Mary Deluce

If my train falls off the track, I pick it up, pick it up, pick it up!

Man, I miss RAF too.
... and that other person you mentioned.

((Just got married btw, moving in a week. Will post pictures when I get a chance, and hopefully be free to start jumping back on every now and then.))

*Places bid*

So, warning sign number one: Joel Ostean as your avatar pic.

Warning sign number two: juxtaposition of your busy work life and your family outings vs. the dismal abhorant lifestyle of google image search: WoW nerds.

Warning sign number three: you list yourself as 'very casual' and then list 7 level 50s.

Warning sign number four: you list two different home servers.

Warning sign number five: all of your listed 50s are tanks (and one token brute).

I'm not going to make offensive blanket statements about psychological issues that I might presume you to have after reading two posts you've made. I think that'd be rude. Just like I think it'd be rude to claim that people who you know almost nothing about are necessarily unfulfilled and living a life of denial. I think that if you honestly go back and look at what you said, you should be able to see why people might have taken it as a bit offensive... and why "dude, call a mod, I didn't say any names *wink wink*" is a really insufficient defense.

I wonder if the topic had been one of the following, how you'd've responded:
"New study shows, parents are dumb! Parents just don't get enough time interacting with people with fully developed brains, and therefore become stupid"
or "Opiate of the Masses? People who practice a religion clearly have self esteem problems and difficulty coping with real life issues!"
or "Workaholics anonymous. If you love your family so much, why do you keep going on those long business trips? Clearly you're repressing negative emotions while overcompensating at your job."

As a person who deeply loves her family, who has to go away on business trips from time to time, who is actively and deeply involved in her religion, and who enjoys social gaming, I would find all four of these 'studies' to be offensive, and would never think to say "well, yeah, that makes sense, you all are stupid and unfulfilled". Even if I didn't fall into any of those categories, (for example, I'm not yet a parent) I'd still be very reluctant to tell people who found it worthwhile that I know more about their life experiences than they do.

Has anyone else here every made a game? I mean really really made a game. Like, tried to ship a product, or at very least made something somewhat complex that you intend to have some replayability. "Addiction" is part of game design. Honestly. Happy neurochemical responses from positive outcomes of risk-reward scenarios -is- gaming. Why do we get loot in random drops? It's because random reward stimulus is more bodily impacting than fixed reward stimulus. From rats up to humans, we get more out of a reward if it's random. Game theory isn't just applied to games either, why do minimum wage employees sometimes get a quarterly bonus check if the store did well, or if they performed their job adequately? Why not just give them that money on their paycheck? It's because when they 'don't know if they're going to get it at all' and then they do, they feel special, and feel a stronger sense of duty and loyalty to the company.
Has anyone ever been addicted to tic tac toe? Probably not. Why? Because it's solvable. There's nothing fresh to it; you know what the outcome will be. Proper reward stimulus is one of the most important aspects of game design, and yes, any group making a game needs to consult with someone who understands the psychology or neurophysiology of pleasure stimulus if they want their game to succeed. This isn't really ground breaking, or devious. Entertainment seeks to keep you gripped to it. Which is more fun, a predictable movie in which nothing exciting or surprising happens, or one that keeps you guessing with a riveting moving plotline? Which tastes better: candy (or bacon) or white rice? This is no different than game companies trying to make their games 'addictive'. All else being equal, people would rather do a pleasurable thing than a neutral or unpleasurable thing.


But, I've rambled for far too long, and I have to get back to work now. I'd love to hear more thoughts on these topics. Tata for now.