| Jumpin said: I wouldn't consider you to be one of the most negative people on these threads. Your posts talk about the game you like, and go into discussion about them. Negative probably isn't the right word, I should say the shitty posters--the sort who come in just to take a low quality shit on a game. You know the type that respond to a question: "What's your favourite game of 1991?" With the answer: "Sonic sucks!" And that's about the level of their contribution to these threads. Generally the same people each time. And I agree entirely on the politics thing, that's something I've thought about it too; although, I'm not sure a proper label - Conservative and Religious seem too broad/nebulous. Maybe fanatical idealists? The sort of people that get tribal develop a bias, and then allow that bias to eclipse the topic. And yes, I come across them on both the left and the right - as a leftist, I find it disappointing: an example there was the Bernie Sanders cult (not necessarily his fault), but a good number of his followers had elevated him to messiah-like status (crediting him as the inventor of positions that had been discussed/implemented for many decades to over a century in various places, including in the US)) - they'd attack other leftist leaders like they were heretics. But, I wonder how many of those people grew up in dogmatically religious households? Or if it is a psychological profile - nature vs nature? |
Maybe it's a function of the human mind, reducing complex situations to binary choices. Thinking costs a lot of effort and most of the things people do, and is recommended to achieve inner peace, is to quieten that inner voice. Either through meditation, exercise, alcohol, music, games or whatever else to get your mind to stop mulling on about things. Seeing or preferring to see things in a black & white manner is another way to reduce that 'fatigue'. Nothing is more exhausting than getting your belief system challenged. Hence tribalism and echo chambers are so comforting. Of course also for the sense of belonging, humans are social creatures first after all.
The big challenge for the human race is how to get to this sense of belonging without the superiority complex and negative effects that often come with it. It's a genetic trait, cast out that doesn't belong is herd behavior, keep the (our) tribe strong. You don't simply erase millions of years of evolution.
Which is also my theory why we haven't seen any other species yet in this infinite universe. Evolution is geared to not only favor the most adaptable, yet also the most aggressive and ruthless to come out on top. When one species, homo sapiens in our case, comes out on top they'll turn on each other as we've been doing for all of recorded history. And with technology only becoming more and more capable of wiping all of us out, it's just a matter of time what will get us first :/ See that's the pessimist in me talking lol.
Back to games, best form of escapism to me next to exercise. Hence games like Synthriders and earlier DDR do the best job at quieting that inner voice, always over analyzing everything. And games like BG3, while interesting, I have to be in the mood for, since it has so many options and choices! Hence 'grinding', while often derided, is actually the most popular way to waste time in games. Get that dopamine boost while watching numbers go up, without having to think about what you're doing. And that's why I think Pokemon is so big and yearly sequels remain ever popular.
