A recent article in the New York Times Magazine by Rebecca Solnit seems to confirm that our ability to make decisions, to get motivated by something, and to accomplish goals are all related. In other words, you are not born with the determination to jump into the pool; you can’t make a decision to swim or not swim until you are willing to make the decision to swim or not swim.
There is just a huge difference between determination and motivation. The former is when you are “out of your mind” and unable to think about something that is important to you. The latter is when you are thinking about something but you are fully aware of the importance of it and you want to get it done.
In the end, motivation comes from having a goal and not just being a kid who is out of control. There is a time and a place for everything, and it is a good idea to learn to distinguish what you are capable of doing.
This is a difficult concept to get your head around. I think it is actually a very easy concept to teach. When you are motivated to do something, it is just a natural part of the human experience. However, as we learn to exercise some control over what we are motivated to do (or not) we begin to realize that there is a difference between deciding what to do and actually doing it.
In the story trailer, you get to see a man named T.K. have a moment where he decides to be the one to kill the Visionaries. Yet, after that, he falls into a trap and finds out that he is actually the last survivor of his team, and all the others have been killed by some unseen force.
That’s when this guy finally decides to kick ass and get his ass kicked. The problem here though, is that he doesn’t feel good about himself. He has no motivation to do anything, and he’s just wasting his time. He doesn’t get the satisfaction, or the joy, of actually accomplishing something. He just wants to waste the entire day and then get to jump back in the game and finish what he started.
Sure there are things you can do to make yourself feel better. But really there are only two things that motivate you in life: achievement and getting a reward.
The first being a reward itself. And the second usually comes in the form of an accomplishment.
One of the things that gives me the most joy is when I do something that makes me proud. It makes me feel like I accomplished something. And in Deathloop this feels like a reward. As much as I hate giving myself credit for things that I don’t actually do, I’m not really going to deny there is a reward. In Deathloop the reward is the ability to kill eight Visionaries and then leave for the next day, which of course is what Colt Vahn does.
It’s not just about the challenge of the game though. It’s also about the challenge of the game. Deathloop is a game that requires a certain amount of determination. There are four levels to go through, after which you will have gained “a certain amount of points” (and, presumably, the ability to go to the next level) and have to take a certain amount of actions to complete the game. Then, of course, there is the challenge of the game.
