What do You Play Games For?
polycounter lvl 18
Hey guys, I was recently checking out some videos from the scribblenauts game that's coming soon, and it made me realize why there's a lot of games that are coming out that I have no interest in, but other people seem to go all gaga over. (Things like LBP, Spore, etc...)
Basically, I saw a video of some dudes putting words into scribblenauts to summon up random shit, that would then have little battle things. Totally bored me. But the comments on the video were insane, with people claiming it to be the best game ever and such.
Took me a bit to figure out why, because I totally couldn't relate. I saw next to nothing that interested me. It's because I don't enjoy just "play". I enjoy games that concentrate on either achievement, story, or competition. Just play that isn't linked to one of those does absolutely nothing for me.
So, I'm curious as to what it is that you guys all play games for? Do you enjoy that random play kind of thing? Prefer the story? Competition? Something else?
Love to hear your thoughts!
(also, not saying that one is better than the other, just that I don't care for that "play" stuff.)
Basically, I saw a video of some dudes putting words into scribblenauts to summon up random shit, that would then have little battle things. Totally bored me. But the comments on the video were insane, with people claiming it to be the best game ever and such.
Took me a bit to figure out why, because I totally couldn't relate. I saw next to nothing that interested me. It's because I don't enjoy just "play". I enjoy games that concentrate on either achievement, story, or competition. Just play that isn't linked to one of those does absolutely nothing for me.
So, I'm curious as to what it is that you guys all play games for? Do you enjoy that random play kind of thing? Prefer the story? Competition? Something else?
Love to hear your thoughts!
(also, not saying that one is better than the other, just that I don't care for that "play" stuff.)
Replies
I play games for long open world environment strafing, if possible, I like roaming. I really hate a long rpg that has limited movement, like The last remnant, for example. It has 200hrs of play, but the areas are really kind of tight... When we played D&D back in the day, my DM was a descriptive writer and went on and on about the environment. I love me a long huge roam now. and story as well I guess, but its not as necessary as the huge environment.
I guess "the suspension of disbelief" as they say is important.
my dream game would be .... like a real life simulator with sweet graphics. basically GTA on a whole new level (maybe not so violent).
eh, who am i kidding, the matrix...i guess
also compeditive multiplayer is what I play for an adrenaline rush, especially if its a new game and everyone is just starting to get good at it. CoD 4 did that to me a while back as well as CS lans back in my highschool days. stomping all over a human opponent has a much more intense sense of satisfaction for me atleast.jesus im a nerd haha.
games just happen to be a nice diversion from the every day shit, like money worries, work stress etc.
Fun and to relax. Can´t be more specific than that. I just know I don´t like sandbox games that much and being overly competetive.
it doesnt even need to be a recent game for me,
i sometimes even go back and play final fantasy 9 because its too far out
Seeing as I live alone and dont really have anyone to share a console experience with, things like sandbox or showy games just arent for me, theyre great as a "game" and giving enjoyment but I was trying to think of a way to pidgeon hole them and i thought of masterbation. To me some games are only that, theyre enjoyable yes but dont give me anything extra to enrich me. I guess the concept of enriching is weird in games but I have to find things that will stay with me or i cant justify the process.
With singleplayer games It has to have some kind of badass atmosphere or story that grips me by the balls - Dead space/cod4/hl2 deliver in that respect for me! Also most of the time I end up playing multiplayer games and im addicted to quakelive at the moment... I just constantly want to better myself and if a game doesnt have an area that I can pit myself to the test - whilst not delivering in anything besides "fun" - then it aint for me haha.
Lengthy way of explaining my weird OCD for getting good at games
I literally only play about 3 games per year now, though I'm constantly playing Fifa 09, I have only played MGS4 and Gears 2 in the last 18months. For me now, games have to offer a serious rich experience, Mario etc no longer appeals to me for some reason. Plus games are so expensive now that I only buy the AAA ones.
Exploration and story doesnt interest me much. Which is odd considering I've been playing a lot of RPGs since the SNES days and even spent 7 years on MMORPGs
The only single player games I really like to play are clever puzzle games like Braid, World of Goo and Professor Layton.
What I truly look for in a game though is one of two things:
1) An interactive book experience (or movie to some degree). When I read a good book it sucks me in and I just can't stop reading, no matter what. When I finish I'm still mentally locked in the book for hours, sometimes days depending on how good it is (God damned Dune). I love games that can do that for me, though only a few have ever come close. (Fallout 2, Diablo, Mass Effect, Baldur's Gate, etc) To a lesser degree this includes games that don't do that for me, but manage to strongly convey a unique mood.
