Wednesday, July 20, 2011

Input Needed!

I'm going to have some extra writing time next week, I hope (horde of cousins-in-law at the beach houses permitting), and I hope to be tackling an idea I've wanted to delve into for rather a while.

But before I can write it, I need as much input as possible from as many readers as possible.  So please: retweet this one.  Share the link with your buddies.  Ask around and see if you can get anyone else to answer.  Twenty responses are great; a hundred are even better.  And there are no wrong answers.

I want to hear from everyone, from the 40-hour-per-week WoW raider to the sudoku-on-my-commute iPhone owner to the once-a-week tabletop gamer.  There are no wrong respondents.

So here's what I want to know from you, fantastic readers:

Why do you game?

Each of us has a different reason for being into games, and each of us has different game types.  Do you like competition?  Solving puzzles?  Escapism, but more interactive than TV?

When you're playing, what really gets you going?  Is it the thrill of the chase?  The satisfaction of thinking something through?  Overcoming a challenge?  Sharpshooting?  Putting yourself into another role?  Getting to experience a story?

I don't want to influence any of the answers, and I need to leave myself an intro for my post, so I'm not going to give my full answer right now. ;)  But by way of example, I will give one of my reasons: I like feeling clever.  I like it when a game lets me solve a puzzle of any kind, be it Peggle or Portal or Phoenix Wright.  I like a chance to flex my brain and to come to my own conclusions.  So that's one of the reasons why I game.  (There are more.)

What are yours?  Let's hear them!  I want to get a really broad array of opinions.  And if you'd like to answer the question but for some reason feel uncomfortable leaving a comment, feel free to drop me a line at any of the contact options over on the right. 

47 comments:

  1. There's a few different reasons, for a few different types of gaming.

    I game (DnD), because I really enjoy having a night once a week to be with my friends. I also enjoy telling a story (I'm acting DM right now) and watching my players experience it and mold it themselves. The telling a story aspect also applies to games like Sims.

    I game (racers, ie Mario Kart) to zone out, and to feel effortlessly good at something. My mom used to say that she enjoys mowing the lawn because she didn't have to think about it and she could think. I feel the same way about Mario Kart. I've played enough of it over the years that I don't think about it. My thumbs do the work, and I can zone out and think. If this were anything but a gaming blog, I don't know if I could admit that, because I think it sounds strange.

    My favorite games though, are RPG's. I love those because I love living an epic story. I get to see a new world, meet people and build relationships.

    I might also note that I'm a writer, hence why I think telling stories and living out other stories attracts me like a moth to flame. :)

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  2. One of my favorite games is sporcle on my ipod.  It's a distraction that causes my brain to think. I like the challenge of having it be timed, the proof that I know my pop culture epherma, and the satisfaction of a 100% score. Also, because it's timed, it only takes a couple of minutes, so it doesn't take over my life.

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  3. I game simply because of a many reasons. Escapeism during a workday which I play lots of mobile games, plus most of them are fun. Another reason; games are using your brain to think a lot which I like the challenge i.e. Portal, Uncharted. And games are great socializing with people off or online i.e. build friendships. withought games my lifestyle would have been different not for the better.

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  4. I game for many, many reasons: a means of escapism or mindless entertainment (PvZ, DoodleJump, most FPSs), a way to interact with friends (L4D2, D&D, Munchkin, poker nights), and a way to stimulate myself (Brain Age, Portal, chess, Wii Fit.)

    Other times I'm looking to immerse myself in a story. I love books, but sometimes I want to be part of the fabric of the narrative (FF7, Chrono Trigger/Cross, [formerly] WoW, Deus Ex, Thief.)

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  5. Some games I play because I want to create and develop characters: like RPGs and the Sims. I like pretending to be people and figuring out their stories.  
    Other games are about getting my brain to experience something weird. This is why I play art games. 

    I think everything else is because of the feeling of exploration and discovery. This is why I love Zelda games, for example, and why I enjoy some of the rare shooters that I like. 

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  6. For some games, it's the feeling that I pulled off something complex, like combos or special moves in fighting games. When I was a wee lad, the shoryuken was a really tricky maneuver, and I still feel a bit smug when I can hit a jumping opponent with it.

    Sometimes it's the story that sucks me in, as in the case of RPGs. It's not just that it's a good story, though, but the feeling that I'm actually participating in and affecting what happens (even games on rails can provide this illusion, if they are done well).

    For multiplayer games (of any stripe), it's the camaraderie. I'm not particularly good at racers, but they can be a blast when played with friends. Tabletop games are also good for this.

