Fun vs Conquest at MA

[Gauchograd99]

I have to ask this question of all teams and the members participating within... How many of you play the MouseAdventure games for fun, and how many are there to win? I am curious to see if my theory is anywhere near correct. Could I be one of the few who feel that if I am entering something, I should do everything I can to win? Do people just lollygag around and not care if they win or not?
Maybe it is being part of TEAM INTENSITY (as someone labelled it a month or so ago), a volleyball setter up at UCSB (in class, not NCAA... I am not 6'6"), a 4-time CIF league champ (3 yrs tennis, 1 golf), and a pitcher as a kid but I have much more fun when I am winning than losing. Could I be too intense at times? Oh yeah, SOPHIE832 CANNOT ANSWER THAT LAST PART! :)

[MammaSilva]

LOL too many years coaching "kids" because my first response is.. do your best put forth your best effort but most of all have FUN.. it's a GAME.....intended to challenge you and your competitors but not worth stress related illness :)

Seriously, intense competition has it's place but why suck the joy out of something by being so "goal orientated" you aren't having fun at it any longer?

[DisneyFan25863]

I am just there for fun. What chance do two teenagers have at winning anyway ;)

[cemeinke]

I'm always there to win "Best Costume" but the staff hasn't gotten around to creating that award yet;)

[Gauchograd99]

I guess I come from a different mindset as I have done well at just about everything I have done... team related or not. When I see a team member who is not up to the same level of intensity as I am (in sports) I have an issue with that person. As for MA, when I show up I show up to win, not just to play. This is where I have a major issue and is why I have been seriously "angry" since the last one. Sophie832 calls it a "chip on my shoulder" but I just don't see it that way. I did not have fun with the ambiguous writing (at times) and unclear goals last MA which is why I said what I did to Adrienne when she asked about the "look of joy" on my face (if she remembers my exact words, as I think some others in the area might... not very Disney-like). I prefer things to be logical in their progression which explains me being a chemist and why Sophie832 gives me the puzzles to do while she reads the clues.

I have been talked into this one, and I expect to win (as usual)... so 1 count for TEAM INTENSITY.

[HBTiggerFan]

Anything I do I do to have fun. If I am getting stressed out/angry about it it is not fun anymore and not worth it for me waste my time being angry and stressed about it. I have enough stress in my "normal life" that any competition I do will be to have fun, if I win great, if I don't thats ok too.

[Sophie832]

Originally posted by cemeinke
I'm always there to win "Best Costume" but the staff hasn't gotten around to creating that award yet;)

For the record, I am always rooting for you guys to win Best Team Spirit. Yeah, yeah...I know it's supposed to be about having smiles on your faces the whole time, but I think you guys always put so much effort into your team...that oughta count for something. The Mondavi team was robbed a year ago! That's why I was glad you won something last time.

Now that I've kissed some crab-shack butt (lol), I would just like to say that I think it's wonderful that Gauchograd99 is at least recognizing he has a problem ;) We're going to find him a 12-step program (unless we win this time, then I fail to see where we have a problem).

[stinkerbell]

Having only participated in one MA event....... I definitely entered for fun. I would have gone to the awards thingie, the breakfast, whatever just to hang with the Padders.

That said, my teammate, Ally, and me thought we were kicking major butt and were jumping around like idiots hugging before we figured out we could do more than one packet.......so um, there was that moment of pride, but then we had to suck it up and realize we were just there for fun.

:)

[Laffite]

Depends, if you know that you're not going to win or if you're new, you just put on that face that passes the competition and say "Oh you know, I just want to have fun" while deep inside you're crying and screaming to win.

If you've done it 20 times already you have the credibility to say "I'm in it for the win"

... and the world goes round.

[Bill Catherall]

I'm in it for the challenge. That makes it fun for me. If it's so challenging that it makes me sweat then I'm having fun, even if I can't solve it (I know many disagree with me on this...most people like to be able to find the solution).

I play to win, that also makes it fun. I don't play to goof around the whole time. But, when someone else wins, as long as I know that I gave it my all, I'm happy. I just recognize that there were others there who were better than me.

Bottom line though, I'm there to have fun.

