Wolf’s Wicked Words: Stoicism In Today’s Gaming Culture

Every human experiences and apprehends everything in a different way. Your way of reasoning will differ from the person sitting next to you or even the stranger on the other side of the world, that you will either meet one day or never set eyes upon. Sure, you may find someone like-minded that will see the world in a similar fashion, but I really think you won’t find someone with exactly the same way of theorising.

I’ve always mused about the things that make us who we are, the way we perceive the world around us. The way you feel about certain happenings and your taste in just about anything. You may like this and dislike that, while your significant other will feel the exact opposite. What makes us feel the way we do about certain things? Maybe it’s the way we experienced it the first time or past events that shaped us into what we are.

Be it food, music, movies, books or games, what makes you like something and dislike the next? I may like pizza while you despise it with every fibre of your being. Why you disapprove of pizza, I won’t ever comprehend, but that’s the point I’m trying to make.

Maybe your grandfather burned himself while taking something out of the oven and now you are abnormally afraid of stoves and its red hot elements. Red hot in a bad way, unfortunately. Call it an ancestral fear or perhaps a random “anti-hot gene” made its way into your DNA, we may only speculate. I’m not talking about less attractive people, but about pain-inducing metal. Not music that makes you want to hurt yourself, but… Ah, crap, shut up Rudolf! (In all honesty, an overload of mainstream music nowadays makes me want me to off myself or nearest person strolling about in these safe streets. Safe streets: LOL.)

I want to talk about the difference in taste affecting us as gamers. There is a huge amount of variety when it comes to all aspects in life, but let’s talk about this in a gaming sense of rationalisation.

Not everyone will feel the same way about a first person shooter and some may even despise it. These different emotions cause a lot of unnecessary conflict between gamers. If you love sports games and nothing else, that’s your gaming world. I may not ever understand that, but that is my problem. If you can’t comprehend the fact that I love the complete diversity that is Mini Ninjas to something grotesque like Splatterhouse or the explicit violence in zombie games, that’s your problem. I’m not meaning this in any “Oh, look at me! Look at me!” kind of way, it’s just that we should all agree with this: “To each his own.”

I’ve listened to music that made other people run away with flailing arms, questioning my musical sanity. Be it classical music or metal. The same can be said about me running away from local music, mainstream pop and all the sort. And still I wonder, what determined my taste in these things?

We’ve seen a rather diverse way of taste in gaming just among us eGamer dudes. What made me love this while someone else on the site disfavour it? Or vice versa? This affects the way we feel when we review a game or just talk about it in news articles.

If I may use this as an example, I can’t wait to get my hands on Darksiders 2. Some other gamers will walk past it and say: “Eh…”

My wish right now is that we, as gamers, unite in a way that will still allow us to like different things and not cause havoc while doing so. That, and my wish to be able to fly.

Off topic:

I have a need to say this to everyone reading this: One of my favoured movie directors passed away. Tony Scott. I will miss the excitement for anticipating a new film bearing your name. This is one fan that will truly miss you.