Progessive Gaming Doesn't Progress Gaming

People play games for multiple reasons. Some see gaming as just a hobby to help pass a little free time while others see it was a more serious, competitive "sport". Some use it to relieve stress while others use it to escape a harsh reality. Some prefer easy, pick-up-and-play games while others prefer games with depth and complexity. Despite what one might play or might enjoy, one thing that many people might have in common is the fact that they honestly own more games than they've beaten.

This generation has offered plenty of great games with some amazing experiences. With better visuals and developers dipping deeper into wanting to continue creating memorable games, the question that floats around is "why?". Why is it becoming so difficult for gamers to actually finish their games?

An an article from January on 1up mentioned a couple common "excuses". For some people, things such as work, school, or family takes away from their time. This is both believable and understandable. After all, with the way things are now you have to work your fingers to the bone in order to just get by. For some people- such as the man in the article- games have become more like baseball cards; people buy them for the sake of showing them off and saying they own a certain hard-to-find title but leave it sitting on the shelf instead of enjoying it. Not only that, but most people say that the variety of side missions or side quests games might offer helps them lose track of what they were doing. Thus adding on to taking away the bit of time one might have to play.

However, one thing we cannot deny about this generation of gaming is the increasing amount of shorter games. Perhaps this is the developers' ways to helping busy gamers manage the bit of time they have, but needless to say, games honestly don't require much time to complete anymore. Sure, there are games that might have quite a bit of content to them but the average game nowadays can be completely within ten to twelve hours. Even with someone who has a busy life, if they played just an hour a day- or even every other day- they could finish a game within a month. So time honestly isn't as big of a factor as people make it out to be.

Some other excuses might include not being able to remember what you were doing when you turned the game off two months ago...But even this problem has a fairly easily solution. Most action games or shooters are fairly linear and straight forward. Most of these games offer markers on the maps or objective lists that help gamers keep track of where they might have left off. More games offer the ability to restart levels, in order to give people a chance to "replay" a certain part without having to restart the whole game if they truly cannot remember what they were doing.

So then why is is hard for gamers to finish a game? My theory is that it's the lack of satisfaction that is filled through online gaming. Does this mean that single player games are dull or boring? No, of course not but single player doesn't have something that multiplayer games do have- interaction and constant progression.

At times single player games might feel as if they go on for ages. Progression comes in the form of seeing the story unfold or seeing a "mission complete" screen. The frequency of obtaining Achievements or Trophies begins to die after a few hours into the game as they become harder to grasp. Multiplayer games, however, offer constant interaction with others.

This interaction brings a feeling of satisfaction as people comment on your progress. When you do good and people either send you messages or say to you that you're excelling at the game- maybe it be a round of Call of Duty, helping a party in WoW, or even just helping a friend through a co-op game - your self-esteem rises; you develop a feeling of pride and satisfaction that you do not always receive from a single player game since no one is there to pat you on the back.

You are able to show off your skills in online games by not only allowing people to see you in action, but also see your past accomplishments. More and more multiplayer modes in games are leaning towards having some sort of leveling system. These systems allow you to unlock better gear or weapons as well as give you a rank that always appears by your name. Being able to display your ranking and unlocked weapons only allows you gloat about being good enough to get them.

Perhaps this is why so many people are finding themselves letting their single player games sit around as they find themselves spending all their free time continuing to rank up points online. Maybe this is why some people say they can never since a simple eight hour game; but are able to reach high levels in MMOs and are able to dedicate enough time to them to receive hard to get items. In a way, you could almost say that for some people, the need to play online games becomes an addiction....Maybe because that little boost is what they feel they need in order to get through the day or a sucky life.

Now, naturally I am not claiming this as a fact; this is simply a food for thought based on some observations I've made not only of myself, but of people I know and reading things on forums and sites. I'd like to look into a bit farther which is why I wrote this. For those of you who claim that you hardly ever finish most of the games you buy, ask yourself this: Do you spend a lot of time playing multiple player modes or MMOs instead? And if you do, then why? I know that I tend to get a bit more entertainment from playing with others over playing alone because sometimes I get bored playing alone and other times I do enjoy hearing people say things about me doing well.

Anyway...Let's see what some thoughts are about this. Please share them.

For Honor or Bragging Rights?

Tonight myself, my boyfriend, and a couple friends all got together on Live to play Call of Duty: World at War. We were playing Team Deathmatch and needless to say, we weren't really playing seriously. Of course we were playing and trying but at the same time, we're cracking jokes and going on random stories; basically just having fun because so what if we win or lose, we still enjoyed the round. However, our fun was ruined by some cheap ass moves from the other team.

