I don't understand the mindset of going after the reward in WoW

[Kreeshak]

I've socialised with a lot of players in WoW. Most of them do stuff just for the rewards.

I.E. They do normal BGs to gear up their characters. Once they do they stop.
Or they do BGs just for the achievements. Once they do a particular achievement they never go back.
Or they raid for the purple gear. As if bosses didn't drop gear, they wouldn't bother.

What happened to doing stuff for entertainment and fun?

Like you manage to win a difficult combo in 2s after performing extremely well.
You win an arathi basin 5-0 after executing a flawless strategy.
You coordinate a team effort to down a raid boss.
You are getting ganged in world pvp 2v1 and still manage to beat them.

What I mean is as if those people are baited into the game by going after the rewards. If they stop having rewards by completing all current content they cancel their subscription.
While there are simple fun things to do in the game, without being rewarding (anymore) BUT fun!

Am i missing something here? is WoW fun for you?

/EDIT I forgot the most important fun factor. Playing with your friends while chatting on a voice com like skype.

[Uennie]

... Some people have fun in different ways?

[Solidito]

I find going for rewards fun, sorry if that doesnt appeal to you.

[Mawnix]

Honestly gear is the entire "motivation" for really any game.

Reaching the ending, and feeling accomplished with all you have done on the journey.

The true motivation, though, is having fun while doing it.

We make friends when we join a game like WoW, or maybe we start playing FOR those friends.

Who knows: everyone's motivation's branches, but at the core it's all the same..

To have Fun.

The day you stop enjoying yourself, is the day to think about if the activity you're performing is truly meant for you.

[Kojo]

It's true, you don't understand the mindset. As said already, each have fun in their own way, and going after the rewards doesn't mean they can't also have your idea of fun. I can have fun going 5-0 in ab while working towards my shiny weapon and getting a nice tier token from a raid doesn't mean I didn't enjoy the fight too.

[bionics]

This hearkens to the "reward system" notion from neuroscience.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reward_system

Remember the Skinner Box study?

"In a fundamental discovery made in 1954, researchers James Olds and Peter Milner found that low-voltage electrical stimulation of certain regions of the brain of the rat acted as a reward in teaching the animals to run mazes and solve problems. It seemed that stimulation of those parts of the brain gave the animals pleasure, and in later work humans reported pleasurable sensations from such stimulation. When rats were tested in Skinner boxes where they could stimulate the reward system by pressing a lever, the rats pressed for hours at a rate up to 2000 times per hour."

[Kreeshak]

It's true, you don't understand the mindset. As said already, each have fun in their own way, and going after the rewards doesn't mean they can't also have your idea of fun. I can have fun going 5-0 in ab while working towards my shiny weapon and getting a nice tier token from a raid doesn't mean I didn't enjoy the fight too.

But what is more fun? The weapon or the gameplay of accomplishing something hard? Most people I know would answer the weapon and THAT I don't understand.
Of course you can have fun in several ways. Enjoying the fight doesn't mean you don't enjoy the reward or vice versa.

[wariofan1]

I play solely for the fun, the only reason I care for gearing up is so I can experience new content and have fun that way. I'm not a social beast in WoW, but I still have lots of fun.

[foxHeart]

I think most of the hardcore and raider crowds play to play - to keep themselves occupied - all the while telling themselves it's because they want to, not because they're compelled to. I really doubt a lot of those people are sincerely "having fun" with the game, laughing with their bro's, throwing up virtual hi5's, and in general just having a fucking blast as they farm honor or level professions. lol

[Kreeshak]

I think most of the hardcore and raider crowds play to play - to keep themselves occupied - all the while telling themselves it's because they want to, not because they're compelled to. I really doubt a lot of those people are sincerely "having fun" with the game, laughing with their bro's, throwing up virtual hi5's, and in general just having a fucking blast as they farm honor or level professions. lol

that's exactly what I wanted to say and perhaps didn't phrase it properly.

I am asking in guild chat, "anyone for AB or WSG?"

and I get the typical answers like "what for?" "any achievements?" "i've already farmed my gear"

while I was thinking to destroy the opposition and have a blast.

[Forgettable]

Some people simply like earning rewards. I guess you could call me one of those people. But I also like using those rewards. Sure, I like beating difficult raid encounters. Some of my most memorable moments have been with my guild in raids... Like the first time we ever beat Lich King normal mode while it was current content... It was SO satisfying. But I also like earning the gear that shows I've done it. It's fun to get a full set of pvp gear, and then camp the stormwind stockades entrance with my guild and see how long we can last before the entire city comes to kill us.

But the thing is, everyone is different. "Fun" is subjective. What I enjoy is not the same as what you, or Mr. T, or John Doe enjoys.

[lordjust]

As you say it's all about fun. Yes, you can have fun in PVP or PVE but for how long will this fun last? Doing PVP will get boring when you achieved everything you wanted and the challenge you wanted is gone. Same goes for everything else in the game. Seeing a movie is fun the first few times but later on it gets boring because you've seen it so many times.

