Reverse Playground Theory, Reverse Game Theory

Posts : 107 Join date : 2015-03-03

There is a phenomena in the Game world known as "Reverse Playground Theory."

When you go to a playground as an adult in Real Life (RL) you are a filled with joy, ecstasy, euphoria, nostalgia. When you go to a playground as a child it is even better, magical even.

But, when you go to a playground in a videogame, it's perceived as "kiddie" lame plastic, boring, yucky, disgusting.

Is this due to uncanny valley? (The property that robots who are too human look creepy, because they are too similar?) Or is it something deeper...

For example, in many of these videogames, people love killing their family and friends, throwing them into lava, shooting them, chainsawing them, or whatever.
But in real life, they would not enjoy killing their friends (save for a few deviants here and there.)
What accounts for this inverse relationship between real-life experience, and videogame experience? Something to do with the inner psyche?

Zen energy in Games
I learned that Games have zen flow, rest and unrest. But as a whole, most games are draining. Adventures games are quite draining, especially RPG's. Where as a game like Smash Bros present's its levels in a slide-show kind of format. The original Smash Bros Trilogy is one of the few energy boosting games I can think of.
It seems players love repetitive tasks, over and over, like collecting redundant items, killing repetitive enemies, and having constant fights over and over just from walking around...grinding and leveling up. This could be from a primitive desire to collect things and do chores, but something about this grinding is even more chorelike than real chores, or even simulated ones like shopping cart sim. To me, having forced battles just from navigating the terrain is more of a chore than shopping cart sim. It's draining and exhausting. On the other hand, some games have some slight energy payoff, where after they lul you into a sense of complacency and drained ness, they offer you a mysterious and new item as a reward, kind of like the Christmas Holiday to the human race. Work 364 days a year, then finally get a suprise on Christmas Holiday.
Similar to conform and act reserved 364 days a year, but on Halloween you get to go "wild", provided noone sustains any damage or injury.
In my opinion games are in their infancy and we have yet to see them acquire the updated formula. However, as far as movies go, people still return to the classics every now and then and modern movies are seeing a decline in satisfaction due the repetitive formula.

Ερμής Posts : 111 Join date : 2015-01-20

Trixie Celūcilūnaletumoon wrote:: There is a phenomena in the Game world known as "Reverse Playground Theory."

When you go to a playground as an adult in Real Life (RL) you are a filled with joy, ecstasy, euphoria, nostalgia. When you go to a playground as a child it is even better, magical even.

But, when you go to a playground in a videogame, it's perceived as "kiddie" lame plastic, boring, yucky, disgusting.

Is this due to uncanny valley? (The property that robots who are too human look creepy, because they are too similar?) Or is it something deeper...

For example, in many of these videogames, people love killing their family and friends, throwing them into lava, shooting them, chainsawing them, or whatever.
But in real life, they would not enjoy killing their friends (save for a few deviants here and there.)
What accounts for this inverse relationship between real-life experience, and videogame experience? Something to do with the inner psyche?

I think that it's because of the fact that video game is virtual and real life is 'real', that people could get away with things when playing video games. That does, in fact, lead to there being a deeper, psychical connection. The people playing violent video games can vent out their suppressed rage, while at the same time have that rage supplanted even more as they play these games.

As with the playgrounds in the video games, the reason why it would be lame is given the artificial nature of a video game.

Posts : 107 Join date : 2015-03-03

WanderingLands wrote:: As with the playgrounds in the video games, the reason why it would be lame is given the artificial nature of a video game.

But why though? Is it due to uncanny valley? Or that you can't physically touch the playground? Other games like flight sims and sports are just as satisfying as they are in real life. Even shopping cart simulators hold up their end of the bargain. What about playgrounds make them so awful in the game world, and thus, so rarely seen in videogames?

Ερμής Posts : 111 Join date : 2015-01-20

Trixie Celūcilūnaletumoon wrote:

WanderingLands wrote:: As with the playgrounds in the video games, the reason why it would be lame is given the artificial nature of a video game.

But why though? Is it due to uncanny valley? Or that you can't physically touch the playground? Other games like flight sims and sports are just as satisfying as they are in real life. Even shopping cart simulators hold up their end of the bargain. What about playgrounds make them so awful in the game world, and thus, so rarely seen in videogames?

For me, that would have to do with the eye of the beholder. To be honest, I don't really play video games, so I don't have the experience to decide whether or not play grounds are undesirable in video games.

