Everything you wanted to know about gaming, and less.

by Jamison DeLorenzo

Sometimes all you need is a little motivation. Even when your job is completely draining you and you have no mental energy when you get home to do anything but stare at the wall sometimes some slight motivation is all you need to do something you have been meaning to do for months. Don’t get me wrong, staring at a wall is a lot of fun and soothing and everyone should do it every day. The fact that I have not been in the mood to even look at video games at all in over 3 weeks has been consternation and I have been struggling to understand why. Wrestling with your conscience sucks.Okay, the fact that I have not written anything in 3 weeks because of a severe lack in downtime is also a motivator. In case you were wondering why I felt compelled to release an article in the middle of a week, there’s why.

In all fairness I know exactly what the problem is and have been unwilling to admit it for several months now. Like any addict in need of help it is time to face the problem head on. World of Warcraft has completely drained my willingness to play games. It’s a lot of fun to play, collecting gear, killing stuff- everything an RPG fan wants for online play (outside of a coherent universe). I regret none of the time I have spent playing this game. The problem is that after playing it for close to 2 years I really have to question what I am still logging in for. I’ve got multiple level 70 characters, a couple more in the 60’s, and have been into and through mostly every dungeon. Finding the motivation to play more is quite a struggle.

When I wrote about Gaming Connoisseur Detachment Syndrome and Adventurer’s Perfectionist Disorder I apparently knew more than I realized at the time. APD kept me playing World of Warcraft for such a long time that the tightly wound ball of perfection that kept me playing for so long finally unraveled. I want to keep playing as there are still plenty of different challenges left uncompleted (the APD side of the equation), but caring enough to complete them has not happened. The problem, once again, is motivation. It is comforting to finally know what my own breaking point is for such games.

Misguided or aimless motivation is much worse than no motivation, however. After discussing the intricacies of the gamer points systems for the current generation of gaming consoles there was one question that currently remains unanswered- what do these points really buy you? Can you use achievement points to retrieve prizes or are these points nothing more than a way for gamers to measure their egos? Do 20,000 online points make you a good gamer or does it simply mean you are a mindless points zombie? Granted, it is very comforting to know that Microsoft managed to create a system where people mutually started an arms race for points which has turned into nothing more than an inflated revenue stream for gaming rental outlets.

This point, by the way, needs to be the lynchpin for anyone who wants to write a gaming industry doomsday article. I’m not saying this just because I miss reading these silly articles either. The internet and housing bubbles have burst and there is a pattern to it. I’m not one of those people that looks to blame the worlds’ ills on Microsoft (the unbearable console hard drive is enough for now), but you cannot dismiss the effect gaming points have on rentals.

Incidentally, the virtual king of the mountain is an exciting event to witness. Honestly I am having trouble believing this is anything but a virtual Cuban Missile Crisis game. People are stockpiling points that, as of this point in time, they will never use. It’s not like you can unlock content or download special items if you have an obscene amount of points. I have about 2,000 and I’m already completely disinterested in collecting any more. Granted, there is no impending doom or worst-case scenario of massive fallout or a nuclear winter with online gaming points, but when gamers force themselves to play games of the Fusion Frenzy 2 variant. Note the word choice- this points race is viral and you need to understand that. Anything less than accepting this is… unacceptable.

Is there a challenge out there that is worth chasing? I have fun playing many different games, but when you feel like you are simply biding time until the release of a couple games for the PC can there really be any motivation to play what is currently available? This poses a major motivation threat to online games. You see the ticker on the clock for when you know you will stop playing the game, so is there a real point to running yourself into the ground when, after you leave, you know you aren’t coming back? Sure, online game developers have the great ability to add new levels of content to appease the hardcore player, but there’s only so much you can do to distract a gaming connoisseur before he realizes there are about 30 different games he needs to catch up on.

What the sickening part of the online points system is that I have been looking for ways to lay down may gaming credentials against everyone else. I’ve had a knack for racing games for a long time, and while both Gran Turismo and Gotham City Racing provide good challenges, GTR provides a great online challenge system up to a point. When the toughest challenges in a game boil down to can you keep your car in a skid for 5 minutes you are forced to ask yourself why you would be proud of being the best at driving like a complete moron. This is a challenge I’ve convinced myself that people in Rochester have an ongoing competition for (with the current winner being someone driving around half a mile in reverse on the highway in the middle lane because they missed an exit), but that doesn’t mean I want to enter my name in the running. Believe it or not, not all challenges need to be faced. This lesson is usually learned by the time you inflict massive amounts of damage during a psychotic bicycling or skating stunt or you realize afterwards you really shouldn’t have attempted. With any luck you stopped during the dares to eat certain spoiled foods… something those on Fear Factor never quite figured out.

But I digress. Yes, the game also has the multiplayer race challenges which do provide the exact challenge I’m looking for and I’ve done very well in those, but that challenge is quite old. It is very easy to find challenges in games when you look for them. I really need to ask myself what the happy medium is for me. I’m stuck with no motivation but fear the arms race of achievement points. What do I do?

The most troubling act is that I have locked myself into waiting for Hellgate: London, Spore (which forces me to consider making a one-time exemption to give EA money), and GTA IV. In the meantime I’ve reverted back to playing Sims 2 on the PC and Final Fantasy VI on the GBA. While I will defend those games to the bitter end as 2 of the top 20 all time games I still have games like several games on the bench with unresolved challenges. This includes completing Civilization IV and The Movies on the hardest levels (although I haven’t unlocked everything in The Movies on the lower levels), San Andreas (when the only open mission is gaining favor with a dominatrix to get into a bank vault- the quintessential example of no motivation), Final Fantasy XII (I have no explanation for why I don’t plug this game back in), NBA 2K7 (my franchise hasn’t run long enough to get my player into the Hall of Fame), PGR 3 (I don’t have all of Platinum Medals in the true racing challenges), and Crackdown (collecting all of the orbs can be an infuriating task).

On the plus side every Diablo II challenge was completed several times over, so thankfully there’s no going back to some games. What I have to realize is where that line is for online games much sooner than I already have.

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