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Growing Pains: Guild Edition

January 27, 2014 · Discuss on the GT Forum

One of the main reasons that games are fun are because we play them with friends. We get to interact with others in a sometimes silly, usually fantastical way. Whether helping our friends take down a big monster or competing with them to be the best hero around, we laugh, jest, celebrate (and sometimes sulk) with our peers to have a good time.

(Image via Joystiq)

One way that we can play together with existing friends, or make new friends, is through guilds. Guilds are groups of players in MMOs who work together for advancement and achievements. I’m taking a group psychotherapy class this semester, so you might hear a lot about groups from me in the future, but guilds are something that I have been thinking about for a while now.

There are many different kinds of guilds, but the main two I’d like to focus on are casual guilds and progression guilds. Casual guilds are just that; guilds who take it easy and do what they can, when they can. They usually focus on helping other members level up, or complete specific achievements. Progression guilds, on the other hand, want to be the best of the best. They want a lot of high level, well-geared, competent players in order to beat all the arena competitors, beat all the dungeons and raids quickly, and score the awesome loot. Many of them require you to apply to join, and if you don’t have the right kind of gear or if you don’t deal enough damage, you don’t make the cut.

(Image via Battle.net)

My WoW guild started off as a casual guild, and is now growing and becoming something different. Not quite a progression guild yet, but definitely headed in that direction.

I joined through a friend of mine years ago, and didn’t know anyone else at first. I can be kind of shy, but I made a lot of friends, right off the bat. Everyone was super nice, and very helpful. A few members even became friends of mine outside of the game. I learned a lot about how to play my favorite classes, and general stuff about the game. It was a small, tight knit guild. Anyone could try to run dungeons and raids as long as the game’s mechanics would let them in. If we died all night, we did it together.

The guild started getting bigger, and in the course of that happening, it became more competitive. When we barely had enough people on a Friday night to start a 10 man raid, anyone could go. Then we started getting so big that some people would have to sit out each week. It was handled fairly though. Those who sat out were chosen randomly, and were guaranteed a spot the next week.

(Image via Guild Portal)

More players with progression style attitudes also started joining. Some of them were nice….some of them were not. Eventually we had enough people to actually run a 25 man raid! That was awesome, and something we had never dreamed of a few years ago. Only it was obvious that we didn’t have quite the damage or skill to do very well. When it came to the point that some people had to sit out because there were too many….instead of randomly having people sit out, there was minimum damage level to join the raid.

I and a close friend were left out.

It really sucked. My Friday nights were blocked off for raiding. I would turn down plans with friends to play, knowing that I would be social during raid time, and that I could always go out the next night. Not being included in the raid hurt. A lot. My friend and I complained to each other a bit and then I found something else to do.

It stuck with me for a while. I felt like I was no longer part of the group. That I wasn’t cool enough. That I wasn’t good enough for my friends (when in actuality, many of them weren’t my friends).

I had therapy the day of the next raid. And here’s the worst part. It was still bothering me, and I didn’t feel like I could bring it up to my therapist. Now, he never made me feel this way, so I guess it was mostly my own issues. The point is, I still felt uncomfortable saying what was really bothering me and causing me to feel so down and inadequate. Would he understand that these are my friends and that I felt just as left out as if they were friends from school or work? Or would he think that it was silly to let an online group of people make me feel this way? I guess I won’t really know.

(Image via Family Strong Counseling)

I want to be the kind of therapist that people can come to and not worry about wondering if I would understand this kind of situation. That they know they could talk about guild stuff, or Facebook stuff, or Twitter stuff, and that I would get it and be supportive.

I feel as though we need more therapists who can let their clients be them. Many times it’s by not fault of their own that clients think they won’t understand. I’m so judged everywhere else about being a gamer, that I guess I just assumed it was weird for me (as an adult) to talk to him about video games. Maybe it’s time for us as therapists to think of ways to be more explicit about what can be said.

That’s my two cents.

To go back to my guild drama: I was left out of the raid again the second week, and didn’t even bother logging in the next week. The next time I logged in, I had an invite for raid night. My friend had said something to the guild leader and they started doing it the old way with people randomly sitting out. I felt a little better, but it still left a bad taste in my mouth.

I got my friends back, I learned an important lesson about the kind of therapist I want to be, I got to beat up a big ugly Sha, and I got some sweet loot.

(Image via Guild Launch)

What more could I ask for?

