Why you are bored?

Because you are boring!

One of the complaints I have seen in increasing frequency relating to video games is that people are bored playing the game. What makes this distinctive isn't just that they're bored, but that they didn't used to be bored by the same game. They'll point to changes in how the game plays, the activities it offers, the balance and function of items and abilities, the lists are exhaustive on why what was once enjoyed is enjoyed no longer.

The problem common to all these different players, though, is that they're boring people, and the video game no longer distracts them sufficiently from that fact.

Take World of Warcraft as an example. It's still the same basic game it was on release. Oh sure, it looks different and the details on how each class' function works has changed, but the fundamentals haven't changed one bit. You hit buttons in the proper sequence to kill monsters faster than they kill you.

Every class in the game is a variation on this basic concept. Every mechanic of the monsters you fight is built on that foundation. Perform a pattern correctly and you'll be rewarded.

This is why derision and scorn are so rightfully heaped upon people who so openly boast of their accomplishments in video games, because such feats do not display any real achievement in the "real world". Should power go out, all the digital accomplishments mean nothing. Further, while being able to perform a pattern of activities may appear impressive to someone who has not mastered the patterns, even people who are not very intelligent can be trained.

So with games like World of Warcraft, what really changed?

According to some, the game "got easier". The patterns required of players were simplified, and so where people felt a sense of accomplishment before due to the complexity of the patterns they could master, as shallow and vapid as that is, even that feeling is now gone, and they're stuck with playing a game that they don't fundamentally see as a good way to spend their time without any feeling of achievement to distract them from such truths.

Video games aren't inherently bad for what they are - entertainment. I am always baffled at how people do not realize that when they brag about an achievement, it's akin to declaring one's favorite flavor of ice cream. It doesn't mean anything more than what that person attaches to it, and if they attach that much meaning and value to how they are entertained, it often speaks to their complete failure to prioritize anything else that is tangibly more important.

As another anecdote, I knew someone who flunked out of college because they couldn't demonstrate the discipline to learn skills that college was trying to teach them. They were good at WoW, but they weren't smart or trained to be any more valuable than that.

Such people are boring, and they represent a growing number of people who are desperate to avoid coming to that realization by blaming the activities.

Another explanation was that where the "old WoW" forced players to cooperate, the new game doesn't, and so people feel detached and disconnected, and then act as if such a revelation is meaningful.

What these players don't seem to realize is that they lack the basic social skills required to become part of a group in the first place. When the game forced everyone to play together, even the socially awkward could find others required to interact with them in order to achieve some common goal. When that requirement is removed, the true social capacity of an individual is put to the test, and a lot of gamers don't have the skills to make and sustain friendships with new people.

What this means is that WoW social dynamics reflect more of reality, and if these folks were trying to escape the dynamics of reality through playing a game, such a change which reveals their own deficiencies will promptly be blamed on the game for exposing them, rather than take ownership for their own failings which exist whether the game is there to highlight them or not.

So if you are ever tempted to declare yourself bored, or to explain how some activity you used to enjoy no longer holds the same value, be aware that others will pick up on the projection, even if they can't quite explain it with words. Other people see bored and socially challenged people for what they really are, and gamers are simply less and less able to convincingly distract themselves from that harsh reality.