Posts : 107 Join date : 2015-03-03

WanderingLands wrote:

Trixie Celūcilūnaletumoon wrote:

WanderingLands wrote:: As with the playgrounds in the video games, the reason why it would be lame is given the artificial nature of a video game.

But why though? Is it due to uncanny valley? Or that you can't physically touch the playground? Other games like flight sims and sports are just as satisfying as they are in real life. Even shopping cart simulators hold up their end of the bargain. What about playgrounds make them so awful in the game world, and thus, so rarely seen in videogames?

For me, that would have to do with the eye of the beholder. To be honest, I don't really play video games, so I don't have the experience to decide whether or not play grounds are undesirable in video games.

Oh, to be honest, I forgot to mention one of my key points as well, grinding in videogames. Sitting on the toilet helped me to remember. I'll edit the original post in a minute with the ideas I forgot to put.

Ερμής Posts : 111 Join date : 2015-01-20

Quote :: Zen energy in Games
I learned that Games have zen flow, rest and unrest. But as a whole, most games are draining. Adventures games are quite draining, especially RPG's. Where as a game like Smash Bros present's its levels in a slide-show kind of format. The original Smash Bros Trilogy is one of the few energy boosting games I can think of.
It seems players love repetitive tasks, over and over, like collecting redundant items, killing repetitive enemies, and having constant fights over and over just from walking around...grinding and leveling up. This could be from a primitive desire to collect things and do chores, but something about this grinding is even more chorelike than real chores, or even simulated ones like shopping cart sim. To me, having forced battles just from navigating the terrain is more of a chore than shopping cart sim. It's draining and exhausting. On the other hand, some games have some slight energy payoff, where after they lul you into a sense of complacency and drained ness, they offer you a mysterious and new item as a reward, kind of like the Christmas Holiday to the human race. Work 364 days a year, then finally get a suprise on Christmas Holiday.
Similar to conform and act reserved 364 days a year, but on Halloween you get to go "wild", provided noone sustains any damage or injury.
In my opinion games are in their infancy and we have yet to see them acquire the updated formula. However, as far as movies go, people still return to the classics every now and then and modern movies are seeing a decline in satisfaction due the repetitive formula.

Draining of energy and addiction is something that I can definite agree to; no doubt you will feel that way when playing online games, and along with that occupy yourself with any kind of technology. In my research, I believe that there is some psychological warfare in getting people addicted to technology, as a means of controlling them effectively into benign sheep. We are really ushering in a technocratic age (have been doing so over the recent decades), and this is all about binding humanity under slavery, as it is controlled within the hands of elitists that run our world.

Posts : 107 Join date : 2015-03-03

WanderingLands wrote:

Quote :: Zen energy in Games
I learned that Games have zen flow, rest and unrest. But as a whole, most games are draining. Adventures games are quite draining, especially RPG's. Where as a game like Smash Bros present's its levels in a slide-show kind of format. The original Smash Bros Trilogy is one of the few energy boosting games I can think of.
It seems players love repetitive tasks, over and over, like collecting redundant items, killing repetitive enemies, and having constant fights over and over just from walking around...grinding and leveling up. This could be from a primitive desire to collect things and do chores, but something about this grinding is even more chorelike than real chores, or even simulated ones like shopping cart sim. To me, having forced battles just from navigating the terrain is more of a chore than shopping cart sim. It's draining and exhausting. On the other hand, some games have some slight energy payoff, where after they lul you into a sense of complacency and drained ness, they offer you a mysterious and new item as a reward, kind of like the Christmas Holiday to the human race. Work 364 days a year, then finally get a suprise on Christmas Holiday.
Similar to conform and act reserved 364 days a year, but on Halloween you get to go "wild", provided noone sustains any damage or injury.
In my opinion games are in their infancy and we have yet to see them acquire the updated formula. However, as far as movies go, people still return to the classics every now and then and modern movies are seeing a decline in satisfaction due the repetitive formula.

Draining of energy and addiction is something that I can definite agree to; no doubt you will feel that way when playing online games, and along with that occupy yourself with any kind of technology. In my research, I believe that there is some psychological warfare in getting people addicted to technology, as a means of controlling them effectively into benign sheep. We are really ushering in a technocratic age (have been doing so over the recent decades), and this is all about binding humanity under slavery, as it is controlled within the hands of elitists that run our world.

Seems like the elitists have their own addiction problems, addiction to power and control. But what do they do with it? Boring, humdrum run of the mill things like population control and filthy orgies. They don't know how to spice life up, not even their own lives.

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