Epiphany in Gaming
So, just beat Mass Effect 2. Powered through it, you might say. Maybe played through too fast, but I know that after a video game has engaged me, I engage it - it becomes a task, an obstacle that must be overwhelmed and overcome, an enemy that has to be absolutely defeated and denied. It is almost with a singular devotion that my multi-wired brain attaches to the project, always there under what else I am doing - in class, talking with others, cooking for Jess.
Some see this as weakness, as 'obsession'. It certainly is obsession, yes, but that word has too many negative connotations. What exactly am I doing when I engage so deeply with something like this? James Paul Gee (hopefully the correct spelling) is an educational researcher, who staunchly believes that video games can be the perfect learning device, and that current, mainstream 'recreational' video games already do that. They challenge, oppose, entertain, keep focus, offer rewards, and when accomplishments are given, satisfaction. Now more than ever, thanks to the ingenious and insane 'Achievement' system that many platforms are using, these things are true. Video games are an amazing human creation which has already revolutionized the race which bore it - we might not see all the implications now, but an entire generation now has been raised on them and this mentality of constant struggling against obstacles to overcome, looking for that sense of satisfaction. It is certainly going to be interesting.
Here is the crux of it though, and the personalization - gaming is, like almost everything, a two way street. In my own life for example, I turned to it when my asthma left me handicapped and inside, and when social fears and anxieties scarred me through schools, I turned to games for a sense of community, understanding, and enjoyment. I would bet with near complete confidence that most of my thinking patterns, and intelligence, can be attributed to games and my need to overcome and beat them. Absorbing hand-eye coordination was only the beginning. Problem solving, and adaption to constantly evolving scenarios came next. Persistence, in a way, also became a prized attribute. I cannot help now but every so often crave the need to evaluate everything and put it into to-do lists of problems that need to be figured out and fixed, from gardening to personal weaknesses.
The downsides though, can often be seen very quickly by the society which we were born into - lack of social awareness, a 'distancing' from reality. To go online or to play online games you can find many 'idiot savants' which are absolute geniuses in their own realm. I know people who can tackle any problem in World of Warcraft, go beyond 'normal' limitations of stats and player ability. They have memorized entire math algorithms for stat tracking, have even learning college level computer programming in order to install add-ons and optimize. However, I see them online when I log on at 4 in the morning or 4 in the afternoon. They have over a year plus of game time racked up. There is no judgement in that statement (I have plenty of hours racked up myself), as I respect most the people I play with, but I can speak from personal experience running my own gaming club on campus. Some of them can kick my ass in Halo or Smash Brothers. They know every weapon, every character, inside and out, learning game physics to the point where they can actually break some of them in the coding (very matrixy). They would come to Gaming Society week in and out, asking for that one game. They would bitch and complain if things weren't ready exactly at 9 PM. Or if they couldn't be playing every round. Or scream at leaders who didn't get a proper prize out for a tournament, or an event wasn't set up right. Yet they would sit there in their corner, relying on others for their social communication network and recreational activities. All of that processing power and problem solving has become all together isolated, individualized to one endeavor and one endeavor alone. I know some that I could play them in Halo 1, and I would be shotgunned down in the first minute. I load in a replica of the same game with tweaks, Halo 2, and suddenly I am king, an overwhelming force indomitable. There is gnashing of teeth, and blaming the coders for changes. The learning process and neural focus has been completely isolated to one single game.
These negatives and positives are not unique to video games - they are just much more pronounced to see, because of how new they are, the amount of people who have adopted them as a way of life, and the massive subculture which has risen from the hobby. I could take a star athlete out for Parkour, and they might be scared to leap over a 3 foot wall, because its a new obstacle, even if their physical capabilities are able to overcome a 6 foot wall (I've actually seen this in action, when I spent brief periods of time trying to learn, and show other people). These positives and negatives have to be addressed by our society as a whole, and by the individual who gets into this hobby. It can be a powerful, very powerful tool of focus, enjoyment, and enhancement of mental capacity... but an open mind has to be kept, a mind willing to always learn and critically pick apart the skills used to beat Mario and apply them to Tetris. Take that collective set of skills, and then apply them to Halo, then Mass Effect... then reality. Classes of Math I could probably ace if I took what I've learned to become a decent GM in tabletop games and applied it to rote memorization and linking of figures. I know my love of war games and Halo is something that I could use on the paintball field to show up in the right place and time, or coordinate sneak attacks.
In summary? Video Games (the Gaming genre in general as well) are bloody fantastic and amazing, but only if applied outside of their own individual boundries. There is nothing more true in this statement than my own personal situation - I can organize entire worlds, plots, dangers and hazards for GMing Dungeons and Dragons in about a half hour, and modify those scenarios in the course of a minute. I can string together several hundred correct computations in something like "Puzzle Quest", or deciding targets in World of Warcraft. I can sit down for four, six, eight, even (this is to the embarrassing stage now) ten hours, entirely devoted to isolating proper avenues of attack, problem solving, and understanding a made up universe like Mass Effect. So why cannot I bring that same devotion and care to reality? Towards the accomplishment of school papers, my own real dreams and aspirations such as writing, preserving where I live, or the care of my friends? If I could translate the focus from my gaming life to my real life, I would have written several books by now, as well as probably published one. I would go as far to say it would do very damn well too.
For myself, and other gamers out there, this is something to think about, and really comprehend - we are capable of so damn much, our minds wired to find obstacles and blow them out of the water. Why should we limit ourselves to a virtual theatre? Why shouldn't we translate our abilities into everything around us? Its food for thought, to say the very least, and I know that as I stand atop a mountain of Xbox acheivements and boss kills, I am sick of 'waking up' to a life I'm not satisfied with, where anxiety holds me back where I should have no problem succeeding. In the immortal words of Simon Pegg in 'Hot Fuzz', I want to "Bring the Noise". Here goes a redoubled effort - back to reality!
