Why are we playing, redux

Motivation was my point. We all have different counts in the categories. Yet, I think a category is missing.

I’m up in the WPL and Twink and I are killing . . . err . . . I long ago stopped paying attention to what I kill. I should, but I don’t. So, it’s an undead or it’s this or that. Really doesn’t matter to the simple mind of a dwarf warrior whose motto is, “Hit, rinse and repeat as required”

Well, we pull a large mob. And for the second time in as many hours, we are outnumbered and outgunned. I go to town trying to hold agro and Twink does whatever the hell he does behind me. I’ve played long enough with enough folks to see the difference skill makes. I’ve wiped on a mob this size with twice as many people. Yet, I know my jorb and Twink knows his and unlike me I suspect Twink knows my jorb as well.

And whenever I am about to die he gets my health up and if he doesn’t, I have the potion or the bandage ready. I watch his health and when it gets too low, I pull the baddie off of him or throw my own bandage on him. We both keep each other alive, though the credit is his far more to him than mine.

I think I probably have a style others have to conform to as opposed to compromise. Yet, I have always felt that was my jorb as a warrior. Aggro is my biddness and I get the first thwack regardless. How I hold it it and manage it is also my biddness, but this requires partners who understand that. I’m going to let some mobs chew on you while I chew up others, but I’m going to try and make sure they don’t chew you up too much.

It is a bit of an exercise in juggling. And for someone who tries to avoid direct leadership, is also a challenge. And there is not a lot of time to talk once I’ve screamed, “Remember the Alamo” and plowed into a crowd committing the party to a course they might still be discussing the merits of. Again, have to have partners who find that charming and not caustically annoying.

Back to motivation . . . Twink and I take down the mob and both of us were on sliver of health here and there, but we came out the other side and the sparkly things over the dead bodies were as pleasing as any forth of July celebration. I do not think I could have survived that pull with any other player . . . and that is a motivation for me to play.

But Yee’s, “Relationship, Immersion, Grief, Achievement and Leadership” don’t really cover that for me. It touches on relationship and achievement, but it is somewhere in-between. Having someone to hi-five and go, “Dude!” and “Damn!” with and knowing that moment was ‘real-time’ and unique . . . that is a big motivation for me in the game, but not exactly covered in the list.

And Dude, Damn!