Does gaming give you a sense of accomplishment?

Forum is kind of dead right now, so I'm throwing out a philosophical gaming question here. Does gaming give you any sort of esoteric reward other than it's just a fun way to spend your time?

For me personally, I don't know why this is, but completing a really good game makes me feel like I accomplished something, or experienced something cool. It might sound totally out there, but I also get the same feeling after reading a really good book, and sometimes from watching movies. Sometimes I watch movies and am just like ok, that was decent, like when I troll netflix for "older" random movies like Event Horizon or Alien 2. Fun movies to watch, but not really like on my bucket list. But when I find a gem of a movie I think everyone should see like A History of Violence I feel a sense that I experienced something when the movie is done.

I get the same feeling from certain games like when I finished Dragon Age Origins for the first time. I was like wow, not only was that a fun game but I experienced something there in the story. I also think that's why certain games let you down like Mass Effect 3. A great game but the final story didn't give the same sense of experience that Mass Effect 2 did.

Anyway, am I weird here in feeling this way? Obviously not all games give me this sense, completing all the challenges in Plants vs Zombies just makes me feel like I wasted 20 hours of my life lol. And I stopped playing some games without finishing cus they lacked that sense like Darksiders and Mafia 2. But in general completing the story of a game does make me feel like I accomplished something. I guess it's supposed to or you wouldn't finish them. There has to be some sort of reward to the player.

Sometimes, but ultimately i get the sense that the time was mostly wasted. For example i played EUIII for a lot of hours, but always gave up at around the early 17th century, cause there was little else i cared to do by then.

It did not help that almost all my games were as the Byz Empire, in the same mod

strangely not always, there are many game, many, when I played the game that I like, I get very disappointed when I knew it is already nearly finish, I wish it will go on and on and on. The saddest part of playing good game is, the part when you know you don't have anything else to do or explore, you just have to face the final boss or go to the final dungeon to meet the end of the story. There are many game that I like that I never finish, I just let it not finish, to keep the sense that it is still going on, but this impulse on loving the process rather than the conclusion is somewhat decreasing when I growth. I finish some of the game that I unable to finish in my childhood and teenager during university.

So I guess for me, I like the process. But for the game that I don't like that much, or I hate, I feel relieve when it is offer. Same with books, some book that I like so much, I cannot believe myself when it is nearly finish, so I end up not read it till finish. I like Gorky works "Mother" but I never finish the book, even though I nearly hit the bottom line.

No, because I always lose...

More seriously, it depends very much on the game. I mostly play strategy games, which especially in multiplayer can provide a sense of accomplishment - though as you say, not usually after repeatedly playing the same strategy and setup over and over against the same AI. It's just the same as the sense of accomplishment from a good game of chess or other board games. But there's nothing to accomplish in standard timewasters like Diablo games, for instance, which tend to have more to do with character gear and stats than player skill.

Yes, and it depends on the games. Games i have played where i have felt a sense of achievement:

Bioshock Infinite
Left for dead 2
Half life series
X Com
Civ IV and V
Day of the Tentacle
Warcraft 3
Counterstrike
Team Fortress Classic

All of them for slightly different reasons. The multiplayer games give me a sense of achievement because i have helped out my teamates, which is a good feeling. Especially when you are responsible for the victory. Left for dead is quite good at this because theres only 4 of you and its a zombie survival game set up like a film, so works quite well. The strategy games usually because i have completed a higher skill setting. I was honestly proud when i beat Civ IV on immortal. Less so on 5 because i find it a lot easier than 4. And the FPS's, half life is probably my favorite game of all time, so that explains that. And i thought bioshock infinite had an excellent storyline and made me really care about Elizabeth. When i finished it i was like "WOW". That was an amazing experience and ought to be experienced by other people. I threw in Day of the Tentacle because it was fun at school going in and discussing with your friends about the various puzzles you could solve. I was the first to complete so it gave me bragging rights on how I beat it and worked out the puzzles.

Because I think "accomplishment" is a rather big thing to achieve, I can't say I get it from many games. I get a sense of accomplishment when I create something, or when I learn something, when I do my job in real life, when I feel I'm growing or becoming a better person. Most games don't allow that for me. A bit of sense of accomplishment in certain strategy games because I've created an empire, but it still feels a bit empty because it sort of just happens and isn't that different from the millions of others that have been made around the world, whereas if I spend time creating adventures or worlds for table-top RPGs, I have a bigger sense of accomplishment because the creation is more unique and applies to my gaming group, and most importantly it took more effort and it comes in large part from my brain. It's kind of the reason why I don't get much sense of accomplishment from books or movies, unless they're a special kind of powerful and gave me strong feelings, or unless I've learned something. Few games do that, but some do I suppose. I still find the philosophy behind many games feels rather "I'm 19 years old and my thoughts are so deep".

On the contrary, since about 10 years ago gaming always leaves me a taste of my time being wasted and thankfully, since i think it is righter and healthier that way. Only punctual exception being KSP, which gave me some rare moments of personal realization, not anymore however (but it is funny anyway).

