Gamers, please come here

[Fluffywolf]

I have liked some shooting games for some reasons, entertainment value, speed, mechanics, multiplayer aspects, difficulty, etc.

But on the other hand I could never hunt for sport in real life.

If I was living out in the wild and I was hungry I could kill an animal and then eat it. But not for sport.

 

[RDF]

1. The shooting games at carnivals (I love these!)

FWIW, you can set up a carnival-style range in the privacy of your own home for just a few bucks. Just buy an air gun, pellet gun, or BB gun. (There’s lots of choices available; you can get a cheap air pistol, or you can buy competitive-level air rifles for big bucks.) Then set up a range in your back yard, or even indoors in your basement or garage. If you set it up indoors, just make sure you have a backdrop to catch the pellets and keep them from riccocheting: You just hang an old blanket in front of a wall or plywood board.

Then head downstairs to your basement range and do some plinking at targets whenever you want. Invite your friends and have little tournaments or whatever.

I know it sounds a little offbeat, but I had an airgun range in my basement and used my air gun at home to improve my target skills during the week in preparation for shooting real guns at the range on weekends.

A couple cautions though: 1) Go to a hardware store and get workman’s hearing protection and goggles/eyeglasses. Though not as noisy as real guns, air guns are still quite loud, especially when used indoors. They’ll give you hearing loss over time if you don't use some kind of hearing protection on a regular basis. 2) Keep the air guns away from the kiddies. Though not nearly as dangerous as real guns, they can still put out an eye.

2. Going to a shooting range IRL sounds fun but I don't feel the desire to buy a gun and I'd be slightly spooked.

If you want to pursue it, any range or gun store will set you up with beginner’s gun classes and/or personal trainers to give you initial training and get you started. And most commercial ranges will have a supply of guns on hand for rental, so that you can try out a few different kinds of guns and shooting styles before investing in one for ownership.

If the idea of clay disks intrigues you, skeet shooting uses smaller, lighter shotguns than trap shooting. Lots of women shoot skeet. It’s just a question of whether you have a commercial skeet range nearby. If so, head over and watch for a bit. Then stop by the front office and inquire about beginner classes and gun rentals.

Also, I'm sure there's bowling video games, but the difference is you get to move your body more with real world sports vs virtual sports.

Yeah, it's easy enough to run down to the corner bowling alley and do the real thing. Also, there's a big socializing aspect to bowling in a league--a lot of beer-drinking with your buddies as you bowl, assuming you're not too cut-throat about winning.

 

[Giggly]

I have liked some shooting games for some reasons, entertainment value, speed, mechanics, multiplayer aspects, difficulty, etc.

But on the other hand I could never hunt for sport in real life.

If I was living out in the wild and I was hungry I could kill an animal and then eat it. But not for sport.

Oh gosh ...I couldn't ever hunt animals for sport either. i'm okay with other people hunting if it's an animal that's no where close to being endangered and they were going to eat/consume the animal for sure. I certainly wouldn't want to see that process though.

I thought Fineline was talking about going to a shooting range.

 

[Giggly]

FWIW, you can set up a carnival-style range in the privacy of your own home for just a few bucks. Just buy an air gun, pellet gun, or BB gun. (There’s lots of choices available; you can get a cheap air pistol, or you can buy competitive-level air rifles for big bucks.) Then set up a range in your back yard, or even indoors in your basement or garage. If you set it up indoors, just make sure you have a backdrop to catch the pellets and keep them from riccocheting: You just hang an old blanket in front of a wall or plywood board.

Then head downstairs to your basement range and do some plinking at targets whenever you want. Invite your friends and have little tournaments or whatever.

I know it sounds a little offbeat, but I had an airgun range in my basement and used my air gun at home to improve my target skills during the week in preparation for shooting real guns at the range on weekends.

A couple cautions though: 1) Go to a hardware store and get workman’s hearing protection and goggles/eyeglasses. Though not as noisy as real guns, air guns are still quite loud, especially when used indoors. They’ll give you hearing loss over time if you don't use some kind of hearing protection on a regular basis. 2) Keep the air guns away from the kiddies. Though not nearly as dangerous as real guns, they can still put out an eye.



If you want to pursue it, any range or gun store will set you up with beginner’s gun classes and/or personal trainers to give you initial training and get you started. And most commercial ranges will have a supply of guns on hand for rental, so that you can try out a few different kinds of guns and shooting styles before investing in one for ownership.

If the idea of clay disks intrigues you, skeet shooting uses smaller, lighter shotguns than trap shooting. Lots of women shoot skeet. It’s just a question of whether you have a commercial skeet range nearby. If so, head over and watch for a bit. Then stop by the front office and inquire about beginner classes and gun rentals.

