Gaming by GlossGreen

Today's words of the day* are FLAME and BAIT. Let us begin with the formal definitions provided by Dictionary.com. (For this post I've omitted any irrelevant definitions)

flame /fleɪm/ Pronunciation Key - Show Spelled Pronunciation[fleym]
- Show IPA Pro–noun

7. intense ardor, zeal, or passion.

12. to burn or burst forth with strong emotion; break into open anger, indignation, etc.

13. Computer Slang. to send an angry, critical, or disparaging electronic message.
–verb (used with object)

14. Computer Slang. to insult or criticize angrily in an electronic message.
—Verb phrase

—Related forms:


bait /beɪt/ Pronunciation Key - Show Spelled Pronunciation[beyt]
- Show IPA Pronunciation –noun

11. to worry, torment, or persecute, esp. with malicious remarks: a nasty habit of baiting defenseless subordinates.

12. to tease: They love to bait him about his gaudy ties.

—Synonyms:
badger, heckle, pester.

Combining the words is where we really see the relevance to our culture. Flamebait. Reading the message boards of a few sites recently, I found the following examples. This first one is from N4G. This poster is obviously anti-PS3. A search of some of his other posts show a pro-Xbox mentality. This next one is from the 1Up boards. Unfortunately, this type of topic generally leads to trash talking about the systems and other negative comments. Now, liking one console over another is not necessarily a bad thing. It becomes unbearable when people attack other people strictly on their console choice.

I know you've seen it elsewhere before. You have a guy (or girl, no need to be sexist) that writes just the right thing to piss you off. Pick any gaming message board and you will see it. There's that one person that is always looking for an argument. The one that gets enjoyment out of criticizing your console of choice or that favorite game of yours. Why do they do it? Short answer. They like to see you get angry. Long answer. They like to see you get angry because they feel inadequate with the choices they've made. It's possibly because they feel that the console they've chosen to support is, they feel, not as good as a competitors or has an exclusive game that is not coming to their system. That could be why they feel the need to lash out at others. Their reasoning behind this lashing out is to make their victim feel as if they, in fact, have made the wrong choice, and not the aggressor.

So, how do we avoid flamebait and the resulting flamewars? You can't. You will always see that offensive person and his or her opinion about your favorite console. Should you let it get to you? No. You can post a response to a person like this, but just don't sink to their level. Be logical, concise, and know what you are talking about. It is doubtful you will get a logical response back, but on the good side, you may just convince the offending poster to not add to the conversation. These people do not like being proven wrong, and if you do so, they just might go away. It won't work all the time, but it has worked for me. You might also try ignoring them. That will also prevent them from getting what they want. Angry responses.

Let me add just one more definition to this post:

gamer [gey-mer]
-noun

a person who plays games

This what I am and what I believe in. I play for the games, not the consoles. I'm not an Xbot. I'm not part of the Sony Defense Force (SDF). I'm not a beWiiver**. I'm a gamer. Pure and simple.



*Disclaimer: In using the phrase "word of the day" I am not stating that I will, in fact, write about a word every day. It just sounded better than "word of the week" or "word of the whenever the hell I feel like writing about a word".

** I'd love to take credit for this word, but that belongs to Penny Arcade.

Today's word of the day* is HARD-CORE. Let us begin with the formal definition provided by Dictionary.com

hard-core [hahrd-kawr, -kohr]
-adjective

1. unswervingly committed; uncompromising; dedicated: a hard-core segregationist.

2. pruriently explicit; graphically depicted: hard-core pornography.

3. being so without apparent change or remedy; chronic: hard-core inflation.

Most gamers will know immediately what I mean by hard-core. I consider myself to be a hard-core gamer. I am dedicated to gaming and the gaming culture. I am uncompromising in my videogame consumption. I have to play. I go through withdrawals if I don't. Am I addicted? Hell yes. But I'm not the only one.

Gamers have been serious about their gaming habits since the beginning, starting with Pong and continuing to the MMO games of today. Spending hours a day in front of the TV or computer monitor, sacrificing a life outside in the real world, is something that hard-core gamers are willing to do in order to finish that level, or gain a few more experience points for their character. Not all gamers have that dedication though. And that brings me to the subject of this post.

In the beginning was hard-core and all was good. Then something happened. Games for people that didn't like games started showing up. The Mom that didn't really understand games started to play. My own Mother loved -and still loves- Ms. Pac-man. She didn't play all the time, nor did she even feel a need to finish a game or get very far. Then came the birth of mini-games. These are small games with little to no story and very simple controls. Soon, there were games released that were only collections of mini-games with a simple story to tie them together. Select a game, play for a few minutes, then leave without any thoughts of completing it or returning to it. We have a name for these people. They are the Casual Gamer.

