Competitive Nature

[Rhaps]

I guess it's an innate drive in all humans, rooting back to when we had to fight over food. I actually thought I wasn't all that competitive until today, when my friend challenged me to beat his score in Robot Unicorn Attack.
Four hours later I beat his score and realized I just wasted four hours of my life playing Robot Unicorn attack but didn't regret a thing.
Which leads to a curious question
Do single player games like Final Fantasy, Zelda,Chrono Trigger, Metroid, etc. water down your sense of competition or heighten it when challenged?
Also, how competitive are you individually? What triggers your instinct to conquer?

[Sinister]

I don't know if they watered down my sense of competition so much as represent my dislike of competitive games. I'm not in to competition as I'm unaccustomed to having to(or wanting to) fight for things I like or want.

I'm an epicurean and I get to enjoy things I want because I'm better than all of you. I once was into competitive fencing, but to be honest the competition was not why I enjoyed it.

I.e. I'm not a competitive person and a huge fan of the parable of the fox and the sour grapes.

The only competitive feeling I get is over intelligence, I have a strong drive to be the most intelligent person I know. If I'm not I try to be at least at the same level of intelligence. And if I do know someone who is more intelligent than I am, I try to stay close to them, study them and learn from them.

-Sin

[kupo]

Do single player games like Final Fantasy, Zelda,Chrono Trigger, Metroid, etc. water down your sense of competition or heighten it when challenged?

in short...yes.
when i play multiplayer games with friends it always seems more lighthearted no matter what the game is. i guess cause i know im not the best gamer (especially shooters) within my group of friends so i dont really get too worked up about it if im doing crappy

single player games, lets say like FF VII (since im playing through it at the moment), im quite competitive with myself. as in, if i dont beat a boss within the first 2 trys i get annoyed (but not in a 'nerd rage' way) especially if i know that i can accomplish something in the game at that time but i keep dying.
example...today i was going through sunken gelnika plane and some enemies there could kill 2 of my characters with one hit if i couldn't get big guard up in time. but i knew that i could push my way through it...and i did eventually (and about 10 ethers later ). as far as games in general, if i replay them i'll usually try and see if i can beat the game in less time or not use items at all. little stuff like that.

Also, how competitive are you individually? What triggers your instinct to conquer?

i would consider myself a fair competitive person, although i dont appear to be. for 10 years i swam year round competitively and did x-country and track in middle and high school.
as far as what "triggers my instinct" would be to prove myself. im a fairly quiet person and i dont go around bragging about my achievements or anything like that; and, in high school especially, i felt like i had to kick some arse on the track for people to realize that i dont have to be a loud mouth jerk to be a good athlete. i guess to add onto that would be my desire to conquer is to show that im not a silent doormat for people to walk over - which i feel has happened a lot and i didn't do anything about it

anywho, i realize that was mostly about sports competitiveness and those thoughts are kinda scattered....maybe i'll add more on this thread later...

[Pete]

I don't really look at single player games as watering down my sense of competition. I look at games like that as something to do when I'm not feeling competitive, or trying to just relax a bit.

I love competition and I think that we could really use it to better ourselves. I know it's nice and cute to be pampered all the time, but I don't think we adequately test ourselves or know what we're truly capable of as individuals until we're put in a situation where we can gain something by going up against others who want the same thing. I think that it really goes so much deeper than videogames too.

You look at our school systems, where most of our students are just shuffled from grade to grade and thrown into the workforce. Very few are taught to excel and to do well, and so now we have a great pool of mediocrity, just expecting to have these $100K plus jobs, just because they went to college.

Take a look at engineering now. The field is heavily dominated with Asians and Indians. Why? Because they place a heavy emphasis on mathematics and an education that will ultimately be useful. They're taught to be the best at what they do, so that they can ultimately get those good and prestigious jobs, while we're all sitting here in America being fat and lazy.

The problem is really a cultural epidemic. Why should all of the losers get "participant" trophies? They lost! Boo-freakin-hoo! You know what a loser should get from losing? Angry. Losing shouldn't be a whatever instance; it should be a reminder of where you failed and a motivator to do better. When I played baseball, when my team sucked, my dad and I would look at what I was doing wrong throughout the season. We'd work on drills so that I could be stronger in the areas where I was lacking. I absolutely hated to see the other team storm the field in a victory celebration.

I think we really need to get ourselves out of snowflake mode, and to start competing again, if not to better the world, then for our own sense of pride and achievement.