What keeps us playing?

I am an avid gamer to the point where I consider myself hardcore. I remember playing final fantasy 7 4 times because it was such an incredible game. Hitting level 99 and making sure every hit I landed was 9999. The amount of work it took to get the summon "Knights of the Round" was silly. When Halo came out me and my friends would obsess over that game and play non stop multiplayer sometimes til the sun came up. I ended up buying a second x-box, second copy of the game, and owning about 7 controllers for that system just to get an insane multiplayer round going.

When a game has the ability to grab me it grabs on and doesn't let go. I have a very obsessive personality when there is a goal I usually think about how to plan my free time around how to get what I want.

What is it about World of Warcraft that keeps us playing? When I started playing the game back in Christmas of 2004 I was still very noobish on how MMO's worked. I remember running around Northshire Abbey on my Paladin and being so excited to see a grey mail boots drop off a lvl 4 mob and equipping them because they gave me more armor then I already had. You could imagine how I felt when I got a green which actually had stats on it. It didn't matter if it was a cloth robe with +1 spirit it was still an upgrade. As I gained levels I felt my attacks get stronger and stronger. The trainer always had something new for me every 2 levels that made me wanna just play a little more to get to the next level.

Blizzard has done an amazing job in making the player feel more powerful and rewarded for accomplishing things in the game. Running through Darkshore I felt like I had taken down one of the most powerful creatures in the game when I took down Morbent fel. I got up into the high 30's and could just feel how close I was to begin able to ride on a holy Warhorse. Being a paladin, the game made you feel special even though they were probably one of the slowest classes to level once you got into you 40's.

I eventually ended up leaving Warcraft in April of 2005 because I could see how my obsession would hinder my schooling. I was a senior about to graduate and I had a lot of clinical time to finish up. I knew if I continued to play the game at the rate that I did i would probably run into some issues especially int eh department of sleep. I was able to see a potential problem before it arose but how many people out there weren't able to make that distinction? Even is people saw the amount of hours logged in did they just not care and continue to play? We have all had those nights where we just wanna get in 1 more heroic, or kill 1 more boss in the raid before we were willing to call it. We all know how it felt the morning after during work sleep deprived but knew we were gonna do it again the following night.

So what is it that keeps us playing? In the beginning it was exploring new places, getting new loot, and i think for most people it was seeing those bigger crit numbers. That's what starts it all off but that only gets us so far. Once you hit your late teens you start getting quests for dungeons you can't handle on your own. Somebody is broadcasting to the zone that they need a few more for deadmines so you decide it would be great to try out this group stuff. You start clearing out the trash and you start talking about random stuff. Every so often you wipe and sometimes people get angry and start yelling at each other.

You start interacting with different personalities and you start getting in game friends. The next time you log in you might get a whisper from one of the people you played with before and start questing together. Those friends might be in a guild and they tell there guild leaders to invite you. Now you are in guild chat talking about random stuff and finding groups becomes a little easier. You develop a close relationship with these people and everyone starts hitting the highest level and everyone wants to start raiding. You now have a vested interest in how well your fellow guild mates perform. If they do well they help you acquire the epics you desire. If they were great as a group of people to bullshit with but not so good with getting together to kill bosses you decide to put an app out there into a guild who shares the same goal as you. You develop a new family and learn all the new personalities. They learn who you are and start relying on you. You show them you play well and they get sad when you won't be able to make a raid. You feel for each other when real life tragedies strike. Some people go as far as to have guild meet ups.

So why is it that I am still here after 4 years? Its the same reason I bought 2 xbox's to play the original halo. That desire for social interaction and competition in a battlefield where you come out the victor. Being able to take out the enemy or finally destroying the boss who wiped the floor with you day in and out. But that's not enough. Being in there for the social aspect of it can only get so far. Its the spoils of victory that keep us coming back for more. The chance to get "helm of awesome" and to be recognized for the amount of work it took to actually get that. To become better and take down further challenges while doing it with your "second social group".

A lot of the reasons we keep playing is the same reason we do what we do in life. The people who make the most money usually show it with the "suit of awesome". To belong to a social group where you are recognized for what you have and what you accomplished in life. World of Warcraft found the way to exploit what it is that makes us human. They know how to play on our desires.