The Importance of Avoiding Absolutes (for the veterans!)

People who aren't used to debating often end up making simple mistakes in discussion.  It's not that they're wrong or mistaken or even just being silly; it's just that they believe, or have been taught, that there are absolutes and that they are correct about them.  Look anywhere on the internet to see this phenomenon, from Infinity forum posts to Reddit discussions.  It's more than people thinking that need to be right...it's more that they know they are.

Cough cough.

You might wonder where I'm going with this.  After all, the Internet is (for the most part) an open forum, and there are always going to be people that are intractable in their beliefs.  Well, this is true, but for a steadily-growing community like Infinity, this kind of dogmatic behaviour is actually bad for new players to observe.

That's right.  After writing article after article for new players, here's one for the veterans.

I'm not going to go into theories of Truth (capital T) here, but I am going to give a very loose rundown.  Truth is something I admit and accept; Falsehood is something I don't admit or accept.  In a very simple argument, these are positions people start in, and are shifted very gradually away from (at least in a successful argument) - or at least are encouraged to modify.  Every person has deep-seated Truths that they feel incredibly uncomfortable abandoning, or even modifying.

I'm right!  No, I'm right!  Argh!

Still with me?

People tend to build their belief-system around these deeper-held truths, and often enough arguments seem to be about more superficial things when they're actually striking at a truth that someone holds very near to their heart.  This is the kind of argument that can never be won, because the other person will just reflexively kick back at anything - no matter how topical - that threatens their worldview.

Sounds like an intense way to talk about wargaming discussions, right?

Well, yes and no.  Yes, you don't need to get into theories of truth when you're dealing with wargames (unless you're really into the subjective approach Infinity takes to its fluff!).  No, because people's beliefs about games follow this same pattern - and when a new player joins the game, s/he brings "truths" with him/her, and tests them against the "truths" of Infinity.

If veteran players affirm the "truths" these new players import from other games, then they are entrenching those truths in the new player's belief system.  These truths are already grounded in experience (from other games), so they become that much harder to dislodge when other players offer suggestions about playstyles, model use, or tactics.  The deeper-seated a truth, the harder it is to change that player's mind.

Infinity demands flexibility, not dogma.  It's tremendously important for veteran players not to blindly affirm the truths new players already hold.  Instead, new players should be guided in a way that lets them build their own truths.  If I say, for instance, that a Unit X sucks and is garbage and should never be fielded, a new player is less likely to field it because I am (in theory) an experiential authority on what's going on in the game.  If another veteran echoes my sentiment and agrees that Unit X is trash, then the new player's "truth" ("Unit X sucks") becomes more and more entrenched, so even when another veteran player comes along later and says "Unit X is great", the new player isn't going to listen.  The pyramid of truth has been built, and you need to do a lot more than kick at a rock to bring it back down.

Big, aren't they.

This is why I say that we, as experienced players, need to avoid speaking in absolutes.  This teaches new players that there is "one true way", and that adds to their list of "truths".  The more of these truths they hear, the more entrenched said truths become.  We need to remember that the mode of delivery is often as important as the message: it's a subtle (or not-so-subtle) thing that advertisers use to get people to buy their products, and it pushes people into ways of thinking that are hard to dismantle.  If we don't avoid absolute statements of "truth", new players fall into the downwards spiral of "the one true way", which makes it so much harder for them to change their minds and adapt in this tactically-flexible game.

Is this going to happen to every new player?  No.  Is it common enough that it should be considered an issue?  I think so.  Honestly, the number of times I've seen a newer player fail with a list (cue mini-tantrum, not playing for X weeks, or even quitting the game) is staggering - and I blame 90% of it on the mentality that there are absolutes with regards to unit uses/army lists/etc...and that nobody took the time to tell that person otherwise.