Post by Xoudian on Jan 22, 2017 8:43:40 GMT 8
I have played four of the most popular multiplayer survival games now. Minecraft, DayZ, Ark and Rust.
After my experience with these games, I have drawn a chilling realization about the dark things they bring out in people.
In all multiplayer survival games, your enemy is not the creepers or endermen. Not the zombies, not the dinosaurs and not the threat of starvation.
In all cases, it's other people.
The Internet removes you from any sense that the person on the other side of the screen is a real human being. There is no consequence to you if you harass them, harm them or even kill them. In a survival game, to kill them while they're offline and destroy all that they have worked for does nothing but net you a few pitiful scraps of loot. Any person you see is a chance for goodies, or failing that, a good chase. To you, there is only benefit in taking what's theirs.
It takes a powerfully empathetic mind to suppress these thoughts of no consequences. To remember that there IS a real human controlling that character, and their feelings and wants are as valuable as yours. You have no moral right to take what they have earned. All they want is to enjoy their game and achieve great things to show to others, just like you.
All I want in a survival game is to, just once, feel a sense of comradery. To see another player and feel as though I can go and talk to them, maybe join them in their adventures. I shouldn't have to run in fear whenever I see a humanoid silhouette over the hills, or expect to wind up dead with my house destroyed every time I return to the server.
This is what we all want, but could never have due to the psychopathy and lack of empathy that anonymity creates within us all.
After my experience with these games, I have drawn a chilling realization about the dark things they bring out in people.
In all multiplayer survival games, your enemy is not the creepers or endermen. Not the zombies, not the dinosaurs and not the threat of starvation.
In all cases, it's other people.
The Internet removes you from any sense that the person on the other side of the screen is a real human being. There is no consequence to you if you harass them, harm them or even kill them. In a survival game, to kill them while they're offline and destroy all that they have worked for does nothing but net you a few pitiful scraps of loot. Any person you see is a chance for goodies, or failing that, a good chase. To you, there is only benefit in taking what's theirs.
It takes a powerfully empathetic mind to suppress these thoughts of no consequences. To remember that there IS a real human controlling that character, and their feelings and wants are as valuable as yours. You have no moral right to take what they have earned. All they want is to enjoy their game and achieve great things to show to others, just like you.
All I want in a survival game is to, just once, feel a sense of comradery. To see another player and feel as though I can go and talk to them, maybe join them in their adventures. I shouldn't have to run in fear whenever I see a humanoid silhouette over the hills, or expect to wind up dead with my house destroyed every time I return to the server.
This is what we all want, but could never have due to the psychopathy and lack of empathy that anonymity creates within us all.