lexcalibur's Blogs

When does fun turn into an obsession, and when does that obsession turn into a chore. Gamers are a resilient bunch, and through pure attrition they can achieve great things but when does this attrition start taking the fun out of gaming. From getting onto international leader boards, saying you maxed your stats on an RPG, to getting those treasured trophies/achievements. What's it all for?

Anything that requires growth or progression is open to this obsessive style of gaming. Runescape for instance; you can spend hours chopping wood...Who the HELL would want to do that in real life? Is that at all enjoyable? I can (to a degree) speak from experience on this one seeing I've managed to have what I would call an almost perfect game on Final Fantasy VII. All characters 255 stats for everything, strongest weapons, each with a full set of Master Materia (excuse the game specific jargon) That was well over 100 hours running in circles in one place. What I can tell you about this experience is...it was NOT fun, not at all. It was excruciating, like watching paint dry to annoying battle music.

Why then, as gamers, do we do it. Do I get money? No. Do I get international or even national acclaim? Nope. Do I get crowds of screaming fans? You bet your sweet a$$ I don't. When was the last time a person got a good job because they were working your way through their forth prestige, or when has a member of the opposite sex (or same sex if that's your thing) ever had a glimmer in their eye when you told them you reached level 70 in WoW (p.s If you're a girl who gets excited at this kinda thing, I went 37 and 2 in COD4 once...call me). Seriously though, for all our blood sweat and tears, we gain very little.

Now there is the exception of actual pro-gamers, the very rare cases where people do get paid for competitions and the like, but they are few and far between. The thing with these guys is that the maxim of gaming for fun and gaming as a chore still rings true. Now like anything else in life, growth in gaming is anti-exponential. So you learn 90% of your total skill base in the first few days , then once you get used to the mechanics you find ways to refine your abilities. It's this ability to break through that initial 90% that differentiates gamers and puts them on top. It would take 100's of hours to push yourself from a regular (yet still hardcore) gamer, to a truly brilliant, above the line professional and the difference between the top guys would be minimal. It's after 8 hours (everyday) of "training" on one game when I imagine it would be a chore.

Then there is the love'em, hate'em or flat out ignore them allure of Trophies/achievements. Me, I'm a hater I'm not saying they're a bad idea. Actually they have the potential to stretch out the life of the game significantly if you care about them. The reason why I hate them is that they are designed to bore you for the most part. Infamous for instance, Ride 25km on the rails...basically if you want this trophy you jump onto rails and do nothing for a couple of minutes, it's not fun, it doesn't make me better at the game, it's just tedious and annoying.

The point I'm trying to make, is that at the end of the day it seems to be a sense of self-fulfilling pride that pushes gamers to do these ridiculous things. The amount of hours it takes to carry out these medial tasks is awe-inspiring. Imagine if you put your time into something like physical activity, now I can only imagine that watching a small character chop wood on Runescape is about as exciting as running on a treadmill. Now imagine what would happen if you ran on a treadmill for three hours at a time. I'm not saying stop playing games and exercise, cause that would be horribly hypocritical of me, but imagine the possibilities if you applied the ability to carry out mundane tasks to something a little more productive.

To answer the question I posed in the introduction. What's it all for?...well if you ask any committed gamer they know exactly what it is for...To be better then the rest, to say you went further, played longer and achieved more. Because while the journey may seem painful at times the destination, or ultimate goal is what it's all about. That's why I do it, and that's why I imagine it's done all around the world.