2) Polished fun. Good example of this is Warcraft III, or the UT series. Skill based, fairly balanced games that test me without being dickish about it.
"The player is also sometimes limited to a certain number of objects that he or she may summon in a level, and is required to complete each level using a different tool than was previously used"
QFT
I don't care about the game. I want it just so I can look at it and think, "Here's a game where I can pick from any of 10,000 items and do whatever I want with."
And things like that, creativity and experimentation, is something I really enjoy in games. I'm the kind of person who plays an RTS on the lowest difficulty just so the enemy won't bother me while I'm making my base all pretty. Well, that is, when I'm not running around and shooting people's heads off. I'm an action gamer first and foremost.
I like speedy action, or games with very nuanced, skill-based controls (see Mirror's edge), or games that let me go nuts and be creative. I liked Spore for the creative thing. I made all the aircrafts on my planet Vic Vipers and modelled my spaceship after the R-Type designs! It looks awesome, trust me. LittleBigPlanet caught my attention thanks to that, too, but then it came out and I looked at it and realized my second important thing there, nuanced controls, were non-existent, so I stopped drooling over it. And then there's things like TrackMania. I'm not a huge racing fan, but I've played TrackMania on and off for the past four or five years. Primarily because of the level editor. I often pick it up, make a really intricate level and decorate it beautifully, test play it once it's finished, save and quit and never play that track again.
So, back to Scribblenauts. The game has "achievements" too! You can apparently unlock medals by replaying levels and beating them under certain conditions, like using an item you've never used before and funky stuff like that. It definitely appeals to my experimentive creative side. But I can see why someone wouldn't be excited by hearing about it. It does sound weird. I mostly just wanna pick it up to appreciate the insane level of work that was put into its primary gimmick, and experiment with all the possibilities.
Personally, I've always been slightly obsessed with story. I have a very difficult time putting down a story that I've started. Only the most terrible of narratives can vanquish my all-encompasing curiosity. Unless a story is absolute shit, I will see it through to the end. This is part of the reason why I was always so fond of point-and-click adventure games. These titles were much more narrative-focused, and even the side bits usually had clever and inventive writing.
As far as Scribblenauts is concerned, I can understand people's enthusiasm. Scribblenauts is going to be a very popular "friends" game. It is the kind of title that you pull out when your friends are around, just to show off to them and dick around with. It's going to be a very solid over-the-shoulder DS title. I can just imagine some of the guys looking over my shoulder, yelling out things they want me to type into the game to see if they'll work, and then putzing around with them once they're there. It is very much a more immergent experience, and a group setting can be very conducive to that sort of fun. I can see it being a fun puzzle game solo, but the real fun will be when you get other people into it.
Mostly, I play games for the challenge / rush that some games give you. I enjoy racing games, shooters, rpg's, scrollers, pretty much anything so long as it keeps the action / challenge up.
I agree with all the comments about Spore, etc. I think there needs to be a line drawn tho, or a definition cleared up. To me, Spore, Black&White, etc really arent games so much as toys. For me, the desire to play a game is to win, but it seems many of these new 'games' coming out you can just play forever without any real goal - to me thats more of a toy, no?
Just my 2 cents anyway
-N
I forgot to add the disclaimer that I haven't really played spore... all Ive seen of it is the vids and 10 mins of in game at some girls house - I was more referring to pas titles... I should probably gather info before opening my pie hole :P
-N
Exactly.
I play the shit out of some Harvest Moon that game is like crack, and all you do is farm.
But like everybody I play games for fun.
1. Competition
2. Freedom
3. Action gameplay mastery (including achievements, map knowledge, weapons, etc.)
Consequently, I hate:
1. Games on rails ("What does the game designer want me to do here?")
2. Slow gameplay (impatient as hell)
3. Story (Don't try to guide me or tell me what I'm supposed to do.)
Number 3 on my hates could be misconstrued. I like backstory, or loose overall story arcs/themes, etc., but I despise the "Your old buddy is secretly the criminal mastermind, and you have to kill him in his secret hideout" type stuff. I just don't care. Let me do what I want with no story-driven interference. If you want to toss in some story that doesn't slow down my gameplay then fine, but don't force feed it to me and make me do something.
If I wanted story, I'd read some classical literature.
Just wanted to point out to some of you clever guys - the point of this is to self analyze what makes a game "fun" for you. Fun is pretty much a nebulous non-concept for practical purposes. What I'm trying to ask is what makes games fun to you.
