Feature: “I’m a Loser, baby” – Losing In Videogames
D+PAD's Simeon Paskell writes:
In the song ‘Aerials’ by Armenian-American rockers System of a Down, lead singer Serj Tankian proclaims that ‘we are the ones who want to choose, always want to play but you never want to lose’ – though this is most probably a political commentary or existential whimsy, one can’t help but think that that this could be taken a commentary on video games, video gamers and their obsession with winning. We gamers have, after all, long been conditioned to adhere to the notion of ‘playing to win’ – whether this be in defeating in opponent, achieving a high score, being first across the finish line, rescuing the princess or in simply being the last man (or woman) standing. To paraphrase Hilary Clinton when referring to the death of Osama Bin Laden, gamers are constantly tasked to ‘rise to the challenge , [to] persevere and [to] get the job done’…or die trying and get sent back to the start.
In many ways there is absolutely nothing wrong with this; games are after all ultimately a means by which we can escape the mundanity of the real the world – what kind of escape would they be were they to dwell on our limitations, our failings and our weaknesses? And yet, to have winners, there must also be losers – it is a symbiotic relationship; ying and yang.