Rub'Rum said:

Because I think "accomplishment" is a rather big thing to achieve, I can't say I get it from many games. I get a sense of accomplishment when I create something, or when I learn something, when I do my job in real life, when I feel I'm growing or becoming a better person.

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That's very subjective though, what you view as a better person might be very different from what someone else thinks is a better person. My wife says that crap all the time, I just want you to better yourself, she thinks if I read a book I'm "bettering" myself but not if I play a video game

I think playing the civ series has certainly made me a better person. It's given me a love for history and taught me a lot of history and general knowledge.

I don't really get a sense of accomplishment at work because of how I view work. Being employed, I know that I am essentially trading my time and effort for money. While I love what I do, the accomplishment for me is the rate of return on my time, not necessarily the process of trading.

Well of course, I wasn't claiming that it wasn't subjective. It's just the way it is for me. What I consider to make me progress in life is a rather personal thing. In my case, my work gives me accomplishment because of what you said, but I also find it has a positive impact on my region.

I'd also say that Civ "improved me" for the same reason as you; it sprouted a bigger interest in history in me at the time. Not many games achieve similar things though.

Plus, it's not like every waking moment needs to be dedicated to improving myself. As Thorgalaeg says, time to disconnect myself from responsibilities and pressure is also important. But the barebone question was "does it give me a sense of accomplishment", and the answer still is; not very often.

I can occasionally get a feeling of accomplishment, but I definitely keep gaming primarily for other reasons:

1. Certain games simply get my blood going. This usually involves some sort of PvP, although the occasional excellent action game can do it too.

2. Certain games satisfy my desire to create / control, in an imaginative setting. A good RPG or something like Civ or Dwarf Fortress, etc, will handle this.

3. Sometimes I just want a good, thought-provoking challenge. Turn-based strategies and rogue-likes seem to satisfy this desire. Depending on the experience, these may result in a feeling of accomplishment when finished. I was pretty happy when I escaped with the orb for the first time in Dungeon Soup.

4. Some games are just compelling. I'm still playing WoW (on and off) after all these years; part of that is because it's certainly still fun for me, but a significant part is definitely because Blizzard has tapped into the basic-rewards part of my brain quite effectively.

civvver said:

Forum is kind of dead right now, so I'm throwing out a philosophical gaming question here. Does gaming give you any sort of esoteric reward other than it's just a fun way to spend your time?

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Every game is different, but here's generally what I get out of gaming:

- It relaxes me and reduces stress by engaging me in interesting scenarios and temporarily distracting me from real life problems.
- It forces me to think critically and engages my brain on an intellectual level - exercise for the brain.
- It can be good practice for your eye to hand coordination skills.
- It can be a fun time to spend with your friends or even strangers - social reasons.
- Immersive games help me exercise my sense of imagination, much like reading or watching a movie. Immersing yourself in an imaginary world can be a very rewarding experience psychologically.
- When I play a game my brain is always sub or not so subconsciously searching for patterns, algorithms, and ways to exploit them. Maybe it's a stretch, but say in the case of Banished I learned a bunch about reading the blog and what lessons he learned while building the game. When you're playing a game you're not going to explicitly thinking about path-finding algorithms, but you know they exist and you keep it in mind. If you come across behaviour that doesn't make sense to you, it forces you to teach yourself more about those algorithms to see what's potentially going on.

That depends on many factors, like difficulty of the game, genre, how well I did, etc.

When it comes to strategy games I feel accomplished after I win a game on deity, immortal in Civ 5, finishing a long time campaign in EU 4, given that half of the world is under my control etc.

I also feel accomplished when I'm getting better at the game, for example playing on harder difficulty level or advancing through ladder on some multiplayer game.

For a non strategy games, I'm mostly playing adventure or rpg games and I feel accomplished if the story was great and I had impact on the world in some case, I also like to have a choice over the ending. If the story was bad, I'm disappointed and I feel like I just wasted my time.

When it comes to online multiplayer games that I play occasionally, I don't really feel accomplished, however I'm just having fun with my friends while playing LoL or some MMO, so that's good as well.

I'd say that we live in a time when a "computer game" is getting closer to movies and even books as a way of spending the time by a concept.
Throughout the history, there always been books that are funny but useless, both fun and consisting something to think about, and also talentless examples lacking any point.
When the first movies came in, there was the same question - is this just a pleasant way to spend your time or there's might something beyond? Not much people would question this today.
Same situation with a game - it can be funny, it can be interesting, it's scenario might make you think deeply about your life and it may even make you cry.
Really good games always give you the same feeling as a good book or film.

Gaming is a free-time entertainment activity for me, in the same way that TV/movies is a way to waste time for many people. It isn't bad so long as it doesn't interfere with the important stuff in my life, but it isn't an 'accomplishment'.

On the other hand, I do feel a sense of accomplishment from modding, and actually creating something others will use and enjoy.

Do games give a sense of accomplishment?

Yes for games that require a lot of skill and mastery (totally thinking about getting 200 kills with some weapon in CS:GO, or Chess), and complex games with a lot of thoughtful progression (e.g. some, but not many MMO games).

I learn things and get unique experiences to remember. I'd say that puts it above a lot of hobbies out there.