I’m a World of Warcraft player. I’m not one of those super-hardcore, “Leave me alone because I have a raid” no-life players. I enjoy the game, and I play it quite often, but I mostly play because I enjoy exploring the world and becoming involved in the lore.

One thing that a lot of people don’t know about me, and something I consider one of my more charming character quirks, is that I am completely incapable of playing a bad guy in a video game. When I play BioWare games, I’ve literally reloaded a previous save when I accidentally get Dark Side or Renegade points. I play all games with a morality system as the super-ultra nice guy, because I get really uncomfortable even PRETENDING to be a jerk.

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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.

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