Being challenged and playing to win is just half of what makes it fun though. Being a part of a large group of people who are there to participate in the same thing as you, and all the excitement in the air, is the other half of what makes it fun. (Also, seeing the looks of jealousy on innocent by-standers as they watch us participate in something that they aren't doing adds to the fun. :D )

[Disneyphile]

But, conquest is fun, therefore I'm claiming my victory early.:P

[Ghoulish Delight]

It's fun to win :D

I like competing. So in this kind of situation, I give my best effort. I don't sulk around if I lose, but to me, if I don't do everything I can in a competition, what's the point? It is, afterall, a competition. The key to being competetive while still having fun is to do it with the attitude of, "I'm going to do the absolute best I can. If I win, great. If I lose, at least I know I enjoyed the experience." Our first Mouseadventure, we had no clue what to expect going in, of course. So, we went in with the goal of having fun, not expecting to be able to compete with the obvious veterans. But, we still put the effort out to do the best we could. Lo and behold, we ended up in 4th or 5th place in the scavenger portion! Best of both worlds. We had a blast, and we performed really well.

[Matterhorn Fan]

Team Bitter Eastcoasters has already claimed a moral victory. We're already winners.

[timl33]

I defintely want to win, but I'm going to be trying just to have fun. Some of the clues from old MA events looked pretty hard to me, so I'll just be thrilled with finishing as much as I can. I have 1 die-hard Disney person on my team which should help. I'll be recovering from a 1/2 IM triathlon the day before as well as being probably hung over from a wedding the night before. So, if you run into anyone that's a little slow and slurring their words a bit, that's probably me :)

[Niwel]

If you play for fun you almost always have a better time, because even if you don't win, you've enjoyed the experience. If you play to win and end up losing, you've missed out on the fun.
Then there are those who play to win and do win --- all I can say to those people is :P --- your karma is too good!

[innerSpaceman]

Originally posted by Bill Catherall
Being challenged and playing to win is just half of what makes it fun though. Being a part of a large group of people who are there to participate in the same thing as you, and all the excitement in the air, is the other half of what makes it fun.

Exactly!

I play to have fun. Most of the fun comes from playing the game, and playing the game means playing as best you can. That, in turn, I suppose means playing to win. In the case of my team, we know darn well that playing as best we can means playing to win, since playing the best we can has (ahem) never resulted in a loss for us.

But that by no means means playing with a cutthroat or competitive attitude. We are really playing to have fun. And the fun comes from really playing.

As a side note - if we perceive the game as being badly designed and confusing (last M.A.), we do not have fun. Last M.A. was the first time we did not have fun. Lo and behold, we won first place. That was nice, but we would rather have had fun. Sure, we play to win, but mostly to have fun.

So go out there and just have fun. Don't try to win (we've got that locked).

[Gauchograd99]

The last person I would expect to lose would be the 3-time champ Innerspaceman .... ya chating bum! :)

I personally have more fun in sports than I do in MouseAdventure. The reason I have more fun in a sport is because I control winning and losing... it has very little to do with outside influence. By outside influence I am referring to the wording of questions, the crowd flow, the "ghost referees", and possible cheating by teams splitting up. Last I checked a volleyball team cannot go "split squad" (3 people instead of 6) on 2 courts and still win. Same with hockey...you get the picture. :)

More than likely this will be my final MouseAdventure for many reasons so I want to go out with either a win or complete blow-up! I hope everyone is wearing their UN approved kevlar helmuts! ( boy, don't I sound confident? :))

[Sophie832]

Oh boy...I'm assuming I'm going to need to bring a whole lotta granola on Sunday.

Here's a little legal statement just in case, "The opinions of Gauchograd99 do not reflect those of the entire Gauchoholics team." ;)


As a side note - if we perceive the game as being badly designed and confusing (last M.A.), we do not have fun. Last M.A. was the first time we did not have fun. Lo and behold, we won first place. That was nice, but we would rather have had fun. Sure, we play to win, but mostly to have fun.

See? It's ok to be unhappy about the last MA, but now we can move on, for goodness sakes.

[Gauchograd99]

Sophie832, you should know by now that until this MA is played out that there will be many people (myself included) who are still holding a bad taste in their mouth. The best analogy I can come up with for me at least is going to a restaurant only to be treated like garbage and having bad food put in front of you.... are you REALLY that enthusiastic about returning to that restaurant in the future? Wouldn't you be hesitant (besides calling the Health Inspector :)) to go back to that restaurant, or would you view it as just a fluke?

Like Sophie832 said, these views are not the view of the whole Gauchoholics team but the view of the person writing this. If ANYONE wants a great partner for the future you should contact her. Heck, I kinda wish you would have contacted her by now so she had a chance of winning this time (*cough* innerspaceman *cough* :)).

Best of luck all.

[EandCDad]

Nevermind.