Tilted Forum Project Discussion Community - View Single Post - "Beating" the game

Coppertop · 01-12-2005, 12:02 PM

At the risk of sounding anal...

Anyone else here find it strange when people say they "beat" a game? This implies one of several things:

they physically took the game out back and laid into it with a bat
the game was playing against them, as in trying to defeat them

I highly doubt the former applies to the everyday language seen on this board and elsewhere on the internet. In the unusual situation where it does apply, that would usually merit more discussion on the incident and should thus be obvious to any reader. The latter situation doesn't apply to any games I can think of. Game AI has not yet reached that level. It simply reacts to stimuli and thus appears to be trying to defeat a human player. I know how convincing it can feel when you're getting your ass handed to you by the AI, but we're a long ways away from that.

You can beat your buddy playing Madden. You can lay the beat down on Bobby the 13 years old l33t kid online in a game of Counter-Strike. You can beat your friend's highscore in Super Mario Bros. You can even beat your monkey in a one arm pull-up race. These all (well, mostly) involve competition.

Now, I understand what people mean when they say that they "beat" a game (OVERCOME, DEFEAT; also : SURPASS -- often used with out b : to prevail despite), but it does nothing to stifle my ire at such lazy language. To me, it sounds so much more appropriate when someone says that they "finished" a game. They started it, they played it and then finished it. That just makes more sense to me to read or hear that.

Yes, I know there's nothing formal about this place we all visit and discuss such topics on, but there's my take. Flame on people.

01-12-2005, 12:02 PM	#1 (permalink)
Coppertop Getting Medieval on your ass Location: 13th century Europe	"Beating" the game - a rant At the risk of sounding anal... Anyone else here find it strange when people say they "beat" a game? This implies one of several things: they physically took the game out back and laid into it with a bat the game was playing against them, as in trying to defeat them I highly doubt the former applies to the everyday language seen on this board and elsewhere on the internet. In the unusual situation where it does apply, that would usually merit more discussion on the incident and should thus be obvious to any reader. The latter situation doesn't apply to any games I can think of. Game AI has not yet reached that level. It simply reacts to stimuli and thus appears to be trying to defeat a human player. I know how convincing it can feel when you're getting your ass handed to you by the AI, but we're a long ways away from that. You can beat your buddy playing Madden. You can lay the beat down on Bobby the 13 years old l33t kid online in a game of Counter-Strike. You can beat your friend's highscore in Super Mario Bros. You can even beat your monkey in a one arm pull-up race. These all (well, mostly) involve competition. Now, I understand what people mean when they say that they "beat" a game (OVERCOME, DEFEAT; also : SURPASS -- often used with out b : to prevail despite), but it does nothing to stifle my ire at such lazy language. To me, it sounds so much more appropriate when someone says that they "finished" a game. They started it, they played it and then finished it. That just makes more sense to me to read or hear that. Yes, I know there's nothing formal about this place we all visit and discuss such topics on, but there's my take. Flame on people.