Self Motivation by Overambition

I assume I'm not the only gamer who tends to play that little bit better when I'm working towards something. Having a goal in sight lends credence to the effort that you are investing; a tangible reward for the player even if it isn't anything physical that can be displayed as a trophy in the conventional sense. Often, just that feeling of personal accomplishment is enough to make all of the gamers spent time and effort seem worthwhile.

Of course, this is the allure of Achievements, and that is something I will be exploring in my forthcoming four-part article "The Motivation of Gamers". This post, however, is a more personal example -- my 2010 gaming goals, what I'm aiming for and how I intend to get there.

I have divided these up into a primary goal and a couple of secondary things that I would like to achieve also. Of course, the primary goal takes precedent; as long as I hit my target by the deadline I will consider this a productive year for my personal gaming.

I've tied my secondary ideas in with the overall target, which means that attaining them will never really be fully out of the question. Let's take a look:

Primary Goal

• 100,000GS before the 25/12/2010.

Secondary Goals

• 90% or above completion rate.
• 50 retail completions.
• 10 arcade completions.

So yeah, definitely a very ambitious target. Most gamers take 12+ months to hit the 100K mark, but many of those gamers aren't fully focused on the Achievements, or have a limited enough knowledge of the available games to be able to develop a productive order of play. 

I firmly believe this is possible for me. My two main resources (x360a and my rental service) should help me get there, and aside from that my knowledge of the games I have played on previous accounts will aid me in working out an effective way to manage my time and balance the games I play. I will break down the points I need to be earning per day/week/month in order to hit the 100K a little bit later on in this post.

As for the secondary goals, I'm fairly confident. Being a completist style of Skill Gamer, the 90% completion rate should come naturally to me. I really don't like looking through my card and seeing unfinished titles, so I will definitely be trying to max out every game I play as quickly as possible. My completion rate is fairly important to my motivation so this is something I will be keeping a very close eye on as I play.

I feel 50 retail completions should come naturally, but of course these must be 100% completions including DLC if applicable. Like I said, should come naturally but 50 games is a lot if you put in perspective.

For me, 10 arcade games is a fairly ambitious secondary goal. I don't tend to play many arcade titles because I can pick up older retail games at roughly the same cost; when it comes down to 200 points Vs 1000, the 1K wins ever time. Still, I would like to manage this if for no reason other than to add a little variety to my personal gamer collective. Time will tell.

Finally, I'd just like to break down exactly what I need to be achieving and at what rate in order to meet my target before the deadline. I'll be doing these sums from the day of my account's creation as though my tag stands at 0 points, just to be a little less harsh on my rusty calculus skills. 

Tag created: 03/03/2010

Deadline for 100,000: 25/12/2010

Days available: 296

Points needed per day: 337.837838 -- call it 350.

" " per week: 2,364.86486 -- call it 2,500

" " per month: 10,000

As of the 04/03/2010, my score stands at 2,200, so nearly hit the week's target in 24 hours. Lets hope I can maintain this consistency for the next few months.

-CompletistChaos

The Launch of Completist Chaos

I'm really happy to begin this project; happiness mixed with a little feeling of worry and a niggling sense of overambition, but happiness nonetheless.

CompletistChaos is a blog devoted to two things; Xbox 360 Achievements and intelligent videogame discussion. It is designed to bridge the gap between people who simply know about games and people who care about games, and provide a place to chronicle my own personal experience with the Xbox 360 Achievement system -- in my mind one of the most influential and important considerations in this generation of gaming.

From a personal perspective, this blog is my way of presenting myself to the community as both a gamer and a human being. It represents the merger of my two biggest passions in life -- writing and gaming. Perhaps nobody will ever read this, or maybe the people who do hate every word. That doesn't really matter to me; if you have something to say you should say it, or the day of it's relevance will pass and you will regret missing the opportunity to voice your opinion.

That's pretty much it. Thank you for taking the time to come and check out my blog. I hope you enjoy what you see here and if you don't, then you have my sincerest apologies.

Regards,

CompletistChaos