Why it's OK to take video games seriously

Matt from PC Enthusiast makes a strong argument as why games should be taken seriously.

He writes:

"But is that all they are? Is fun the beginning and end of gaming? Do games exist solely as a means of stimulating our animal instincts?"

[SpiralTear]

"But not all games are fun, or have to be."

I'm sorry, but I'd like to be enjoying myself when playing a game. I don't play games to be miserable at myself or others for. If you're not getting a positive stimulus from a game, why continue playing instead of doing something else? This applies for any medium.

[Spotie]

For the experience of something else. We read books and watch movies that make us sad or angry. We may enjoy them when they're done, but that doesn't inherently mean it's "fun."

I play games to experience things I don't or can't experience in my daily life, or on a regular basis. "Fun" is not part of that. Enjoyment is not restricted to fun.

[wonderfulmonkeyman]

Agreed.
As an aside, there's a distinct difference between enjoying things like stories with sad endings, and deliberately participating in games that you don't actually enjoy due to certain circumstances.

For instance, it's fine to play a shooter for fun, or even take it a bit more competitively.
But when you take a game like that too seriously, and start participating in it solely for the sake of winning, or getting kicks out of harrassing others, and losing, or even doing a little badly, makes you emotionally distressed, and you end up playing more out of habit and routine than for any fun factor that might have once existed, then you've made a serious mistake.

Games should always be played with fun in mind first, and competitiveness should never degrade into route habit that bases fun entirely around whether one is winning or not.

Being too serious, can cause serious problems.

So before it gets to that point, you should ask yourselves...

Why so serious?

http://cs307310.userapi.com...

[ChickenOfTheCaveMan]

Games are always fun, no matter what.

I think in that sentence, it's about brainless, really easy and aimed to be fun kind of fun. For example, Bloodborne would not qualify as fun because you're always on edge, relax one second and you might be dead, and you'll die and retry a bunch of times. But deep down it's really fun and fulfilling. Whereas Mario games are instantly fun but so easy that you don't get that sense of achievement kind of fun.

[Sly-Lupin]

2015.
Asking whether or not media should be taken seriously.
In 2015.

20 ****ing 15.

I can't think of a single period of time in the past ~8000 years of recorded history when that was ever in doubt.

[Spotie]

Various points in the last century-plus, including right at the turn of the 20th century, when the term and practice of yellow journalism was born.

Or, if you're speaking of video games as the media, then there have been numerous times when music or art was questioned. At one point in China, knowledge itself was banned, and many books of all kinds were burned. More recently, cartoons have gone through their phases.

In either case, it isn't limited to just now, or just gaming.

[Sly-Lupin]

What we have here... is a failure to communicate.

Yellow Journalism was media that absolutely should be taken seriously. Large-scale warmongering should ALWAYS be taken seriously.

And Mao was absolutely taking media seriously. That's why the Glorious Revolution was so intent on CONTROLLING media.

Dismissing media out-of-hand is not now nor has it ever been something anyone with a lick of sense has ever done. It is profoundly, profoundly stupid.

[ABBAJESUS]

Console/PC fanboys are those who make us look bad.

[LaWiiG]

I real don't get that either. How can you pledge your allegiance to a brand? Granted, I would say that I choose NVIDIA for their software accommodations to their garswafe. But other than that, I have 23 consoles and game primarily on PC.

Console fanaticism is for the younger generation who is too naive to think there isn't anything else.