Edit: Shooting things is fun for me.
I like character interactions as well, well written characters can brighten up any story.
Secondary would be art presentation, regardless of style, if I enjoy the art, I'll probably enjoy the game somewhat.
I'm also finding lately that a lot of games just aren't appealing to me at all. I never was a huge fan of the mgs series, I don't like shooters more often than not, mmos are fun four about 4-5 months and then they get repetitive.
And I played COD4 for the first time in about 3 months last weekend.. that would be the first time I picked up any game since about march.
Actually, I'll add that WoW was the game that really pissed me off on a lot of games. When I stopped playing wow I asked myself...
"Why am I sitting on my fat ass getting fatter, clicking a button every 2 seconds so I can watch a bunch of pixels shoot pixels at this other bunch of pixels?"
At that point I bought a real bow... and started shooting real arrows at real stuff. I found that immensely more satisfying.
I'm also a practitioner of kung fu, so fighting games don't really interest me unless they're pretty and have cool animation.
driving games no longer interest me as now I'm starting to track my car, even though I'll never get as fast as the games with fancy cars... it just feels so wrong not being able to look far into a corner and feel the Gs on me while I suddenly lose my balls on a tight section of corners with an elevation change.
so really, the only thing left that I can be entertained with is a story.
- Roaming around looking at all the neat stuff
- Interacting with the neat stuff in ways I couldn't IRL. The GTA games were fun for this reason. Getting into any nearby vehicle of any sort and driving it around on rooftops and through windows and stuff was the whole reason I played. The combat-oriented missions and formal street races weren't really fun for me. Spider-Man 2 for Xbox was even better, with the webswinging and crawling on stuff.
- Completing challenges and seeing what happens next in single player games is fun too, but I don't like when the challenges are too linear (jumping with perfect timing between narrow platforms or solving innane riddles or puzzles that only have one very specific solution and no other way to proceed). I like being able to at least feel like I've possibly done something in the game that wasn't anticipated.
- Competition is fun when I can play and have a chance of winning when I'm playing my best. But I'm not very good at FPS games, though I enjoy them, so playing online is rarely fun. I've been playing some Quake Live recently, but after 12 years I still can't circle-jump successfully and the highest accuracy I've had with any weapon was around 45% and an average of like 16%. TF2 sounds super fun in theory, but in practice I die every 3 seconds or so and spend the rest of the time listening to guys on voice chat telling me how much I suck for messing up their team. There's no single player, so it hasn't really been enjoyable enough to stick with long enough to learn to play well enough to enjoy it. But AI competition, or less twitchy multiplayer games are fun.
- Kirby, GemCraft, Smash Bros, Scorched Earth, HL2, Time Crisis 3, 2d Sonic, Guitar Hero, Mario, Halo, offline UT3.
Responsive visual stimulation is the gist of it, I guess.
That's why Bioshock, Crackdown, Uncharted and Gears are my top four games of this generation. Bioshock created such an interesting and unusual world for me to wander around. While Crackdown's city wasn't exceptionally interesting in and of itself, the manner in which I was allowed to travel through it really hooked me, and the sight of distant skyscrapers moving in perspective as you were dropping down from the roof of a building never got old. Uncharted and Gears are both like playing as the hero of an action-adventure movie. I love the little touches like incidental dialogue as you're walking around, it really draws me in. The bit in Gears where Marcus is talking to Baird over the radio and Baird does a squeaky high-pitched impression of Cole's sports fans is probably my favorite moment in game dialogue. I love that games are finally starting to have minor dialogue that would occur between real people as opposed to just overdramatic "You don't belong in this world, fiend!" type stuff.
edit: Forgot to mention Braid! And, ah, well I guess I need to set a cutoff point somewhere. Too many great games to mention.
like when i'm battling 14 dudes simultaneously in mount and blade, all alone, who all can kill me with 1-2 blows, and are throwing spears at me, and i manage to dodge all the spears being thrown, while crushing their shields with a 2-handed battle axe, blocking all their attacks, and killing them all off.
i play little casual games to get away from Eastenders or whatever else happens to be on that i don't want to watch
Maybe sometimes I'll want RPG, MMORPG, or just action/adventure, but it depends on my mood.
When I'm trying to fill in the empty hours between the busyness in my life, I want that time to feel accomplished or memorable. I like to keep my mind active while relaxing, basically. That, or work on some kind of mental growth. Otherwise I just feel like the time spent was mindless and wasted.