We all know the lie
Gaming is social, you spend hours playing with other, real, people. You can sit on your couch or in your comfy chair and meet all the different and interesting folks in the world. It’s an amazing a new experience, it deserves all the praise in the world! I mean, how can you spend hours talking and interacting with real people and not consider it a social activity. It’s not though, but that may not be a bad thing.
I’m sure I’ve discussed this issue on here before. I can’t ever stop thinking about that one article I read on The Escapist, however long ago that was, about video game myths, and why they’re not true, and why that isn’t a bad thing. It talks briefly about games not being a social activity, and that fact doesn’t make them bad. It just means that they are a solitary activity, that can be enjoyed. It’s not always that way, co-op exists to help fight the solitary gamer stereotype, but most games are played alone.
Get it, Alone in the Dark?
Solitary isn’t always bad
In fact, sometimes it’s pretty nice. I enjoy my time alone in my room playing games sometimes. Not to the exclusion of other, more social, activities, but just because it’s me time. It’s just like that article says, it’s just like reading a book or watching a movie. Sometimes, you just want to be alone. It’s just because it’s gaming that it’s frowned upon. The stigma if games not being “high culture” enough to warrant some alone time without calling someone anti-social is such a terrible statement about how far games have left to go.
Sometimes, though I do love her, I just don’t want to play games with my girlfriend. She says she likes to watch me play, but it’s just not the same when she’s around. I can’t make those morally ambiguous decisions in Skyrim that I would normally make when she’s not around. I mean, she got mad when I had to *spoiler alert* beat someone to death to get the mace of Molag Bal *end spoiler*. I found it kind of disturbing myself, but it is a really bitchin mace. So, it was worth it, but she wouldn’t let me live it down.
See? Awesome.
But online gaming is social, right?
No, it isn’t. I’m going to put an end to this stupid assumption right now. Online games is the worst thing to call social, because it gives people the illusion of being social. I believed this myself in my formative years, and preached the gospel of online gaming being as social as anything could possibly be. Though, as the years drug on, and I began to pay closer attention to how I was behaving while playing those games I learned a thing or to about online games, and how they hurt people’s vision of a social activity.
For starters, proper social activity doesn’t include brutal verbal arguments for hours and hours. I almost never talk to anyone unless I’m playing with people that I know, like my brother and my friends, or his friends. That’s just not how things work out there in the real world. Though social activity can include drinking, sitting alone in a room in front of a TV is generally a sign of alcoholism, not someone with a booming social life. Though you may be speaking to people, it’s essentially like talking to someone on the phone while drinking .It really doesn’t count.
MMO’s don’t even count
Seriously, they don’t. Also, I don’t want to spend hours as a panda.
NO PANDA!
It’s not bad, if you don’t let it be
I mean, yeah, gaming is the definition of anti-social, but that doesn’t mean that it’s a bad thing. Gaming is tons of fun, and I rather enjoy doing it. I don’t fool myself into thinking that I am being social just because I’m talking to people. I know that in reality I am having a solitary experience. It’s not bad though. As long as you don’t let it replace other, more interactive social activities, just because you believe that you are already getting your social fill for the week.
Reason for my abscence
That will be covered in my next blog about Skyrim, and how easy it is to become addicted to a game when depression has taken the reins.
