/or anything else you have to say via the comments.

If you have anything you want me to write about, put suggestions and requests there as well and I'll see what I can do.

Last thing! Just a heads up that my Warhammer 40k/D&D blog is also going to be going live soon, so if you're into that nonsense please do keep an eye out.

In closing, enjoy this picture of a cat pushing a watermelon out of a lake... (you were supposed to click there)

Duncan
Out

A week of firsts! :D (And a comparison of the Warhammer 40k vs online gaming communities)

The title provides enough introduction, so let's dive straight in, shall we!

The first (and most epic, from my point of view) first we're going to be talking about is my first officially published column! Weehaay! Hooray! Etcetera! I find it really cool that now I'm not just some idiot publishing his ramblings on a free blogging service, I'm an idiot having his ramblings published for him on an established, proudly South African (lol) gaming site! Yes, ladies and gentleman, I'm feeling pretty legit right now. For those of you who didn't see my Facebook status, or who I haven't already pestered enough, click here to go to the column in question.

Feeling pretty damned ampd about it. Got a positive comment from some random, my editor and a bunch of the other authors on the site liked it and it got like 32 Facebook reccomendations. I'm entirely sure what those are, but they sound pretty cool.

Second first, I got my first follower! No jokes, if you direct your attention to the box at the bottom right of your screen (you may have to scroll down a bit) you'll see a little block with a silhouetted head in it, and if you hover your mouse over that head it'll say 'mlpdarth'! Righteous! Now, let me tell you a bit about Mr mlpdarth. A lad by the name of Sam Wolski, I met him at provincial trials for debating last year (aaaah! What's that IRL doing on my gaming blog!), he embodies the phrase truly epic. I believe we spent all of 55 minutes of a one hour prep session talking absolute crap, and the other 5 realising we had to make a case. Needless to say, lulz ensued.

Regardless! He has a blog, which I have been stalking for more time than I care to admit. Two, actually, one covering his daily life and the other covering... wait for it.. his Warhammer 40k life! Aaaaaw yeah :D So, I started off stalking his 40k blog, but it doesn't update enough to sate my appetite, so I started reading his IRL blog as well. And it isn't half bloody bad. So I followed both his blogs, and now he's followed me back. And after that extremely lengthy explanation, I'm going to end that tangent with 2 statements:

1) Be awesome and check out his blog by clicking here, or be even more awesome and check out his 40k blog by clicking here.
2) I wonder if he realises who the hell I am, or if he was just following back out of blogger courtesy...

Ok, I don't really have any other major firsts. But two in one week is pretty decent! I did also finish painting my first Warhammer 40k model, and Nick Geffen (the only tame ginger yet known to man) and I hit the local nerd gathering to engage in a bit of glorious combat (I won :D). Now, before you stop reading, and start telling me how 40k is a stupid investment, I promise you that a full justification, explanation and defense (ification?) of my interests is on the way, but I'm tired as hell, so it's not coming just yet.

What I am going to spend the rest of the time talking about, however, is how awesome I find the Warhammer 40k community, compared to pretty much any online community for whichever game you care to mention.

Thing is, the majority of most any major game's online community can be summed up in one word: assholes. Granted, you find some cool people every now and then, and granted in the higher tiers of the StarCraft 2 community you get awesome people like Husky and Day9 who valiantly give their time to grow the SC2 community and the eSports community in general. But two men do not a majority make. The majority of gamers (myself included, many a time) look down on 'noobs' as if they were the scum of the earth, the proverbial dog crap on the sole of their shoe, which they are forced to waste their precious time scraping off. The problem here is twofold: one, it means that these poor noobs, who have very little idea of WHAT IN THE NAME OF ALL THAT IS SACRED IS GOING ON IN THIS MENTAL GAME IN THE FIRST PLACE, have an even worse time because of it, meaning that the game simply is not an enjoyable experience; two, it either makes noobs think that the manner in which they have been treated is the acceptable or correct way to treat noobs, or they get so pissed off about it that they take out their frustrations on the only people they can - noobs who are noobier than themselves. Thus the cycle of assholism (that's a word, folks) is perpetuated, and people are, if anything, driven away from eSports and online gaming in general.

As I said before, this doesn't count for everyone, just most people. There are those who realise that they were once noobs too, and there are even those who go out of their way to help the poor bastards, but, like I said, they are not the majority.

Why am I saying all of this? Well, contrast is to my and Nick's experience at the Battle Bunker last Tuesday. 'Twas 40k night at the aforementioned Bunker of Batlle, and Nick and I rocked up, with our command of the rules being directly proportional to the amount of paint on my models... which is to say, not a lot. The veterans were all there, and instead of leaving us to our misguided efforts to play a game we had very little experience in, they jumped into action and immediately made us feel right at home as part of the community. They took turns helping us out, firstly with the basics of the rules, then with more specific ingame advice and clarification and then more in depth strategy tutelage - hell, some guy who played the same race as Nick gave him a lesson lasting nearly 2 hours on how to be awesome with their race! The crazy thing is how excited they were to have us there. No matter the stupid question, they were more than eager to answer and make sure we had an awesome time.

Needless to say, we did.

The contrast between my experience of being a CoD4 and StarCraft 2 noob (and now seeing the reaction of the Team Fortress 2 community to all of the new players being added to their ranks because of the game becoming free), and being a Warhammer 40k noob is about as stark as you're ever going to get.

While some masochists may enjoy the petty jackassish behaviour and general idiocy of online gamers one has to suffer through in the early stages of the learning curve of a particular online game (and hell, even in the later stages, too), I am not among them. Where I more awake, I would do more analysis on that contrast, its reasons for existence and what to conclude from them, but as I said I'm tired as hell. So that'll have to wait for another day.

Last thing! My next column is due in two weeks, and I am now a proper, legit and official writer for eGamer! Sorry, still pretty ampd about it :P

Much <3 guys, hope you're sleeping right now.

Duncan
Out