LAGWAR | GAMING'S BEST IN TOP NOTCH MEDIOCRITY

The advent of the new millenmium and the rise of the Internet has given gamers a way to communicate with each other as never thought of before. While before gamers were limited to the local area with which they shared with others of their kind, the World Wide Web has brought together people from all over the world on forums, mailing lists, and other online means of communication. There’s thus been a huge opportunity for gamers to connect and talk excitedly about new releases, the latest news, and developer opinions.

But with the new discourse has also come a double-edged sword. The very means by which gamers are able to talk with each other has come to also be the source of a whirlwind of mob mentality, and as passionate as gamers are, that can be a very stressful thing to a lot of would-be players. When it comes to discussing and even arguing about games, there’s a sort of three-stage process which I call the “Three D’s”. Here’s the way that I see it proceeding:

Devour: The first stage of gaming talk is typically a voracious hunger on the part of gamers, whether it is a new detail that has come out about an upcoming title or a change made to an existing game that causes a stir in the community. Either way, when information is released, gamers tend to take it all in whole, dissecting the bit of news, spreading it around, and creating first impressions. Devouring information is something gamers are good at, whether it is on a blog dedicated to doing so, on forums, or on a news site. The problem is that devouring causes a bit of judgmental behavior that in many cases may seem premature.

Discuss: After devouring the bit of news, the discussion comes next, wherein gamer folk tend to take their first impressions and turn them around in their heads over and over, breaking it down, dissecting, and smashing it until it could be spoon fed to a baby. Discussion on gaming topics is something that can potentially create pages and pages of dialog, as hot topics consume the community and force people to attack and defend various opinions with equal fervor. While discussion is always a good thing among gamers, there’s a tendency to overanalyze, creating impressions from as few as two or three words that spark heated, unnecessary arguments.

Dread: Sadly, the last stage in this whole process is a sense of dread. Even in news that is hype-worthy and gets gamers excited about something, there’s always dread in the back of their minds. Dread that a game won’t deliver on its promises, that it won’t be a panacea for their gaming issues, that someone’s impression from Devouring and Discussing something might come true – all of these are possible. I obviously don’t have to explain how dread itself can cause some very serious trepidation about something gaming-related.

Regardless of what is discussed in the gaming world, you can always identify the whole process on some level to these three sorts of stages. All of them have a bit of merit, but they also create a seriousness about gaming discussion that I think is sometimes larger than what gamers make them out to be. So how can we combat the dark side of the three D’s?

When it comes to devouring news, I think the thing to keep in mind is that newsbits are in some ways designed to be hypeworthy or marketable. This means that they aren’t meant to be eaten whole, but taken in parts of a strategy designed for gamers to pay attention to a certain title. As it is, devouring a piece of news is not devouring the whole of what the game will ultimately have to offer. As long as people understand that, they’ll tend to not come to a mistaken conclusion that will end up biting them in the ass later.

Discussing news should always be done – but it should be done in a sense that sometimes “a spade is a spade”. Overanalysis or reading too far into words spoken by developers or PR contacts is a vicious circle that can lead to a lot of mistaken ideas and arguments that ultimately are fruitless. Discussion should be done as a means to trade opinions, not as an idea of trying to prove one’s opinion about a piece of gaming news correct. After all, there is a limit to which any bit of gaming talk can be turned over in peoples’ heads.

Finally, dread seems like it has no realistic value for a gamer, but simply being cautious about something will suffice. Worrying about whether or not a game will succeed in the long run or meet your expectations is just as bad as worrying about whether or not you’re going to be struck by lightning when you walk outdoors. Sure, it could happen – but it’s not worth losing sleep over. Being realistic about a game will help you avoid being dreadful of its potential failures.

Really, all of this comes down to moderation. As long as you keep a cool head about your gaming discussion, you can honestly have a lot of meaningful and insightful talk about games with your fellow geeks from around the world. It’s real easy to be caught in the Three D’s of gaming talk – trust me, I’ve found myself in any one of those many times when discussing games. But ultimately not making such a big deal about gaming news, regardless of how big it may sound, is ultimately the ticket to go, and one that will lead to less stress about your gaming life in the long run.