Pay It Forward

Helpfulness seems to be a trait that some (especially the more hysterical tabloids) would have you believe is careening out of sight of civilisation and plummeting straight to the depths of Hades before the proverbial handcart even picks up speed.  To be honest, in many ways, they are not far wrong, but oddly enough, for an oft-vilified slice of society, gamers can be surprisingly helpful people.

We often hear the more negative sides of the people that share our hobby, but the good do walk among us, lost among the ‘shouty teen’ and ‘pervy bloke’ shadows.  From forum threads, to reams of patiently typed walkthroughs and collectible guides, to You Tube videos and trick tips, whatever game, level, or map you are stuck on, there will always be a kindly soul who has trod the thorny lined path before you, willing reach back and offer you a hand or some words of advice gleaned from their own experiences.

I’ve had plenty of moments where I’ve scoured forums and sites after advice or tips, from the special rating achievement on Hitman to solving the errand glitch in Bully, to pouring red eyed over speedrun guides on You Tube for Mirror’s Edge, or even finding the last collectibles on Lego Batman.  I’ve been helped by kind souls on the Xbox forums who have placed their trust in a stranger enough to loan me their uber rare Famous Pinata for an achievement, or who gave up their time to sell and re-buy a Hero Doll in Fable 2 to help me pop the Dollcatcher achievement, or simply offered tips and advice which I’ve gleaned from both old and current threads.

Now, I’m not naive enough to think that everyone who steps up to the plate to help others is doing so with purely altruistic intent – there is always the god complex element who do it to crow or show their superiority and the fact that they have already chewed that meat and spat it out, and there are others who do it out of a need to be seen to be the ‘good one’ – for some element of praise that they seem to feed upon, feasting on the gratitude of others.  Is that so much a bad thing though if it has a good result?

After all, don’t most of us like to help…to get that fuzzy feeling when we can actually impart advice that makes someone go ‘wow, thanks’, or helps them?  I do – it isn’t a need for me, but once in a while, it is a damn good feeling to soak up.  It’s easy to relax back and not give a shit about anyone else, but I always try and remember that I’ve been in the position of the seeker…I’ve been the one scouring forums and websites searching for answers…I’ve walked the mile in their shoes and perhaps, therefore I owe something.

As gamers, where luck is as much a part of life as skill, patience, and practice, perhaps we have a due to pay.  Every once in a while, we can turn back and give someone else a leg up. For those that don’t…well, I don’t want to say that the gaming gods will send the Red-Ring demons after your favourite box of tricks, but I won’t say they won’t either.  ‘Fuck-you mentality’ as my old Performing Arts tutor once said, is often rife and is certainly corrosive to any ‘community’ which is becoming an oft-used phrase in gaming now.

For me personally, for those that have helped me, I say ‘thank you’ and for that, I remember my responsibility to others and return to forums of games I have completed to offer help – to help others get achievements they need, or to give advice (that they could find further down if they bothered to search harder which admittedly gets under my skin), but I do it anyway.  I pay it forward, because I think I should.