Is Instant Pudding really THAT Good?
I've been having a veritable amount of time this week. And I would like to talk about something, something that many of you may think is trivial, almost not really worth the virtual paper, or a rant in the making, etc. I would like to talk about the parallelism of the gaming community and the real world. "How are you going to do that? Those two are completely opposite from one another!" On the contrary, I was able to talk with the father figure about this and he said I made complete sense. So yes, it is quite possible to compare these two extremes by one standard...
INSTANT GRATIFICATION!
Now why, instant gratification? Well, I'm about to get to that and will be able to compare the two to you in a very simple manner. So, by the end of this read, you will have understood something that I have found to be another small peeve of mine. Yes, I have a lot of them...
LIFE...
You wake up you stretch and get yourself ready for another day. You do the same routine each time the sun rises and sets. No matter what you do, where you go, what you say, everything contributes to you and others in either a negative or positive fashion. There is however the slight malcontent of feeling the age of routine wearing upon you, trying to earn the big bucks, trying to make things easier for yourself and to simplify your life. It's a difficult and sweat pouring task to make a living. But there is so much more than just the job and your life, your family. You have a family (let's just say that you do for sake of argument) and you have small children. Things in the family like rules, clothes, ideas, and situations do change and sometimes, not for the better. When raising children, you have to take steps with them. You can't simply just tell them to be quiet because the child will learn quickly to test you and your tolerance of their negative behaviors. Many parents learn a way around this attitude from the child and cope with it in a fundamental and constructive fashion, and the rewards are reaping for the parent and the silence of the child for behaving. However, there are those that seek that instant silence but they do not have the tolerance or the patience for the child's misbehavior to continue. The parents seeking methods; quick methods to end the bantering of the children and their misbehavior, sometimes resulting in more negative results. The instant gratification in rearing children only leads to more negative behaviors which can result in more punishment for the child. They don't have the tolerance or the patience to learn, to cope, or to find ways to positively reinforce their rules and positive behaviors to the child.
GAME...
When it to comes to games, there are many different types, and everyone has their own perks and interests in the types that they play. But when you are dealing with an MMO community, where building from the ground up is constant, there are certain things that are taken into consideration. For games like AO, AC, SB, DaoC, EQ and many others, you know that when you start, you start at the bottom of the ladder. And it is a grueling task at times to get to where you want to be. For those that work hard for that master level, or for that best set of gear, or that top rank, you know that you have done all the sweat pouring and time consuming things to get there! You worked very hard to get there and the praise is your own. When the community builds, more people come, more things are added, and things do change in a way. You feel proud that you were one of the first people to make it to the top for as long as it took you, and you adore it and people praise you for it. However, one day, you find this new player, just starting and he's already half way through the rungs of the ladder of succession. You are wondering to yourself how or even why this is possible, and you realize that all the work that you poured into the character was shattered and bruised by this new player that was able to make your work look easy. But at what cost? You come to the realization that the player had a helping hand in getting to where you are in just a few days. They have some of the best gear, one of the higher ranks and you are stumped as to how or even why. Some players have become complacent and lazy in their endeavor to master something. They seek easy ways to get a foot or three ahead of the other by getting power leveled, twinked up to such a ridiculous degree, and taken out in the fields and are just HANDED the ranks without lifting a pinky. They seek that instant gratification to get where everyone else is at without having to work for it. They didn't shed that blood, sweat or tears to get where most are in game. And it's become a point where instant gratification has become a think many lazy players seek.
So, when you take a parent, a child, a game and a player, you have two things completely different, but utterly the same in one respect. Parents that are lazy to teach their children seek easy and instant methods without really teaching the child anything at all. Players buy a game and look for handouts and easy ways to get to the top without lifting a finger to earn it. Both of them seeking instant gratification by means of not having to work for it and reaping the positive rewards from the result. The instant gratification is there, yet is it really worth it for others? Is it really worth for other players to have to put up with this? I say down with the easy way out...
**Don't give handouts, be generous, but not the point where you will be taken advantage of**
**If someone asks for something, tell them where they can find it, but don't give it to them**
**Make those that seek instant happiness to work for it. Make them sweat and bleed just as you have if they want something badly enough**
**Lead others in the direction to help them find their own way. Let them learn on their own. If they fail to do so, then they don't belong there**
Well, I think my time is up. Don't give into those that seek it easy, they really don't deserve it. Make them prove that they are worth the blood and sweat and tears. Make them see that nothing is ever easy, in life or in game.
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