Weekend Edition – Measuring Achievements

It is usually on the weekends that I find myself sitting back and thinking about gaming (mostly the ones I am not playing), gaming life, and priorities. Let’s face it, prioritizing gaming is hard. If we are to properly prioritize our gaming lives with the other aspects of our lives, we need to be able to realize which games are the ones that really let us embrace who we are who we want to be.

It is my intention to get a little philosophical here, as the question is a profound one for all of us. I like electronic gaming as much as any other geek, and I will freely admit that whole days, weeks, and months have been lost to more than one computer or console game over the years. What I mean for each of us to ask is this: Which games are the games that we will prioritize in order to best grow as gamers?

Or, another way to ask the question, “Are the games I am playing making me a better gamer?”

How do games make one a better gamer? Obviously there is a bit of prestige involved in beating a game so many times on its hardest difficulty level and doing everything that there is to do in a game. If there was not an attached prestige to such feats, things like Xbox LIVE Achievement Points would not exist. Gamers thrive on achievement. But what measures a RPG gamer’s achievement?

Traditional measurements of loot, XP, and other rewards are the first that come to mind, but I believe that the real achievement points of a RPG gamer’s efforts are more like milestones in a mental road down through the years. Most every player I ask can remember the very first character they made, and most will even add comments about how badly they did this or that. But the story often progresses to a certain event where the player “gets it.” That’s a milestone in RPG gaming. Another could be when a player realizes they have one or two characters that keep repeating themselves over and over. The player can decide to make that a strength in their playing or to use the knowledge to create a new type of character in the next game.

These milestones usually are not recorded, but most players will be able to name a few at least. Maybe you really hit a good gaming streak with a certain group for a few years or campaigns. Maybe your current group has come through the refining fire of the gaming battlefield and forged itself into an elite gaming unit, ready to adapt to any GM and campaign without losing the unique flavor and modus operandi that makes your group so special.

I think we have something special as roleplayers. We can track our growth not through a checklist but through real life experiences that make us better players, better friends, and better people to be around. Realizations like this reinforce in me that I have chosen one of the best hobbies in the world.

So I ask you, what do you consider some of your RPG Achievement Points? I will highlight any that are shared in the next Weekend Edition of the Tabletop Armory Blog. Until then, good gaming, and do have fun at it!

- “Armory” Dave Martin