Exploring (Destiny)

by scarab , Sunday, December 21, 2014, 04:29 (3438 days ago) @ Leviathan

... So, you're saying that if I'm perplexed as to why someone is playing a game so often that causes them to voice such ire and bile, it is because it simply doesn't make sense in the first place and they're playing it out of 'irrationality'?

Yes and no. Our behaviour is irrational but we can make sense of it.

Our behaviour is a product of our irrational natures but that doesn't mean that it can't be understood. Irrational is not a synonym for unpredictable or incomprehensible.

Our irrational natures are generally fairly predictable and can be understood. Blizzard understand our irrational behaviours pretty well and they have a fair idea how to consistently exploit them.

People are not made of reason. We are not chips whose machine code is reason with emotional virtual machines layered on top. We are animals who have gained a limited ability to reason. We can use our reason to, well reason, about our natures.

We tend to overestimate our ability to reason and we construct narratives to explain our behaviour. But the behaviours come first and then we, retroactively, construct "reasons" for our behaviour.

We rationalize our behaviour after the fact. I'd say we are more rationalizing than rational.

What I'm saying is: don't be surprised if people do irrational things: it is our nature.

If you have a model of human nature that is often confounded then maybe you should reevaluate that model. It may not be accurate.

I am not a psychology major but I know people who are and I have paid attention to the subject and what the experts say and their explanations for why they say what they say. They have convinced me and their observations fit with my own observations of human nature.

If someone says to me, "your behaviour does not fit that of a rational person" I would say, "of course it doesn't, people aren't rational". (well I probably wouldn't because that's too glib)

I respect reason and try to be rational but I see it as something to aspire to, a goal to seek as opposed to a given/expected outcome.

Expect has two senses. I mean it in the sense of what you thought would happen as opposed to what you demand should happen in the sense of prediction as opposed to proscription or prescription.

Anyway, what I mean is. I try to be rational but I understand that I am not innately rational and that it is somewhat irrational to expect 100% success in that endeavour (given my nature).

And reason has its limits. I doubt that a life can be based purely on reason but that's a conversation for another time.

If that's the case, what would be the purpose served by criticism borne out of such irrationality?

To explain:

• how the combination of our irrational natures and the game mechanics led us to an unhappy situation
  
• how we feel about it
  
• some of the things we were thinking at the time
  
• and to point out that the addictive parts of Destiny were not put in there by accident

It'd be like someone telling a mystery novelist "For some reason I read all 20 of your novels in a few weeks even though I didn't enjoy reading them. Here's why they sucked..."

Yes but you know we haven't just been saying, "for some reason". We have tried harder than that and have put in thought and tried to give more detail than, "some reason".

Anyway, back to Levi

I can see that I hurt his feelings and cut deeper than I intended. At the time I just thought that he was being too thin skinned, "I said that it wasn't personal so that should be enough". But I get the impression that Levi is genuinely upset that Destiny hasn't turned out so great for a lot of people. I think he is feeling rather raw and so can't shrug off stuff easily right now. So Levi, I am sorry I hurt your feelings. I can't say I didn't mean what I said but I didn't intend it to have such a large degree of impact to your feelings.

Nope. It's not upsetting to me that some people on this forum dislike Destiny - most of the people I know and play with are enjoying it actually! And even if they didn't, I'm quite accustomed to enjoying things most people don't. What IS upsetting is to see pretentious, insensitive, rude comments directed at people who are enjoying it, or who made it, or are trying to understand the criticism, whether it's straightforwardly or in a snide, passive manner. Most of my posts these days here are not debating a criticism, but trying to keep those attitudes in check.

I thought that I was being more blunt than snide. I need to work on my bluntness ;-)

Still, I appreciate the apology. :)

You're welcome.