    Speaking of tabletop games, I love being able to tell a story, as the DM or as a player. I like collaborating with others to create a big world.

    When it comes to games like Diablo or Borderlands, there's something about the repetitive gameplay that is both relaxing and stimulating, largely due to the steady stream of new gear raining from the sky.

    I recently started playing Infamous (got it free due to the PSN outage, woot!). So far, I really like it for the simple fact that all the climbing and jumping off of buildings makes me feel like a total badass. Pure escapism, there.

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  7. Mostly to relax & unwind, but also for a sense of achievement that isn't always available in "real life".   Especially in an economy where career and wage advancement isn't particularly likely - but even in a normal economy where, from one day to another, I'm doing pretty much the same damn thing every day and not "accomplishing" anything particularly satisfying.

    This is possibly why I mostly focus on rpgs & mmo type games.  Generally, unless the game is terrible, I get up from a session feeling like I "accomplished" something, even if that something is as mundane as gaining a level or just moving through a story arc.

    Sometimes I play competitive games (pretty much only League of Legends), because I do enjoy a more involved level of gaming once in a while, but I'm not a big fan of the feeling I get when I only had time to play one game a night and it was a painful loss.  Maybe if I was teamed with people I knew/on vent/something and that made even a losing experience more fun.

    I also really like 4X & RTS games (used to like RTS, lately they haven't been doing much for me aside from SC2 - which I actually played for the story more than the gameplay), and I'd wager that those fall under "sense of accomplishment" gaming as well, but I also like designing things (cities, planets, units) and enjoy the various ways the hidden numbers work together.

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  8. It depends on the type of game.

    Racing games and precision platformers, for instance, because of this sense that you have to do things perfectly to succeed. It's as though it satisfies this need to be good at something whenever I do succeed, despite both these types of games often being quite frustrating.

    RPG's, action adventure, shooters, or any type of game with a well defined "universe" I play for escapism. It's nice to be able to lose oneself in some fantastical, improbable world and its story. Mass Effect 2 is a perfect example of this - in real life I lead a fairly unexciting existence, and in this game suddenly I suddenly take on the role of this military bad ass leading a mission to save the world. What's not to like?

    And then of course you have the less complex games: flash games, tetris, etc. Those are simply a fun little distraction when I want to do something mindless. Tetris and similar games are oddly soothing.

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  9. I don't really know why!I like a lot of strategic board games but it's hard to get the time & people together for one, so I do solo computer games instead.

    I like really gentle, repetitive, storytelling games where I get to set my own objectives - Sims, Pikmin, Harvest Moon. Part of it is that I can play for 10-15 minute and then go do something else, so I'm usually doing 3 things at once - listening to something, playing something, and parenting or housework.

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  10. I've written a longer post about this, but here's the TL;DR version of the various reasons that I game:

    I like crunch and puzzles, and seek out games that have them.  I'm an introvert, and gaming is soothing, it provides me with problems that are tractable, when the problems of my life aren't always tractable.   

    I also like the social aspect of games (even though I'm an introvert!).   I like doing stuff in a team, and enhancing the team.   

    I'm a frustrated actor.  I like creating a character and projecting that character.   This comes out more in tabletop RPG, but some in MMORPG's.  

    I like being creative, whether that's finding a creative way to get through DDO's open-design dungeons (there's more than one way to solve it), or figuring out just where to plant my cities in Civ, or doing Sim City or figuring out what I'm going to do in Eve Online.

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  11. I game because life is too short.

    I want to be a surgeon, I want to be a plucky lawyer, I want to be a goddamn Space Marine. I want to fly a spaceship and manage an empire and escape from the ruins of an insane corporation and fight the forces of evil. I contain multitudes, as the saying goes, and not all of them are always satisfied with being a sysadmin (which is just a game anyway).

    I can't do all those things because, besides the fact that some of them are impossible, there isn't enough time. To be good at something, to really accomplish things in the real world, you have to commit yourself, focus, and iterate. That's its own joy but it takes exclusivity. You can't commit to everything, so I do a few things for real and I want to do more for pretend.

    I definitely enjoy other forms of entertainment like movies/TV and books, but experiencing someone else's story isn't the same. My agency just gets turned off being passive isn't the same as being something. So I game.

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  12. I think I mainly play to have experiences that just aren't possible in the real world - either because they don't/can't exist (something like Mass Effect or the Witcher) or something that is too dangerous/expensive to do in real life (Forza, flight sims, etc.).   Story and character interactions are great too - currently playing Alpha Protocol and while the action part of the gameplay isn't that great, the characters, conversations, and story are really engaging.  