Some see this as weakness, as 'obsession'. It certainly is obsession, yes, but that word has too many negative connotations. What exactly am I doing when I engage so deeply with something like this? James Paul Gee (hopefully the correct spelling) is an educational researcher, who staunchly believes that video games can be the perfect learning device, and that current, mainstream 'recreational' video games already do that. They challenge, oppose, entertain, keep focus, offer rewards, and when accomplishments are given, satisfaction. Now more than ever, thanks to the ingenious and insane 'Achievement' system that many platforms are using, these things are true. Video games are an amazing human creation which has already revolutionized the race which bore it - we might not see all the implications now, but an entire generation now has been raised on them and this mentality of constant struggling against obstacles to overcome, looking for that sense of satisfaction. It is certainly going to be interesting.
Here is the crux of it though, and the personalization - gaming is, like almost everything, a two way street. In my own life for example, I turned to it when my asthma left me handicapped and inside, and when social fears and anxieties scarred me through schools, I turned to games for a sense of community, understanding, and enjoyment. I would bet with near complete confidence that most of my thinking patterns, and intelligence, can be attributed to games and my need to overcome and beat them. Absorbing hand-eye coordination was only the beginning. Problem solving, and adaption to constantly evolving scenarios came next. Persistence, in a way, also became a prized attribute. I cannot help now but every so often crave the need to evaluate everything and put it into to-do lists of problems that need to be figured out and fixed, from gardening to personal weaknesses.
The downsides though, can often be seen very quickly by the society which we were born into - lack of social awareness, a 'distancing' from reality. To go online or to play online games you can find many 'idiot savants' which are absolute geniuses in their own realm. I know people who can tackle any problem in World of Warcraft, go beyond 'normal' limitations of stats and player ability. They have memorized entire math algorithms for stat tracking, have even learning college level computer programming in order to install add-ons and optimize. However, I see them online when I log on at 4 in the morning or 4 in the afternoon. They have over a year plus of game time racked up. There is no judgement in that statement (I have plenty of hours racked up myself), as I respect most the people I play with, but I can speak from personal experience running my own gaming club on campus. Some of them can kick my ass in Halo or Smash Brothers. They know every weapon, every character, inside and out, learning game physics to the point where they can actually break some of them in the coding (very matrixy). They would come to Gaming Society week in and out, asking for that one game. They would bitch and complain if things weren't ready exactly at 9 PM. Or if they couldn't be playing every round. Or scream at leaders who didn't get a proper prize out for a tournament, or an event wasn't set up right. Yet they would sit there in their corner, relying on others for their social communication network and recreational activities. All of that processing power and problem solving has become all together isolated, individualized to one endeavor and one endeavor alone. I know some that I could play them in Halo 1, and I would be shotgunned down in the first minute. I load in a replica of the same game with tweaks, Halo 2, and suddenly I am king, an overwhelming force indomitable. There is gnashing of teeth, and blaming the coders for changes. The learning process and neural focus has been completely isolated to one single game.
These negatives and positives are not unique to video games - they are just much more pronounced to see, because of how new they are, the amount of people who have adopted them as a way of life, and the massive subculture which has risen from the hobby. I could take a star athlete out for Parkour, and they might be scared to leap over a 3 foot wall, because its a new obstacle, even if their physical capabilities are able to overcome a 6 foot wall (I've actually seen this in action, when I spent brief periods of time trying to learn, and show other people). These positives and negatives have to be addressed by our society as a whole, and by the individual who gets into this hobby. It can be a powerful, very powerful tool of focus, enjoyment, and enhancement of mental capacity... but an open mind has to be kept, a mind willing to always learn and critically pick apart the skills used to beat Mario and apply them to Tetris. Take that collective set of skills, and then apply them to Halo, then Mass Effect... then reality. Classes of Math I could probably ace if I took what I've learned to become a decent GM in tabletop games and applied it to rote memorization and linking of figures. I know my love of war games and Halo is something that I could use on the paintball field to show up in the right place and time, or coordinate sneak attacks.
In summary? Video Games (the Gaming genre in general as well) are bloody fantastic and amazing, but only if applied outside of their own individual boundries. There is nothing more true in this statement than my own personal situation - I can organize entire worlds, plots, dangers and hazards for GMing Dungeons and Dragons in about a half hour, and modify those scenarios in the course of a minute. I can string together several hundred correct computations in something like "Puzzle Quest", or deciding targets in World of Warcraft. I can sit down for four, six, eight, even (this is to the embarrassing stage now) ten hours, entirely devoted to isolating proper avenues of attack, problem solving, and understanding a made up universe like Mass Effect. So why cannot I bring that same devotion and care to reality? Towards the accomplishment of school papers, my own real dreams and aspirations such as writing, preserving where I live, or the care of my friends? If I could translate the focus from my gaming life to my real life, I would have written several books by now, as well as probably published one. I would go as far to say it would do very damn well too.
For myself, and other gamers out there, this is something to think about, and really comprehend - we are capable of so damn much, our minds wired to find obstacles and blow them out of the water. Why should we limit ourselves to a virtual theatre? Why shouldn't we translate our abilities into everything around us? Its food for thought, to say the very least, and I know that as I stand atop a mountain of Xbox acheivements and boss kills, I am sick of 'waking up' to a life I'm not satisfied with, where anxiety holds me back where I should have no problem succeeding. In the immortal words of Simon Pegg in 'Hot Fuzz', I want to "Bring the Noise". Here goes a redoubled effort - back to reality!