Proverbs
Smash Lord
Link to original post: [drupal=1483]Melee: Will people ever really -get it- ?[/drupal]
For those of you who play Melee, have you ever had someone ask, "What do you do for fun?" Often I leave Melee out of the picture when people ask that type of question, mostly from past experience. Whenever I venture to mention the fact that yeah, I play Melee (and just saying that doesn't even really get across what -playing Melee- means), people just tend to misunderstand. When most people see the amount of time and effort we put into getting better, the fact that we go out of our way to play with people at our skill level, that we watch videos online, use official controllers only, and go to tournaments, there's a word they tend to use for that sort of thing: Obsessed. Then you try to explain it: "It's not obsessive, it's just..." and there you are, at a loss for words.
Every time you try to explain the sincere amount of excitement and joy you get from playing Melee, people just don't get it. Sure if it was something like a -real sport-, people could understand your passion. But "it's just a video game," right? There's no way it could ever mean anything more than just mindless entertainment. But no, you explain, it's much deeper than that. It's all about out-thinking your opponent and--And you've lost them.
"I feel like that's a huge waste of time." "I think one of these days you're just going to realize you're just wasting all of your time on this game." "How can you stand wasting your time for hours on a stupid game?" These are all quotes: One from a girl I like (also a good friend of mine), my roommate, and my dad, respectively. And I'm sure that you have heard the same thing from others.
The thing I'm getting at is, I don't think other people can understand, or at least aren't willing to. "It's just a video game" to them. It doesn't -really- matter in the 'real world.' The thing is, many of these people probably spend just as much time and effort on watching television, and probably more money on buying and seeing movies. Let's handle one at a time, here. Television, 99% of the time, is far less stimulating than playing ANY sort of video game, much less something as mentally demanding as Melee (and let's admit it, for the good players it IS mentally demanding). And yet we're still criticized for doing something that's far more beneficial than just 'vegging out.' I'm sure we all still see movies, but I'd be willing to bet that we, on a whole, watch much less than the average person if you combine T.V. and watching movies.
The time we're not spending in front of some mindless program, we spend working toward something: Getting better at Smash. Now, because this is goal-oriented, we are actually accomplishing something, regardless of whether or not it has bearing in the 'real world'. Even though it might not 'actually' accomplish anything, we are mentally rewarded and feel a greater sense of accomplishment than if we just spent the whole day watching television. This promotes a higher sense of self-worth that those who watch T.V. don't get.
But the sole reason why we're looked down on being so committed to 'a video game' is that it's uncommon. Think about it. I'd be willing to bet that 90% of the hobbies that are looked down on as a waste of time are only viewed as such because they aren't held by the majority of people. As opposed to being viewed as unique, we're rejected for being different. Sounds a lot like racism, doesn't it? I'm not going to push for that analogy, but I think you see what I'm getting at here. We are prejudiced against simply because we've found something that other people don't.
But should we be surprised? Society ALWAYS rejects the minorities. This is why people show hatred for gays (I do believe homosexuality is wrong, but I don't hate these people at all), why 'nerds' or 'geeks' are the lowest social class, and why immigrants were looked down upon. Again, think about it. In the past 5-10 years the view on video games has changed a great deal. They were originally looked at as something 'nerdy', and then they became common among guys and were looked at as 'a guy thing'. And now we have girls playing video games, which is slowly but surely becoming more and more normal. And now people don't care if you play video games. Why? Because it's -NORMAL-.
Now here's the point I get to which is a good deal more cynical: If it is a trend that persists throughout history that those who are in any way different are rejected by 90% of society, will people ever come to terms with playing video games competitively? I definitely think so. But only once it becomes 'normal', which might take 10-20 years. And then we'll be happy because we're finally 'understood' and not rejected, and we think the problem's been solved.
But the problem isn't that Melee isn't accepted. It's that those that are different aren't. And I do think that this is one piece of human nature that the vast majority of people will never overcome. It's only when you ARE different that you accept others that are different. And even then, there's prejudice. "Well, I play Melee and that's a bit different, but this other guy loves entomology, and that's just weird. At least I'm not as weird as him." Unfortunately, the future does look bleak. We're not moving toward greater acceptance, it's just that more things are becoming normal.
So, I do believe that very few of our non-Melee friends will ever come to terms with, accept, or understand why we play Melee. It's sad, because it's just that piece of prejudice ingrained in every one of us.
