Aside from Super Mario Galaxy 2, which I can’t play until we get our Wii back from Nintendo, there’s really only two games I’ve had any interest in playing lately: Pokémon and World of Warcraft. I’ve been trying to think of WHY these are the only two games to keep my attention, and in the process I’ve come to realize what my motivations are for playing video games at this point.

Right now, I don’t have a lot of free time. I’m an adult with a full-time job, I live with my fiancé, I’m trying to run a blog and I have obligations and errands and things. When I sit down to play a video game, I want to make sure I get something out of it and I’m not just wasting my precious free time. What I’m really looking for now when I sit down to play is a sense of accomplishment.

“But Joe,” you’re probably thinking. “You don’t want to feel like you’re wasting time but you play World of Warcraft?” Yeah, that’s true. I should probably start off by saying I am NOT one of those stereotypical WoW nerds. I play casually (in fact, the only time I really play is when Christina’s not home, and it’s rare that I’m home and she’s not) and I’m not a part of any hardcore raiding guild or anything. I play because I enjoy the world and the mythology, and a game with so many tasks to complete gives me a sense of accomplishment.

Right now in the game I’m level 77. I’m trying to hit level 80 and be “ready” before Cataclysm, the next expansion, hits this year. It’s a goal I’m working towards, and when I meet it, I’ll feel accomplished (I know it’s a stupid thing to feel accomplished about but shut up, this is a gaming blog dammit). In the meantime, there’s all kinds of other smaller tasks for me to complete. For example, today I completed between 15-20 quests, ran through five dungeons and made (and spent) some money.

It seems stupid, but for me, these small goals are good motivators and make me feel more relaxed during my leisure time, which is kinda the whole point of leisure time in the first place.

I’m also hitting Pokémon pretty hard as of late. I’ve done a lot in Pokémon over the years. I’ve beaten all the games, EV trained countless Pokémon, and completed the Pokédex. Right now, as I mentioned in the last podcast, my goal is to complete a Living Pokédex, which means I will have one of each of the 493 Pokémon on one game all at the same time. After reorganizing and pulling all of my Pokémon off of My Pokémon Ranch, I realized I’m not as close to completing it as I though I was (I’m only missing around 120, which isn’t all that bad all things considered). Still, it’s a task with a clear goal that I’m enjoying trying to accomplish.

My gaming “moods” tend to change often, so who knows how long this will last. Right now, though, I’m enjoying spending my free time accomplishing meaningless goals and not acting my age. It’s pretty therapeutic, actually!