Purpose
But what's the point? What's the purpose of games? What does it all mean?
Nothing. There is no point. Games are entertainment. You can play with friends and enjoy socializing, make new friends, that kind of stuff -- but games are an end in themselves. They're entertainment; that's what entertainment means.
Even sports are just entertainment.Will a high free-throw percentage help you avoid car accidents? Pay for your kids' college education? They can improve fitness, but a half hour in the gym with a high-intensity or Tabeta-protocol workout will have the same effect. Sports are entertainment, too.
What's the purpose of life?
Is it to knock some chick up then spend your days slaving away to feed her and the kids, make sure the kid doesn't die before you kick him out of the house and go back to what you were doing (and enjoying) before the kid came along? Is your purpose to produce more and more humans until the planet can't support them any longer? (Never mind the argument that it can't support us now.) Is your entire purpose in life to invent for yourself a purpose and then proclaim to your neighbors how totally awesome you are for inventing that purpose? Are you here merely to serve as a guardian and provider for others, a slave to their whims and desires? Does it matter that you're genetically related to them? If so, are you saying that adoption and orphanages are evil? If not, does it matter if you were the one that knocked up the chick or if it was the UPS guy?
Or are kids fun and rewarding? In which case, you knocked up that chick because it was fun not because you had a grand purpose in mind.
Is your purpose "to make the world a better place"? For whom? Your neighbors? People with the same skin color? People born in your state? What arbitrary subgroup of humans are you 'obligated' to provide for? Are you just saying that because you want to believe that you have a purpose and haven't discovered any of the arguments that suggest that you should find your own purpose?
The easy answer is "all of the above." That's a cop-out. That's saying that you don't want to choose a purpose; you'd rather just stumble into one.
Games
Oh, right. Games. I was talking about games.
Games are entertainment. We play them because they're fun and rewarding. Good games are fun and rewarding. Bad games aren't fun or rewarding.
Bad games are like work. They make you do stuff you don't want to do - like set your alarm for the middle of the night so that you can help your team defeat an enemy. If you don't buy into the goal at the end, then the whole process loses meaning.
Many games (and sports) are fun because we learn a skill; we get better at the game. Many people like that learning process. Others like it when the other guy loses; some like it when their performance gets better.
Some of the most fun I had playing first-person shooters was playing a heads-up competition against a guy that was way better than me. I was losing but I was learning. I could see myself every day getting better. That was a real rush. Some people can't stand losing; their goal is to win. They don't want to get better, they don't want to be a good player - they just want to win.
This comes from ego. How do you define yourself? Is it important to you that other people say that you are right? Or would you rather be right? Many times, people that feel that they are without power in their lives, without control over their own lives, seek an outlet where they can exert power and control over others. Some of those people become abusive cops or angry security guards; the rest cheat in online games to crush their enemies. They don't want to be good, they don't want to win - they want to crush.
Where does the desire for power and control come from? I'd posit it comes from having an imbalanced life. Many people have imbalanced lives. American high school seems to be the epitome; hence all the teenage ratfucks in online games that want nothing more than to crush their opponents.
The rest of us grow up, find balance, and look for games that are fun and rewarding. We try to get better at games, look for opportunities to learn, and judge our mastery by how often we do win.
But Maybe...
It could be that the purpose of your life is only to serve as a warning to others.
1 comment:
Very Good.
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