Just look at the Isle of Thunder. At first everyone was doing dailies there because it was new and there was a new faction to gather reputation for. After a week or so the first people got to exalted and now there is nothing to do in this area. Dailies are still the same and only some new ones get added, some new rare spawns that you can farm for items and that's it.

I understand what you're saying but when you've played the same game long enough you experienced so many things that there are very little things that can excite you and one of the persistent ones are better items.

[Deleted]

Gear is just a means to an end for me, once I've done what I've wanted to do and had my fill I'll unsub and re-sub when new content comes out. I mainly focus on PvE, gear up on LFR "see the content" have a laugh with it, push for normal kills usually in pugs and then quit for awhile when the fun stops. Blizz releases a new patch and I'm back. I'm happy with what I'm doing and now all of my real life friends and the many friends I've made during my long WoW career have left this is the play style which best suits me and wouldn't have it any other way.

[mvaliz]

I've socialised with a lot of players in WoW. Most of them do stuff just for the rewards.

I.E. They do normal BGs to gear up their characters. Once they do they stop.
Or they do BGs just for the achievements. Once they do a particular achievement they never go back.
Or they raid for the purple gear. As if bosses didn't drop gear, they wouldn't bother.

What happened to doing stuff for entertainment and fun? [snip]

The best way I can describe this was my experience in Violet Hold durring my ICC 25 days. I was in a pug in Violet Hold, I had FULL ICC25 heroic gear when this exchange happened with me and another player:

Player 1: "I'm checking out your gear... what do you still need out of these dungeons?"
Me: "FUN! ^_^"
Player 1: "Haha!! Yeah, I forgot about that! :P"

That's one of the MANY reasons why I LOVED Wrath of the Lich King - it actually taught me that there's a difference between "time consuming challenge and Fun".

This is one of the chief reasons I stopped playing the "Raiding game". To me, it's like the false ideology of the "American Dream" (I'm American, so I can say that) where you're constantly rushing to "upgrade" your social status with bigger toys, bigger houses, bigger expensive gadgets, ect... and you never stop to ask "why...". People say it's a form of satisfaction... but it's the same sort of "Satisfaction" you get from a drug high. You feel great the moment you down a hard boss and get some new shiny... but that eventually wears off and you need the next high. Just like drugs, it eventually consumes you to the point where you feel "incomplete" if you're not at some uber-top level crap and not getting a steady stream of "downed bosses and shiny gear"... and the "race" becomes your existence and game identity, wether you find it fun or not.

When it gets REALLY bad is when you get to the point that your happiness DEPENDS on you being successful. One ex-guildie of mine said it like this:
"I'll put this simply... If I'm winning, I'm happy. I'm not happy when I'm not winning!"

Makes sense, right? Well... no longer to me, because that means you're putting your happiness as being conditional to outside influences, and I've learned that's just wrong. Why can't you be happy if you lost at a boss battle? Some of my fondest memories of raids are insane mess-ups that had us laughing. Hunters accidentally "Disengaging" off the edge of Lich King's platform, ect...

Another guildie saw me constantly running the Heroic Halls of Lightning/Stone near Ulduar during Cataclysm - and insisted that I was farming for something profitable there. I really wasn't... I was having fun clearing the dungeon. Sure, there were some things that dropped that made it "profitable" when I sold on the AH, but I wasn't there for that - I was there because I thought those dungeons were simply COOL! and missed them after Cataclysm came out. ^_^

[-Superman-]

We all do this in one form or another. Why raid if you don't get gear? Why do pet battles if you don't collect pets? Why do heroics if you don't need gear? Why go to the Darkmoon Faire if you are already exalted and don't want anything there?

I think people determine what makes it fun for them, and they stick with that ideal. I, personally am very casual and occasionally like to run old content, or shoot for an achievement. Odds are I will never see content when it is new again. I haven't really since TBC. Does it bother me? Absolutely not Should it be anyone else's concern? Not really.

[Destruktion]

MMORPGs are about rewards. Always have been, always will be. Casual fun and entertainment will always be secondary to rewards.

[Deleted]

I personally don't see how anybody can enjoy BGs. It's a chorre

[Crym]

Rewards (pets, mounts, titles, achievements, gear, etc...) are the objectives of this game. Without objectives most people wouldn't even think to push themselves in certain ways (even with all these people tend to stick with a specific, comfortable playstyle). It encourages players to step beyond their comfort zone and experience more. Personally, I like having something to shoot for just to "raise the bar" for me as a player. The fun is in rising to the challenge.

The only mindset that bothers me is the people who think that any specific reward should always remain something only they, and a few others who play exactly like them, should get. Especially the "I got this reward for doing something that was meaningful a year and a half ago. Now it's easy enough for anyone to get and isn't meaningful anymore!" complaints.

There's always the next challenge and the next new thing to shoot for. Nothing you've done years ago is relevant to anyone but you. Quit worrying about someone else getting rewards from content that has no meaning in today's game, and push yourself to get the NEXT significant reward.

[SherbertLand]

I find enjoyment in constantly working to progress my character with other like minded individuals. I thought that was supposed to be the appeal of MMOs?

[KCguy]

I play because it's still fun.