Friday 9 August 2013

Competition without rivalry ~musings~

Competition without rivalry

Recently I’ve been giving some thought to what games teach us, as adults about ourselves, our society. But as usual also what they teach our kids as they develop to be the adults of our future.
This come as I watch my daughter sit on my husbands knee and watch an NFL game between the Miami Dolphins and the Jacksonville Jaguars. He's in heaven that she asked to come up onto his lap and watch and she's asking questions where her older sister has about as much interest in the game as I do (which is to say, none).
As they sit there and she asks questions I hear him say, 'we are going for these guys, not those guys we hate those guys.” and “Who goes for those other guys? Silly people do.” and I realise just how much bigotry and hatred cam come from the fandom of these 'games'.
I know it before of course, the rabid fanaticism that comes with any fandom baffles me, from the screaming and crying fans of Bieber, to the riots at soccer games, to the twihard moms who queue up and drool all over someone young enough to be their own child.
However I notice that within the competition world there's so much...hatred involved. One can be a fan of an artist for example ad that doesn't automatically create a rivalry, it merely expresses and appreciation for the creations of said artist. When it comes to games, sport, board, and even computer, there is by nature competition.
I encourage my husband to share his favorite sport with the girls, and the environment of friendly competition, I however discourage sentiments of 'hating' another sports team simply because you support someone else. Even more so I discourage the fostering of rivalry amongst fans. Really? Why is it even a thing? I can like something, you can like something else, do we need to compete amongst ourselves? Can't we leave that competition to those who are paid absurd amounts of money to play that game?

How does this translate to board games which is what this blog is about? Quite simply, I want to encourage,
competition: “a contest for some prize, honor, or advantage”
without,
rivalry which is synonymous with, antagonism; jealousy.

This is probably to be expected given my preferred kind of board game is the co-op game, the idea of working together to achieve a goal versus defeating someone else in order to secure your own win. However there are many games that are adversarial, or competitive and they are fun. Depending on how the other people to play it. I have labelled player elimination games as the 'glorification of bullying' and I stand by that, anyone who deliberately and relentlessly targets someone in order to win a game or for the increase of their own enjoyment of the game is participating in bullying behaviour. And I see the rivalry that is created within sports fans as a similar sort of thing.

So what would I like to see my kids raised with?
Competition without rivalry.
Support a team,
celebrate their achievements,
cheer
play your own game

don't
boo the other team,
don't revel in their losses.
No gloating
NO HATRED! (seriously hatred is a serious, sad, and dangerous thing, games don't warrant it)

I know some people have a hard time with the distinction, it's really not that hard. I see it as standard human decency really.

I can even say I have been in the past a fan of a sports team, in the days of Rodman, Jordan, Longley, and Pippen I was a Chicago Bulls Fan I followed tier games watched them, perched on the edge of my seat as I watched them play their way to the NBA championship back in high school. I liked that team and hod no particular opinion of any other team, why would I give them my time when I was following he Bulls? And buying into a rivalry that's 'always been there' as a matter of course (because the teams themselves obviously will form such backgrounds and rivalries amongst themselves) is just being a sheep and following the crowd.


Ok enough preaching.
Now that I’ve possibly offended every person I ever knew, I’m off to the gamesfest! Another blog entry tomorrow on today's event.


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