What Men Really Want

Well, since my last post, I've discussed this subject with afore-mentioned boyfriend, and EUREKA! I think I begin to understand. The key is that a game has WELL-DEFINED GOALS, and the goals are DEFINED FOR YOU. My question has always been, why is it worth it to spend so much time and effort on something that ultimately does not provide one any thing of particular merit? (Despite Shawn's assertions that one can theoretically make money with this skill, and build social interaction around it, etc. ) My question has always been, why do some consider a game that much fun, not how does one build it into something that could become of more worth than the game itself. Obviously this all is related to the "flow" thing, and ARCS and all that. But what I understand now is that a well-designed game (the computer part being only that which makes it possible to be more complex and graphically stimulating) offers a chance to accomplish what people wouldn't MIND doing in real life, except that real life simply does not offer specific, well-defined goals. So for instance, my boyfriend (let's call him Joe, since that's his name) will begin a game (I'll use pinball as a simple example) and say to himself, "When I put this ball into play I want to get X number of points." Then he plays, and will persist until he achieves his goal. Then that was so satisfying that he sets a new goal. Also, he becomes very competitive when he sees that other people have achieved a certain number of points... and then he wants to top that goal. He will persist with the game until he does so, no matter if it takes hours and if all the rest of his duties fall by the wayside. (well, not ALL but certainly many that seem more important to me than pinball.)

The reason that he will spend many hours achieving a game goal as opposed to a real life goal is that in the game the goal is defined for him, and it is relatively easy to know a) how to get there and b)when it is accomplished. As with any goal, when it is accomplished he feels GOOD. In a real-life situation, things are much murkier. First of all you have to decide amongst many possible choices what your goal may be. Then you have to figure out how the goal could be accomplished, and that may not consist of clear steps. And, importantly, you may decide along the way that it was not the goal you really wanted to achieve... and then you may feel that your efforts in achieving it have been wasted, that you've WASTED TIME AND ENERGY, which is exactly how I respond to the time spent on achieving goals in a computer game!!!

So why is he so goal-oriented in game-life, whereas I am much more goal-oriented than he is in real-life? In general, I do see a gender difference (though it is clearly not a hard and fast rule). The reason for that I theorize is that men are built psychologically to want to achieve and to be competitive... but to also deal better with distinct rules and logic than they do with ill-defined concepts, relationships, etc. (I'm not stating that well, I don't mean to sound like I think men are stupid or can't think creatively.) Whereas women are usually not as competitive, are programmed socially to work harder and play less (I know I'll get argument about that), and are more comfortable, even confident, dealing with amorphous concepts and relationships, such as real life offers.

And finally, I think this blog ought to make up for all the blogs that I've missed doing in the last couple weeks, even though I doubt most people will wade through the whole thing. :-)