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  13. I game for three primary reasons.

    It allows me to cope. I have depression and some unfortunate living situations and gaming has helped me stay afloat. Though it's also a bit of an outlet, since I get really, really into the games and let off some steam.

    It allows me to bond with friends, whom I talk to and play with regularly in multiplayer games.

    It satisfies my insanely competitive spirit.

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  14. I have no predominant game field I play more than other. Usually I choose the game itself not its genre.
    So I play & have played a lot of different franchises: Mass Effect, Battlefield, Dead Space, Fallout, Halo, TheSims, Resident Evil, KotOR, Gears of War... are some of them that come to my mind right now.

    Why do I play these games?
    Difficult and broad answer it has. Depends on the type & genre of the game and singleplayer/multiplayer experience. Impossible to make a general reply that includes all the cases. So I am going to focus in three games: Mass Effect 1&2 (altho ME1 I haven't finished yet) and Battlefield 2.
    I love the Sci-fi title because of his realism; as referring to physical phenomenon as emotional side. The first is a feature I appreciate much in a game, especially in a Sci-fi game but devs usually don't care.
    I don't see reflected myself on Shepard but she's my heroine; I don't want to create a black/white character but a grey personality (goodness, badness.. all is relative) and that connection between Shep & me is possible because of excellent built the game has.

    By the other hand, the reasons because I play Battlefield 2 are totally opposite ME's: I am looking for having a good time. I want good gameplay; there is no story behind. I want to fight against other players, defeat other players, work as a team with my mates and improve my ability and stats. I want to demonstrate to others how much good gamer I am.

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  15. I've always preferred to game with others, but I've rarely had others to game with. I have a hard time investing in single player experiences [particularly finishing them], even though I try a lot of them, because I have a difficult time enjoying anything I do alone. It all just starts to seem meaningless after awhile.

    I became addicted to MMOs in middle/high school [mainly Everquest], and I enjoyed them for two main reasons: 1) Concrete tasks lead to concrete rewards with right and wrong answers. It's appealing to me in the same way mathematics is appealing, for the elegant simplicity of achievement unmarred by the gray morality and inherent imperfection in "the real world." 2) I can play with other people, serving a valuable function and augmenting their abilities/success which in turn augments my own. It's the sort of thing I'd love to do in real life, but I'm not quite there yet professionally.

    More recently, I've enjoyed played cis females [as in letting myself instead of castigating myself for how wrong the rightness felt] because they let me be closer to my ideal self. Increasingly, as I become more comfortable with my actual self though, male characters don't bother me *as* much. But it's still a refreshing change all the same.

    Finally, I have a bad habit of buying games [cheaply on steam] because of their potential ability to be played with others, not because I actually have people lined up. I think it's because I just want others to play with me that badly. I derive the meaning in my life from others almost exclusively, for better or worse, and my absolute most transcendent gaming moments are when I am working in concert with individuals I know towards a common goal.

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  16. By your definition I do not game, I don't think. I do crossword puzzles online, and Sudoku, and the games that come with Windows machines: solitaire, free cell, and my latest addiction, spider solitaire. Once in a blue moon I'll play bejeweled on some pop site.

    I do it to numb out. It's like booze but without the hangover, and once I manage to tear myself away, after an hour or more at times, I can still function.

    I don't think it's healthy -- that's me, not anyone else. When I sit at the edge of the vast universe that is Gaming, it just looks like a black hole into which I would fall and never emerge.

    So I don't go there.

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  17. I haven't thought out why I videogame.

    But if you bring in tabletop games...

    I play tabletop RPGs because I love improve acting and tactics.  It's also nice to hand craft an alternate persona for yourself that starts to feel real -- not just a gary stu (though wish fulfillment is certainly part of it) but someone with their own quirks, motivations and mannerisms, often very different from me.

    I GM tabletop RPGs because I love telling an interactive story.  I love adopting the guise of various NPCs and I love building a world that feels real to my players, whether it's a fantastical variation on Late Medieval/Early Renaisance Europe or Civil War West Virginia.

    Also, it's a great social activity with some of my close friends -- we play the game, share drinks and BS during the downtime.  A lot of my current friends (as well as my spouse) are people that I got to know during one 5 year long roleplaying campaign that I GMed.

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  18. Solo games: For the rat-bar pellet-dispensary. Endless small accomplishments dispensing endless small rewards. Grinding as joy.

    Co-ops (RPGs and thematic Board Games like BSG, Space Alert, & Arkham Horror) Teamwork and bonding. Over longer campaigns, Storytelling with close friends over years and years.

