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>