Gaming: The New Window to the Soul?
The famous Greek philosopher Plato was known to have said, “You can discover more about a person in an hour of play than in a year of conversation.” Ovid, another great thinker from the Classical era, said something similar; “In our play we reveal what kind of people we are.” With these two comments in mind, what does how you game and the reactions you have while playing games say about the inner you?
Although the online experience provides a certain anonymity for the gamer, and most gamers assume that their identities are safely hidden away, according to Plato and Ovid (and other great thinkers that I didn’t include here) something like gaming actually has the potential to reveal the true “reality” of a person. Through the interactions brought about by playing a game with someone, you might be able to determine the inner workings of their personality, emotions, temperament, ways they solve problems and ways they react to certain situations, among other things, even though you might not know who they are on the outside surface of things.
When we game, we create for ourselves a comfort zone that scrapes away at our societal inhibitions and allows us to act more according to our more primal instincts and desires. When we are at play, we assume that we enter a place separate from the rest of our world in which the rules do not apply, or at least apply as strictly. That shield of anonymity which is in place, even among gaming buddies, helps to build this separate “comfort” zone even further. In this comfort zone, when we are usually not face-to-face with other people, we feel that we can act less like others would expect us to act, and more like how we would prefer to act. This phenomenon is what I believe Plato and Ovid refer to, when people feel comfortable to act how they really are instead of in accordance to proper societal rules of behavior or decorum.
I have met many different types of gaming personalities while on Xbox live: kind and laid-back gamers who just like to chill and have a good time, aggressive and competitive gamers who always play fast and hard and play to win above all else, players who like to joke and be social, players who prefer to focus on the game and not interacting with others, players who are rude and offensive (who you really wish would stop talking), players who are humble and complementary (who you wish would keep on talking!), and all types of combinations and variations in between.
I find that since I have joined Xbox Live and joined this vast social network of gamers, I have learned some new and interesting things about myself, some good, some bad. The good I take pride in, the bad I have definitely started to rectify! I feel that I should elaborate on some of the good to provide some concrete examples, but that would highlight the lack of examples on the bad side of the spectrum, which of course I am loathe to confess!
But I am sure you all see my point. So I come back to the same question where I began, and I leave you to contemplate it further, should you so desire. What does how you game and the way you game say about the you that is you?
…since i drink when i game…at home…on a week day…multiple times a week…it tells me i’ma certified alcoholic.
fo real. I have noticed that different period of my life that I play totally different types of games, I used to be an RPG freak and hated FPS’s but as I got older I don’t have the patience for an RPG and will play just about whatever shooter comes out. I’m not sure why, I really wish I could enjoy long adventures like I used to but now I just wanna pick up and play without having to memorize anything, sometimes when I start an RPG and put it down than pick it back up weeks later I have no idea where I’m at or where to go next.
good article. Hmmm…. well I am a happy, have fun and play to win gamer! (I do hate running into the rude gamer ) So I suppose I have chosen a great gamer tag… SMILES!
I would have to agree people do act differently when they think someone is watching as apposed to when they aren’t and they feel they can be themselves. As for what type of gamer i am….aye who knows only the people I play with can answer that question. I don’t think i am the rude one though
I tend to try to make people laugh more than anything. And smiles you have the perfect gamer tag 
even when I errrr accidentally blew you up a few times you were all smiles *LOL*
Rav, you better get crackin’ you only got 3 comments this month!
ROFL Dope…. thats funny good one…… what kinda gamer are you Dope? and Rav you need to try better and get an answer…
and yes Rav I am a forgiving gamer to a point… so watch it
Yeah I know I’ve been slackin lately, work has been brutal and the whole new GF thing makes computer/gaming time a tad rough
unfortunately she’s not into the whole gaming thing(but I won’t hold that against her LOL). And Smiles whats a few Grenades and RPG blasts amongst friends 
I would rav, you can’t weigh yourself down with someone who cramps your lifestyle. ;-D
I totally agree with you. I would add that I think the anonymity of the online experience allows people to go to the extremes of their personalities. My comebacks are nastier – my jokes more obscene – my laugh too loud – my tolerance for idiots lower.
Wow this was an awesome article.. way to go on including Platos & Ovid..
I think what my style of gameplay says about me is that I like to have fun and sometimes get a little aggressive ;]
A friend and I have a long going arguement about how a character you create in a game, especially one which offers moral choices, reflects the person playing. Sit us both in front of KoTOR, or Fable, and after a few hours of gaming I’ll have a goody two shoes knight in shining armour / Jedi, while he’ll have a demon in human form / Sith monster.
The arguement runs that I say I’m generally a nice person, and my Jedi reflects that, while he says gaming is all about escapism, and it give him an opportunity to burn down the village and slay all the peasents without the moral come-back.
Interestingly, in Bioshock, neither of us could bring ourselves to harvest the Little Sisters.