Everything was going great with my Chicago Bulls dynasty when I realized that I needed to make some monetary transactions in order to resign a key player. In my attempt to shed salary, I realized that I could make a trade with the Los Angeles Lakers that would bring me Kobe Bryant and a few minor players while simultaneously keeping Derek Rose, my star youngster Omar Chavez, and the rest of a team that made it to the Eastern Conference Finals the year before. Reluctantly, I accepted the trade, thus taking the risk of destroying a team that was on the verge of winning a championship.
The new season began and we were off to a great start. Derek Rose's play continued to improve while Kobe Bryant proved he was still the same all-star he was with the Lakers. However, as the season progressed, our play began to decline and slide down a slippery slope. Currently, about halfway through the season, we find ourselves in 11th place in the Eastern Conference and on the outside looking in on the playoff race.
This example is a perfect illustration of Gee's 6th principle. In life, all of us have the common sense to keep things the way they are when they are going well. Because of the fact that there no life altering consequences in playing video games, I was willing to take a risk of changing up a team. In real life, this simple mistake would have cost a GM his job and the prospect of being hired again in the future. For me, my mistake simply cost me one unfortunate season of basketball.
Hello Jared,
ReplyDeleteMy name is Mitchell Fukumoto and I am from Stanford University's Rhetoric of Gaming class. You bring up a very interesting topic and I agree with the psychosocial moratorium principle. I believe it is because of this principle that games can be used as much more than just entertainment and can simulate a real-world situation without the large risk. Your argument is very good, however, I think you should elaborate more on the failures of your franchise after the trade. A casual basketball fan would not understand how the addition of Kobe Bryant to any team would make them worse. As an avid basketball fan, I would only be left to conclude that either injuries or team dynamics altered the success of your team. I felt like your trade kept the key players from your chamionship run in Chicago while still adding Kobe Bryant. Did the group dynamic change? Does the offense now have to run through Kobe to keep him interested? Is his salary so high that other players see it as unfair? Other than this, I believe you are on the right track to making a very strong argument.