It's a Legitimate Strategy! Or is it?

My brother is the video game guru of the house. Every game that he has played has been dissected by his various ideas of strategies. From calculating exactly what gear he could use on World of Warcraft to perfecting the various moves of Kirby and Link in Super Smash Brothers Brawl; he has never needed resort to button mashing or camping. 
"Camping is", as defined by Metaboli to be "the action of staying in the same place (the camp) for long periods of time, usually in hiding, and just waiting for the an enemy to come by." Unlike button mashing camping, the act of camping and spawn camping (waiting for someone to spawn at a specific point and killing them) require a certain amount of skill. Even though its a weak way to win the game, it is still a strategy- as Ultramarine expresses in his blog. His opinion in "that it is indeed a strategy, with its own advantages and disadvantages" (paragraph 2) argues that "[it] forces other players to be on their toes and play smartly" and personally I don't completely agree with that. 
To hide and wait for other people to come along only creates for frustration and a match that is destined to last longer than necessary. Personally the only time I see camping as an option is when I know that I cannot win otherwise i.e. a round or game against my brother. 

Works Cited:


Ultramarine "Camping? 'It's a Legitimate Strategy'." A Videogame Canon. ZachWalen.net, 8 Oct. 2009. Web. 2 7 Feb. 2011. <http://vgc.zachwhalen.net/content/camping-its-legitimate-strategy>.

Tactical Gamers and Button Mashers

Over the weekend I have done quite a bit of thinking, cooking, cleaning, and -most importantly- watching dad play World of Warcraft (WoW). As I saw the different ways he could move the character in big boss fights it was hard to keep in mind that a team of people had to design and code every part of the game and this miniature epiphany got the gears churning in my head.

A demotivational poster courtesy of Queen-and-azriel

As technology has advanced through the years, our means of entertainment have developed and evolved to match it. From the Atari 2600 to the PlayStation3 the engineers and designers have produced video games that test the skills of the consumer. This isn't to say that games aren't designed for those who are less inclined to play using tactics or strategy as David Thomas, Kyle Orland, and Scott Steinberg have noted in their online essay "The Video Game Style Guide and Reference manual". The authors have introduced the idea that with the sophistication of the controllers and games there are people who take time to learn the game and there are "Button [mashers:] Jargon. A player that hits buttons seemingly at random, without regard for strategy or skill" (21).

Back in the days of Tekken and Street Fighter it was easy to differentiate between people who knew how to play the game; there were those who spent hours at the arcade playing their favorite characters and others that pressed one button in a fanatical manner, jolting the joystick every which way in a manner that might have broken a machine that wasn't made for such rough handling. Now a days the line discerning who is and is not a button-masher has become blurred by new game play, and its difficult to say now a days is button mashing a strategical advantage? I think not. 


Works Cited:

Button Mashing.7 Jun. 2009. Deviantart. Deviantart.com. Web. 21 Feb. 2011.

Thomas, David. "The Video Game Style Guide and Reference Manual" Power Play Publishing. 2007. Web. 21 Feb. 2011.
<http://www.gamestyleguide.com/VideoGameStyleGuideeBook.pdf>