Things We Hate About Gaming: The Knowledge Mine

We play videogames for a plethora of reasons. Some as a method of escapism. Some competitively. Some for straightforward fun. If we like a  particular franchise we often pick up more knowledge about it than we do the other games we play. Nothing complicated. I’m talking about plot points and story elements, perhaps information about weapons in the game. To me this is fine and a part of enjoying a game as a story telling device.

This TWHAG focuses on those people who seem to dedicate their lives to knowing each and every hypothetical metaphor, every upturned pixel and polygon, and every commented-out piece of unused game code who then feel the need to try and unload this library of useless crap on me.

What kind of person can get so obsessed over something to a point in which they become an overflowing well of useless information that spills onto all around them? A dire human being, that’s who. Misanthropy aside, I have nothing personal against these people. At least not until they start spewing their inane facts onto me. Granted it doesn’t happen as often as it used to thanks to a rich XBL friends list (for which I can be thankful) but it certainly still goes on.

It doesn’t take an E grade in AS-Level Psychology (passed by one mark) to know that someone who seems to enjoy picking apart a video game like that may have… trouble talking to and dealing with other ‘normal’ people. So they do what they know best, and talk about what they know. But why do they learn such pointless titbits in the first place? Hell if I know. I genuinely thought about this for a while and couldn’t think of any reason.

I am quite partial to the Halo series and through playing the campaigns multiple times and reading the books (go ahead, judge), I now know quite a bit about the back story and it’s canon. On the occasion that I need to check a fact I may hit the wiki. When I do I am blown away by the amount of stuff behind what 99% of players see and know. Who aggregates that stuff? People are taking time out of their daily routines to look into and theorise about it. Scary stuff.

I’m one of the few people who uses a headset while playing with randomly matched players. Once in a blue moon one of these people will emerge from the darkness to give us all a lecture on weapon bullet spread or damage percentages. I don’t need that. I’m not stupid and I know how to play a game the way it was built to be played. It was not designed around people who spend hours getting perfect timing between button pressed for maximum efficiency.

God forbid two of this type of person should meet. Christ. It’s like Jeremy Kyle meets Question time with the amount of bickering that goes on. One of them usually disagrees with something another says and it all kicks off. Of course everyone else in the room knows that neither of them will back down or allow the other to have the last word. So, it goes on and on until it inevitably devolves into a slinging match usually involving slurs of some type and I have enough and quit.

This type of gamer is one of many that annoys me to no end. They will continue to do so for a long time. They are just another colourful character in the rich tapestry that is the gaming culture we know and love. Thankfully, if you’ve half a brain about you this type of person is easy to deal with: mute them. Ignorance can be bliss.