Topic: Why do you still play games?

[D_Average]

I play games because they're fun and the pain meds I'm prescribed potentiate the desire to play them.

[Halbred]

I enjoy experiencing the art direction in different games. Wind Waker and Bioshock were particularly eye-popping. I also play games to relax and unwind after work.

Also, you know, bewbies.

[iDraTion]

Alright so the "Great American Video Game" has nothing to do with anything Japanese.  Let's just get that out of the way right now.  It's not Mario, it's not Zelda, it's not Metroid.  Those are toys in fun worlds.  The epitome of games has to be one that utilizes the medium's advantages well.  In games you play the character through the world and story.  Mass Effect gets closest to showing what games can be because not only is it an incredibly well-fleshed out world where every aspect is detailed (to the point where game mechanics are no longer game mechanics, they exist because they are arbitrated by the world and its components and they couldn't have existed any other way), you define the game by how you define your character.  You create the protagonist and define how they interact with the surrounding world and characters.  You then decide outcomes of plot points based on the character development you employed for the protagonist.  This is the only medium that lets you do this.  If you wanted to do this in any other medium you'd have to be a writer and write your own novels; even then you're only creating your own single protagonist for other people to enjoy.


That's why I never understood people docking the game because of regurgitated combat areas and other flaws.  The game is the beginnings of the realization of the medium.  The flaws just seemed to fall by the wayside in insignificance because I felt the impact of what was happening to my character and the weight of what my character had to decide, and I was just so engrossed in the world I didn't care about the repetition until my fourth playthrough.  I used to play games because they were toys and I enjoyed seeing and playing improvements on genres as the years went by, and my interest in gaming was kind of waning until the ME games because they're just such a landmark in the progression of games.  I wouldn't have called gaming a hobby for me until them; now I feel there is legitimate cause to claim that games are just as worthwhile as music, paintings, and novels, and Sands of Time was absolutely a major stepping stone for that. 


I still play games because ultimately I'm mentally engaged in an interesting way.  NSMBW was fun, but it doesn't hold up for long because of how second nature all the motions are, I don't have to think about it.  I still find them fun, but I don't get to employ my imagination like I can with ME and like I used to do with Ninja Turtles and Ghostbusters toys.  Which is ironic because I started by saying how ME is NOT a toy, but the way you imagine your character acting and feeling uses the same mental faculties as imagining the Turtles taking down Shredder with a calculated attack plan on the Sewer playset like I used to do as a kid. I think that's a testament to the game because it's enjoyable in very similar ways, but you also get a great sci-fi world and story along with it. 


I think the best games can only come out of Western developers because, frankly, Japanese developers just don't get why people connect with stories and novels.  It's usually some garbled muck with infinite strangeness that inevitably conveys how the power of friendship can overcome amnesia.  If you can relate to that in a personal way, that's a great, unique thing, but that story holds no weight for me.  Maybe a lot of Japanese people deal with that, I don't know, but I do think Western developers will continue to be the ones to push the medium as they have in recent years. 

[NWR_insanolord]

No offense, but iDraTion just perfectly summed up everything I hate about the way the game industry, outside of Nintendo, has been going.

[iDraTion]

Which is fine because games are about having fun, I just appreciate more depths that are being brought into games.  If everything were heavy, involved games I'd hate it, but Nintendo will always own the pure fun games so there will always be both sides to gaming, which is exactly how I ideally want it to be.

[Dirk Temporo]

No offense, but iDraTion just perfectly summed up everything I hate about the way the game industry, outside of Nintendo, has been going.

So you hate art. Good to know.

Mass Effect is just now barely BEGINNING to catch up with what was presented in Deus Ex. I don't know how many of you ever played it, but it really was an experience totally unlike anything else, and pretty much proved that games can be as powerful and interesting as any other artistic medium. Choices that mattered, characters who you felt attached to, situations that made you go "wtf" and slowly revealed themselves over time as you uncovered more things while you played. Mass Effect has much more in the way of dialog choices, but Deus Ex had more choices relevant to the actual gameplay, and the things you did while moving around and through an area.

[Mop it up]

No offense, but iDraTion just perfectly summed up everything I hate about the way the game industry, outside of Nintendo, has been going.

I hear that.

[Stogi]

Oh god, please don't start the "Art vs. Toy" debate. I always hated that one.

[NWR_insanolord]

To be fair, I love Mass Effect. I'm still on the first one, and I haven't finished it, but, if it stays as good as its been so far, it's one of my favorite games ever. I just don't like the fact that it seems like everyone in the industry is beginning to almost exclusively focus on "artistic" games. I hate that it's not enough to just make something fun anymore, unless it's a downloadable game. I believe in the Miyamoto school of game design, in which you include as little story in a game as you can get away with. There are exceptions to that (see my Mass Effect praise earlier in this post), but I'd much rather see an industry dominated by Nintendo-style games than one filled with "art."

[Mop it up]

Okay now you're just reading my thoughts.

[D_Average]

Fun games aren't going anywhere. No need to worry.

[Chozo Ghost]

It only appeared that way because we were the first generation to have them.

Video games have been around in one form or another since at least the early 70s, when you had Pong and so forth. Then there was pac-man, donkey kong, space invaders, etc. Then there was the NES era and on and on. Anyone who got hooked on video games back in those days is an adult now, and what's more is they probably have kids of their own who are playing games. We have at least two generations of video gamers now. 10 years ago video games might only have been for kids, but nowadays its also for balding virgins who live in their parent's basement, lol.

[Dirk Temporo]

I'd much rather see an industry dominated by Nintendo-style games than one filled with "art."