    Head-to-heads (PvP and Warsim Boardgames): Controlled outlets for competition. I intensely dislike poorly designed war-sims because they make one or more players feel like they wasted an entire night for nothing. But a good sim game makes people enjoy the tense odds and generates stories in its own right.

    Quick Duels (Cosmic Encounter, Magic: The Gathering, Dominion, Go, Tichu): Ruthless (yet not brutal) competition in a very compact package, permitting multiple games in one sitting. Fun to experience and puzzle out the random possibilities within an understood rules framework. And if random luck dishes an impossible hand, the next game starts soon.

    DISLIKES (in all games): The brutes, bullies, and prima donnas who must "win" at all costs. Turn-1-kill deckbuilders in casual Magic. People who fume at good plays by their opponents. People who try to boss everyone around in a co-op (which makes the best co-ops ones where people can't do this bossing around). I can accept this perfectionist drive in solo gaming, and do appreciate a ridiculously overpowered "win" over the NPCs, but other people deserve better, and I will quit gaming groups that don't police poor player behavior.

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  19. I never considered myself a real gamer because I lack real gaming skill such as the ability to think logically, strategically, and I also do not have fast and rapid reflexes, that can make gaming very satisfying when doing awesome jumps and moves. This lack of real skill and my natural inclination to be less then clever and very impulsive, was brought home to me when playing such tried and true franchise such as Mario, specifically Mario Galaxy I & II which I truly enjoy. I struggled mightily trying to get stars and unlock new worlds, but rapid reflexes and problem solving are things I struggle with.
    Despite this, I am generally fascinated by the genre and I am very wistful of those who can almost balletically field through Portal and Mass Effect with such apparent ease. I spend a lot of time reading about and watching other people play and process games that I probably will never play. Even though I don’t like first person shooters, I am fascinated by the Bioshock franchise (looking forward to what Levine will do with Infinite) and although I don’t have the systems to play them, I generally obtain enjoyment watching others navigate this dense, dark, eerie world with a philosophical twist.
    At this time I am struggling with Epic Mickey on the Wii yet, I enjoy playing a lot of PopCap games such as bejeweled twist and bookworm. Despite not having strong skill, I enjoy games that involve unlocking new worlds, characters and situations. I enjoy games in which there is a goal or quest, and appreciate highly imaginative game play and creativity which is why I find first person shooters vaguely unsatisfying. I like to be wowed by unusual and beautiful graphics and simulation and I want to feel like I am doing something meaningful with game play. I really enjoy being transported to another perspective and playing in that world.  I do wish that there were more characters that I can relate to as a minority, but because I am extremely visual myself, it can be a struggle to find that perfect game that can marry real life, beautiful graphics, and ease of technique.
    Lastly I am less interested in online games that require cooperative play. I like to be in control and since I am solitary by nature and not a skilled gamer, collaborating with others can be difficult. I do wish that they had a world building game that was easy to manipulate, was visually striking, world building, and had a dramatic story line for solitaries, . I was tempted by the upcoming platform game The Secret World—signed up and took the test and everything., but it looks like a FPS that requires that you already have an establish cadre of friends with good gaming skills already, so I am not sure that it is worth getting invested.
    All in all, I am a wanna be gamer. I enjoy the genre from the peripherals, but not the skills necessary to really dance. That’s OK, I like playing bejeweled twist on my DSi XL.

