I don't find myself wanting to blog about things other than theorycrafting very often, but I find myself compelled to say a little bit about motivation and success when it comes to raiding. Lately, I have had a lot of time off from raiding to work on other in-game achievements and I've had time to reflect on my raiding and my desire to raid.
Rewards. A great book to read about rewards is a book by Alfie Kohn, "Punished by Rewards". It's a book on the differences (and detriments) of intrinsic motivation and extrinsic motivational factors. I've recently asked myself "Self, why do you raid?" And myself answered "Several reasons, you silly myself! I raid for gear. I raid to win. I raid so that when people inspect me, they are impressed." So I pondered this and wondered if there was anything to the subconscious order of myself's response. Am I motivated by digital pixels that people can see and go "Oooooo!" or am I motivated by the challenge of the fight, the thrill of the struggle, the fast paced decision making, the jubilation of standing supreme over an encounter designed to test my skills and my groups synergy? The answer? I'm not really sure.
I found myself posting on my new guilds forums about achievements during fights. I posted strategy guides and video links of fights so we could progress. I did this so that the raids would go faster and more successfully. But did I ultimately do it so that we could start Hard Modes and I could get gear? Did I do it so that I would lead a guild into new content (to them) and look up to me? Again, I'm not really sure.
But I'd really like to hear from some of you. What motivates you in this game? Why do you log on to do what you do? Has that motivation been increasing lately or decreasing lately? Tell me!
Thursday, July 30, 2009
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5 comments:
For a while I was motivated by guild progression on the server. (I'm on Malfurion, on the Alliance side, in Unrest). The server was dominated by Horde guilds and I wanted to step up and show that the Alliance side didn't suck. At the very least, I wanted us to be the best we could be on the Alliance side while only raiding 3 nights per week. Now I think my main motivation is upgrading my gear.
Lately I have been less motivated. I think that is partly because we became the #1 ranked guild on the server, though only briefly, and partly because I don't think I'm going to be able to get any meaningful upgrades before the 3.2 patch. Why bother banging our heads against a hard mode if there is going to be a whole new level of gear available in a couple of weeks?
I've been playing since WoW launched, and I made my druid shortly after. She has cleared every raid since then, with the exception of the end of Sunwell. I leveled her up as balance before Moonkin form existed, when Hurricane was our 31 point talent. I love my druid and I love how far we've come and that I can finally play her the way I envisioned so long ago.
I've quit for a few months here and there, for college or other real life issues, but I'm still raiding. I like the guild I'm with, and I enjoy their company. I've been raiding as the only moonkin with them since TBC and I guess I like proving myself, and my spec. I've never had the best gear, but I've come close. My guild isn't hardcore but we attempt and eventually beat the hard modes.
I'm at the point where I'd love all the BiS gear, but I don't mind helping my friends get it first. :P
TLDR- Waiting for Diablo 3 to come out!! :P
I raid because I want to be the best damn bird, period.
I don't care about showing off my new gear, even though I want the best. I don't care about achievments. I don't care about mounts and pets, and gold.
When I run into another Boomkin, I'm happy. When I raid with other Boomkins, I want to out do them. And when I PVP against them, I want to totally own their ass.
It is very gratifying to me when I'm BR'ing to save a fight, healing when I need, Innervating the other caster peon's, cc'ing, and still being top 5 dps.
I want to do the bird proud because I never want to see the old days when Boomkins were avoided like the plaque.
Hoots is one CrazyFNbird
In the past my priorities have included upgrades, performance, boss kills and hard mode achievements. Recently there's been so much infighting over hard mode performance that raiding isn't enjoyable, and I suspect that is because the guild encourages those same motivations so much that fun has been forgotten.
I think my new motivation to raid must be fun first, and I'm changing guilds to find those fun raids again. Everything else becomes obsolete too quickly to matter.
Thanks for the comments folks. As my job focuses on being able to motivate students through challenges, I find many parallels between the tedium of school and the tedium of raiding.
@ Anon2: I think you're right about the eventual phasing out of motivations other than fun. Your motivation to raid dissipates if all you want is gear. Once you have the gear, what keeps you going? Having fun is one of those intrinsic motivations that not only keeps us raiding but supplies us with a healthy dose of dopamine. That's like an innervate for the brain!
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