Goals, Gaming, Benchmarks, and Life

I'm not fully sure why, but my mind at the moment as turned to a matter of goals and progress. I think about it more frequently in terms of games, but it applies to real life just as readily. A person with a goal is driven toward completing it. I've seen those who just attended fighter practice out of convenience and camaraderie and those who actually want to be a knight. In the former case, there are vague remarks about completing armor. In the latter case, they simply do it.

Game designers have come to understand this process, especially in the MMO years, though there was some move to that beforehand. More powerful abilities and equipment lure players to spend time completing objectives that may have nothing to do with the main story. "Perfect" completion of goals might unlock new costumes or levels. Increasingly, there are "achievements" in games that server little or no mechanical purpose save bragging rights. Designers know that the existence of such things will drive some players onward. The most addictive and compelling of games manage to lay forth a variety of benchmarks that appeal to a range of people.

And on that note, I suppose World of Warcraft needs mentioning. It's got a lot of things that appeal to me in this regard. It also has a lot of things that don't. There's enough of the former, though, that the latter doesn't really matter to me. So my characters, while gaining levels, are advancing in gathering and crafting professions, earning reputation with factions, and doing other things. Some of the goals seem far away, but few seem insurmountable (except maybe clearing 25-man content with my play-with-friends attitude). Another aspect of this is that I can work toward accomplishing these things. By comparison...

I still play Guild Wars once a week. Campaign completion is something of a vague goal yet. The title tracks... well, most of them do little or nothing, so they don't appeal to me. I don't really want to gamble/blow lots of money on lockpicks trying to get a slightly better change to keep lockpicks - that seems self-defeating. They didn't really get these "right" in my mind until Nightfall and Eye of the North, where some title tracks actually give a bonus. There was a particular Factions-campaign skill I was after for a while, right up until I realized it would take something like ten times as long as I initially thought to acquire. The problem with the few things I do want to accomplish in the game is that I don't get to. I'm theoretically working toward completion of the Prophecies campaign when we play together, but so often we're backtracking to catch up guildmates who missed a week or two that actual progress is seeming something of a myth. And so while there are some goals, they feel unattainable, and I find myself caring little about the game.

On FurryFaire, there's been a plotline initiated that I actually wanted to get involved in. For a week, I've not been able to for various reasons (including, but not limited to, another plotline taking precedence a night or two). Unable to make any progress, my interest has waned and I'm once again feeling pretty "meh" about it all. I think plots will work better in general if people can be made to want to do something (or if they already do) than if they are simply forced to deal with a situation. Even if the players are really being reactive, they'll be more interested if they at least feel like they're being proactive. And I suppose that's a difficult thing to manage with a varied player base like that.

And I suppose I would be remiss if I didn't come full circle. My life, when I step back and look at it, feels hollow. In large part, I blame this on not having any real goals. Other than making ends meet and eventually paying off my mortgage, I really don't. Marriage doesn't "accomplish" anything in my mind. I don't have any desire to have children. Personally and professionally, I am really pretty comfortable... except when I actually stop and think about my lack of forward momentum in any direction. My lack of goals and purpose bothers me some, yet not enough for me to make any serious life changes or seek out any. I suppose the games are a surrogate for such things in my psyche, giving me something to think about other than aimlessness. There are many who would argue that's bad, and yet I don't really seem to be missing out on anything that's important to me. If there were something, I'd be able to go after it instead.