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  20. I never considered myself a real gamer because I lack real gaming skill such as the ability to think logically, strategically, and I also do not have fast and rapid reflexes, that can make gaming very satisfying when doing awesome jumps and moves. This lack of real skill and my natural inclination to be less then clever and very impulsive, was brought home to me when playing such tried and true franchise such as Mario, specifically Mario Galaxy I & II which I truly enjoy. I struggled mightily trying to get stars and unlock new worlds, but rapid reflexes and problem solving are things I struggle with.
    Despite this, I am generally fascinated by the genre and I am very wistful of those who can almost balletically field through Portal and Mass Effect with such apparent ease. I spend a lot of time reading about and watching other people play and process games that I probably will never play. Even though I don’t like first person shooters, I am fascinated by the Bioshock franchise (looking forward to what Levine will do with Infinite) and although I don’t have the systems to play them, I generally obtain enjoyment watching others navigate this dense, dark, eerie world with a philosophical twist.
    At this time I am struggling with Epic Mickey on the Wii yet, I enjoy playing a lot of PopCap games such as bejeweled twist and bookworm. Despite not having strong skill, I enjoy games that involve unlocking new worlds, characters and situations. I enjoy games in which there is a goal or quest, and appreciate highly imaginative game play and creativity which is why I find first person shooters vaguely unsatisfying. I like to be wowed by unusual and beautiful graphics and simulation and I want to feel like I am doing something meaningful with game play. I really enjoy being transported to another perspective and playing in that world.  I do wish that there were more characters that I can relate to as a minority, but because I am extremely visual myself, it can be a struggle to find that perfect game that can marry real life, beautiful graphics, and ease of technique.
    Lastly I am less interested in online games that require cooperative play. I like to be in control and since I am solitary by nature and not a skilled gamer, collaborating with others can be difficult. I do wish that they had a world building game that was easy to manipulate, was visually striking, world building, and had a dramatic story line for solitaries, . I was tempted by the upcoming platform game The Secret World—signed up and took the test and everything., but it looks like a FPS that requires that you already have an establish cadre of friends with good gaming skills already, so I am not sure that it is worth getting invested.
    All in all, I am a wanna be gamer. I enjoy the genre from the peripherals, but not the skills necessary to really dance. That’s OK, I like playing bejeweled twist on my DSi XL.

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  21. For puzzle-like games (Tetris, Text Twist, crosswords, etc.), it's because I really, really like solving problems.  It's something I do at work all day (in a completely different context, of course), but then I come home and I still want more.

    For RPGs, it's mostly for the feeling of being immersed in a story; for a game I like, it's pretty similar to the way I feel when I'm engrossed in a really good book/movie/TV show.  They also let me indulge my packrat instincts; I like going through with a walkthrough and getting 100% completion.

    Oddly, the effects don't really "stack" for me, though; I like RPGs with puzzle problems, but not any more than I like puzzle games or RPGs.  Though maybe I just haven't found the right one yet.

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  22. I game to relax.  Sometimes "relaxing" means "blow things up/shoot mans", sometimes it means "no brain required/easy difficulty," often it means "explore." 

    3 things I don't usually like:
    1) Multiplayer
    (except very occasionally with friends who are physically within speaking
    distance)  (I'm super introverted, dealing with people is not relaxing)
    2) Not feeling like I have control over what is happening (I don't get the attraction of Peggle at all)
    3) Not having a goal other than "keep going" or "get a high score" (for example, Bejeweled is okay as a timewaster but gets incredibly dull after a short period of time, on the other hand, I will play Puzzle Quest or Dungeon Raid all day because I have something I am trying to do)
    I was going to add that I don't like games that are
    super hard, but then I remembered how much I enjoy roguelikes
    even though I don't ever get past the first couple of levels... I guess
    in that case my enjoyment of exploration overrides what would normally be frustration at the difficulty
    level.  On the other hand, if there was a game I thought I'd like but find too difficult, I'm perfectly happy to sacrifice the interactive aspect and just watch the cutscenes or a Let's Play instead of actually playing through it myself.

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  23. I think there's a couple of reasons why I game, beyond the simple answer of "It's a way of killing time, that is more entertaining than TV"

    In a lot of games, I like to collect stuff.  Especially if that stuff gives more power to the character.  Either experience to level up, or new gear.  I'd hazard a guess this is a motivation for a lot of people, since every game seems

    I also like the feeling of doing something amazing, a match where you take out half the enemy team.  Or in a single player game, slaying a big dragon.  Or a MMO, slaying a big dragon with 40 people.  I guess that'd count as escapism.

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  24. Apart from my love of fishing in Mulgore, I game--principally through Warcraft--because doing so enables me a chance to live a little more fully in another world than most novels I read. For a little while, it allows me to escape somewhere and engage with other people who also welcome--for whatever reason--an escape to a different realm with different forms of social capital. :)

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  25. I game to hang out with my brother. We've been playing L4D2 and DFO a bit, and a little bit of TF2 as well. Gaming and eating are pretty much our main bits of interaction.

    When I game on my own, it has partially been for story: I really enjoy RPGs, but I think also accomplishing things. Much like with pokemon, I think I have this thing for collecting things and that include skills, upgrades, and sidequests when I have played RPGs. I don't really like grinding, but I like being unnecessarily overpowered when I play.

    I guess part of it is out of obligation. I've only actually beat two Zelda games (Twilight Princess and Majora's Mask) though I've played all of them, mostly because I've felt obligated to. The 2D Zelda's I was simply bad at, while I hated traveling in Windwaker and the Shadow Temple scared the crap out of me when I was a kid. I enjoyed them, and it certainly didn't feel like a chore, but there was definitely a sense of "so what is this all about?"