That's exactly the same as saying you'd rather see the movie industry dominated by Death Race than one filled with movies like Where the Wild Things Are and District 9. Or that you'd rather see the music industry be dominated by Lady Gaga instead of one filled with people like Aesop Rock.

[NWR_insanolord]

I don't look for the same thing in games as I do in movies or music. I want to be sucked into a game because of the gameplay, not the story or the characters or the setting. If I want those things I'll watch a movie or a TV show or read a book; they get in the way in a game.

[Stogi]

Same here. And as much as I like a good single player game, I enjoy multiplayer far more.

[KDR_11k]

I'd much rather see an industry dominated by Nintendo-style games than one filled with "art."

That's exactly the same as saying you'd rather see the movie industry dominated by Death Race than one filled with movies like Where the Wild Things Are and District 9. Or that you'd rather see the music industry be dominated by Lady Gaga instead of one filled with people like Aesop Rock.

Nintendo isn't exactly mass produced pop, they're very different from everybody else and if they were a smaller company everybody would probably call their games art.

[Dirk Temporo]

If I want those things I'll watch a movie or a TV show or read a book

Man I love when people use this argument. Too bad it's bullshit. Games offer a 100% unique way of experiencing all the things that you mentioned BECAUSE of the gameplay, and the idea that you would completely dismiss games as a viable medium for telling a story or experiencing a world/characters is mind-boggling. Games have the potential to be SO much more than what they are right now, but unfortunately viewpoints such as yours are hindering the further development of the newest art form available to mankind.

they get in the way in a game.

Yeah, if it's done poorly. And guess why it keeps being done poorly? Because people like you aren't interested in it, and so companies either pump out meaningless stuff, or they half-ass the aspects you mentioned, which leads to exactly where we're at right now, with people saying games shouldn't be treated as art just because we already have other mediums available which do it better.

Nintendo isn't exactly mass produced pop, they're very different from everybody else and if they were a smaller company everybody would probably call their games art.

Nintendo is very much mass-produced pop, especially with the Wii. The gaming industry in GENERAL is mass-produced pop, which is a direct result of being born straight into the age of mass media. We're finally developing the technology to be able to do things with games that nobody has ever seen before anywhere, but everybody is so rooted into the idea that games HAVE to be fun and nothing else, or they're crap.

[NWR_insanolord]

I'm not completely dismissing games as a storytelling medium. I know there is a tremendous amount of potential in that area, and that games are capable of things that no other medium is capable of. It just doesn't interest me most of the time. I play games to have fun; if other people want to play them to experience stories, more power to them. I love Mass Effect, but I'd rather see one Super Mario Galaxy than ten games like and as good as Mass Effect, because that's my taste in gaming.

[Stogi]

Dirk, I get your point. Videogames do have a massive potential to tell stories and better yet, have them be deeply engaging because of what a videogame is. That said, I'd rather gameplay comes before story any day. When a developer is thinking of a new game, I don't want them to think about the characters first, I want them to think about the mechanics of the game first.

[Mop it up]

I've never understood cutscenes in a videogame, that's bad game design. Any moment where I don't have control over something, anything, shouldn't exist in a game.

[Stratos]

I've never understood cutscenes in a videogame, that's bad game design. Any moment where I don't have control over something, anything, shouldn't exist in a game.

So the controllable camera-bot in MGS4 cutscenes is right up your alley? j/k

I actually enjoy good games that convey stories and plots well. I think when it is perfectly melded into the game is best. But games with cutscenes in them can still help underscore points but they shouldn't be a crutch that hinders gameplay.


I remember playing Dragon Quest 3 and there is little story there Iwould argue. Sure, there is the overarching plot point and side quests,but the in between interactions and character development isnon-existent. I would actually make up the interactions between thecharacters when I was younger and it made me more attached to my partyand not want them to fall in combat.

Nintendo games actually like to leave a lot of the story up to you. I'm still surprised by the amount of depth people pull out of Ocarina of Time through a tiny suggestion or allusion in the game. This makes those games deeper and personalizes the experience for each player.

Fire Emblem does both because not only is there a story already in place and a lot of character depth and interaction, but the act of pairing up your units and deepening their bonds causes you to grow attached to them and make the play through different for each player.

I know they aren't examples people were necessarily thinking of forgames telling stories, but it is a method that can and is being used.How many of us 'paired up' units in our minds to be friends, lovers andcompanions when we were younger or even now?

Games like Metroid Prime and Mario Galaxy do nice jobs of melding them as well. It's part of the reason I side with the Prime series truly being First-Person-Adventures. You are the character exploring the planet and stumbling across bits of information that reveal more and more of the overarching story. It really feels a lot like a more streamlined and accessible Myst-type game with action elements. In Myst you explored a world and uncovered clues as to the story's big picture as you progressed. Prime took that and applied it to action games.

[iDraTion]

^I do like the aspects of the games you mentioned because I enjoy when there's parts of the game I can fill in with my imagination.  I've never felt motivated to do so with Mario games, but definitely with Metroid and Zelda, imagining what the character's thinking/feeling as ridiculous things are going down around them.  Most of the more complex, plot-driven games don't do this because they just feed you everything.  You don't get to mentally be an active part of the game.  It's the different ways that games find to do this, and new ways that they develop to engage your imagination that keep me playing.

[Stogi]

I play games so I can come on here and bitch about how they're never good enough.

[BeautifulShy]

Lots of good responses thus far.
I am going to have to agree with iDraTion.
I found that I like playing games to explore the worlds in games and try to use my imagination to try and figure out things. For the most part these days games rarely spark my imagination.

[D_Average]

No that I think about, escapism is the real draw for me, a completely new world to get lost in, hence the reason I avoid FPS's, too realistic for me.