Sorry for being so negative
It's kinda bleak.
For those of you who play Melee, have you ever had someone ask, "What do you do for fun?" Often I leave Melee out of the picture when people ask that type of question, mostly from past experience. Whenever I venture to mention the fact that yeah, I play Melee (and just saying that doesn't even really get across what -playing Melee- means), people just tend to misunderstand. When most people see the amount of time and effort we put into getting better, the fact that we go out of our way to play with people at our skill level, that we watch videos online, use official controllers only, and go to tournaments, there's a word they tend to use for that sort of thing: Obsessed. Then you try to explain it: "It's not obsessive, it's just..." and there you are, at a loss for words.
Every time you try to explain the sincere amount of excitement and joy you get from playing Melee, people just don't get it. Sure if it was something like a -real sport-, people could understand your passion. But "it's just a video game," right? There's no way it could ever mean anything more than just mindless entertainment. But no, you explain, it's much deeper than that. It's all about out-thinking your opponent and--And you've lost them.
"I feel like that's a huge waste of time." "I think one of these days you're just going to realize you're just wasting all of your time on this game." "How can you stand wasting your time for hours on a stupid game?" These are all quotes: One from a girl I like (also a good friend of mine), my roommate, and my dad, respectively. And I'm sure that you have heard the same thing from others.
The thing I'm getting at is, I don't think other people can understand, or at least aren't willing to. "It's just a video game" to them. It doesn't -really- matter in the 'real world.' The thing is, many of these people probably spend just as much time and effort on watching television, and probably more money on buying and seeing movies. Let's handle one at a time, here. Television, 99% of the time, is far less stimulating than playing ANY sort of video game, much less something as mentally demanding as Melee (and let's admit it, for the good players it IS mentally demanding). And yet we're still criticized for doing something that's far more beneficial than just 'vegging out.' I'm sure we all still see movies, but I'd be willing to bet that we, on a whole, watch much less than the average person if you combine T.V. and watching movies.
The time we're not spending in front of some mindless program, we spend working toward something: Getting better at Smash. Now, because this is goal-oriented, we are actually accomplishing something, regardless of whether or not it has bearing in the 'real world'. Even though it might not 'actually' accomplish anything, we are mentally rewarded and feel a greater sense of accomplishment than if we just spent the whole day watching television. This promotes a higher sense of self-worth that those who watch T.V. don't get.
But the sole reason why we're looked down on being so committed to 'a video game' is that it's uncommon. Think about it. I'd be willing to bet that 90% of the hobbies that are looked down on as a waste of time are only viewed as such because they aren't held by the majority of people. As opposed to being viewed as unique, we're rejected for being different. Sounds a lot like racism, doesn't it? I'm not going to push for that analogy, but I think you see what I'm getting at here. We are prejudiced against simply because we've found something that other people don't.
But should we be surprised? Society ALWAYS rejects the minorities. This is why people show hatred for gays (I do believe homosexuality is wrong, but I don't hate these people at all), why 'nerds' or 'geeks' are the lowest social class, and why immigrants were looked down upon. Again, think about it. In the past 5-10 years the view on video games has changed a great deal. They were originally looked at as something 'nerdy', and then they became common among guys and were looked at as 'a guy thing'. And now we have girls playing video games, which is slowly but surely becoming more and more normal. And now people don't care if you play video games. Why? Because it's -NORMAL-.
Now here's the point I get to which is a good deal more cynical: If it is a trend that persists throughout history that those who are in any way different are rejected by 90% of society, will people ever come to terms with playing video games competitively? I definitely think so. But only once it becomes 'normal', which might take 10-20 years. And then we'll be happy because we're finally 'understood' and not rejected, and we think the problem's been solved.
But the problem isn't that Melee isn't accepted. It's that those that are different aren't. And I do think that this is one piece of human nature that the vast majority of people will never overcome. It's only when you ARE different that you accept others that are different. And even then, there's prejudice. "Well, I play Melee and that's a bit different, but this other guy loves entomology, and that's just weird. At least I'm not as weird as him." Unfortunately, the future does look bleak. We're not moving toward greater acceptance, it's just that more things are becoming normal.
So, I do believe that very few of our non-Melee friends will ever come to terms with, accept, or understand why we play Melee. It's sad, because it's just that piece of prejudice ingrained in every one of us.
Sorry for being so negative