Constant camping, shooting rockets in close quarters, walking around with mounted torrents...All of these are, of course, in the game and strategies you can use, but they're pretty cheap. After being mowed down round after round, we became frustrated and pissed. Not because of losing, but because we could hardly even play without being killed within a few seconds of respawning.

None of this is new though to the world of multiplayer gaming. People always find ways to "cheat" by either finding ways to get out of maps or into hard to reach places where its almost impossible to shoot them. Or they use the same cheap fighting move over and over again in a row to win. Or they use the same cheap weapon every time they play. Or they drive around in a vehicle just running people over.

The question I am asking here with this is: Why? Why do people feel the need to be cheap in multiplayer games? Why do people feel the need to cheat? Why do people feel the need to always win and always be the one with the most kills in order to enjoy a game? Why do people become so dedicated to a game? I understand that winning is fun and that doing something first makes you feel special; it's always nice to get a pat on the back for doing something extraordinary or very well but no game should be worth sacrificing fun just so you can feel like a big dog of the pack.

Perhaps they find it to be fun but when in multiplayer you have to remember that everything isn't about you. I don't mean to sound like a sore loser or like I'm bitching that people are better than me because I truly am ok with getting my ass handed to me by someone who's actual good at the game; not someone who thinks they're hot **** for shooting two rockets down a hallway. Cheating and being cheap is, well, rude to others trying to play the game. No matter how many rounds you win, you're not going to get any award or money from it so why ruin other's experiences for your own gain?

When did competitive gaming go from being who is best to who can find the cheapest trick the fastest? This brings up the question as to where is the line drawn. Of course the developers put those weapons in the game and of course they designed those levels to allow for sniper camping. So naturally, we're allowed to use it and are encouraged to use. However, there seems to no longer be a universal understanding as to doing what in a game is considered 'wrong' and what is considered 'right'.

I can recall from my earlier online days where if people felt someone was being cheap, they'd call them out on it or ask them to take it easy, but that quickly went away as the community seemed more acceptant of cheapness. It seem everyone's minds shifted from "Oh, that's not cool" to "Well, everyone does it so I will too". I know that I stopped playing Halo 3 because of all the corners people would cut just to get kills. I got sick of all the rockets or people hiding in corners with the Gravity Hammer and then slamming anyone who walked by. I got sick of people not playing the game.

I know that there's no solution to this. No matter how many times or how many people shake their fingers and say, "You should be ashamed of yourself" isn't going to change anything since this generation has a 'well F you then' attitude. So I'm not asking people to stop, even though I would love to be able to play a round without cheapness, but what I really want you to do is answer my question: Why? Why do you do it? What do you gain from it?

Which brings me to another similar topic: being first.

Earlier tonight, before playing Call of Duty, when I was hoping back and forth between my Rogue and Death Knight, I saw that the Achievement thing popped up congratulating a player in hitting level 80- the game has been out since Thursday. I did /whos 80 to see the list of other level 80s and there turned out to be about ten of them with the first person hitting level 80 in less than 27 hours of Lich King's release. It takes enough experience to get from level 60 to 61 to make me roll my eyes and my level 70 guild members have been complaining about the experience needed to get past level 70. They've been playing pretty regularly and have only hit maybe level 72.

While the person hitting level 80 way before I ever do doesn't affect my game, I (and other people in my realm) couldn't help but have WTF looks on our faces. I really want to know...Was it worth it? I can only imagine how much time they had to spend at their PCs (and I'm sure that some bot might have been used too- again which brings me back to the topic of cheating the system) to hit the maximum level so quickly. But in a game that tries to encourage doing things as a group, was it really worth running out in from of the pack for? Was it worth giving up the sleep or possibly doing something with someone just so a little message saying you were the first whatever-race-class to hit Level 80? What do you gain from it?

But my thoughts don't end with WoW, what about other games? Just how many times to people rush through games quickly beat them within the first day or so that its released and then go onto forums or blogs or sites and spoil it. Is it worth hurrying through a game, possibly missing details or not getting full enjoyment out of it for yourself, just so you can brag that you beat it? And then possibly completely ruin it for someone else? What do you gain from it?

I'd like to think that no one's life is so pathetically depressing that they always need to be the top player or the first to complete something just to make themselves feel better. It wouldn't strike me odd if the first level 80 was reached within a week or two of regular playing. It wouldn't bother me if I was dying constantly because someone was really good at a game. But what do you gain from cheating or from ruining a game for someone else?

I'd really like to know.