The Gamification of Online Discourse About Relgion

Found this on Patheos.com and feel like it explains a lot of what we see (and what we sometimes participate in) on sites like this. I don't think it's just limited to discussions on religion or even on line (I cringe thinking how often I've resorted to this attitude politics with my dad--though I swear he starts it!)

The Gamification of Online Discourse about Religion

August 28, 2012 By James F. McGrath

One doesn’t have to spend much time online, whether on a blog like this one o ever more so a site like Reddit, to experience what I am talking about.

There seem to be more people than ever before who treat their interactions with other people, things that might well have been conversations had this approach not been taken, as though they were interacting with enemies in a first-person shooter game, or monsters in a hack-and-slash role playing game.

It is as though the aim is to defeat a level 43 atheist or a Christian boss, as though doing so would somehow “win” the “game.” But whereas in most games, if a character disappears or leaves, it means you have won, when interacting with real people, it often means that they have become frustrated with your immaturity, inanity, dishonesty, incomprehension, or other aspects of your behavior towards them.

The fact that I had to qualify the type of role playing game earlier should clue the reader in that it isn’t necessarily the gamification per se that is the problem, so much as the kind of game. Maybe I should call it the problem of the Doomification of online discourse – with reference to that classic game mainly because the term “modernwarefare3ification” is unlikely to catch on.

Even before there were video games, or at least video games that were anything like the modern ones, those of us who played role playing games like Dungeons and Dragons knew that there were two approaches. Sometimes there were scenarios or settings in which one simply had to defeat monsters. But there were others where you had to talk to the characters and creatures you encountered, and without doing so, your quest could not be successful. And if we found ourselves with a “slash first, ask questions later” sort of player in a scenario of the latter sort, it was frustrating for everyone.

0 members like this

▶ Reply to This

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Maris Hellfaerie (Maire) on September 4, 2012 at 10:41pm

Doomification

This does not happen to people who realise when they are in Hack'n'Slash world in time. If one wants to have a cultivated debate, one must go to Adventure Land. A hint: Adventure Land is not on youtube, or Jenna Jameson's Facebook fan page.

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Sonic Titan on September 4, 2012 at 10:52pm

For me it's like a tennis match were it's like 2 against 1... and instead of a tennis ball it's a hand grenade.... and back and forth it goes... until at some point it blows up and gets out of hand... but if you take your mind of the competitiveness of the sport at hand.. (which in this case is sharing knowledge and debating facts) .. you learn to have fun with it... I love to learn new things, I am thankful when I do, but it sucks to play with cocky opponents... there's a song about that.... I hum it every time.....

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Níos Sine Dia on September 5, 2012 at 1:51am

Good find god.

I take the comedic journalist approach.

Researching and providing sources as hard and often as I can, being a bit of a bastard in order to walk someone into revealing their small mindedness, lack of actual evidence, or inability to see these faults or the faults within themselves.

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Kixs on September 5, 2012 at 2:17am

Well I'll be damned, it's got a label.

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Ritalin-Bunny on September 5, 2012 at 7:26am

I love it!

I try to keep an even keel but I've tipped over into this mode of operation from time to time.

The Gamification of Online Discourse About Relgion

The Gamification of Online Discourse about Religion

Replies to This Discussion

Birthdays

Birthdays Today