I couldn’t help but steal my title from an Alfie Kohn book that delves into the results of reward driven motivation versus intrinsic desire. This concept (maybe even philosophy) is tied very closely to any voluntary act. Why choose to do the things we do? Nobody is forcing the millions of players that play WoW to log on, so why do we continue to log on? Moreover, will those factors that get us into our chairs for hours of raiding ever reach such a diminished point that we will no longer find the reward worth the effort expended researching fights and pouring over combat logs and loot lists? Let me break down some of my initial stances.

Intrinsic Motivation

Intrinsic motivation is motivation that comes from within. Embodied by doing what you want because you want to do it, intrinsic motivation often acts as the most powerful motivator for many individuals. Players with intrinsic motivation to play will continue to play irregardless of gear or boss kills. They don’t mind farming for days or weeks. They don’t need to see all of the content of the game because they aren’t logging on to beat the game. They are logging on because they want to spend some time in their virtual world playing their virtual hero. For them, that is enough. Everything else is just gravy!

Extrinsic Motivation

This is the proverbial carrot on a stick. Sometimes a task is only worth doing if there’s something in it for you. Who cares about the trip when there’s a destination. The majority of competitive progressive raiders fall under this category. Gear, boss kills, server rankings, hell even world rankings drive these players to repeat battles to a point where tedium barely begins to express the repetition. These players are fiercely loyal to the game until the carrot disappears. Then they often find themselves “burnt-out” or “disenchanted” with the game.

The Battle of Motivators

I wouldn’t be surprised if you’ve nodded your head to what I’ve said above, as it is all pretty self-evident in my opinion. Here’s where things get interesting. Extrinsic motivation decreases intrinsic motivation, even if we like doing what we’re doing. At some point in time, the carrot overpowers our internal desire to do whatever we like. Yes, this is a blanket statement and yes there are exceptions, so consider it a generalization.

Now, consider the nature of WoW’s reward system. You are rewarded for completing the same quest every day through financial means. You are rewarded by engaging in and successfully completing battles through gear and achievements. You are rewarded for tenaciously seeking every quest in the game through achievements. There are even rewards for battling and defeating other players that can only be achieved through such actions. Everywhere you turn in WoW there is a positive reinforcement waiting to pat you on the back and say “Great job!” This sort of extrinsic motivation begins to eat away at our desire to play the game for the sake of the adventure. We start logging on to kill X boss who drops Y loot so we can better our virtual selves.

Penalty System

So WoW rewards the crap out of you. How about negative reinforcement? Well let me say that had I written this before ToC came out, I would have been full of blood, piss, and vinegar. Now I’m probably less acidic. The penalty system in WoW has been slowly decaying since the launch of the game. Players don’t like to be penalized for dying. They don’t like having to travel long distances to complete quests or even switch zones. Players don’t like spending all of their gold repairing their gear. But is not liking something reason enough for developers to cave to every whim? Spirits move faster now, travel routes have been reworked, hearthstone cooldowns reduced, more portals implemented, faster flying mounts, the list goes on. Even repairing gear has become a trivial matter. I repair and spend 60 gold with a shrug. Hell, I don’t even care if its with an exalted vendor. Dailies make that kind of gold a drop in the bucket and easily recoupable.

The advent of ToC tribute runs has brought back the penalty system in what I feel is an appropriate way. A penalty system should not discourage a player, but rather encourage a player to excel. The ToC tribute system does just that, placing the emphasis on the quality of an attempt and troubleshooting between attempts as opposed to raw attempt numbers hoping that everything will click together after enough chances. Players are honing their individual skills in an attempt to complete the tributes in as few attempts as possible. This penalty system encourages players to take more care and better their individual efforts.

Should Players Be Penalized?

It’s tough to say yes or no to this, as penalties and negative reinforcement both can deter players from attempting parts of the game or cause unrest. I do feel that there should be a separation of tiers. I also feel that the defining factor between seeing these tiers should be skill, not time. Granted, a minimum amount of time would always be required, but that should not be the single defining factor between an endgame raider and a casual player. The term “casual raider” should not exclude a player from downing Yogg or seeing Algalon, yet it tends to do just that. Raid lockout extensions do allow a casual player to artificially bolster their “weekly play-time”, and in some ways I really like the concept. But that’s a work-around for the real problem: Content takes too much time for a casual player to consistently clear. Even when I was in my former guild pushing server firsts, we took multiple nights to clear Ulduar. I see this as an unfair penalty (a caste system based on playtime).

Get ready to hate me. I’d love to see a death timer with upwards of 1 hour times. I’d love to have to pay for lodgings or earn them in some manner. I’d love to see travel time at least remain the same. I want to see less gear, less epic, less rare. Rewards in WoW are starting to lose their glamor for me. And I think it is due entirely to the over-abundance of rewards. Bring back some punishments, bring back the grind. Sure I will complain, but in the end, I'll be all the more proud of my accomplishment as it becomes non-trivial. This is exactly why I am working on the Insane achievement. Sure, I probably won't finish it in time, but I have put in many hours and invested lots of gold to seek out an accomplishment that is not your average accomplishment.

I see now that I have wandered well off topic so allow me to conclude by simply asking every player to evaluate his/her motivation for playing and if the "hardships" they endure while playing are frivolous or amplifiers to the accomplishment beyond. Happy gaming you psychological puppets!