Thursday, February 20, 2014

Lessons From Video Games (or why we can't have nice things)

So today I am writing about a very serious topic... human nature, and why people (collectively) are terrible. This isn't to say that each and every individual out there is a morally depraved sadist who enjoys stealing candy from babies... but yeah people are jerks.What I am trying to say is that there is something about the knowledge (or belief) that your face and name are not truly being associated with your words or actions that creates some truly terrifying results. The internet has given us an unprecedented portal for social experimentation that quite frankly may blow your mind.
With the information that can be casually observed during your typical browsing session (assuming that session includes social media use and memes) it is possible to understand that in a group of ten perfectly kind people at least one of them will be a "troll"- I understand that this term may require some defining, bear with me- You see when people, particularly the type who inhabit the "interwebs" gather there is discussion. During these discussions you can either learn a great deal or have a chat that vaguely resembles the comment section of a YouTube video... and you NEVER want the latter to happen, yet it always does eventually. This is due to the a fore mentioned "trolls". People who thrive on discord and chaos, people who's mothers should be ashamed (I'm joking but also kind of not). They leave comments with the specific intention of creating a flame war and sit back and watch the show as people debate politics beneath a video about a cat wearing a fedora (no joke that actually happened) (also I already discussed politics and I don't understand why we haven't yet attained world peace in the subsequent weeks). Now it is understandable that there are at least a few of these people, when over 3 billion people use the internet everyday a few of them are bound to turn up occasionally, after all as we here on the internet say:
The fascinating thing however is just how prevalent, even celebrated this behavior is. With entire websites dedicated to the "Art of Trolling" people seem to have embraced the idea that it is ok... cool even to mess with others via the internet, and a lot of people would like to know why. This is where video games come in, because a week ago something happened, and I am still unsure whether it is the epitome of idiots wasting their time via the internet or the most brilliant social experiment ever (that was a link FYI). What I have just attempted to force all of you into viewing is a live stream of over 80,000 people (at the time of writing), playing Pokemon together... as the same character. And if the mode is still, as I strongly believe it will always be, in "anarchy" then you will all get to witness a prime example of trolling, or maybe everyone will get there act together and it will be a beautiful illustration of why I am wrong and people aren't terrible (not likely but fingers crossed).
Why should it matter that 80,000 nerds are attempting to cooperate to beat a simple child's game from 1996? Aside from the landmark event in collaborative gaming, it is a great example of the point that I would ultimately like to make.

When discussing human nature there is a large difference between the intentions of people as individuals and the actions of the same people when put in large groups, especially when anonymity is a factor. Groups it would seem are inclined to push, even fight, for a goal they deem to be "right" and implies some common sense of morality (be it for whatever reason), and while this may be quite an extrapolation to make from a Pokemon game it makes sense. Many of those people have dedicated hours of there lives to the end of getting everyone else through a game that they could just as easily beat by themselves in a tiny fraction of the time, they are (in an odd way) being quite selfless. The wildcards then are the trolls, these people have no reason to want to impede the progress of the group but do so anyway. These people gain nothing from their efforts, and are putting in just as much time as the ones working through chaotic good towards the end of beating the elite four (I hope you all had good enough childhoods to know what that is). I don't know why it happens, just that it does, and I know that I will never have a good explanation for it. It is however oddly comforting that despite the omnipresence of those who would have otherwise humanity as a whole will try, if poorly, to achieve what they see as right (whether or not it actually is right is a whole different argument that I will not currently have with you).

So what do you think? Do you agree with the sentiment that humanity as a group at least tries to be good? Or am I just a lunatic that over-romanticizes what I think is kind of cool? Please let me know what you think in the comments, or else I will write my next 20 posts on Twitch playing Pokemon (don't think this is an empty threat, I totally can, and I will).

6 comments:

  1. Humanity as a group might try to be good, but the more important question is "Why, hypothetically, do they try to be good?" Is human nature inherently good? Do people just feel like they "ought" to be good? Is there some sort of moral standard or ultimate measure of morality that humanity tries to measure up to (excluding trolls of course)?

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    1. To be honest I can't be sure. Personally I do believe that there is an innate moral standard that we all have, but it would seem that for some more than others it is natural to ignore it. Honestly it seems that people for the most part want to help others for one reason or another and that seems to be the motivating factor for a lot of actions throughout history, the issue however is that people tend to be rather misguided at times and good intentions can yield terrible results.

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  2. I'm not sure humanity for the most part is concerned about being good. I think the world has gotten to the point where corruption has made the world forget what good even means. The world has started defending wrong and immoral things and justifying everything we should be against. Even if there are inherently good people in the world, their goodness is being masked with the want for "survival." People, seeing all of the things around them, may adapt and acclimate to how people around them act. They may start off apart from these people but eventually their defenses become too weak and their hearts become too hard and they end up just like the people they were never meant to be.

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  3. But are there really, truly, inherently good people in the world? If such "good" people are that easily changed and influenced by their peers, they can't be inherently good, because their very nature would prohibit their imitation of their peers' bad deeds. Is the true nature of humanity good or evil- right or wrong- upright or depraved? People might do "good things", but is it because they are inherently GOOD, or because they just feel like doing a good thing because it's socially acceptable? Is human nature inherently, through-the-core sinful or not? If it's not, then we don't need saving.

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    1. I think the point you bring up is very interesting, and the simple answer is... well there isn't one. I believe that humans have what Christians like to call a "sin nature", which means that although we know the difference between right and wrong it is easier for us to choose what is wrong. I also believe that people can e easily persuaded to fight for what they see as "right". but what "right" is changes as we are influenced by our surroundings and our moral compasses start to point in different directions. That then is the danger, a tendency to do wrong coupled with a predisposition to mistake wrong for right leads to a very twisted society, generally willing to work towards a common aim that is seen as "right" but often failing to act morally.
      Humans WANT to be good, deep down there is a knowledge that we are not what we were meant to be compells many to be "better people" and in that regard the majority of humanity is good, but at our core we are sinful.

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  4. Nice post, extremely accurate I also loved that you managed to get Pokemon into a post about the mechanics of humanity :)
    -A x

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I cannot wait to interact with you!