Posted on 03/22/2018 11:36:06 AM PDT by TigerClaws
At a time when President Donald Trump, the National Rifle Association, and others on the right are blaming video games for promoting violencewith nary a shred of credible evidencea new book has leveled a completely different criticism at the gaming industry: "toxic meritocracy."
According to Christopher Paul, chair of the Department of Communication at Seattle University and author of The Toxic Meritocracy of Video Games: Why Gaming Culture is the Worst, video games promote individuality, reward skill, and encourage players to do their best in order to win. These are supposedly bad things.
"Games are based on leveling up and getting stronger," Paul tells Campus Reform. "We expect the most skilled, hardest working player to win. The typical narrative in a game is a rags to riches story where the player propels the character into a key role and perhaps even attains god-like status."
"All those things shape our expectations and focus players on individuals, rather than the collective," he added. "As actualized meritocracies, video games quickly become really toxic spaces where players are focused on individual glory, rather than creating positive spaces for interaction."
Not all is bad, Paul notes, pointing out that games like Mario Kart and Mario Party are more cooperative and based on "luck, contingency, and serendipity," elements that he hopes game developers will prioritize more in the future.
"Moving away from merit allows communities to be developed on different terms, giving an opportunity to build something else, something new, something that has features other than the endemic toxicity that comes with meritocratic systems," Paul contends.
Speaking as someone who played a whole lot of Mario Kart and Mario Party growing up (and in college...and as an adult...), I will say that the luck-based elements are sometimes a lot of fun, but they're also infuriating. In the Mario Party games in particularwhere the "luck" aspect can be overwhelming and game-breakingmy play-group often came away thinking, "Well, that was a terrible game." The mini-game comes to mind where Bowser appears, forces you to pick a random color, and then relieves you of your hard-won coins and stars if you choose wrong.
If that's your thing, more power to you. Play all the Mario Party you want. But I don't think it's "toxic" for more serious gamers to prefer games with clearly defined rules and a skill-based system that rewards good gameplay. Gamer culture has its problems, but promoting meritocracy isn't one of them.
At least Paul doesn't want to regulate away the aspects of gaming he doesn't like. The person who wants to do that is the president of the United States.
A rather interesting thing to say, given that video-game players are often depicted as losers living in their parent’s basement.
You don’t get something for nothing. Something this liberal professor knows nothing about.
So does reality.
Due credit for posting it first. :)
This Professor sounds EXACTLY like a character out of Atlas Shrugged.
Liberalism is a mental disorder!
This is a mindset that markedly stifles creativity, leads to group think, and ultimately decreases independent thought in society. It also supports the attitude recently espoused by none other than Hillary - essentially stating that the red-state areas are regressive and less thoughtful (i.e. less educated) than the blue state areas she received most of her votes from.
I would bet that this liberal professor believes that he is intellectually superior than others. For anyone who is into honest self-assessment, actually thinking you are intellectually superior is a very sure sign that you are not, and that you are actually quite restricted in your thought processes.
Well the Socialism video game would be the most boring one EVER!
I used to get my ass routinely handed to me when I payed Halo. I never thought that those better players shouldnt be better. It made me want to be better.
When I started beating them it felt good, a small sense of accomplishment for overcoming mild adversity. Life is the same way on a larger scale with more serious stakes.
hmmm, a video game where you just start out maxed out in every skill and can do anything and go everywhere regardless of how much or how well you play. That sounds super interesting and fun (said nobody ever).
This IDIOT is concerned with the COLLECTIVE?
I always thought the BORG was a fiction of an old Star Trek program. We learn something new each day.
They should play Overwatch.
So is this meathead indicating that he got his professorship by lack of merit? And he wants to admit this? Something tells me he ain’t exactly qualified to teach... let alone play a video game...
“”All those things shape our expectations and focus players on individuals, rather than the collective,”
Sounds good to me-——worked well for thousands of years.
.
Grand Theft Auto rewards a criminal sense of entitlement, does it not?
And of course, by his speech we know some things:
1. The “Prof” has no creditable academic degree.
2. They are most probably a quota prof.
3. They are ardent enemies of applied mathematics.
4. Dumber than dirt, of course.
I think he’s toxic stupid.
Absent instances of favoritism or bad decisions, employers are a meritocracy. It’s called the real world. To teach younger people otherwise is a disservice to them.
Always disgusted by schools (at all levels) that promote flawed ideas.
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