Geek at Work

January 23, 2014 · Discuss on the GT Forum

Life has gotten in the way, once again. It happens. I have a bunch of topics I’d love to write about, but this week was crazy, and I haven’t had time. I promise to come back next week with something new!

https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-AZ2TdQBF-4g/TluakpLsnVI/AAAAAAAANJ0/_J7ZndKTAwk/w506-h380/geek-at-work.jpg

In the meantime, I’d like to follow up on last week’s post on female superheroes with another post on Geek Therapy by Josué Cardona. He asks the female superheroes to please step forward. You can check that out here: http://www.geektherapy.com/3/post/2014/01/will-the-female-superheroes-please-step-forward.html

So, check out the post, check out the site, and check out the podcast. In the meantime, I’ll be catching up on work, reading, papers…and get something written for next week.

Keep geeking out!

Female Superheroes: Not Just for Girls

January 16, 2014 · Discuss on the GT Forum

Ever get that feeling like, “Aw man, I should’ve said that! It would have sounded so awesome!” once an argument, interview, or important discussion is over?

Yeah…that happens to me a lot.

Luckily, blogging allows me to go back and expand on ideas that come up during or after the conversation. I can clarify things, or bring up new and exciting things that are related. Since my brain is all over the place most of the time, the opportunity to fine tune what I want to say is much appreciated. A perfect example of this struck me in the past couple of days:

Can you name more than 3 of these women?

Recently on the Geek Therapy podcast I was part of a discussion about female superheroes. We discussed who they are, what they mean to us, what they mean to society, and what they mean to our work as mental health professionals. While the under representation of women (and other groups) as superheroes is a topic I’ve discussed before, this was the first time I’ve been able to talk about it with others in the mental health field. I’ve heard “there aren’t enough women in comics” and “the men always take the spotlight” comments hundreds of times before. What struck me about the conversation this time was the commentary on what it means for our work with clients.

When Josué Cardona asked me how the role of female superheroes and strong female roles in geek culture impacts my work with youth… I threw out a short answer about working mostly with teenage boys, so it doesn’t matter as much.

That was a huge mistake.

We all know that girls need strong women (fictional or not) to look up to in order to be able to see themselves in those roles. But the truth is, boys need female superheroes just as much as girls do.

Boys need strong females too!

Boys need to know that women can be strong, intelligent and influential. They need to know that it’s okay for women to be all of those things. That it’s okay for them to be stronger, smarter, and more powerful than men from time to time. They need to be able to picture their mothers in these roles, their sisters in these roles, and their future wives and daughters in these roles.

Many of the teenage boys I work with talk about women as things to be used. They see them as stupid and weak. An object to use for sex, money, drugs, food, laundry, etc. Not all of the boys I work with feel this way, but many of them do. When they see a blockbuster comic book movie in the theaters and the women (even the heroes) need to be saved, they see just some sexy, weak girl who needs a man to take care of the problem. They don’t see their mother, grandmother or sister in front of them.

It is partly for that reason that I believe, more than ever, we need a stand alone movie for a female superhero… now. Something for girls (and boys) to look to when they think of strong women. I think we’re getting close to it, but the studios don’t seem quite there yet. DC is ready for Wonder Woman to be in a movie… but not her own movie. She takes a backseat to Superman/Batman in what everyone has been calling the “Superman vs. Batman movie.”

Wonder Woman is so secondary that her name isn’t even in the working title. The boys I work with have already pegged her as someone who will need to be saved by the “real” heroes (a.k.a. the men). I hope they’re wrong.

Where is Wonder Woman?

(Image via Nerd Bastards)

There’s also some concerning speculation about possible changes to Wonder Woman’s origin story. If you haven’t heard, the basic concept is that in the movie, Wonder Woman might be descended from ancient Kryptonians. As far as continuity and story goes, it makes sense. The Kryptonians went and explored other planets a long time ago, and they have the technology to create an all female society. These powerful beings came to Earth, and because humans had no other explanation for their existence…they adopted them as gods and mythical icons. (This is a lot like what Marvel has done with the Asgardians being aliens/Norse gods).

The problem with this possible change in origin lies in what it means for her as a stand alone hero. Wonder Woman would no longer have her own history. She would just be another part of Superman’s history. Her powers are supposedly going to be weaker, because she’s been living on Earth for so long. That means she would no longer be a hero who could stand up next to Superman as an equal. She would basically become his sidekick. And we have enough images of women as sidekicks.

For girls everywhere, they would lose an icon of strength and hope. They would now be looking up to a woman who is strong, but not as strong as the men who save the world. They would have no one as their champion to show them what women can be.

