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When Prophecy Fails, Sing Kumbaya: The Role of Cognitive Dissonace in an MMO
historynerd1
Member Posts: 100 Arc User
Remembered seldom today, psychologist Leon Festinger pioneered the field of behaviorism; and, has been on my mind lately. You see, he developed the concept of cognitive dissonance, the idea that an individual can possess two contradictory thoughts on one subject. For that reason, he seems more relevant than ever as, in relation to STO, this has inflicted a terrible curse upon me of recent:
I have little sympathy for those that seemingly lacked foresight into what DR would bring; however, can I blame them for their inkling?
It is a form of cognitive dissonance that I have trouble reconciling. Others have, in far more articulate ways, pointed out that the difficulty, particularly in STFs, can be overcome with what may be considered marginal gear. In this instance, it is understandable to question why so many are irked by the difficulty changes, mostly in their arguments in relation to the HP levels of enemies. Even given diminished EC returns on items from vendors - with remarkable perseverance an individual may purchase top of the line ships and gear from the exchange. Coupled with forums, websites, and other resources from other players that provide builds and suggestions, the idea that something is too difficult to ever overcome given the current state of game mechanics, is a tenuous argument at best. Be this as it may: who can blame them.
Some STFs, as in the case of Fleet Alert, was designed to allow lower level players the opportunity to participate. But can they really? Given the current mechanics, those of lower levels do a disservice to those of higher level players that have to 'pick up the slack'. It is unfortunate, but a reality that must be recognized. This, in conjunction with developers possessing much temerity, whom, at first, wanted to provide more challenging combat now only pander to those unable to make any substantial impact in combat.
This is cognitive dissonance at its best, and unfortunately, its worst. One might feel no sympathy for the other's position, and yet, convey it in ways that reflect the worst in our community. Entering into STFs, then quitting because of difficulty - chastising players for their lack of experience and ability - blaming the developers for increasing the HP of enemies to exorbitant amounts: these are all reflective of a community at war with itself. We must recognize that we hold this dissonance close and display it now in unflattering ways. I offer no answers here as to how best fix what some say is a broken system, and, what others say is an improved system. Instead, for the health of the community, recognize that each brings valid arguments to the table.
Festinger was right: "a man with a conviction is a hard man to change." We all have some convictions on how look upon other players within the context of the game; and, we don't need to change those convictions, just, find a way to move forward. An individual that only chastises another for their playing ability, or, contrarily, blames the devs for non-winnable scenarios does nothing to help our communal infliction: cognitive dissonance.
I have little sympathy for those that seemingly lacked foresight into what DR would bring; however, can I blame them for their inkling?
It is a form of cognitive dissonance that I have trouble reconciling. Others have, in far more articulate ways, pointed out that the difficulty, particularly in STFs, can be overcome with what may be considered marginal gear. In this instance, it is understandable to question why so many are irked by the difficulty changes, mostly in their arguments in relation to the HP levels of enemies. Even given diminished EC returns on items from vendors - with remarkable perseverance an individual may purchase top of the line ships and gear from the exchange. Coupled with forums, websites, and other resources from other players that provide builds and suggestions, the idea that something is too difficult to ever overcome given the current state of game mechanics, is a tenuous argument at best. Be this as it may: who can blame them.
Some STFs, as in the case of Fleet Alert, was designed to allow lower level players the opportunity to participate. But can they really? Given the current mechanics, those of lower levels do a disservice to those of higher level players that have to 'pick up the slack'. It is unfortunate, but a reality that must be recognized. This, in conjunction with developers possessing much temerity, whom, at first, wanted to provide more challenging combat now only pander to those unable to make any substantial impact in combat.
This is cognitive dissonance at its best, and unfortunately, its worst. One might feel no sympathy for the other's position, and yet, convey it in ways that reflect the worst in our community. Entering into STFs, then quitting because of difficulty - chastising players for their lack of experience and ability - blaming the developers for increasing the HP of enemies to exorbitant amounts: these are all reflective of a community at war with itself. We must recognize that we hold this dissonance close and display it now in unflattering ways. I offer no answers here as to how best fix what some say is a broken system, and, what others say is an improved system. Instead, for the health of the community, recognize that each brings valid arguments to the table.
Festinger was right: "a man with a conviction is a hard man to change." We all have some convictions on how look upon other players within the context of the game; and, we don't need to change those convictions, just, find a way to move forward. An individual that only chastises another for their playing ability, or, contrarily, blames the devs for non-winnable scenarios does nothing to help our communal infliction: cognitive dissonance.
[SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
"Go and have a wee, the second act gets considerably weirder." -Tim Minchin
"Go and have a wee, the second act gets considerably weirder." -Tim Minchin
Post edited by historynerd1 on
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Comments
Today that is not possible, and in the minds of many players it may never be possible again without something being changed by the developers. Regardless of what the labels are a character's power is measured by what they can achieve, or in MMO terms what loots they can get.
