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Mar. 17th, 2006 11:19 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
miko2I've done a fairly good job of mostly posting in LJ every day, but I've skipped a day here or there. Ah well so it goes.
But as for today, I have posted!
Eh? What's that? You want some actual content in my posts? Oh please! Are you people never satisfied?
Okay. Um. The Huskies won yesterday. Yay. Hopefully they'll win tomorrow. Yay. Talking men's basketball team, NCAA tournament, ya know.
Actually I thoroughly enjoy the first week of the NCAA basketball tornament. There really isn't another sporting event like it, so many games being played in one weekend, so many good teams going head to head. The fun part is the upsets, of course, because the NCAA tournament is a place where a small college/university of just a few thousand students can knock off a big-time university with tens of thousands of students. Basketball is a small enough game that a few good players can elevate any team in the country to national prominence. So you get Northwestern State knocking off Iowa, something I witnessed before going to work today.
This also kind of feeds in to another thing that is primal about sports and games in general. We like to see someone win against near-impossible odds. We don't like to see people who are supposed to stomp on the competition, stomp on the competition. Unless they happen to be our favorite team, of course. But even then, it's much more exciting to see our team win when they aren't supposed to, as opposed to winning when they are expected to.
Heroes are the people who shouldn't win but do anyway. One of the many reasons I despise Steven Seagal's movies is because he never seems to be out of his element or in any way likely to lose. In fact he does things like get down on his knees and beg the bad guys to come at him, and then he beats them up anyway. The outcome is never in doubt. (I shouldn't be so hard on Seagal, since I've seen only a few of his movies -- but to quote from the Wikipedia article on him, "Seagal's characters are usually 'born perfect,' displaying no limitations, character flaws, or character development" and "Seagal's characters always hold all the cards, and cannot be beaten or even slowed down.")
Compare that to Indiana Jones in the original movie, or Bruce Willis in the first Die Hard movie. What really makes those movies work for me is that the hero is not some impossible-to-defeat superman, but a regular guy who gets beaten and bruised, but who refuses to give up.
(Cue the despair.com demotivation poster that says, "Quitters never win, winners never quit, but those who never win AND never quit are idiots." ^_^ )
In terms of gaming, we all want to win against impossible odds, because that is what is most exciting. This is one of the diliemas of mmog games like Everquest, World of Warcraft, and City of Heroes. You want people to feel heroic, but it's hard to make everyone feel heroic. If things become too easy, the player gets bored. If things are too difficult, the player becomes frustrated. Every game of this sort tries to walk the fine line in between, and when everything works exactly right, a player gets the opportunity to face down certain death and win when they thought they couldn't, or to rescue their friends at the last second. One experience like that can be the payoff for many other hours of gaming.
I tend to play solitaire on my computer just about every day. My favorite games are Spider Solitaire, Freecell, and Mahjongg. Each of these games is tricky enough that I can play multiple games before I manage to win one, and that's just about right for 15-30 minutes of activity in my book.
I think about these things when I get wrapped up in following one of my sports teams. Right now, of course, it's the Washington Huskies. I would love to see them win tomorrow, advance to the sweet sixteen, even win again next week and advance to the elite eight or the final four. And when you're rooting for your own team, it's natural to wish you had some sort of ability to influence the game, to make sure your team plays at their highest level, to make certain they win. But would you really be satisfied if you really had those abilities and used them? That's a theme that gets used in fantasy stories again and again: winning by magic is cheating, because competition is all about the best atheletes winning by putting out the best effort. And it's the same thing with cheering for your favorite sports player or team -- when things go well and they really do go father than they're supposed to, it's that much more thrilling.
So all of that is what makes the NCAA basketball tournament so much fun for me to watch, because you're certain to see a few teams accomplish things that most people said they couldn't.
Also makes me think of those Staples commercials with the "Easy" button. There's a cute one I saw yesterday where the Chinese leader presses the Easy button as the mongol hoard rides toward him, and instantly a great wall shoots up from the ground between the two armies. Very funny. But I don't think I'd really want an Easy button in real life. I mean, I'd use it to write three stories tonight so I could read them for writer's night tomorrow -- but would I feel any sense of accomplishment in doing that?
A certain measure of innocence
Willing to appear naive
A certain degree of imagination
A measure of make-believe
A certain degree of surrender
To the forces of light and heat
A shot of satisfaction
In a willingness to risk defeat
Celebrate the moment
As it turns into one more
Another chance at victory
Another chance to score
The measure of the moment
In a difference of degree
Just one little victory
A spirit breaking free
One little victory
The greatest act can be
One little victory
A certain measure of righteousness
A certain amount of force
A certain degree of determination
Daring on a different course
A certain amount of resistance
To the forces of the light and love
A certain measure of tolerance
A willingness to rise above
"One Little Victory" by Rush
But as for today, I have posted!
