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A Great Day of Cat Skiing
Snowcat skiing offers strong-intermediate and expert skiers the ultimate powder snow experience.
Operators provide full-service guided tours into remote high-mountain regions. Powder snow and “fresh tracks” are the norm. Uphill transportation is...
Golf Weight Training Is The Answer To Longer Drives
It is no secret that most of the male and female tour players who want to play their best golf, do golf weight training exercises. But it’s not the kind of grueling, sweating stuff you’re thinking about. There is a HUGE misconception of what and...
Help! My Kids are Overweight!
Identify the Problem and Find a Solution to your Child’s Weight Gain. If you have recently found yourself fretting over your child’s waistline, you are not alone. The youth of today are fatter than ever before, and parents are starting to panic....
How to pick an online sportsbook
This is a simple Question and Answer that tackles questions from How to pick an Online Sportsbook to What are some warning signs that my book may be in trouble. Q. What type of sportsbook is right for me? A. There are many very good books out...
The Fitness Benefits of Swimming
By Rebecca Blain of http://www.everything-swimming-pools.com There are many fitness benefits to swimming. By making it seem like the body weighs much less than it actually does, swimming is the perfect alternative for those who are not capable...
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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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