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What are your primary gaming motivations?


Fabulously Olivier
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What is most/least important to you?  

42 members have voted

  1. 1. Most important gaming motivation(s)? (Select all that apply)

    • Challenge
      27
    • Story
      32
    • Roleplaying
      17
    • Exploration
      21
    • Expressing Creativity
      16
    • Relaxation
      22
    • Cooperation
      7
    • Competition
      5
    • Rewards/Progression
      14
    • Empowerment
      6
    • Other
      2
  2. 2. What are your least important motivation(s)? (Select all that apply.)

    • Challenge
      9
    • Story
      4
    • Roleplaying
      2
    • Exploration
      3
    • Expressing Creativity
      4
    • Relaxation
      6
    • Cooperation
      10
    • Competition
      29
    • Rewards/Progression
      9
    • Empowerment
      16


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Why do you play video games and how does that influence your gaming choices?

 

My most important motivations are story, roleplaying, exploration, creativity, relaxation, and empowerment. This lends itself to my favorite genres being roleplaying games (especially JRPGs) and power fantasy games (Diablo, Dynasty Warriors, etc.)

 

My least important motivations are challenge and competition. I'm far less likely to enjoy competitive multiplayer games or games that are sold on difficulty. No difficulty settings = no buy.

Edited by Etheus
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Beside creativity the most important motivation for me is getting my mind off other things, which I guess counts as relaxation?

All of them apply at least a little bit though, but competition the least. I like a bit of friendly competition, but too much takes away from the relaxation and such.

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Mine are challenge and story. I enjoy difficulty, though poorly designed difficulty is annoying. Most of the time I go for self-challenge as well, limiting myself on purpose or holding myself to a standard while playing. Story, for story-oriented games, is a large chunk of my enjoyment, though I don't think I'm harsh about it. I'm fine with most of the rest. I like competition, and even seek it sometimes, but I like co-op and stuff too.

Empowerment and exploration are the least important to me. I don't really need a game to give me a sense of empowerment particularly. Perhaps I get one anyway via most video game settings or by beating challenges, but I don't mind getting my ass kicked. Exploration is fun in some games, but I just feel like a lot of the open world sandboxes that encourage exploration do it poorly and soured my opinion maybe.

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14 minutes ago, ciphertul said:

I full on agree with the OP, I love to immerse myself in a game and forget the worries. Honestly my second playthru of Trails of Cold Steel was the most fun I’ve had. Breezing thru it was just a blast.

I think my enjoyment of games just went up in general after I adopted a "no one cares how good I am" approach. 

 

No one cares if I beat Devil May Cry 5 or Jedi Fallen Order on its highest difficulty settings, and I'm going to enjoy myself a lot more on the lowest ones.

 

And it's true. Bragging rights are shallow. No one cares that you beat Sekiro or Dark Souls, except for maybe yourself. And if you do not care, what's the point in having a worse time?

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17 minutes ago, Etheus said:

And it's true. Bragging rights are shallow. No one cares that you beat Sekiro or Dark Souls, except for maybe yourself. And if you do not care, what's the point in having a worse time?

Yup, to quote a certain someone “Git gud is all well and good, but only if your having fun getting good”. That is generally the motto I go by.

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I like a good puzzle (challenge), I like a good excuse for the puzzle (story), and this is my idea of fun (relaxation).  Puzzle-solving usually doesn't lend itself to competition, though!

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The problem with the competition aspect is that it kinda takes the fun away from the game and can become toxic and exhausting. I used to play Dota, and while the game is fun, dealing with 9 toxic people isn't

 

My main reason for gaming is usually challenge with fun gameplay. Story comes 2nd, but isn't thaaaaaaaaaaaat important, unless it's a very story focused game

Edited by Shrimperor
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  • Challenge is important to me because of that satisfaction of overcoming something. I completely agree that nobody cares how well I do on the hardest difficulty of some single player game. If I listed out my greatest gaming achievements in this regard, I wouldn't look cool, I'd look like a dork with nothing better to do with his life. But the goal isn't to flaunt my skills to other people, it's to get the feeling of having practiced and improved at something. When I'm out there still struggling to understand basic things like shopping, or expressing what I'm feeling, It's nice to know I'm good at something - even if it's something that only I'll ever care about. Games give you infinite chances to improve while real life just doesn't and it's kind of intimidating.
  • Co-operation is important to me because I just wish more games emphasized it in their multiplayer modes. I jump at the chance to play games with friends. I enjoy some competition now and again in fighting games - since they always place players on pretty much equal footing, but the best fighting game experience will always be doubles in Smash. Saving your buddy from an edgeguard or combo, Improvising a sick combo in a 2v1 situation, and then playing back the footage on clips and replays. Good memories.
  • Rewards/progression is probably the same things I said about challenge. The feeling of getting somewhere. If the progression system of a game is bad, it's hard to care about getting further. These days, there's a lot of MMO and mobile type games with bad progression meant to influence a player to pay up some additional cash. JRPGs tend to have bad progression these days too. Still incorporating rare drop rates 30 years later or gacha mechanics even though they don't even have the option for micro transactions. Maybe it's just me, but I don't feel accomplishment through just being lucky.
Edited by Glennstavos
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By the way, expressing creativity can manifest itself in many ways as it applies to gaming. I listed it as one of my motivations because I enjoy games with deep buildcrafting and tons of visual and mechanical character customization. 