And boys would no longer have a place to look to see what their mothers, sisters, daughters and wives can be.

Is this the Wonder Woman we’ll see? Or someone else?

I’m going to hold out judgment until the movie comes out, because I know there is SO much hype and criticism about everything having to do with it. I can only hope that they portray women’s greatest comic book role model as precisely that.

A role model.

This article was originally posted on the Geek Therapy Blog.

Horror! The Genre That Thrills Us and…Heals Us?

January 13, 2014 · Discuss on the GT Forum

Last week at the Image Expo in San Francisco, everyone was excited about the new books being announced by creators at Image Comics. Some of the creators announcing big titles were Kelly Sue DeConnick, Robert Kirkman, Rick Remender, Ed Brubaker, and Scott Snyder.

(Image via Image Comics)

With everyone so focused on the new comics for the year, some very insightful comments from the writers may have been overlooked. Comments that shed some light on how a genre that is usually perceived as damaging or dangerous can actually be helpful, to both the writer and the reader.

Throughout the day, Scott Snyder brought up the difficulties of being a horror writer. That in order to scare the hell out of his readers (which he has stated is his goal), he has to write about the things that scare him most. To be a good horror writer, he needs to face his own worst fears every day.

When you think about that, it must be a really difficult job. And it’s definitely not for everyone. Imagine what scares you the most. The one thing that sends shivers down your spine, makes you freeze in terror, or makes you want to run screaming in terror. Then imagine having to think about that thing all the time. Come up with histories for it, different story lines for it, and sometimes the aftermath of it. That has to be an intense life. It would probably drive some people crazy.

Yet Scott Snyder (and many other horror writers) seems like a nice, normal, well adjusted guy. How can that be?

I’ve written before about the healing powers of writing. Being able to change our narrative can heal past wounds, so the next logical step is that thinking about the worst things that could happen to you may help deal with future troubles. This isn’t to say that if you wrote about (and therefore thought about) a character’s entire family dying, that it would desensitize you to the point where you didn’t care if you lost your family tragically.

(Image via What Culture)

But there is something to be said about the level of being able to cope with things. Maybe writing that story about the loss of a family would make you more resilient. The pain would be there, your world might still feel as though it has fallen apart…but maybe the process of writing has made it easier to see the “after” or the “what comes next”. Having pictured what others have gone through might allow a smoother transition to what comes next for you.

During the writer’s panel at Image Expo, Kelly Sue DeConnick discussed the horror genre. She mentioned that she used crime scene photos for inspiration for her writing. Now that she’s had children, she cannot handle looking at any of those photos having to do with children. She also cannot watch horror films, or read horror comics having to do with children. It just hits too close to home.

The interesting thing is, that DeConnick said she could handle writing those types of stories, because she felt in control of what happened. In a sense, when she writes these stories, she gains mastery over her own worst fears, which is something that we try to accomplish in therapy.

A similar phenomenon can happen to us as consumers of horror movies, books, comics, and games (although this was not the case with DeConnick). Obviously, the horror genre is not for everyone. However, for those of us who enjoy having the crap scared out of us, there are some benefits as well.

(Image via Business Insider)

By watching, reading, or playing stories that frighten us, we are able to face our own worst fears through a safe medium. We can tell ourselves that “it’s not me, it’s someone else” who is being chased by zombies, tortured in an underground bunker, or bitten by vampires. We can gain a similar mastery over our fears to that of the writer, just by being able to witness these horrible things happening, and experiencing how the characters involved handle them.

Some mediums, such as video games or role-playing games, allow us the power to tackle our fears and defeat the thing that haunts us. All while knowing that we can just turn off the game or walk away at any time.

Whatever the medium, whatever the monster, those of us who enjoy horror can rest easy, knowing that we are training ourselves for whatever comes next.

Or, like me, we can have nightmares and sleep with stuffed animals.

A Game to Pass Down From Generation to Generation

January 9, 2014 · Discuss on the GT Forum

I’ve been spending a whole lot of time playing video games lately. Partly because of being on winter break, partly because of all the games I purchased during the Steam sale (too many…can there be too many?), and partly because it’s my way to relax.

What have I been playing, you ask? Some epic RPG? A post-apocalyptic horror game with a twisting, suspenseful story?

Nope. I’ve been playing an old school side-scroller for hours and hours. Sometime the most simple games are the most enjoyable to play.

