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Help Is At Hand If You Are Buying A New Kayak
There are many companies you can buy kayaks from. But the best
one for most people is Coleman. If you're looking for a kayak,
then you will be able to find a Coleman kayak perfect for you!
Coleman is among the best kayak-making companies....
Hockey Rules in Real Life
"I went to the fights the other night...and a hockey game broke out."
--Rodney Dangerfield.
Every hockey fan has heard of Todd Bertuzzi. Bertuzzi plays for the Vancouver Canucks. Make that "fights" for the Vancouver Canucks. Make that...
How Power Play Golf Fitness Has Changed The Game
The sensational entry into the game by legendary golfer Tiger Woods, at the tender age of 20, introduced power play golf fitness into a game that had traditionally been looked at as a leisure sport where technique was much more important and...
Perform Better Golf Right In Your Home
To perform better golf, you need to take a different approach. I have seen and heard time after time how much money golfers will spend in hopes to perform better golf. But according to statistics, the average USGA Handicap hasn’t gone down in over...
TOP TEN Best NFL Players
Honorable Mentions: Randy Moss, Marvin Harrison, and Terrell Owens- Hard to select one and not the others, all are great players, but all also have questions Owens and Moss have character issues, Moss takes plays off, Owens will drop the easy...
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Why We Play Games, Part 1
There exists some ephemeral quality that separates gamers from the rest of humanity, some thing that makes us, us and them, not us. I've never been able to quite put my finger on it, but it is inescapably there. Today, in hopes of moving closer to that essential quality of gamerosity, we examine part of what makes us tick. In particular, we take a look at what draws different types of gamers to the hobby. Every gamer plays for different reasons, but there are common threads that tie the experience together.
Many gamers are motivated by the challenge a game can present. Success in a game may be governed by any of a wide variety of abilities. A First Person Shooter requires twitch reflexes, a steady hand and the ability to remain calm under pressure. A word puzzle game may require an extensive vocabulary and the ability to rethink the uses of old words, but no measure of speed. A sports simulation might well require an in-depth knowledge of the topic, in addition to arcade skill, but is unlikely to have terribly much concern for linguistic acumen.
The common thread is that all of the games challenge some subset of a player's abilities. This challenge can be a powerful motivator. The Challenge Motivated gamer is drawn to a game that tests their skills, preferably one that tests them to their limits. The gamer may also be motivated by the natural improvement that comes from working at peak. They are driven then, not only to excel, but to improve. Challenge Motivated Gamers thrive whenever a game pushes their skill set of choice, but may be
disinterested in games that fall too far away from the target.
Competition is a close cousin of challenge. Many gamers are driven by the need to prove they are the best, to be pitted against their fellows and come out on top. Competition minded gamers range from those looking for a challenge in a fair fight to the sort of win-at-all cost leet speaking infants that give us all a bad name. Competition can be easy to take too far. There is nothing inherently wrong with being driven by competition. To some extent, competition is merely challenge taken to the extreme. It is only when it leads to mistreating your fellow player that it begins to become less a motivation and more an unfortunate personality quirk. Competition Motivated players thrive on those games where they are pitted against one another with the outcome dictated by skill at playing the game. They will often wane in those environments that either require cooperation, such as many MMORPGs, or in games where skill plays a much smaller role, such as in less sophisticated card or dice games.
Next week we will take a look at some other common gamer motivations, including Creativity, Escapism and Social Interaction.
About The Author
Steve Hall is a member of the GrandMatrix team. They provide a broad range of games, puzzles, articles and reviews. Read more articles, download and play the latest PC games for free plus enjoy thousands of user submitted puzzles, quizzes and word games at: http://www.grandmatrix.com.
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