Gaming Goals Aren’t Fun For Me – Blaugust 2
342 words.
I’ve noticed over the years that a lot of bloggers post their gaming goals at the start of every month. I’ve always found this both fascinating and puzzling. I myself can’t think of a time when I’ve ever made long-term planning goals for any games I’m playing.
My goal-all the time, every month, every day, every time I log into any game-is to experience something fun or interesting or entertaining or challenging or surprising.
When I think about strategizing my time in games, it sounds like work to me. Planning and scheduling and project management are the things you do in a job, sitting in a cubicle in uncomfortable business casual attire, when someone is paying you for your time. I don’t particularly want to bring the working world over into my games if I can help it.
That’s a great way for me to lose interest. If I had to plan and organize to play a game, I’d drop it in a heartbeat.
One exception just occurred to me: My Dark Souls Remastered Casual Nostalgia tour (plug!), which I planned rather extensively. But in truth I was planning the video series, which is a creative work, a sort of unpaid job. In that case I got enough satisfaction from the finished product (which actually isn’t finished yet) that I didn’t mind the “work” involved.
I do like to note my progress in MMORPGs, though. I have been known to keep a spreadsheet of my daily status in Final Fantasy XIV during the times I’m really active. And I very often take screenshots at every character level up.
I should stress here that I don’t mean to say that setting goals is a waste of time. Planning and measuring progress is incredibly useful for maintaining productivity over long-term projects.
I guess some people innately enjoy the planning process as if it were a game itself, but for me, at least, it’s not very fun.
Photo is an industrious squirrel trying to get into a squirrel-proof back yard bird feeder, taken in 2007.
Archived Comments
Jeromai 2018-08-02T16:11:15Z
By nature, I like planning and setting goals about as much as inventory management, which is to say, not at all. If I could just meander off into the horizon chasing something shiny and stumble on something cool, that’s pretty much what sates the explorer part of me.
I am, however, forced to admit that I can’t get things done in the above mode. I get -other- unintended things serendipitously done, but not things I’d also like done done.
Ultimately, I have to sit down, get organized for long enough to check off a bunch of the stuff accumulating over time before I can switch back to being all carefree and spontaneous. Each time, it’s a little painful, tedious and mildly agonizing process of clarifying ambiguity and making decisions and organizing things and tasks into lists and categories and finding appropriate places/homes for them, and then remembering to review them regularly enough until it’s all done. There are a lot of adjectives I can use for this process, but “fun” is not one of them.
I really am curious about how the planner/scheduler types see the world and why the process is so enjoyable for them.
Bhagpuss 2018-08-02T19:02:23Z
I love inventory management, both in games and in life! Getting back to the actual point, though…
I generally only set extremely short-term goals, again in gaming and in life. And I only set rough, approximate ones at that. I might have a vague plan to do a couple of hours work in the garden one day next week, say, or to try and do a few levels on a particular character, but I wouldn’t get much more specific than that. And chances are I would either change my mind or forget anyway.
On the other hand, with the way dailes work in most MMOs these days, I don’t need to plan. I do the same thing every day anyway…
Chestnut 2018-08-03T03:58:54Z Oohh, thank you for the post idea! I’m one of those folks that likes to do goals, and I think it’d be neat to delve into why. :)
Blogging idea generation #BlaugustReborn | GamingSF 2018-08-03T07:12:54Z […] rarely do review posts (I’m not alone), some people do them monthly, I usually do an annual one nearer New Year’s Eve. I have on […]
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