Sunday, November 18, 2007

You are no fun

Fun. Everyone likes to have fun, but what exactly is it?
Princeton's online dictionary defines fun as "activities that are enjoyable or amusing."

In Smash Bros. Melee, I enjoy winning. Winning is definitely fun, but I also enjoy learning and improving; so losing can be fun, too, provided something is learned from the loss. "Wait, did you just say losing is fun?" That's right. Losing can be fun. It might sound silly, but the only way for something to be fun is to have fun doing it. "Fun" is entirely up to the person having it. Consequently, what one person calls great fun could be the worst idea in the world for the next person.

I loathe coin battles; they're not fun. My little brother loves coin battles; they're great fun! Fun can virtually anything as long as the person doing it is having fun. It's no secret that millions of people love to fish. Fishing is relaxing and generally considered to be sport and a leisure activity. Fishing is fun; however, I hate fishing. It's dreadfully boring and I don't enjoy impaling worms on hooks and then the subsequent removing of the hooks from the fish. Fishing is not fun. I'm certainly not alone in my dislike of fishing.

So fun cannot be defined from a mathmatical standpoint. Fishing is both fun and not fun at the same time. Why? Because it's all in the perceptions of the individual. Everyone has their own personal definition of fun.

Playing Melee competitively is great fun. It drives me to try harder, to play smarter, to react faster, and to be better. Competitive smashing also helps to forge friendships, as those who play competetively tend to gravitate towards each other for more and more competitive play. In this way competetive play is the purest form of fun as far as smashing is concerned; or at least it is to me.

My fun may or not be yours but that doesn't make it any less fun.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Random person: Why do you play to win? Just play for fun!
Friend of mine: But winning IS fun, so I play for both.
This friend of mine thinks very similar to you in this situation, and so do I.
And also, this reminds me of when people say, "tournament rules takes all the fun out of the game." This explanation should be used every time someone makes the above comment.

TheBuzzSaw said...

I agree, PC. And that article was written by Coax. ^_^

Anonymous said...

Hm, I actually didn't noticed that it was writen by Coaxial Cable. But that last comment of mine didn't mention "Buzz" in any way. :p