Thanks. That sounds really cool.
(and yes I do like the idea of clay disks)

Yeah, it's easy enough to run down to the corner bowling alley and do the real thing. Also, there's a big socializing aspect to bowling in a league--a lot of beer-drinking with your buddies as you bowl, assuming you're not too cut-throat about winning.

Hahaha I can picture this.

 

[RDF]

Oh gosh ...I couldn't ever hunt animals for sport either. i'm okay with other people hunting if it's an animal that's no where close to being endangered and they were going to eat/consume the animal for sure. I certainly wouldn't want to see that process though.

I thought Fineline was talking about going to a shooting range.

Yeah, I've never hunted animals. I wouldn't know what to do with the dead animal. I don't even go fishing, because I wouldn't know what to do with the catch.

I just shoot targets and clay disks. I got my start in the military, then kept it up afterwards at commercial and private membership ranges.

 

[Giggly]

Yeah, I've never hunted animals. I wouldn't know what to do with the dead animal. I don't even go fishing, because I wouldn't know what to do with the catch.

Ooh fishing... I like fishing and I used to clean them as a kid when I went with my Dad. It's quick and easy and there are probably tons of YouTube videos on how to do it.

 

[Rail Tracer]

We degenerate into socializing, too, which probably doesn't help any of us stay focused on our characters. (Our DM tries to rein us in, but it is like herding cats.) Somehow, I have always played mages, except once, briefly, a cleric. Whenever I have considered branching out, none of the other players wanted to play a mage, so I did it again, so the party would have one.

I did play as a black mage a long long time ago when I was playing FFXI, but it got really hard to get into a party to level once I went back to playing. Of all else, there was a load of damage dealers and not enough tanks and healers.

 

[AOA]

I play certain video games for abit of escapism in my mind; not exactly a gamer. I find those that I play, such as Modern Warfare 2 (on Special Ops) or Resident Evil 5 get me feeling aroused to perform at my sharpest, which ultimately gives me self-confidence on determining how far I can go with my performance.

 

[Such Irony]

I enjoy a wide variety of games. Board games, card games, and video games.

I like games with some element of strategy to them, yet pure strategy games like chess tend to bore me. Probably because they move too slowly. I like games that are good balance between strategy and chance.

Some of my favorites:

Settlers of Catan

Ticket to Ride

Dominion

Munchkin

Party games like Apples to Apples.

Word games like Scrabble and Boggle.

Super Mario Bros

Zelda

Tetris

Family Feud

Bejeweled

Minesweeper

and many more

(as a random aside, I'm one of the only people I've met who cares almost nothing for the storyline, and usually skip by it if I can, or skim it at most. I can read a book for much more interesting stories- I want to be playing the game)

Same here. I've been playing Zelda on the WII lately and I get annoyed by all of the cutscenes that I'm forced to read through and watch after I pass through a certain point. I'd rather just collect things, kill the monsters, and advance to the next level.

 

[Sizzling Berry]

I usually get involved in the story so mostly RPG for me. And sometimes so many choices and dilemmas.

And music sometimes is just incredible... Some themes from Gothic 2 or Plansescape Torment are beautiful.

I love board-games also - they are great for socializing.

 

[Beargryllz]

Plansescape Torment

How criminal of me to forget this masterpiece...

a masterpiece of everything, not sound, not story, not vivid emotions for pixels, not a game, not the greatest-quest-ever

It is brilliant. That is all

And no game will ever be comparable

 

[Stigmata]

(as a random aside, I'm one of the only people I've met who cares almost nothing for the storyline, and usually skip by it if I can, or skim it at most. I can read a book for much more interesting stories- I want to be playing the game)

I'm the exact opposite. I'm the guy who plays RPG games and runs around talking to every NPC, does every side quest, and researches the main story line either online or through guides to fill in the gaps that I've missed. With some games I'd rather watch someone else play and just soak the entire plot experience in rather than actually play the game myself, like the game play is merely an obstacle to extracting the contents of the story. This annoys people to death when they watch me play games.

 

[Giggly]

 

[Crescent Fresh]

I dare to say Chaos Rings has one of the best storytelling line I've ever see among Squaresoft FF series! (didn't try FF12 & 13 btw due to hectic working schedule)

It's just simply breath-taking! I'm really glad that my friend strongly recommended this!

 

[Totenkindly]

Settlers of Catan

Great game. I'm looking forward to playing more of it. It just costs a heckuvalot of money (that and the expansions!)

 

[Ginkgo]

If I learn anything from games, it's usually indirectly. Assassin's Creed, for instance, gave me a very clear trail of breadcrumbs to follow in researching the Crusades; by the time Dante's Inferno came out I already knew the surrounding plot in vague historical detail. Planning on reading the Divine COmedy when I get around to it.

