Sunday, January 13, 2013

On "Trying Hard"

I keep hearing people calling other people try hards, especially if they lose a game against them.
Honestly, I don't really see what's wrong with being a Try Hard, but before we get into that, take a read about the definitions of a try hard.

Urban dictionary attempts to explain what a Try Hard is in the context of gaming (and in my opinion, does a pretty good job)
Try-hard is an adjective used to describe an individual who: 1) will try very hard to be good at something or fit in and eventually fails.2) in videogames (such as Call of Duty or Halo) tries so hard to be good they end up losing sight of just having fun. This individual can become aggressive with other players if they are in a losing situation. In this sense the term can be used to describe players who are being relatively successful.  It must be noted that it is not uncommon for individuals to falsely accuse others of being a try-hard in order to make themselves feel better for their own inability to fit in or poor performance. If confronted by such an individual evaluate the accuser as well as yourself and remember there is a difference between trying and trying too hard1) Look at Nick, he is such a try-hard interjecting in a conversation he knows nothing about to try to look cool. 1) Look at that player "0Ace", he is such a try-hard camping with an AK74u rapid fire and all pro perks but he still has a 0.50 KDR. 2) That player "CampHeavyAce" might have a 3.0 KDR but he only uses OP weapons and camps. I wonder if he is actually having fun being such a try-hard...

The try hards who try to be good, and just get rolled are just pitiful I guess, so there's no point in putting them down any more. Whether they pick to win or pick to have fun, they're just going to lose, so no one really cares about them.

I think the try-hards we all hate are those who act super serious, wait for opponents to pick heroes before choosing counters in -ap pub games, or immediately choose the over powered heroes and then proceed to stick in 5s all the way, ward and deward non stop throughout the game.
I mean, honestly, why do we play pubs?
I play pubs to figure out new heroes, figure out new builds, try some jukes, or play a lane I don't normally play; basically to push limits. So I guess playing against a team of 5 who keep ganking you together when your own team support doesn't even up bird, much less wards, would get kind of annoying.

Annoying, yes, but not anything to crucify them over.

To a certain extent, I applaud them. It does take a great deal of discipline to keep trying to do everything textbook perfect, and I guess it does show that they're serious about the game (so serious that even pubs are treated like competition games). Professional gaming, is not all about having fun, sometimes you will hate having to play with a certain teammate for a while, or you will want to go out, have dinner, clean your cat's litter box etc anything to NOT play for a while. So, being able to take every game seriously, and TRY HARD, is in itself a feat.

But that leads me to another question.
Why don't the try hards just go play - cm mode and leave the pubs to play -ap?
If their intention is to pubstomp, then well, that's hardly going to contribute to improving their own skill, is it?
So, in that sense, it's just... a wee bit pathetic.

Maybe its a flaw in Valve's almost perfect system - perhaps the creation of a "casual mode" (but without the extra gold and benefits which make the whole game non-competitive) and a "normal mode" - like what they have in HoN might help clear out the try hards from the realm of pubbers who want a more chillax game.

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

"Tryhard" is in a way synonymous with "textbook gaming". It could refer to AFK-farming for 40 minutes or pubstomping with 4 mates in a game vs. people who have no individual skill, teamplay or knowledge (Yes, I am TRYING HARD to not refer to it as a PUBLIC game).

^ not really my definition of it :-)

When someone tries REALLY HARD and FAILS.. then I would most likely refer to them as tryhard(s). Yes, someone who SUCEEDS is not really a tryhard. Trying hard could refer to "borrowing" (copying, not that it is wrong but it shows that you have little if any originality or SKILL as most guides or whatever are not that good) or simply picking a lineup that on paper appears to be flawless and then you lose to some random picks.

=)

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