When you buy a game, are you the kind of person who has to see everything, do everything, in order to feel that you’ve gotten your money’s worth? Or are you the kind of person who can see enough in a game without having to do everything, especially when you decide that there’s content in there that you will never do?

I am in the latter camp, but I suspect at first blush most folks would lay claim to being a member of the former. If we’re going to spend money on a game, then we’re going to get every last bit of entertainment from that game, right? Some would say it’s either stupid, or privileged, or maybe just a mistake to buy a game knowing there’s parts of it we might really dislike and actively avoid. What if part of the game that isn’t “entertaining” is such a small part of the game that it’s inconsequential, or if we find enough enjoyment in the parts we do play to make the rest of it feel inconsequential?

I started thinking about this thanks to Dune: Awakening, which has a meaty PvE portion but an oPvP end-game. As far back as I can think I have always weighed the difference between content I will play and content I will not play when deciding whether to buy a game or not. I played Ultima Online despite it’s original oPvP design, but I literally only left Vesper fewer than a handful of times so the oPvP-ness never really affected me. When I got to EverQuest and World of Warcraft, I was already on my soloist kick so while I enjoyed playing both when they launched, I knew that I would only allow myself a fraction of what each game offered. The fact that I was willing to pay for access to these MMOs (and others) only as long as I was entertained, and by limiting my exposure to content that would piss me off, I can now understand why I spent the late 90’s and early 2000’s bouncing between many MMOs that most people might not have even heard of.

I have learned that I’m OK buying a game if there’s part of it that I can play my way. I have never been concerned with the “end game” in any game, so I’m insulated from the drive to “completion”. On the other hand, I’ve missed out on a lot of experiences simply because I’ve decided that those kinds of experiences aren’t enjoyable for me. I sometimes wonder what a “raid” feels like, but only under certain controlled and artificial conditions (like with nice people). I’m OK with this, though, and I’m OK just hanging out in Hagga Basin in Dune: Awakening for as long as it’s feasible. When I reach the point where I have nothing else to do but the Deep Desert, then it’s time to get the shuttle to the next world.

When that happens, here or in any other game, it raises the question “what’s the point of having done any of it” if I’m going to walk away from the stated culmination of my efforts. The culmination of my efforts, dear friends, on-lookers, and stunned game designers, is that I feel satisfied with my time spent because it was on my terms. I’ve often said that I enjoy the learning experience, so figuring out how best to survive and thrive in Dune: Awakening is something I enjoy. Building a base is something I enjoy. The combat is iffy, but doable, so it’s enjoyable, but not the most enjoyable thing I could be doing in-game. If I can do enough enjoyable activities to get me to the point where I can say that I’ve had my fill, then I think it will have been money well spent, even if I never experience entire sections of the game.

This is part of why Dune: Awakening’s situation is problematic in a lot of ways. I have seen so many people asking for self-hosted servers like how pretty much every other survivalbox game allows us to have, but Funcom’s decision to make Dune: Awakening a very PvP-focused game, and the way they structured their technology, means that self-hosted servers will no doubt never happen. To do so, Funcom would need to deny access to the Deep Desert for self-hosted servers, and that goes against the bedrock of the oPvP focus. Could they? Absolutely. Will they? No. In a way, it’s similar with Star Citizen, which also regularly and loudly proclaims it’s love of oPvP. Could CIG set up their game world like, say, Elite: Dangerous, with private instances running inside the larger universe? Absolutely. Will they? Chris Roberts eats, sleeps, and dreams about “risk-versus-reward”, so no, they most certainly will not.

For me, there are aspects of both games that appeal to me, more so than they abhor me which is why I am now invested in both. I’ve made the decision to pay to play insofar as I am having fun, but I’m OK not consuming everything either game has to offer. Some people might not agree and might decide that if there’s anything about a game they are not into, then it’s the whole game they aren’t into, and I support that position as well. We need to remember that this is entertainment, and we need to be entertained first, foremost, and forever. Spending time or money to do what we don’t like is the exact opposite of that.