Willful Ignorance

This is a topic that's been on my mind for a while, and it bugs me. Mainly because I see it occur every day.

Willful Ignorance

The practice or act of intentional and blatant avoidance, disregard or disagreement with facts, empirical evidence and well-founded arguements because they oppose or contradict your own existing personal beliefs.

Many times it is practiced due to laziness--people not wanting to have to do the work to rethink their opinions, the fear of the unknown, the fear of being wrong, or sometimes simply close-mindedness.

This is the biggest problem I believe our industry faces today.

Sure you might think DLC is a problem, or Call of Duty, or casuals, or whatever, but these problems absolutely pale in comparison.

The thing about DLC, CoD, casual games, and whatever else is that there is nothing about them that is forced onto us. We don't, and never have, had to buy the things we do not like.

INTERMISSION

*This pic provided to reduce boredom from reading*

However, willful ignorance essentially means denying yourself entertainment for, what is essentially, no reason at all. We see it on System Wars all the time. People who ignore games because of the way they look, or how they play, or their popularity, or their budget, but never once have they attempted to play the game. Heck, some of them don't care to even learn what the game is about anyways.

Now this isn't just an issue on System Wars. It happens everywhere. I've got friends who have similar mindsets themselves.

You know the people:

• "I've never heard of it, so it must not be the great"
• "These screenshots look terrible. I'm not going to play that"
• "Game looks boring"
• "Another *insert genre here*? Pass"

And of course let's not forget the fanboys.

It's these people who forgo entire genres of games, and avoid mountains of quality titles for practically no reason at all, and then have the nerve to call themselves "core", or "dedicated" gamers. It truly makes my stomach turn.

The same rule applies to game systems as well. We all know those certain somebodies who won't play other systems, and we've all heard them list off their piss-poor excuses for thinking the way they do.

There is nothing that hurts game developers, and the industry as a whole, more than when you deny them a chance to entertain you.

LoosingENDS and Finalstar come to mind.

Bigboi come to mind.

BullyRay44

I get finalstar but not really Big....

[QUOTE="BullyRay44"]

Bigboi come to mind.

Slashless

I get finalstar but not really Big....

[QUOTE="Slashless"]

[QUOTE="BullyRay44"]

Bigboi come to mind.

BullyRay44

I get finalstar but not really Big....

Can't say I'm a fan of where this thread immediately went.

If my ignorance is helping my wallet...:P

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Willfully ignorant or just can't be bothered?

Gaming's getting bigger and it's getting harder to follow everything, let alone play everything. With those two elements in mind, people go for the biggest games and toss in whatever manages to catch their interest along the way. If a developer can't catch someone's interest in a minute's worth of material, be it box art, concept art, gameplay video, etc., they better hope their game becomes a sleeper hit or they're out of luck 'cause by then they're already looking at something else.

It's just human.

tl;drfoxhound_fox

I'm thinking much of it is a front in SW. I'm sure there are generally people who won't play something based on ridiculous restrictions, but I have a feeling that people's personas often run wild here.

What the fvck

What the fvck

Thefatness16

Apparently what games other people play is a big deal to the TC.

who cares

This is what bugs you? Not the 15 million children starving to death every year but peoples' ignorance of a completely unnecessary medium that's only purpose is to entertain?

waltefmoney comes to mind.

Reading OP again, I agree in particular with the point about some calling themselves "core" and denying a game a chance, especially if on a another platform. How can you be a "core" gamer and not be open to another platforms games?cainetao11

The mistake you are making TC, is believing that the arguing that goes on in SW actually has anything to do with the video game industry. People aren't always here, to talk about games, but to "own" and grief and flame and win. It's our ego and our psyche that cause us to act so irrationally, we really can't even help it. getyeryayasout

We are ALL this way the vast majority of the time.

Yes, even you, I say to the objecting reader who thinks themselves truly open-minded and curious.

We move toward the easy, the accessible, the familiar, etc.

If we didn't we'd all have 12 degrees and speak 5 languages and be expert in our knowledge of Art, Architecture, Philosophy, Comparative Religions, Science, Music Appreciation, and Mathematics. We're capable of it, but we're lazy; ALL of us.

We don't challenge our assumptions most of the time.

We aren't critical most of the time.

We engage in guilty pleasures.

We speak without fully considering our words. We act without fully considering the impact of those actions. We judge with bias.

And if there's one time when we shouldn't be pressured to be all that we can be, to be effusively critical, it's when we're playing a damn video game after a hard day's work, LOL

waltefmoney comes to mind.

waltefmoney

More of a consolite problem, all they really buy is big shooters.Jankarcop

this is stereotyping much like me saying PC gamers only play pretentious indie games.

Not all of us always play shooters out my collection of 54 x360 games only around 5-6 of them are FPS and the 2 gears games ;) the rest is a mix of racing,sports,rpg's and the likes.

But yeah try harder were not all brogamers unlike you seem to percieve us.

[QUOTE="waltefmoney"]

waltefmoney comes to mind.

BullyRay44

The hermits have been owned.

I have never complain cod(like cod a bt),dlc or casual games. I just shrug them off and dont let them get to me.

[QUOTE="cainetao11"]Reading OP again, I agree in particular with the point about some calling themselves "core" and denying a game a chance, especially if on a another platform. How can you be a "core" gamer and not be open to another platforms games?Labavo

What's that fascinating GIF?

Edit: I nominate Darksiders as a major victim of willfull ignorance. It did well, but got hurt by the undeserved "copycat" label, eventhough it's practically the only non-Ninty current gen game of it's kind.

I think all of us do it at some point. Its just impossible to purchase and play (due to money and time restrictions) every game that is good and fun.

When I saw the Fable Heroes screenshots I immediatly went 'Uh, I'm not playing that' even if it could be fun, and even if it is I still wouldn't play it.

But some people do it to an extreme degree for example:

-It's not on my platform of choice so I won't play it
-It looks kiddy...
-It scored less than a 8 so it's absolute garbage.

More of a consolite problem, all they really buy is big shooters.Jankarcop

We are ALL this way the vast majority of the time.

Yes, even you, I say to the objecting reader who thinks themselves truly open-minded and curious.

We move toward the easy, the accessible, the familiar, etc.

If we didn't we'd all have 12 degrees and speak 5 languages and be expert in our knowledge of Art, Architecture, Philosophy, Comparative Religions, Science, Music Appreciation, and Mathematics. We're capable of it, but we're lazy; ALL of us.

We don't challenge our assumptions most of the time.

We aren't critical most of the time.

We engage in guilty pleasures.

We speak without fully considering our words. We act without fully considering the impact of those actions. We judge with bias.

And if there's one time when we shouldn't be pressured to be all that we can be, to be effusively critical, it's when we're playing a damn video game after a hard day's work, LOL

Seiki_sands