    I play mindcraft because it let's me play casually. I can easily leave and go back when I need to. There's no story, so I'll never have to go back to the beginning to figure out what happened. My main issue is that my laptop sucks and I can't enjoy the multiplayer aspect of the game all that well. And the multiplayer asect is definitely what pulled me to that game.

    So summary, social interaction, story, and mild OCD

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  26. I too like the feeling of being smart. In the past I've usually played sim or JRPG-type games, or puzzle games, but I've recently tried platformers and action games and I think they're satisfying in a different way. When I beat a boss on Zelda I get a real "Yeah! I beat it!" feeling. With puzzle games it's a similar feeling of triumph, but without conscious mightiness.

    I love that other people can make worlds and I can explore them in-avatar (not really in-person I guess). To me, games are like the opera of interactive works: with the talents of many artists, great awesomeness is possible.

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  27. I agree with your third point. If my goal is to get a high score... why bother?

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  28. Most of the time, I prefer games with a puzzle
    element. When I game, I typically just like using my brain to
    accomplish something – to solve a puzzle, or finish a level, or find all of the
    X things in the bonus level, or whatever. I don’t get obsessive about finishing
    games in a set time frame (or sometimes even about finishing them at all - I'm kind of famous for playing a game up until the final boss and then stopping), but I love the process of working through different puzzles/tasks. Like others have said, completing tasks and beating levels makes me feel kind of smart. Along
    those lines, I rarely ever cheat on games.


     


    I'll also play other types of games - SimCity, Bejeweled and the like, and MarioKart. The Sims games appeal to my creative tendencies, I think - I like to create a world. Bejeweled-type games are just time-wasters that appeal to my obsessive tendencies. MarioKart is a social event for me - I'll load it up to goof around with my husband or friends. Mostly, though, gaming is a solitary thing for me.


     


    I guess, looking at my preferences – I game because it gives me a different, yet active, way of using my brain. I like problem-solving, using logic to solve puzzles, and ticking off a list of tasks. Gaming lets me do those things.

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  29. I like stories, especially grand epics, and I think video games are the perfect medium for telling them because they're interactive rather than passive and fluid rather than static like movies or novels. In some games (Fallout, any BioWare game) I have a role in crafting the characters so I care more about them. In others (Left 4 Dead 2, Arkham Asylum) I have a role in keeping them alive. To my taste, games largely replace the need for adventure/fantasy/action/sci-fi movies and novels.


    Also, they're cheaper and easier than cultivating a social life. 

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  30. FYI I deleted your duplicate -- not because anything's wrong with the comment, but just because it appeared twice.

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  31. I play WoW, and that's about escapism a lot of times.  Sometimes after a busy week I just need to turn my brain off and kill some internet dragons.  But I'm also a member of a roleplaying guild and I very much enjoy both the stories in the game, through quests, and the stories and interactions we have as a guild.  I also met some of my best friends through another guild I was in a few years ago.

    JRPGs are something I enjoy for the stories, the music, and the visuals.  I also like racing games and games like Katamari Damacy because they're fun and easy to become good at.  Guitar Hero is harder to be good at (pretty hard for me, really!) but I like the songs and I like being an awesome rockstar.

    For casual games I like stuff like Angry Birds, Bejeweled, and Wordfeud.  It's something I do for stimulation when I have some downtime, and I like the strategy involved.  I don't usually like games that don't get me to think at least a little bit.

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  32. When I was younger, I'd usually game for the sake of escapism -- primarily RPGs and FPSs. I'm a novel reader and an adrenaline lover and a little OCD. That's a perfect storm when it comes to certain games.

    Now I game primarily as a distraction for my brain as it solves other problems. When I realize I'm stuck on some creative problem in my work (or, less often, an emotional/social issue in my personal life) I need to take my conscious mind out of play, so to speak, and let my subconscious chew on things. Gaming is the perfect solution: it's a spectacle in the classic sense so I have a sensory distraction, and it engages my creativity (and sometimes makes me think about social issues, as with the Mass Effect and Dragon Age franchises) or gives me an adrenal boost which eventually passes and leaves me calmer (i.e. Halo or Left For Dead series). It can also get a little tedious and repetitive, as though I'm on a long run. Consciously, I'm ignoring my problems, but somewhere inside I'm working on them. It's like being in a dream state, or putting something in a crock pot to cook all day. When I come back to my problems, I can usually solve them right away.

    I might be the only person in the world for whom a day of gaming and a nap can make them *more* productive, but it really does work for me.

