Do you show more consideration to inanimate objects than...

Post Reply New Topic

This is an interesting topic.

The gameplay style of titles such as Myst, Rivern, Cosmic Osmo, Spelunx is very similar to how I perceive and interact with the world. The non-human things and the scenery are perceived and interacted with first. The humans or creatures are incidental to the story. The scenery isn't just a backdrop, it is the story.

In these exploration games, interaction with inanimate objects takes precedence over social/character interaction.

Objects, equipment and machinery are given high consideration in these games.
You pull levers and push buttons etc. to solve puzzles and problems and complete tasks. I’ve noticed that these environments are often deserted or there are very few people.

The few people that are in these games:
speak an foreign language; are emotionally disturbed; run away at the sight of you; are aliens; are puppets; want you to do something for them; are absent or are absent anthropomorphic animals.

Lots of the absent people and animals thoughtfully leave diaries around the environment for you to pick up and read. The handwriting's often cursive and hard to read. There are lots of simplified diagrams and answers to puzzles in the diaries to. You read more about the characters' personal lives than you talk with them about their personal lives. Even when you talk with them, you're just a passive listener and they talk to you. You can't type back a response: you just listen and note down any important things they say in case the information helps you solve the next puzzle.

Just something I noticed.

I’ve felt strangely comfortable playing some of these computer games and thoroughly enjoyed playing them for hours at a time.

Not that I don’t care about real people.
I care about people very deeply.

However, I also care about equipment I’ve owned, my calculator, my ornaments, my MP3 player and my computer etc. It’s very sad if any of these things ‘dies’. I also care about animals.

Same here.

I do show more consideration for other people but I still feel bad if something gets broken or left alone because I feel like it's a living thing, even though I know it's not I still have that natural instinct.

I feel like this too. I do care about people, but they are far more complex and in many instances it is possible to see things that happen to them being partly due to things they have done previously, whereas for inanimate objects, no blame can ever be attached.

Ideally I would like to have as few possessions as possible, because I do worry about their safety and what to do with them if I have to move (my primary consideration - if it was just me, then moving would be so simple). I don't have a huge amount of possessions and they have little monetery value, but I hate to see any of them damaged. Even the cheap T-shirts I bought recently, now they are mine and under my care, I would be very upset if they got damaged, whereas I could quite easily take damage to myself. Saying that, I do treat parts of me (particularly my limbs) as though they were seperate inanimate objects, and I'm capable of feeling sorry for example, my arm if I damage it - not caring about the pain, but about the fact the arm, which I like, is damaged.

Obviously, some items are more important than others - my few cuddly toys are most important, particularly the oldest one. Anything with a face on it (bizarre considering that humans are often less important and my facial recognition isn't great, but it really makes me feel for it), plants are important and anything circular or spherical is particularly nice. I remember being very sad once when a new ball that we had as children popped on a holly bush the day we'd bought it. I would find having all my possessions destroyed e.g. in a fire, very distressing.

Of course, I do realise that inanimate objects have no feelings and I realise that what I feel for them is completely illogical - a complete conflict with my normally very logical personality.

Yes.. I get very concerned over the well-being of inanimate objects. And animals.
I think it may be a predictability thing. What happens to a person and how they feel is usually completely out of my control. It doesn't matter how hard I try, I'm probably going to screw something up interpersonally. I can also see more clearly that I don't understand people. If they act in ways I can't comprehend, then I can't so much transfer my own feelings onto them. While an inanimate object doesn't do anything to contradict my projection of my own feelings.

I particularly remember as a child, being terrified that my stuffed animals would be sad if I didn't hug all of them. My bed was covered with them, but I couldn't take them off because they'd be lonely and sad.
I've always had trouble with the concept of people existing when I can't see or hear them, more so than in applying that concept to inanimate objects. In many ways I think I believe (actually truly believe) that time the fourth dimension and exists similarly to the first three, so that being in a different point in space is no different to me, mentally, than being in a different point in time. If that makes sense.

Animals have a general rule by which you can predict their needs and behaviours. Objects are objects. And people are confusing.

I know my cats need food, water and a clean place to poop, and as long as noone treats them poorly, they remain the beautiful loving creatures that they are. If our youngest, siamese runs past me down the hallway, tripping me or making me stumble, I can yell "STUPID CAT!" or sometimes something worse, and since he doesn't understand what I'm saying, he comes up loving, a few minutes later.

I could sit in front of my computer, reading endless amounts of useless information for very lengthy periods of time, it's a consistent level of stimulation to keep me happy for chunks of time. People on the other hand, require my direct attention concerning issues that mean absolutely nothing to me... which feels like a huge drain of stimulation. Basically, people/humans, more often than not equal some form of stress for me. I don't enjoy their lies, and manipulations. Even their joys often to me feel like some kind of show. (eg. wedding traditions, marriage, squashing people to get what they want from their career and then expecting me to somehow feel proud of them, birthdays, bling ...and on and on) I've even witnessed (one girl in particular, but still) people at funerals make an entire production out of their grief, when they scarcely knew the person who died. To me, a lot of people seem to be quite fake. I mean, obviously theyre real people, but their intentions can be very confusing. Some days, it even feels like too much pressure to utter out a good morning to someone in passing who said it to me first.

The other day I was at a 'friends' house. We were having a cigarette in his garage. He talked about himself nearly the entire time, which is quite typical. The entire time, I was nodding and trying to act interested (which feels fake too), meanwhile, my attention was stuck on the lucky bamboo plant that was slowly dying a cold death there, neglected in the garage. Finally, when I could no longer feign interest, I said "I gotta go" ...I pointed to the plant and asked "Can I take this with me?" He said yes, so I picked up the plant and left. To me, the plant seemed to truly deserve the attention I was wasting on faking interest for my friend's sake. The plant took precedence. It's now chopped in several pieces, planted in water and gravel in a casserole dish on my desk. My plan is to love (giving it what it requires, light, water and the dead pieces cut off) it better and salvage what I can. Hopefully in return, it will continue to pump oxygen into our environment, which is a lot more than I can say for what my self centred friend was doing.

^^

So now it really is a lucky bamboo plant isn't it?

When i bump into something, i say oops. If i bump into an animal (pets) i say, uh, oh, sorry and pet them. When i bump into bf's mother i say ugh or grr under my breath lol! Ok, so that may just be towards her. I have some deep resentments towards her that i just can't shake off.

I haven't really noticed. But i do know when people talk about their problems to me i can care less!