Eh? What's that? You want some actual content in my posts? Oh please! Are you people never satisfied?
Okay. Um. The Huskies won yesterday. Yay. Hopefully they'll win tomorrow. Yay. Talking men's basketball team, NCAA tournament, ya know.
Actually I thoroughly enjoy the first week of the NCAA basketball tornament. There really isn't another sporting event like it, so many games being played in one weekend, so many good teams going head to head. The fun part is the upsets, of course, because the NCAA tournament is a place where a small college/university of just a few thousand students can knock off a big-time university with tens of thousands of students. Basketball is a small enough game that a few good players can elevate any team in the country to national prominence. So you get Northwestern State knocking off Iowa, something I witnessed before going to work today.
This also kind of feeds in to another thing that is primal about sports and games in general. We like to see someone win against near-impossible odds. We don't like to see people who are supposed to stomp on the competition, stomp on the competition. Unless they happen to be our favorite team, of course. But even then, it's much more exciting to see our team win when they aren't supposed to, as opposed to winning when they are expected to.
Heroes are the people who shouldn't win but do anyway. One of the many reasons I despise Steven Seagal's movies is because he never seems to be out of his element or in any way likely to lose. In fact he does things like get down on his knees and beg the bad guys to come at him, and then he beats them up anyway. The outcome is never in doubt. (I shouldn't be so hard on Seagal, since I've seen only a few of his movies -- but to quote from the Wikipedia article on him, "Seagal's characters are usually 'born perfect,' displaying no limitations, character flaws, or character development" and "Seagal's characters always hold all the cards, and cannot be beaten or even slowed down.")
Compare that to Indiana Jones in the original movie, or Bruce Willis in the first Die Hard movie. What really makes those movies work for me is that the hero is not some impossible-to-defeat superman, but a regular guy who gets beaten and bruised, but who refuses to give up.
(Cue the despair.com demotivation poster that says, "Quitters never win, winners never quit, but those who never win AND never quit are idiots." ^_^ )
In terms of gaming, we all want to win against impossible odds, because that is what is most exciting. This is one of the diliemas of mmog games like Everquest, World of Warcraft, and City of Heroes. You want people to feel heroic, but it's hard to make everyone feel heroic. If things become too easy, the player gets bored. If things are too difficult, the player becomes frustrated. Every game of this sort tries to walk the fine line in between, and when everything works exactly right, a player gets the opportunity to face down certain death and win when they thought they couldn't, or to rescue their friends at the last second. One experience like that can be the payoff for many other hours of gaming.
I tend to play solitaire on my computer just about every day. My favorite games are Spider Solitaire, Freecell, and Mahjongg. Each of these games is tricky enough that I can play multiple games before I manage to win one, and that's just about right for 15-30 minutes of activity in my book.
I think about these things when I get wrapped up in following one of my sports teams. Right now, of course, it's the Washington Huskies. I would love to see them win tomorrow, advance to the sweet sixteen, even win again next week and advance to the elite eight or the final four. And when you're rooting for your own team, it's natural to wish you had some sort of ability to influence the game, to make sure your team plays at their highest level, to make certain they win. But would you really be satisfied if you really had those abilities and used them? That's a theme that gets used in fantasy stories again and again: winning by magic is cheating, because competition is all about the best atheletes winning by putting out the best effort. And it's the same thing with cheering for your favorite sports player or team -- when things go well and they really do go father than they're supposed to, it's that much more thrilling.
So all of that is what makes the NCAA basketball tournament so much fun for me to watch, because you're certain to see a few teams accomplish things that most people said they couldn't.
Also makes me think of those Staples commercials with the "Easy" button. There's a cute one I saw yesterday where the Chinese leader presses the Easy button as the mongol hoard rides toward him, and instantly a great wall shoots up from the ground between the two armies. Very funny. But I don't think I'd really want an Easy button in real life. I mean, I'd use it to write three stories tonight so I could read them for writer's night tomorrow -- but would I feel any sense of accomplishment in doing that?
A certain measure of innocence
Willing to appear naive
A certain degree of imagination
A measure of make-believe
A certain degree of surrender
To the forces of light and heat
A shot of satisfaction
In a willingness to risk defeat
Celebrate the moment
As it turns into one more
Another chance at victory
Another chance to score
The measure of the moment
In a difference of degree
Just one little victory
A spirit breaking free
One little victory
The greatest act can be
One little victory
A certain measure of righteousness
A certain amount of force
A certain degree of determination
Daring on a different course
A certain amount of resistance
To the forces of the light and love
A certain measure of tolerance
A willingness to rise above
"One Little Victory" by Rush
