From: jj@alice.att.com (J. Johnston)
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.misc
Subject: Re: Dumb Moves By Game Companies
Date: 31 Dec 92 17:20:11 GMT
Article-I.D.: alice.24528
Reply-To: jj@alice.UUCP (J. Johnston)
Organization: NJ State Home for Bewildered Terminals

In article <18575@borg.cs.unc.edu> oliver@bodie.cs.unc.edu (Bill Oliver) writes:
>In article <1992Dec31.100135.24184@samba.oit.unc.edu> Ricardo.Sedan@launchpad.unc.edu (Ricardo Sedan) writes:
>
>>of the american mind than of MB per se. MB is selling what the typical
>>mass market will buy; unfortunately, the unsophisticated mind of the
>>average american can entertain itself best on the likes of home alone 2,

>What sophomoric elitist crap this is.
Perhaps. What do you call what follows?

>Now consider the social milieu in which most MB-style board games
>are brought out -- the occasional family get together or the trivial
>party.  These are not conventions of people getting together for
>some serious mind bending.  These are pepole who are looking for a 
>nice superficial framework for social interaction -- a need which is
>real, valuable, and which is specifically *not* addressed by games
>which require hard concentration.  
And this is where you have an important point. SIMPLE games
have a social use quite divorced from real "gaming".

Real gamers, on the other hand, are few and far between.

>Now, did we play UNO because we were just silly mindless Americans?  Of
>course not.  We played UNO because we wanted a game that would bring
>us all together as an excuse to socialize.  The game did *not* as you would
>apparently believe, take up our entire mental abilities.  Instead, it did
>exactly what it is supposed to do -- provided us with an excuse to carry
>on light conversation and family gossip.
No, like you could have pointed out, people play games like that
for social purposes.  I have no problem with this.

>The reason that people like parlor games and such is because they serve 
>primarily a social purpose.  There is nothing wrong with this, and it
>is not incompatible with having an active mental life.  The games which
>you so trivially denigrate serve that niche, and they are needed and useful.
While playing "parlor games" is not at all incompatable with having
an active mental life, it doesn't support the premise that most
people have an active mental life.   Given that most "cerebral"
game companies are under constant economic pressure, that most
"high normals" I know of can't read hierarchical rules, and 
"normals" consider them beyond attepting, proves, I think, that
most US Citizens (wny speak for the whole continents?) do NOT
appreciate mental acitivity, and, perhaps because of our
school systems who teach that "thinking is work", resent having
to apply any.

What I find odd about good gamers is that they come from all walks
of life, not from "professional" or "advanced mental" sorts of
occupations.  Any number (one of the best FRP'ers and puzzle-solvers
I've met, for instance is terminally dyslexic) are from occupations
that might be considered mentally marginal, but who show their
ability to think quickly, carefully, and correctly, while making
good strategic and tactical judgements on the fly, every time they
play a war game.

I think thte fact that such people are so often in marginal employment
positions proves a point related to the poster's original point,
namely the point that the ability to think is NOT appreciated,
and that most people do not WANT to think.  

This is unfortunate.  While it does not justify an attack on
entertaining games, the attack on the thinking ability of the
US public is quite justified, and more so now than for
many years past.
-- 
Copyright alice!jj 1992, all rights reserved, except transmission by USENET and like facilities granted. Said permission is granted only for complete copies that include this notice. Use on pay-for-read services specifically disallowed.
---------
Member HASA - Athiest Scum Division
"Extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice" - AuH2O for President
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.misc,rec.games.frp.dnd