What Drives You - Challenge Or Reward?

This Is Where It All Starts; High Challenge, Low Reward

The idea of playing a video game for the challenge is the foundation of video games.  The earliest games didn’t reward anything (in fact, the first game was PvP), later attaching very small levels of points to the player’s achievements (yay, 10 points!).  As video games blossomed, increasing in their complexity hundreds of times, so have the rewards.  We are now greeted with elaborate stories, stunning videos, plot twists and cliffhangers at the end of our games.  Throughout the adventure we are scored on a range of things, many of which come with their own unique carrots.  The one constant is that there is always a challenge, of varying difficulty, associated with the prizes.

The discussion of WoW becoming easier, offering welfare epics and all that jazz, has been discussed to death (did we get something for killing it?).  Ignoring the social aspects of playing with guilds and friends - what I want to know is what drives you to keep at it?  What makes you attend Naxxramas for the umpteenth time?  Is it only the chance for loot (or badges)?  Or are you testing something different, maybe tweaking that new spec?

Personally, I’ve been back and forth on the issue throughout my MMOG career.  My competitive nature compels me to do whatever it takes to be at the top of my game, forcing me to look only at the rewards.  This meant that I spent years farming Molten Core, Blackwing Lair, Ahn’Qiraj and Naxxramas for the best loot.  A few weeks ago I realized that I’ve shifted back to enjoying a good challenge.

During a low-level 5man run with under-leveled players, most of my group wanted to call it after getting rolled by a tough pull a half dozen times.  After some pestering, tactical discussion and the friendly random number generator, we managed to pass the bottleneck.  There was no epic loot to be had, it was simple trash, but due to the circumstances, it was difficult.  But when we finished off that warlock I cheered as if I had been a part of another server first kill.  “Gratz” and “nice jobs” went all around as we shared in a few silver pieces.

I guess the challenges, and the joy of overcoming them, is why I play most of my games on the difficult setting, and attempt missions that are often far out of the given range - such as the Moe and Marley mission in Borderlands at level 12.  That was an enjoyable mess.  Any other flip-floppers out there?  What about reward mongers, or those obsessed with raiding Hogger at level 1?

You know what would be interesting?  Seeing how far a 10man raid could get in only dungeon or crafted gear and items.  Wrath’s launch content was, more or less, beaten in Sunwell gear.  I bet a competent raid would get pretty far.