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  33. I might be the only person in the world for whom a day of gaming and a
    nap can make them *more* productive, but it really does work for me.


    I started playing Tetris while stuck on term papers back when I was 15 and the habit's never left, because I find the same thing you do: it frees up the part of my brain that's dealing with that problem by focusing some other part of my brain on an easy to solve problem.  These days it's usually some quickie PopCap title rather than Tetris but it's amazing: writer's block all night, play Peggle for an hour, go to bed, sit up at 6:15 a.m. and write 1500 perfect words before it's even time to take a shower.

    So: you're not the only one!

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  34. I thought I would be able to answer this question easily because I've been gaming for so long, however it is that reason why it's actually difficult! Because a console and PC have been in my life for as long as I can remember, it's hard to contrast what video games do for me as opposed to a time when I didn't have them.

    I've always liked storytelling, and interacting with characters. My dream since I was little is that I can change the world and I matter, and games can fulfill that feeling for me. Because of the immersive nature of games, I think that they can easily rouse feelings, though I especially like it through the narrative. You care about the story and characters more because you are a part of it,  instead of merely observing; the game can't go on without you.

    I feel like it's also fair to share what it pushing me away from gaming. Games seem to be getting into the rut and following the models of well selling games, lessening the differences between them. Games are more and more requiring me to summon adrenaline and my fight/flight responses, and I can't handle too much of that. I'm uncomfortable with games always having the feeling of "you are in danger, someone is trying to kill you, run run run fight fight fight." It makes me wonder if there can be another focus of games except for expecting the player to be violent and need to escape physical harm.

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  35. First, a caveat: it's hard to pin down a single reason I play games.  I won't approach Thief the same way I approach Dragon Age or Rebuild; they each tickle a different part of my brain.

    However, besides just being my chosen primary form of entertainment, I find the main reason for playing games nowadays is that I'm interested in the medium itself.  I'm interested in how games deal with interactivity, and what different kinds of experiences this allows.  I'm interested in how games, a traditionally nonlinear medium, deal with issues of narrative.

    It seems that, while other popular media like novels, movies, and (to a lesser extent) theatre have established their rules and determined the ways in which they work well, games still have a lot of territory yet to explore, a lot of time yet to figure out what makes them tick.  This is probably due not only to their relative youth, but to the sheer variability in their construction.

    Does that make my interest academic?

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  36. I play mostly adventure games because I love the unfolding of the story. A great game, to me, has a lot of puzzles you have to think your way around paired with a great plot. I like having an bottomless backpack and trying to figure out how all of the apparently useless items I've acquired are going to help me out of tricky situations later on.

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  37. I don't do a lot of gaming. I use a simple app on my smartphone - jewels. It's mindless, and I have it on 'perpetual' so if I'm blocked it just sets up a new puzzle w/o clearing the score.

    I do it for maybe 5-10 minutes here and there, usually when I'm waiting on a bus or in for an appointment. It keeps my 'puzzle mind' working and i can be thinking about other things while I'm waiting.

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  38. because i can, and because it's fun.

    or, put slightly longer: i game sometimes to relax, sometimes to be thrilled, sometimes to laugh, sometimes to escape, sometimes to challenge myself, sometimes to compete, sometimes to socialize, sometimes to immerse myself in a story, sometimes to fit myself into a world, sometimes to kill time, sometimes to kill, sometimes to think, sometimes to fly, and sometimes to be a jedi.

    it all depends on when, where, why, and with whom.

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  39. I game because I enjoy solving puzzles, I like graphic design, and I want to prove to game companies that there is a demographic that enjoys challenging but fun games of all types.

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  40. Also because my friends game.

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  41. I've been gaming since I was 2 or 3. My dad had one of those old clunky computers that they were getting rid of at his office. Big floppy disks. Bushido, some sort of caveman game etc. I had a Nintendo and such but I've always been a PC loyalist. It's not until I got older that I discovered adventure games. Adventure games spoke to me because of my love of puzzles and talking to people, figuring out their stories. People tell me their life stories on the bus and train all the time and I listen. I'm not impatient. I love storytelling above all things. I've never been into guns or cars so most popular games just passed me by. Outside of Fifa, all my games growing up were adventure games, starting with Atlantis 1 and everything Cryo and Sierra and Lucasarts ever did. Eventually, I ran out of adventure games because they stopped making them. That's when I discovered stealth games. Thief and Deus Ex etc, tell the sorts of stories I like to hear.

