A trend I tend to see in my travels across the world wide web reading about games and their release is a certain subsection of geek that’s always piqued my interest. No, I’m not talking about that strange guy who likes to refer to himself in the third person when he posts or that one girl who has to write in pink text every time as it it was breathing. This time, I’m talking about the ones set on ensuring that they are looking for a complete failure when it comes to a game or a show or a movie that is upcoming.
The reason why these folks are so curious to me is because as an optimist, there’s a level of intrigue as to the polar opposite of my outlook on things. What must it be like to be expecting failure all the time, even when it comes to the things that might most likely be a success? For geekery, where there is always something new and interesting around the corner and there’s a high amount of intelligence that suggests it might be decent, it’s even more of a surprise. Sure, there are cynics out there, and there are pessimists, but having a negative outlook on something is different than expecting something to fail. It’s easy to spot these folks too. They make forum threads predicting doom and gloom, blog about how the next best thing isn’t quite as good as sliced bread, and are always quick to insert an oppositional, Eeyore-like shrug into conversations that excitedly talk about what’s coming up.
If I had to take a guess, it would have to be that the people who want to anticipate failure are afraid of the feeling that it gives to them when they see something they like go down the crapper. Perhaps hurt by having high expectations, a failure-thinker lowers them to the other extreme figuring that when the inevitable success happens, they will be pleasantly surprised. It’s a sort of defense mechanism against high ideals and immense like for something no matter how popular it is. But why, as a geek, would you allow your self to be disappointed prior to the disappointment having any teeth to it? The thing that I would think is that setting yourself for failure basically means you’re never feeling like something succeeds. You’re denying yourself the anticipation and feeling, and good vibe that can lift a day just by being there. And low expectations that are met are still, in the end, low expectations, no matter how far above the bar they might go.
Not everyone can see a silver lining like me all the time – I can get that and understand it. But I’d also hope to think that not everyone can see just a rain cloud when they look at the sky, either. It’s a sort of grey view of things and a method by which you’re always going to be sad about anything and everything. The elation of success felt when your low standards are met is temporary and only leads to the next thing that you think isn’t going to cut the mustard. It’s just not a good way of thinking. I think that being genuinely excited about something, whether it is a game with great features you like, or a tv show that really seems to speak to you, or a movie that you’ve been waiting to be made is worth feeling a little down if it doesn’t ultimately pan out. At least then, you’d only be temporarily sad, instead of temporarily happy. I’ll take the happy any day.
