Nolife

A nolife (of the English No life , literally “not of life” or “without-life”) is a person who devotes a very great part, if it is not exclusiveness, of her time to practice her Passion with the detriment of other activities, thus affecting her social relations.

The term is generally used to appoint a player accro with the Video games.

Origin

This term was born on Internet and the roleplays which were found thereafter on the Net when the first online games started to be marketed. With the confined departure with certain kinds, like FPS, this expression was democratized and propagated on the Net, in particular with the passion of the players for the kind MMORPG (such as World off Warcraft or the Fourth Prophecy) which allows the existence of a world persisting and in perpetual evolution: even if the player disconnects himself, that will encourage it to remain in the world and to contribute to the changes and the events which proceed there.

Generally, the Stéréotype of the nolife is not very flattering: supposed to invest itself inordinately in its passion, it does not take down any almost more. The stop of any other activity thus involves a rather negative image: bad hygiene, school difficulties, professional, in love or social, incomprehension of its entourage, introversion, discomfort. Today, much of nolifes think of keeping a healthy social life, they pass the remainder of their spare time on their computer without that not affecting for as much, in their eyes, their personality and their social life in a dangerous way. For them, the play is a leisure like another, and the nolife term, in the video games, is perceived like a banality.

Causes

The causes of this drift can be multiple, it can be in particular due to an important evil social being, a refusal to face the various pressures to which are subjected the majority of the individuals (education, examinations, work,…). In the modern societies, certain more fragile people émotionnellement do not support the permanent evaluation of which they are the object and prefer to be insulated. The video games can be an exit door, a means of isolating and of avoiding this pressure.

Other causes can be evoked:

  • the trouble, which makes that for want of anything better, the nolife is devoted only to the video games.
  • reward systems of the video games established so as to involve a heavy dependence with the video game, and this by the means of the competition and the social recognition enters the players, or by the means of the increase in the difficulty or the time necessary to obtaining possible improvements cramming the players concerned to improve.

The nolifes are invested heavily in the search for exchanges, of relations, which will not be able to cause them sufferings or to call into question the image that they have of them-even. It is the aspect " social" virtual, since the players are anonymous and can thus be made pass for what they are not, with the shelter behind their screen and them “skin” (virtual and ideal appearance of their character). Nevertheless some nolife can create bonds in their virtual life (following joint adventures, for example), which will be transferred in the “real life”: certain followers of these plays really meet and become friendly in the true life (IRL I N R eal L ife, in opposition to the meetings known as virtual).

Consequences

The uninterrupted practice involves several consequences which end up assigning at the same time the player and his entourage.

That is reflected on the social links of the player, since he attends much less his friend (E) S (and perhaps does not attend them at all because he does not have any) and does not take part more in activities of group or more generally in activities in outside.

Its Hygiène of life can also suffer from an intensive practice of the video game. It also can, in the most extreme cases, to put in danger its clean Santé while being nourished in manner Aléatoire and unbalanced.

It can also be the subject of a Eyestrain because the eyes work much longer and are subjected to a permanent concentration (on average, a man blinks 6 times of the eyes per minute in front of a screen).

Extreme cases, the hikikomori Japanese

One can compare the Western nolife with the Hikikomori , his Japanese counterpart, from which the social life is very often poor, resulting from enfermement quasi perpetual in its room during long lives, until several days or weeks of at a stretch. It only leaves there to take its weekly shower and to empty its refuse which piles up in the room - or to go to school when it is obliged there.

The fact for a young Japanese of becoming a hikikomori often comes from a terrible shame, a Harcèlement moral and/or physical, from a failure to an examination and especially from a deep discomfort in the company. Regarded as an alternative to the Suicide, it is a practice strongly established with the Japan.

Does pathology, or insult?

The term nolife is often used by people frustrated themselves over the moment of imbalance that the nolife generates in terms of virtual richness and competition; it is also used by the envieuses people (for example in a play when the equipment of the character of others is of better quality that it his). It is often used to try to wound an unfavourable player morally (it is necessary to keep in mind however that the players have few means well of checking the lifestyle of the other players).

One often finds Anglo-Saxon acronyms referring there, such as GALL (for Get has Life , which one could translate into French by the expression is a life ).

In spite of this contempt, some nolife should be greeted for their contributions to the virtual environmental quality of the plays multijoueurs, because their experiment of the play is, a priori, thorough than that of the commun run of the players (time ratio/knowledge), and than they are generally very respectful towards the other participants/players. It is not surprising since they spend much time in these virtual environments which they appreciate also inordinately: they thus may find it beneficial any to respect them.

On another side, the nolife brings little to the company, it consumes but sometimes it does not work nor does not study during long months. Its energy is monopolized by one or more pastime, which, insofar as the construction of a misadventure is a company which does not have a direct consequence on the real-world, can prove not very constructive for its personal development. It is for these reasons that the nolife can be the target of mockeries on behalf of the individuals having a lifestyle more balanced. Of course, the matter is not to deny here that the practice of the video games is a more or less intellectual and visual exercise which can have more or less beneficial consequences in the personal development of a player, but obviously, the virtual goods as well as the competences developed in video games are not easily exploitable in the real life.

Indeed, because of this imbalance that it maintains by a social life limited to the profit a virtual life, a strong need for virtual recognition and compensation can be felt, which can justify the nolife to accumulate " richesses" virtual in great quantity (of the gold coins, the rare objects) and to show it, by the means of the purchase of luxury articles in particular. One will thus understand that contrary to the nolife " vertueux" , one can meet nolifes which seek to perfect their misadventure only with an aim of being able to express contempt with regard to the least worked misadventures, and to feel more extremely than others. Against this kind of individuals show-offs a term also exists: the " kikitoudur" , which nominates a person whose sex is drawn up to see how much it is powerful.

In the majority of the cases, the nolife do not have evil to be recognized between them and are supported mutually. Contrary, as everyone cannot follow the rate/rhythm of the " nolife" , " casuals" (occasional players) also can meet and form guilds together, but technically it is more delicate for them to gather, considering they are less present and have less availabilities.

See too

Random links:My neighbors Yamada | Goonies | Robert Burks | IJsseloog | Marco Randrianantoanina | Saint-Aubin-sur-Mer,_Calvados