A bit tired of people knocking videogames...

[Oryan77]

This thread is an attempt to stave off that ignorance. It's unfortunate that the message has become bogged down by people who have decided that - rather than being a product of ignorance - the term has a productive meaning.

I swear if you post again with your elitist 'I'm smarter than all of you' bullcrap again, I'm going to kill a kitten. I'm not only going to kill it, I'm going to throw it on the grill and serve it to my grandmother with her poached eggs.

For real man. Enough of that. There are plenty of gamers that believe the term has a productive meaning. There are probably more gamers that believe it does than there are gamers that believe they are intellectual superior than me because they believe it doesn't. The only ignorance is not knowing it's productive meaning when people have been explaining it for 37 pages.

Don't be annoying.

 

[Dannager]

I think it's a shame that people can't recognize the term actually does have meaning- broad though it is- and seem to rely on some tortured parsing to support their position that it is 1) meaningless, 2) an insult against videogames, or 3) an attempt to troll or deliberately confuse others.

The latter two criticisms of the term have questionable merit. The first, however, is demonstrably true. It may have personal meaning, but it does not have an accepted meaning, and it's just as likely for two people using the term to ascribe different meanings to its use as it is for them to ascribe the same meaning.

It would be great (well, not great, but at least acceptable) if "videogamey" meant "similar to video games", but it doesn't. Many people have used the term to refer to things that are not at all like video games. It more often (but, again, not uniformly) is meant as "makes me personally think of video games in a particular way", which doesn't do anything except tell us that it reminds you of video games. This is useful, perhaps, for understanding how you (collective you) view video games (since you compare your experience with video games to 4e) but not useful for understanding how you view 4e (since we don't know what your experience with video games is, or how 4e reminds you of them). And, since it's doubtful that your intent was to explain how you feel about video games and was probably to explain how you feel about 4e, it comes across as a failure of communication. And, since communication is a two-way street, we're letting you know that in order for your comments to make sense to the people reading them, you need to use terminology that communicates your opinion better than "videogamey" does.

You can say that you understand what someone is saying when they call 4e "videogamey", but you're really just making a barely educated guess. The term just doesn't give you anything to go on.

 

[Dannager]

On second thought, this is a job for Mr. Report Post Button.

 

[Oryan77]

On second thought, this is a job for Mr. Report Post Button.

Eh, it turns out my grandmother likes grilled kittens. So that threat was a big waste of my time.

*Edit* Oh, now you edit your post? *I wrote the above because what I quoted in this post was not what he originally wrote*.

Dude, relax, my kitten comment was a joke.

So you can refer to us as being ignorant, but I can't call you out on it? And yer gonna try to tattle tale on me over that?

I'm not even going to go and edit that post. If the mods think it was uncalled for, then so be it. But let it be known I posted it as 1. a joke, and 2. a retort to your frequent references towards us being ignorant. We've never once insulted your logical way of thinking other than that we think it's silly to be mad about the term videogamey. But you consistently keep responding as if we're illogical & ignorant.

Now yer snitching on me. How old are you?

*Edit again* On second thought, I'm going to hit Mr. Report Post Button on you sir! We're not ignorant and how dare you say we are!

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

The latter two criticisms of the term have questionable merit. The first, however, is demonstrably true. It may have personal meaning, but it does not have an accepted meaning, and it's just as likely for two people using the term to ascribe different meanings to its use as it is for them to ascribe the same meaning.

If we were to excise from English all the words that have broad, multiple and/or contradictory definitions, we'd probabaly knock the OED down to 2/3rds it's current size.

Like the definition of the suffix "y" or it's variant "ey": it can be a diminutive, a quality, a condition, or many other things, including having qualities of, suggestive of, somewhat like...

(Such as when attached to the word "vieeogame.")

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Double post.

 

[Dannager]

If we were to excise from English all the words that have broad, multiple and/or contradictory definitions, we'd probabaly knock the OED down to 2/3rds it's current size.

This doesn't change the fact that, when one speaks to others, it behooves the speaker to use language that is precise enough to convey the meaning and intent of the speaker's words to his audience. We're telling you that "videogamey" is not precise enough to convey that meaning and intent to us, and that it probably isn't even precise enough to convey that meaning and intent to some of the people you do think understand you perfectly.

Again, no one is trying to force anyone to use clear language. If you don't care about clarity, or about being well understood by those who read your words, then you should feel free to continue using the term. Just understand that, when you do, some people will legitimately point out to you that they have to make poor guesses at what you might mean unless you elaborate.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

We're telling you that "videogamey" is not precise enough to convey that meaning and intent to us,

We're telling you that the definition of "videogame" + the suffix "ey" should be sufficient to convey the idea that the word means "pertains to, has qualities of or is somewhat like videogames" as per standard rules of English.

As for intent, that is determined- as per regular conversational rules- by context and subsequent questions and answers.

 

[Dannager]

We're telling you that the definition of "videogame" + the suffix "ey" should be sufficient to convey the idea that the word means "pertains to, has qualities of or is somewhat like videogames" as per standard rules of English.

This would be a great meaning for the word. The trick is to get people to use it. Unfortunately, what we have often seen is that when people use this word, the things they mean to describe with it don't have anything to do with video games, or don't have anything to do with video games in particular so much as they have to do with games in general, or even entertainment in general.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

...don't have anything to do with video games, or don't have anything to do with video games in particular so much as they have to do with games in general, or even entertainment in general.

To which I respond: I have yet to see one definition supplied in this thread that didn't have anything at all to do with videogames; and as stated before, it doesn't matter if it has nothing to do with videogames in particular, etc. since if something reminds the speaker of videogames, it reminds the speaker of videogames.

You might as well argue that "garlicky" is too vague because someone confused the tastes of garlic and fennel and used "garlicky" when he meant "fennely". That kind of mistake is ultimately correctible via communication, but does not invalidate the term "garlicky" itself.