This can also be extended in part to the episode content.
People only react poorly even when something has been said to them right in their faces when the information that was said to them has been conveyed poorly.
Its my understanding that vast majority of people expected (from how it was presented) to still be able to play the old elite like they used to in the form of advanced with a couple of changes that would not drastically change how we play. This was in fact not the case, so because it was conveyed poorly it caused a backlash because people expected differently, not to mention they believed it was going to be an expansion pack equal to LoR but it wasn't. Now had this been solely because of ignorance then I would completely agree with you but it wasn't so I do not.
Western society itself (I cannot speak for the others) relies on what I believe to be a form of cognitive dissonance. We must believe that things (i.e. our general state of existence) are better than they truly are, in order for things to become as beneficial as we believe that they can be. Sometimes, if you ignore it, it does go away. In response to this fact, "Why waste energy on possibly unrequired action?" appears to be the currently popular thought pattern.
This creates a paradox (which no doubt has some European fellows name!) whereby we ignore reality in order to make it better. I have long believed that those who refuse to, or cannot, come to terms with this socially required hypocrisy are wrongly considered to be insane.
Now, this may not be the best (most efficient/accurate) way to view the world, but time has shown us that it CAN work.
Then, throw in some bias - where we ignore the times that 'it' (it, being 'ignoring unpleasantness') hasn't worked, and we have a recipe for minor chaos.
I feel that this explains much of the behaviour of those I see around me, but ultimately it's all conjecture - I'm not sure how one could prove any of this.
Having said all that: I personally feel that anything that hinders griefers or afk players is a good thing. "I had to act immediately to save someone from injury or harm" is a justified AFK. Every single other occasion can be accompanied by a quick "sorry - brb" or a log-out, and I will never be convinced otherwise.
I was also aware that this expansion would be nothing like LOR and I am very happy with the way it has gone, sure there are a few minor bugs that need fixing and if they tweak the pve difficulty down a bit that's fine but I have found nothing that is a game breaker in fact I think the whole thing is pretty awesome.
When I think about everything we've been through together,
maybe it's not the destination that matters, maybe it's the journey,
and if that journey takes a little longer,
so we can do something we all believe in,
I can't think of any place I'd rather be or any people I'd rather be with.
cognitive dissonance is what happens when people have thoughts and ideas in their head that contradict their core set of values so they start rationalizing it to make themselves feel more comfortable inside their bodies
eg: I am doing something illegal - the cognitive dissonance would be "its okay as long as i dont get caught"
The content was created to level up on even the story line stuff etc the stf's normal and advanced were created for people BELOW level 60 to do some stuff with.
People are saying "it will be better when I hit 60 so its okay" I think this is simply lack of thought and an example of cognitive dissonance. They have been at the cap for so long they have not been reading the q info's
They are not seeing the level 60 version yet even lol. I do not know yet what the rewards in dilithium are for people under 60 so I can't comment completely my one guy is 55 and stuck grinding due to lack of new content
They said re: stf's that they wanted everyone to get some nice loot but wanted to throw in something more challenging for other players who wanted the challenge.
What we got is 3 level 60 versions of something more or less lol, but wait. Cryptic has already commented on the fact that normal was bugged to start with and adding more hp etc then it should but still people are saying that everyone was "whining" (this is cognitive disonnance I think because cryptic has already commented they are fixing this stuff and reducing HP on the normal and advanced by a % and even adding some to the elite basically saying
that the normal and advanced aside from being broken (even though some were saying we should "woman up" or something) was overdone and the elite is not hard enough.
They also said they will keep watching it and work on the rewards as necessary. So basically they agree that possibly maybe these things that they pinned a thread about were in fact true so I guess the cognitive dissonance is coming in with the people who justified the content as not broken and okay ..
even though it was for level 50-60 and in the case of patrol missions in the delta portion and 50-60 stfs which are meant for fun and to level on the scaling WAS wrong.
Now as for the content what is there is good the zone is huge, but they didnt put enough of it in plus a great many of the quests in the episode (every other one actually) seem to just be patrol mission which seems to me to be a bit odd. So we only got half an episode of true content which again was decent I found its just that its not enough so people need to go grind. However the mobs in delta are not "grindable" not really so you have to find something that is.
However again they said "there will be enough content to level up on in delta" there isn't its a fact everyone is even justifying it by saying " i can do doffs" "you can do old episodes and repeat them" etc etc they too are admitting it ignoring the part that is causing them discomfort (more cognitive dissonance really) because it makes them uncomfortable to think about the fact that they are actually wrong lol.
Now that being said we know they are tweaking it so i think everyone needs to just stop hating on each other and wait till the thursday patch when according to what I have seen the normals at least will be doable by anyone and the advanced should be decently doable in the timeframe delimited on the STF description which of course everyone is ignoring again because no one can do them in the time frame provided that I have seen. And according to cryptic the people are level appropriate because it says it on the little blurb on the sides of them saying its for level 50-60