(Image via Steam)

At first when I started playing Rogue Legacy…I thought I sucked. I kept dying…and dying…and dying. After 1 room. It was kind of ridiculous. Going into the game I knew a little about it’s premise, and so I was expecting to die a lot, but not this much. Did I just suck at this game?

No! The whole point of the game is to die over and over again. See, each time you die, you come back as the heir of the warrior you just were. The quest (and the gear and spells you have collected) keep getting passed on down to the next generation of hero. You are even provided a family tree to keep track of your ancestors.

(Image via MegaGames)

With each new generation comes new opportunities to explore the castle, new maps to explore with new challenges to overcome (the castle rebuilds itself each time you enter), and new…issues.

See, each character is unique. There are many different classes with their own strengths and weaknesses to choose from. The computer also randomly chooses traits for your new generation.

These traits can be useful, such as Endomorphism which makes you heavier and harder for the enemies to knock back. They can be challenging, like the Vertigo trait that flips the screen upside down. Or they can just be silly, such as the Irritable Bowel Syndrome trait, which makes you make fart noises whenever you jump.

There are so many different traits to play around with. I’m at level 35 and there are still some popping up that I haven’t seen before. Some of the fun of the game is figuring out how these traits manifest themselves in the gameplay, so I won’t spoil them all for you. There are some pretty awesome ones, though.

(Image via Rock, Paper, Shotgun)

The main reason that I decided to write about this game is it’s depiction of mental health issues in a humorous way. Characters with ADHD run faster. Those with OCD want to break everything in the castle (and are rewarded for doing so). Hypochondriacs exaggerate the damage they’ve received.

All of them and more are portrayed in a humorous way. Sometimes humor is exactly what we need to be able to discuss difficult topics. It lightens the mood and makes it easier to make fun of yourself in a positive way. Sometimes it makes the most dire of circumstances look a little less daunting.

And sometimes…it’s just a knight farting when he jumps.

Trouble with Trials: Is the Research Really Real?

January 6, 2014 · Discuss on the GT Forum

I’ve always been told to be careful about where I get my information from. That’s probably pretty good advice. We all know not to believe everything we see on T.V. or read on the internet (or at least we all should know that, hmm?), but what about published journal articles?

(Image via Cervello)

Scholarly journal articles, on the surface seem pretty safe to trust. They’re peer reviewed by a panel of academics in the field of study. The studies conducted are based on previous research and (usually) are replicable. That means the information they provide is correct, right?

Wrong.

I spent a semester in my undergrad and a semester in my master’s work studying statistics and research methods in order to understand how the process works, and to become a better consumer of research. Meaning that I would need to be able to pick out the good, solid research from the bad.

You can say anything with statistics. A wise person once told me that 100% of the people who eat carrots die.

(Image via Art Flakes)

It’s an accurate statement. It’s also taken out of context.

Why is this important? We are so quick to believe things that scientists or researchers say, that we need to take a moment to look at where the information is coming from.

An example: There are SO many studies out there about video games and the harmful (or helpful) effects they may have on children. First video games were bad…then they weren’t bad…then the original researchers critiqued the second study and they were bad again. Now there’s research that says they’re good!

(Image via Gizmag)

So many different studies say so many different things. Here’s my take on why:

1. Poor methodology. I haven’t read all the research, and can’t even begin to point you in the direction of some (my school doesn’t have online access to most of the studies I’ve seen write ups on), but I do know that many of these studies are actually correlational studies.

This means that you can show that something is linked to something else…but not show causality. The only way to show that something causes something else is to do a random controlled study, which is really hard to do with subject matter such as video games, due to outside experiences.

2. Researcher bias. Everyone has their opinions, including those who conduct research. Sometimes that can influence the way studies are created.

The way a study should be created is to design the study, create the hypothesis, and then run the study. Sometimes, the problem lies in that order being mixed up. Some researchers will come up with a hypothesis and then create the study to prove it right. This is backward science.

So if someone thinks video games are bad for kids, they’ll design a study to show exactly that. The same goes for researchers who think video games are good for kids.

If I ran a study I would worry about the validity of my results, even if I knew all of this and had designed the study properly. My wish for games to be a positive influence on youth (and adults) could bias my analysis of the results, or how I present the findings statistically.

I would make a horrible researcher anyway.

Because of these problems, there will continue to be conflicting results from both sides of the issue. The only way I see out of this is for the research to be conducted by someone who couldn’t care less about the outcome…or for a team of individuals from both sides to work together on a study.

I don’t see that happening any time soon.

And that, my friends…is the trouble with trials. You can’t trust them, but you have to.

I hate research.