Gamers take games very personally because it is what defines them. We are what we eat. In most cases gamers get very emotional (anger and stress mostly) when playing a losing or imbalance game. The question is why? As an observer, it's hard not to be judgmental when looking at people who swears prematurely while playing games. I used to be (maybe still am) one of those people who swears and curses the gods (mostly Zues) in DotA when I'm losing. It's funny when you look back.
People are angry for a reason. Nobody likes to lose. But why so serious when it comes to games? The first obvious reason is games mean a lot to gamers, or should I say, that game means a lot to that gamer. All gamers have their favorite game, the one they put enormous emotional effort into when playing. They are defined by how resourceful they are in-game as opposed to in real life. If I were training Tekken for many years and lost to some newbie who spams buttons in a ranked tournament, of course I will be emotionally compromised. Who wouldn't?
The second reason leans heavily on how competitive that gamer is. Competitiveness is double edged though. It can push for improvements (game knowledge, reflexes, teamwork) but also make you too emotional over something intangible. That is what separates the gamers and pro gamers. The professionalism in pro gamer means they are really good at their roles in their games and they are good at containing stress and pressure levels as well as their emotions. That's what make games a good sport sometimes. Game tournaments are held all around the world for popular games and some even made careers playing as pro gamers.
So the next time you hear someone raising their voice while playing a game, you know how much emotional effort is being poured in.
I think games become personal only when someone REALLY likes a game. I don't think people rage(as much at least) for new games the same way say someone who loves playing DoTA rages when they've lost a match. They've certainly invested quite a lot of time into the game and surely love the game.
ReplyDeleteBut there are instances when certain things in a game can be frustrating to a player. I think developers have to be mindful about them. It's not that I want easy game. I think it's just the expectation set for the gamers.
If someone who plays CoD plays STALKER, I can anticipate a lot of frustration from that player, if he has no idea how the STALKER games play out. In this case it's not the fault of the game but the fault of the gamers expectation.
Another example of game mechanic directly frustrating the player are platformers that don't have a lenient checkpoint system. In SUper Meat Boy for instance death is only a temporary set back as you start immediately back in that level(Braid is the same way). If these games had a much more punishing live system, i think many players would just stop playing the game 1 hour in.
Oh and fanboys...they always are personal for the stupidest things :P