Five Game Challenge Day 23: Multiplayer Motivation

Poor Skyrim. While it hasn’t quite fallen to the red-headed step-child levels of the other games in my challenge line-up, it has nonetheless played into a second fiddle role to Warframe of late.

The thinking going into this is that Warframe would be something I’d play exclusively multiplayer with friends. I thought outside of a group, there would be nothing I would want to do.

Following on from that thought was the recognition was that there is plenty of time where I can play, but my friends can’t. Ergo, Skyrim would see plenty of time.

And to start with — this was precisely how it played out.

Where that plan started to come off the tracks was that as I learnt how to play Warframe all over again — I became far more comfortable playing on my own. And once that happened? The Multiplayer Motivation effect kicked in.

The What Now?

Multiplayer Motivation, in my mind, goes beyond simply the desire to play while others are present. It’s a drive created by a desire to maximise that shared play time. To catch-up. To unlock additional play modes that you could all enjoy together. To build into a new role that might be beneficial or even simply fun to play in the group.

Working on the star map in Warframe in order to unlock the Arbitration missions is one example of this. But there is also applying Forma, which improves the overall potential power of your builds by adding a polarity of your choosing to your mod sockets. If you add a mod of matching polarity, it only requires half the fitting points that it would otherwise.

The trade-off with Forma though is that it de-levels the gear item in question back to 0, so generally there is a little work to do to rank it back to 30 in order to do the best content again.

For those unfamiliar with Warframe, it’s important to note that ranking back from 0-30 is not a long or arduous process at all. A few rounds of a quick defense mission will generally see you there or close enough to there to finish off in (almost) whatever you like.

But it still isn’t generally an optimal usage of limited full-group time. There are absolutely times we do it anyway — when someone picks up a brand new frame, or weapon, etc — this can be a good time to apply Forma to our gear and level up again along side.

At least a few forma (more, if the weapon, frame, or what have-you isn’t a ‘prime’ variant that starts with some polarity slots) is required to equip a full set of max-level mods, and so it’s quite important to get done.

Where Does This Leave Me With My November Goals?

Well… Originally with my first attempt at setting the November goals I noted that I wasn’t really sure how much of a time commitment I was signing myself up for with either game.

Then I blew through the initial Warframe goals in roughly no time flat. This perhaps made me over confident, as I haven’t achieved either of the two new goals I set myself — nor am I anywhere close to achieving the Skyrim one.

For reference, the current goals being:

Warframe

• Gain Mastery Rank 14+
  I figured I might even be able to make 15 when I set this goal, but I’m glad I didn’t make that the actual target. Even 14 is in doubt at the moment — as you don’t earn mastery for releveling things that you’ve applied Forma to. That part I knew, what I didn’t know is that you also don’t get mastery for leveling a variant of something you’ve already leveled.
  
  I’ll probably have a clearer idea come the end of this weekend whether I’ll hit this target or not before the end of November, but so far… Not confident!
  
• Build the Gara Warframe
  This one, I really should be able to do. It’s just a matter of prioritising it. Perhaps I can run double duty goals with leveling a frame in the bounties I need to do in the Plains of Eidolon to earn the final part I require. :)

Skyrim

• Complete the main story up until the point of meeting Paarthurnax
  Perhaps unsurprisingly, this is the one most at risk. In fact, I’d almost be willing to call this goal now as likely not being achieved by month-end.
  
  I have started to remember a bit more about how far I have to go between where I am and where this point in the story is, too. Spoiler: It’s a fairly long way.
  
  Despite intention to adhere fairly strictly to the main-story… Well, that’s just simply not how I roll in these games. ;) I’ve certainly reigned in some of the worst tendencies to just run off book and go everywhere I’m not supposed to. But even so, I’ve still only just made it up the mountain to see the Greybeards and train a little more in the way of the Dovahkiin.

It wasn’t too far past this where I left off my Skyrim adventure. I went inside the Citadel. I was taught how to shout even harder (the various plates, pots, pans and utensils of Skyrim aren’t going to know what hit them), and then I went off to sleep.

This Multiplayer Motivation is a funny thing though. Even as I sit here thinking, ‘I kinda wanna play some more of this’ I’m simultaneously realising there are things in Warframe I want to do more right now.

Someone really needs to get onto developing Days 2.0 with more hours in them. … Maybe just Weekends 2.0 would be fine. ;)