FPS games have given me a limited scope of information on firearms. Not how to fire them, of course. I learned that later.

I think the things learned through video games are very simple mental strategies that, most often than not, are mostly applicable to the games themselves and hardly anything in real life.

Once I dug into the history that inspired the classic RGP universe, I once again found more ammunition for assuming that entertainment industries love taking every liberty possible with such inspirations, usually only leaving a ghost-like outline of the real deal.

 

[RDF]

I haven’t really addressed the “what have you learned from games” portion of the OP. Some of these games do teach some basic life lessons.

In my case, I think gaming has improved my Te (the inferior function for INFPs like me). For example, higher-level quests in WoW may involve a lot of downtime or preparation. To get ready for a specific quest you may need to refresh armor or clean up your backpack or inventory your bank account. You may need to hunt down a needed herb or potion; you may need to study up and practice on new weapons or spells; you may need to read a walk-through to find out what supplies to bring along and what precautions to take. And so on.

When preparing for a quest, I trust the game designers not to make the preparations too burdensome. Naturally, real life isn’t as trustworthy. Still, breaking down and organizing quest preparations into separate, identifiable stages in the game has made me better at doing the same thing in real life. I have a picture on the wall of a staging area from a battleground in WoW. When a real-life task or errand turns convoluted and frustrating, the picture reminds me to settle down, give the preparatory phase due attention, break things up into stages, and enjoy the ride.

Gaming has also taught me not to be a perfectionist. That is, there’s a point when the preparations are done and it’s time to just pull the trigger and see what happens; there’s a time when it’s best to start the battle and accept the possibility of a fail as opposed to prepping forever and never moving to execution. Similarly, I’ve gotten better at moving to the execution phase in real life and accepting that some things just aren’t going to go my way (but most will).

Like I said earlier along, this is all just a basic life lesson. But with my crappy inferior Te, this particular lesson is something I’ve had difficultly learning elsewhere; somehow gaming makes it more identifiable and doable, and then I can transfer that lesson/attitude to real life.

 

[Giggly]

Once I dug into the history that inspired the classic RGP universe, I once again found more ammunition for assuming that entertainment industries love taking every liberty possible with such inspirations, usually only leaving a ghost-like outline of the real deal.

What do you mean by this? What is the real deal? (I'm sorry I've never played RPG's so I'm just relying on my imagination)

I haven’t really addressed the “what have you learned from games” portion of the OP. Some of these games do teach some basic life lessons.

In my case, I think gaming has improved my Te (the inferior function for INFPs like me). For example, higher-level quests in WoW may involve a lot of downtime or preparation. To get ready for a specific quest you may need to refresh armor or clean up your backpack or inventory your bank account. You may need to hunt down a needed herb or potion; you may need to study up and practice on new weapons or spells; you may need to read a walk-through to find out what supplies to bring along and what precautions to take. And so on.

When preparing for a quest, I trust the game designers not to make the preparations too burdensome. Naturally, real life isn’t as trustworthy. Still, breaking down and organizing quest preparations into separate, identifiable stages in the game has made me better at doing the same thing in real life. I have a picture on the wall of a staging area from a battleground in WoW. When a real-life task or errand turns convoluted and frustrating, the picture reminds me to settle down, give the preparatory phase due attention, break things up into stages, and enjoy the ride.

Gaming has also taught me not to be a perfectionist. That is, there’s a point when the preparations are done and it’s time to just pull the trigger and see what happens; there’s a time when it’s best to start the battle and accept the possibility of a fail as opposed to prepping forever and never moving to execution. Similarly, I’ve gotten better at moving to the execution phase in real life and accepting that some things just aren’t going to go my way (but most will).

Like I said earlier along, this is all just a basic life lesson. But with my crappy inferior Te, this particular lesson is something I’ve had difficultly learning elsewhere; somehow gaming makes it more identifiable and doable, and then I can transfer that lesson/attitude to real life.

That's really cool.

 

[Magic Poriferan]

I guess the only personal lesson I've taken from games is that they showed I was too worried about winning and probably taught me to try a lot harder to maintain some grace and dignity in front of other people.

 

[Jonny]

Great game. I'm looking forward to playing more of it. It just costs a heckuvalot of money (that and the expansions!)

Love this game. We had a routine Friday game night for some time, and played with the Seafarers and Cities and Knights expansions. Unfortunately, after a while our differing play styles started to make the games less harmonious. My ENFJ girlfriend and ISTJ friend would move rather quickly, and didn't implement much strategy, but my IsTP friend and I would spend quite some time plotting our moves. It got to the point where it was simply a question of whether the IsTP would win or I would, and the ENFJ and ISTJ stopped enjoying it.