Our time is valuable, even our free time. We come up with detailed plans on how to spend every waking moment to make the most of it and even when we’re gaming we like to feel “productive”. I think most of my in game time is spent NOT being what most would count as productive; and that’s how I like it. In games like EVE Online this is especially noticeable because you train skills at the same speed whether or not you’re in game. It is up to you to decide what you do with that in game time.
For myself, I’ve been splitting it between a few things. I do a few little steps towards progression – these include PI, invention, and manufacturing. I wander the systems searching for gravimetric sites to mine from. I tend to get caught up in the other goodies I’ve found like space wrecks, wurmholes, and other random stations in space. It’s just such an incredibly beautiful area I can’t help it. I could waste hours attempting to scan down sites and be perfectly content having not found anything at all (in fact I have done this many a time as I tried to learn the finger arts of honing in on a signal).
There are also missions if I’m looking for something a little more structured. There is people-watching, if I feel the urge to head to Jita or Dodixie – I watch channels and how players interact with one another. I watch the battles that take place, the scams. It reminds me that I’m a part of something bigger (in a weird nerdy way). Some times I run in behind hulks who are mining and salvage from the rat wrecks that dot the asteroid belts. I don’t take their goods mind you (I don’t want to get flagged) but salvaging doesn’t flag you. Most are quite polite and flag their wrecks for me (they turn from yellow to blue) so that I can take the goods too if I want. It’s very kind of them. I don’t enjoy PvP that much and when I do I’d rather go to a different game, so I tend to stay away from it as much as I can. Knowing what kind of gamer I am helps me set up my own personal ‘to do’ lists. Whether it’s wandering the galaxy or running missions.
This isn’t really different for me than any other game. Sure, I enjoy the fact that there are quest givers holding my hand asking for 10 of a various item – but most of my time is spent finishing off these little odd goals for myself that the game doesn’t actually set down for me in black and white. Wandering around on a role play server without a clear goal, perhaps my character starts talking out loud to herself. Better yet – do this on a non-rp flagged server and see what sort of responses you get. It’s the human interaction in everything that makes video games so appealing to me. The fact that I can’t predict how someone will react.
My apologies if this post seems more like a random mesh of words than actual thoughts but it was just something that crossed through my mind this morning. There is no wrong or right way to play a video game. You don’t HAVE to do anything a certain way. Whether you enjoy grouping, don’t enjoy grouping, love to role play, can’t stand to do quests, enjoy raiding and nothing else, the list goes on and on. It’s your free time, and ultimately it’s up to YOU to decide what you enjoy doing and do it. Why spend your very valuable time doing something that you just don’t like doing.
Happy gaming, no matter where you find yourself!