thread: 2005-11-28 : Closeted
On 2005-11-29, Meguey wrote:
I think it (gamer shame) ties in to two things:
Work ethic:
If we had as our shared hobby model trains or fly fishing or paint-by-numbers, we'd have something tangible to show at the end of the weekend. If we had hiking or snowboarding, we'd have clear health benefits. If we had going to concerts or movies or book signings, we'd have recognized self improvement/social enrichment. The fact that we can basically sit around and just talk all weekend, with nothing concrete to show, no acknowledged health benefit, no proven enrichment, means we hit up against the serious 'make your time pay' work ethic in the US. What? You *wasted* all that time?? How silly of you, how deranged, and how it secretly fills me with envy!
Loss of storytelling:
Once you scrap the web and TV (video/dvd/film), you hit radio shows that whole families listened to each week. Go back a bit farther, pre-radio, and sitting around telling tales was what everyone did in their free time. I think there are ways in which our whole desire to roleplay is filling a need for the sort of rich imagined life that also comes from living in a culture with active and frequent storytelling. If every night after dinner, we told tales in our homes, we'd not think it strange at all that the kids would play them out, and we'd welcome the kids as taletellers in their turn as they grew up. Would it look different that what we do? Sure. Would it overlap much more than 'what we do'overlaps with broader western culture, esp. US culture? I sure think so!
This makes BR go "Excellent points"
I think in our generation #2 is more important, as #1 has never hurt video gamers from indulging in their pleasure for weekends on end and talking about it afterwards.