 

It could also mean you like building stuff, ala Minecraft. Or any other outlet through which your imagination is the content. This isn't my cup of tea, as I suck at building, but it's clearly a very popular motivation.

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Creativity, first and foremost. Although I enjoy a good challenge or a good story, I mostly just value being able to express myself and do things I want to do and have a good time doing it.

But honestly just... beyond that, fun factor overall is just very important to me. Good feeling controls, enjoyable gameplay, and such. I really don't mind if there's little to no story and such if I can just enjoy myself. Not that a good story doesn't improve the experience for me, but it mostly immerses me outside of the gameplay since I tend to take things like story in after the fact rather than during. While I'm playing, the story doesn't really matter to me as much. Challenge is also something I do appreciate but it doesn't really drive me as much, especially when many games I like tend to have challenges which end up reducing your variety of viable options and methods of play which is something I personally don't like.

I do also really like relaxing through games, it's pretty much my main way of doing so.

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1. Challenge, Exploration, Progression

My favourite genre is "2D Metroidvania", from which in recent times we've seen an abundance of (much to my liking). Couple it with RPG elements and a healthy challenge and viola, you have my gaming motivation right there.

I like when numbers rise and bars fill. Just the sound of a level up and popping stats is sooo satisfying (when playing Fire Emblem, for example).
Filling in a map, discovering all the secrets is also great. Or fighting a hard boss being underlevelled. 

Games like Igavanias or the Etrian Odyssey Series fit my bill perfectly. 

Progression is equally important. Getting to know the in and outs of a battle system, mastering a character in a fighting game etc. is what I would consider the essence of gaming and a feeling that no other medium can provide.

2. Story, Competition

Story is just a bonus for me. It's the least important element, easiest to ignore if bad.

I don't play games to compete. Like 90% of what I play is single player or co-op with the occasionally mixed in couch Smash Bros. or FIFA. High scores maybe are another beast. I kinda like beating my own high score  and it was fun beating each other record in Donkey Kong Tropical Freeze on another forum I frequent but it's still far from being a primary motivation. 

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Story and role-playing, in the hopes of shaping stories and roles within myself to share one day in the future.

Games with competition often devolve to repeatedly doing the same thing over and over with no narrative, no start or finish. Thus even something as lovely and hype inducing as Smash Bros. for me, after a while I just have to drop it like I would anything else. I don't stick around long enough to hone such skill. Nor do I have the mind set for it; ultimately I want to do what I want with the hope it works, but to compete you must do what is best and show restraint with what you want because of what your opponent wants to do. But I respect the people who thrive on that dynamic of conflict and problem solving.

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I'd say Story (when it's a story-heavy game, of course), Challenge (most of the time) and "Empowerment" (in the sense of feeling accomplished after beating a challenge or seeing that you've become better at doing something).

Challenge is what piques my interest the most in a game. I expect it to have a gameplay that is hard enough for me to pay attention and think about ways to use what it gives me to my favor. I'm interested on the rules and objectives of the game.

I don't know whether rewards or empowerment fits better, but I like when I recognize I got better at a game by beating some boss or reaching some threshould. I like to put my own skills at test and see myself improve or be challenged by something.

Challenge and Rewards/"Empowerment" are overall what interests me the most in general games.

Cooperation and competitition are the things that interest me the least in games. I don't want to compete against other people - I'm happy enough to compete against myself or between friends or a small group. Cooperation is also very situational and I only have preference for it between friends.

Edited by Rapier
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I would say challenge, but it does not translate into its being "hard." I want to feel a credible threat and find ways out of it, but not something tedious or mainly punishing. I find it boring and discouraging if I can become so powerful that I can one-hit many enemies or take no damage.
If the gameplay is engaging but on the easier side, I can impose myself some challenges. If it is too easy or easily broken, I look elsewhere.

Say, I do not get the logic behind grinding in RPG's. Balance it! Either make the boss fights easier or expand on the story (so that I gain more levels through the flow of the game), just do not make me go around in circles to get bigger numbers and then face the boss with the exact same mechanics that I would have seen hours earlier. What is the point?! It does not make me think, I am simply more powerful.


I love 2D Metroid games and like the Y's series, so I could add exploration. But I grew up playing platformers at the arcades. I am fine with one-hit deaths, little story and short playing sessions. I also like puzzles, like Lemmings or the Mario vs. Donkey Kong series, and puzzle-platformers like Gris. I know that Advance Wars is a tactical game, but I play it like a puzzle. Same goes for Fire Emblem; I focus on its maps and gameplay.

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On 2/27/2020 at 8:02 PM, Etheus said:

If there is enough grinding that auto-battle is even wanted, the game is irreparably (and likely intentionally) broken on a fundamental level.

don't u diss dragonquest like that.

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My life's been so crazy as of late that video games have become more of an escape than a hobby if I'm being completely honest. Multiplayer also been a big motivator since I love playing with my brother. Story is my only point of disinterest because I can get much better stories from movies and books, game try their best, but in my experience they've never reached the narrative highs of other mediums.

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