Being a casual gamer is not a bad thing, but bad things tend to happen to the casual gamer. Oftentimes a game that just isn't good enough or too short to be a good gaming experience is marketed to the casual gamer. These games are very basic and frequently frustrating to play. The reason. The developers and publishers are looking to make a quick buck. Slap Mario or Sonic on a crappy game and chances are you'll make your money back off of it. We are seeing more and more titles that are just plain bad and a lot of those are on the Wii.

Is there anything the casual gamer can do to ensure they get a quality game, and not a cheap poorly designed product? First, do not buy a game just because it's cheap. Little Timmy might like that cheap game about dinosaurs, but not if his dinosaur dies every 5 seconds due to bad controls. Second, do a little research. There are plenty of gaming websites online and many magazines that will help sort out the crud from the gold. Granted, a lot of these sources are geared to the hard-core or mainstream gamer, but it is still presented in a way that most people will understand. Third, if you've done your research and have become familiar with the companies putting out games it'll be easier to find a quality product. Don't buy a game from the XYZ Fly-by-night game publisher. They are just out for the quick buck and their games are generally very basic and not worth any cost. Fourth, don't buy a game just because it's sold well. You very we may find a shovelware game that has squeaked past quality control.

The Wii is not the only console to suffer this blight of poor quality games. They are everywhere from the PS2 to the DS to the Xbox 360 and even cellphones. No system is safe from these shotty shovelware games. They are called shovelware due to the fact that the publisher will just shovel it out onto the market no matter the quality. With a little knowledge, you can prevent yourself from being taken advantage of. Look for first party software, being games that are published by the console manufacturer. Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo all put out quality games. Buzz is a quiz game that is very popular right now, and is available for most systems. Ask your friends what they play and play together. Have fun with games, but be careful what you buy.

*Disclaimer: In using the phrase "word of the day" I am not stating that I will, in fact, write about a word every day. It just sounded better than "word of the week" or "word of the whenever the hell I feel like writing about a word".

Today's word of the day* is OPINION. Let us begin with the formal definition provided by Dictionary.com.

o·pin·ion [uh-pin-yuhn]
–noun

1. a belief or judgment that rests on grounds insufficient to produce complete certainty.
2. a personal view, attitude, or appraisal.
3. the formal expression of a professional judgment: to ask for a second medical opinion.
4. Law. the formal statement by a judge or court of the reasoning and the principles of law used in reaching a decision of a case.
5. a judgment or estimate of a person or thing with respect to character, merit, etc.: to forfeit someone's good opinion.
6. a favorable estimate; esteem: I haven't much of an opinion of him.

I will be using the second definition while discussing this topic. A personal view, attitude, or appraisal. Why am I mentioning this? How does it apply to the gaming world? Does anyone really care? Probably not, but I do have a point. I think.

We see opinions every day on the web. I have an opinion, you have an opinion, and of equal importance, game reviewers and analysts have an opinion. What is of certainty is that no two people will always have the same opinion. Take the blog section here. My opinion may differ from someone about the importance of sales numbers, but that doesn't mean that either one of us is wrong. Likewise, two gaming magazines may have rated a game differently. Is one of those two sources dumber then the other one? No, but I will admit, if the opinion is not an intelligent one the possibility is there.

So who's opinion do we listen to? The easy answer is the one that most agrees with what you do. To only listen to one side, though, has its risks. By ignoring one side you will probably not get the whole picture. One opinion may focus on, say, the visuals of a game, and rate it poorly because of it. Another site may have a different opinion based on gameplay, and give it high marks. Both sites may be right, but which one is right for you. In my opinion, listen to both places and make up your own mind. I'm big on people thinking for themselves. I will never agree with one side or another without listening to both sides and the only way I can do that is if each side has their own coherent and logical argument. I mean argument in the form of discussion, not trading insults or other such nonsense.

Which leads me to the point of this article. Fanboyism. Now this form of opinion is often entirely biased and ignorant. This type of opinion is the only one that I will completely disregard out of hand. To blatantly say that the 360, or the PS3, or the Wii is the best one just because you like it more, just shows how small minded some of these people are. I'm not saying all fanboys are bad. I happen to think the PS3 is the better system, but I'll be willing to back up my claims with facts, not just feelings. Unfortunately, ignorant fanboyism has been with us since the early days of the arcade and will continue as long as there are competing consoles. Just visit any gaming forum and you'll see what I mean.

In closing, I am not making any demands here. I'm not trying to change the internet or the viewpoint of any particular website or person. it's just my opinion.


*Disclaimer: In using the phrase "word of the day" I am not stating that I will, in fact, write about a word every day. It just sounded better than "word of the week" or "word of the whenever the hell I feel like writing about a word".