What makes you tick?
Well, what makes you tick as a gamer? Is it the violence in the games? The blood? The guts? The monster bashing? Do you thrive on violence the way a flesh-eating plant thrives on the insects it catches? You are frustrated with real life right? So frustrated, you fancy ripping things apart, shooting them, smashing them with a sword, punching your dagger through it, and preferably that "it" is not a non-descript something but your girl/boyfriend, your parents, your classmates, your friends, your teachers, the police, the Governement, THEM, the whites, the blacks, the hispanos, the muslims, the jews, the OTHERS, THE OTHERS OH GOD THE OTHERS...
No? My oh my, what a surprise. Let me guess... you're just here for your relaxation, and the game allows you to spend a few hours away from the real world. You're not frustrated at all though, you simply want something to do to pass the time, and something fun at that too. At least, that's why I play games. In Diablo II I am a mass-murderer. I kill other people's characters, and since I play hardcore, it means they stay dead. Mass-murder indeed, as my kill count is a tad higher than three or four. But why? Well, DII is a game, and pk-ing (Player Killing) is an option which I like. It has nothing to do with flaws in my character. DII PvP is competitive, challenging, thrilling and fun. But I like other things too. Some casual gaming with random strangers, chatting a bit or simply monster-mashing. That's amusing to do, and it helps me feel good. I enjoy it. My most preferred act however is interaction with other human beings. I like to chat, communicate, talk, about whatever subject that strikes my fancy at that time. Diablo II is actually nothing more for me than a glorified chat channel.
It hasn't always been that way though. Once I liked the building of characters, the gathering of items, and even the occasional trade. Trading wasn't really my thing though, neither were endless farming runs, so I gained items through communication. I offered fun talks and friendship to people, as well as enthusiasm for the game that rekindled their own gaming spirits, and in return they gave me items. Being a nice, talkative guy pays off, and it was double pay off for me. I got friends. I talked. And as a minor, added bonus they gave me shiney baubles. Didn't need anything expensive, just wanted to have some fun.
Yeah, I'm a communo-holic. Even now I am giving into that as I'm writing this here column. The exchange of thoughts is what I like, want, desire and need. Even when pk-ing and hunting down people I am always watching out for nice conversations. Whether a good debate on pk-ing, a nice talk about skills and character builds or simply a conversation about the weather, nothing stops me quicker than that. Start talking, and I loose my interest in goading you outside.
So, what makes your clock tick? PvE or PvP? Trading? Crafting? Group PvP? Feeling part of a team? Communicating? If it's the latter you could simply have joined a chat channel. Granted, they don't have as cool an avatar there as they have in Guild Wars (or Eve, or Diablo for that matter), but you get to chat. 
Oh, and about that first paragraph... I assume you got that it was a joke. I have been doing computer games, and especially violent games, since I was twelve... started out with Wolfenstein 3D (quite messy already), passed through Doom, Quake, Quake 2, UT and several other games. I dislike hurting people. I won't ever assault anyone unless seriously provoked. Those aren't words... I have let someone kick me, punch me in the kidneys without retaliating. My friends said that my self-control was remarkable,as said oppnent was a woman, and she was annoying the shit out of me during a concert of Jamie Cullem, and especially during the very song my wife and I came to see because we married to it (guess once which one that was ). People don't get violent because of computer games. The violence is already inside them, and whether it is because of their parents, some quirk in their brains or something someone did to them, that I cannot tell. But because of games? I'm not that violent either when push comes to shove.
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