    I think I game for two reasons. One, to kill time. And two, because the sorts of games I play give me the same pleasure as reading a book. Shoot em up's don't feel like a book to me. I'm not quite sure why. 

    D&D's different for me. I wasn't tight with the nerd crowd in high school so though I've always wanted to play, it's only recently I've had the chance. I love it now. Now that I'm reasonably experienced and have a handle on all the books, I feel like I've suddenly been given access to all this arcana that I can put together in all sorts of ways. That's a whole other sort of thrill.

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  42. I've been giving this some thought recently, actually.  Portal 2 has helped me realize that while I enjoy solving problems and overcoming challenges it's not always enough to get me to come back for more.  About a year ago Demon's Souls reminded me how much fun exploration can be.  I don't know when I got away from it, but I hadn't had a game that rewarded exploration so much in a while.  GTA and such try to do it, but they've never really engaged me.  The early game in Civ IV is great for exploration, but it usually lasts less than half of the game.

    Warhawk, Team Fortress 2, Left 4 Dead and other multiplayer games have shown me that I really enjoy competition and teamwork in games.  I play Rock Band because I love how it lets me get inside of the music, how I feel like I know the songs better than I ever could just by listening to them, yet I don't have to learn how to play scales or actually learn real cords.  Rock Band is also like FIFA or NCAA Football in that they're games I play with other people in the same room.  

    Those are some specific reasons I play games, but I'm having  a hard time articulating why I play games in general.  It's some combination of the above along with a need to blow off some steam and just to fill the hours.  Buy why games instead of learning an instrument or going for a run or taking up wood working or something?  I don't know really, I guess part of it is nostalgia for the nights I'd spend on my basement floor with Final Fantasy and Kid Icarus and Super Mario as a kid, part of it is just that it's easier than learning a new hobby, and part of it is just that that's what my friends and I do and what we talk about.  

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  43. I thought about this, and wrote an answer, but it turned out to be way too long for a blog comment.

    Short version:

    Different reasons for different types of games: socializing with friends (board games, tabletop RPGs, online gaming), problem-solving (pretty much everything), exploration & experiences (open-world games, tabletop & electronic RPGs), intellectual interest in being part of the growth and evolution of a new art form (video games). But above all else, I love stories, and the games I love best are the ones that enable me to experience a story in a more intimate way than books or movies can, because they make the player an active collaborator in creating the story.

    I posted the long version here, if you want the gory details.

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  44. I get really sucked into good narrative RPGs, for which the appeal is surely escapism.  I can also enjoy games like Halo and MarioKart, for the social and competitive aspects, but I never play games like that solo.  Periodically I'll space out on things like Sims and Angry Birds, where I find the repetition relaxing, but the enjoyment on those is very episodic.

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  45. A lot of reasons, but probably the major one is the exploration. In MMOs I'll range far and wide way underleveled just to see what's out there. The first achievements I made sure to get in World of Warcraft were the exploration achievements. In free roaming games I'll spend most of my time just running/flying/whatever around the map to see what's there. Stories are exploration as well. Just like I want to see what's out there, I want to see what happens, how it all turns out. Game systems can be explored and their bits and pieces discovered like discovering new territory. 

    I love Civilization because I can create a whole new planet to explore, and make a whole new history of the world. The new Fallout games I spent hours and hours just running around seeing everything I could see. I love the Final Fantasy games because nearly every one is a totally new world to explore, and often a new system to explore. I've gotten sucked deep into Terraria because not only can I generate any number of totally random and huge new worlds I can explore, I can reshape those worlds as I see fit. I'm a sucker for all the alien vistas and architecture art directors throw into their games. It's travel, often to places you can't ever actually visit. Time travel without a TARDIS. World travel without spending money I don't have.

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  46. This question prompted existential angst in me because sometimes I feel like I'm not supposed to be in this world of gaming because I'm not "into it enough".  When I play tabletop miniatures or D&D, I am not the rules monkey.  I want to stab/blow things up.  And I want to do it fast.  I don't want to have the optimal strategy that I've carefully computed out.  I want to play a cool character with cool moves or an army that swoops in and causes mayhem.  Part of gaming is aesthetics for me.  Definitely in RPGs, tabletop or computer, I want a badass woman that I get to pretend to be - someone different than me, quicker to decide, quicker to take action.  Maybe it's because I spend all day making tiny decisions to figure out the best course of action that I really don't enjoy doing it on my off hours.  But, still, if you give me a puzzle game, you won't see me for days until I finish.  The nice thing about puzzle games is that there is an answer, and if you work hard enough, you will find it.  Wish the same could be said of the real world...

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