Comments on: The Impostor Syndrome in Video Games

By: Social & Casual Dev: This Week in Video Game Criticism: Ubisoft's women problem on wurk@

Wed, 18 Jun 2014 07:21:28 +0000

[…] Jesper Juul, ludologist extraordinaire, investigates impostor syndrome in games and how when our subjective expectations for a game are not met, we are more incentivized to seek flaws in the game itself. […]

By: Jesper

Jesper — Fri, 13 Jun 2014 09:25:28 +0000

@Hermund Much better!

By: Frederik Hermund

Frederik Hermund — Fri, 13 Jun 2014 00:33:57 +0000

If you dislike Threes because of the introduction of new tiles in the playfield, maybe you’ll enjoy this version of 2048 where the roles are reversed and it is you who place the new tiles, trying to prevent the evil AI player from reaching 2048 :)
https://sphere.chronosempire.org.uk/~HEx/8402/

By: Jesper

Jesper — Thu, 12 Jun 2014 13:13:33 +0000

@Joseph Yes, there are many games, and I agree there is a fear of not having played the right ones, and thereby being an incomplete critic.

By: Joseph

Joseph — Thu, 12 Jun 2014 11:31:02 +0000

I’ve been thinking about imposter syndrome in game criticism, and I think there is a subcategory of your second type – where you haven’t played a game, and perhaps may not be able to, and then wonder “does that make me uneducated?”. For me, that’s Earthbound. I’ve never played it. If I ever do, it’ll be in an emulator, not on a console. It’s clearly so so important to so many critics and developers – but it’ll never really be important to me.

This might go double for games, compared to films and books and music, because of the ongoing un-availability of game platforms, so new ones get released. In books, the book hasn’t changed. In music, recordings and writings persist. In film, some technology is lost (the ‘Tingler’, that electrocuted the audience to enhance fear), but not the technology of watching the really influential ones, because you can still get stuff like Gone With the Wind, Battleship Potemkin, 2001, Citizen Kane, Godzilla, whatever, on DVD, BluRay, iTunes, etc etc etc.. I could get a SNES, and probably an Earthbound cartridge, and even a TV to use them on, but it would require a level of work above and beyond that of film/books/music.

By: Jesper

Jesper — Wed, 11 Jun 2014 17:34:15 +0000

@Ryan Ah, I mean impostor in a double sense here. Both a) that a game (or other work) is perceived as an impostor, and b) that it is possible to feel like an impostor in the situation I discuss. The latter can certainly include a fear of being found out as well. I have clarified this in the post.

By: Ryan Henson Creighton

Ryan Henson Creighton — Wed, 11 Jun 2014 14:31:09 +0000

i see what you’re trying to say about games, but i don’t understand how your point connects to the Imposter Syndrome? Imposter Syndrome is when you can’t own your successes, and you’re worried that at any moment someone will reveal you to be a fraud who didn’t come by those successes honestly.

What you’re talking about here is disliking certain bits of popular culture. Not the same thing at all.