How many times at the first inkling of complication while playing a game have you run to a forum or game-guide to get the answer? In this quick-fix society what ramifications does this trend have on our gaming, and more importantly, on us as people?
Power to the People
So much these days seems to revolve around internet access. We use it to do our shopping, or maybe just to hook up with family and friends via video-chat. Needless to point out really that we are becoming addicted to its wealth of function, utility and information. And it is to this Mecca of information that most gamers run when they need some guidance for their latest game.
Over the past few years I have spent ever increasing amounts of time perusing gaming sites reading up on the latest strategies, builds or in search for select tidbits of information. This information is to be found in a myriad of game-guides, forums or wiki sites.
Not that long ago we did not have this luxury. I recall in my younger years being almost brought to tears battling on a game for weeks, straining to get past a significantly obtuse puzzle, or insane boss fight. The only refuge to be had was to find a friend who had surpassed these problems, or hopefully find a lucky acquaintance that had internet access and was willing to help out.
Notwithstanding this, overcoming a game back then felt great, and the end result was usually a sense of personal triumph, which is something I sorely miss in recent times. These days when I need to figure anything out I usually jump online and just copy it from others verbatim.
Over time I came to rely evermore on these wells of gaming information. Whether I was hitting up Thottbot for a quest for World of Warcraft, or printing a walkthrough guide for a RPG, I began to notice a worrying trend within myself – I was becoming lazy and somewhat stupid as a result. It seemed this was also true for many gamers with online access, whether they acknowledged it or not.
Quick Fix Society
Western society is always in pursuit of a faster, cheaper, easier option, and gaming being so intrinsically tied to technology is no exception. The effects can be seen on the majority of us gamers. Some of us may acknowledge these changes within ourselves, but many do not even notice the impact, perhaps because they are being brought up right alongside it.
All of this is aiding in the reducing our ability to think for ourselves. Sure, what I mention is only a tiny portion, a grain of sand on a beach, but things are connected, and this is indicative of our nature – do one thing a certain way, and you are likely to do other actions in a similar fashion.
One prime example glares at me as I frequent the online space. Spending immeasurable amounts of time on forums or playing MMO’s, I notice there are growing amounts of people who lack any ability to think, and just want easy, fast results. They often have no idea of spelling or grammar, despite having access to an auto spell-check. They are just too lazy to bother. They are often rude and self-serving, which I abhor. Now the truly scary part is that these people are often adults! Not children who by nature believe that the universe revolves around them, but adults with kids and day jobs!
Rehab
Having played World of Warcraft for many years, I noticed this trend had strong roots there. Not to say World of Warcraft is a bad game, but it has made a lot of gamers lazy by many accounts. This then spread to other gaming mediums and even the Developers have picked up on this. They are now making games easier, or should I say less complex as a result.
The only way to really kick the habit, or in my case try curb its influences, is to limit oneself from taking the easy way out. Every so often say to yourself, “With this game I will play without any help, guides, or suggestions and I will only make decisions based on my own thinking”.
Game-guides are perfectly fine when you want to play through a game a second time and wish to acquire all the items or missables. But, personally I found game-guides can ruin the game first time around.
After my stint in World of Warcraft using mods that almost played the game for me, it took me about a year to get out of that thinking, but I am exceedingly glad I did!
Twelve-Steps
Game-guides, forums and the like are not all bad. They can consolidate useful information and help many new players with burgeoning problems. I do however think that they can make people increasingly lazy if abused. I am absolutely guilty, but I am a recovering addict who still partakes in the habit in moderation.
There is more to this than I can cover, but I do think this habit needs to be looked at on a personal level, and not just pertaining to gaming. How many of you out there use guides on your first run through a game? Or rely on “cookie-cutter” character builds from forums?
Are you a lazy gamer? Share your thoughts in the forums
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