Optimism vs Pessimism

I just read that pessimism apparently leads to learned helplessness, i.e. when things go bad, these people are more likely to stop trying. Optimists are more likely to keep trying. Got me thinking...
Relevance to GW2: this is why I am optimist about GW2, and why I want ANet to keep their optimism.
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My impression is that generally, pessimists in this forum generally want features to be removed. They want rits, sins, paragons, and derv removed. They want scythes to hit single targets. They want shadowstep to be removed. The good old days of Prophecies they say, but how much of it is just that back then, we just didn't know better? The older the game, the better we know its dark little secrets.
Optimists might sometimes be slow to pick up on problems, and when they do, they want the problem fixed... as in "keep it but figure a way to make it work". They might even try to improve on it. They suggests all kinds of ideas, some dumb, some not so dumb.
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Then you have the devs.
I now picture ANet offices full of optimists with flowers and rainbows painted on the walls, chanting "we can do it we can do it" to their Obama shrine or something. Sure they'll make mistakes, but they'll also make cool stuff. And isn't it what gaming is about, cool stuff?
Meanwhile, all the other WoW-clone-producing sweatshops are filled with pessimists, their offices are dark to save on electricity so they can run on budget, their faces gloomy with the impending doom of failure. They take no risks, they make no real innovations beyond that which required by marketing, another dark and gloomy affair. No wonder the scenery tends to be very dark, brightness hurts their eyes.
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tl;dr:
Step 1: Kill all pessimists*. "Realists" are next.
Step 2: ...
Step 3: Profit.
Thank you, that is all.
* Not meant as an actual directive. A better idea would be to give them flowers and rainbows and unicorns.|||What about those of us who are optimistic by nature and pessimistic by policy? My rainbow is a bit tarnished, and the last I saw my unicorn he was hiding under the bed.|||You get bacon.
No really, what do you mean optimistic by nature and pessimistic by policy? You enjoy inflicting pain? Not trying to make fun of you, I just don't get it.
Optimism doesn't mean carelessness. You can take risks or play it safe, but at the very least you are open to ideas and have a positive outlook.|||Quote:








Meanwhile, all the other WoW-clone-producing sweatshops are filled with pessimists, their offices are dark to save on electricity so they can run on budget, their faces gloomy with the impending doom of failure. They take no risks, they make no real innovations beyond that which required by marketing, another dark and gloomy affair. No wonder the scenery tends to be very dark, brightness hurts their eyes.




That pretty much sums up the office in which I work, apart from the fact no one else knows what WOW is !|||I used to work on the fourth floor of a building. That building had no windows on the fourth floor for some reason.
Then I worked in the basement of a building. We had a tiny "light well" at a weird angle, we couldn't see outside, but we had a bit of sunshine throught it. I considered it an upgrade.
But it's ok, I have sunshine in my heart.
On an unrelated note, a portion of optimists end up being killed by coworkers who got tired of putting up with their stupid unicorns and rainbows and sunshine sh**.|||Spoiler





What is the point of this thread? A chance to apply your psychology degree while bashing WoW? So you can tell us how much better you are as an optimist than us crappy old pessimists? I just dun get it.
At least the status quo is maintained.|||Technically, I bashed WoW-clones, not the original.
I didn't play the older MMOs, but from what I hear, Blizz significantly improved on the genre in many ways while not giving up significant portions of what makes it a MMO in the first place, unlike ANet.
Anyone who knows me well knows that I am excited about GW2 in large part because it combines what makes GW so great with all the stuff that you find in WoW that I wish I'd find in GW as well.
Besides, you're a pessimist? You with all the ponies? Weird.|||Wow, even I knew about this before you did. But I'm a pessimist most of the time.|||I don't see any value to this thread other than bashing other posters and development studios. This is quite ironically one of the most negative threads I've seen around here in a while.