Kindness is free, everyone.
Whatever “someone” may say, the gaming scene is NOT in a good place right now. There are a lot of layoffs, games aren’t doing as well as they should, and so on. In times like these, it’s important that we look for the “little things” that make us happy. One such “little thing” might be Masahiro Sakurai’s videos. His insights into the gaming world are fascinating, but they can also be very personal and reflect his personality as a gamer and developer. His latest video highlighted this with a pretty personal story that has kept him busy over the years.
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As he revealed, he used to visit arcades in Japan where fighting game systems were set up so that opponents couldn’t see each other. One time, Sakurai was great at a particular fighting game, and when a new opponent came along, he just destroyed them. You know, like a boss does. However, wondering why they were so easy to defeat, he looked around the facility and saw a young couple; one of them was playing and was clearly an amateur.
Young Masahiro Sakurai was very disturbed by this, as he felt he had ruined not only the date they were probably having, but also the game experience itself. Therefore, when the other half of the couple tried to play the game, he was gentle with them.
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Why is this important for today’s gaming? As Sakurai noted, there are some games that require a certain skill level, but that doesn’t mean you can’t be more “friendly” to new players who try it out. Yes, we know that’s almost impossible for some communities, especially more competitive FPS communities, but the intent is still there.
If you’re playing with friends, it’s fine to attack all of your opponents if you have to, because you want to see who’s the best among you. However, if you have a new friend who isn’t a gamer, if you keep beating them up endlessly, they might turn off the game experience.
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This is doubly true if you are playing with someone you have never met before and who just wants to try out what the game is like.
The world could use a lot of kindness right now, so why not encourage a young gamer and help them discover the allure of video games as a whole… instead of showing them the “git-gud” style of gamer life?
