Added on Mon 22 Jan 2007
Game Entertainment
Now on to ‘Part 2′ of my little series.
As I was going on about - The Future of Computer Games?! I decided that I should start from scratch and think about entertainment and what I found entertaining. Once I had that sorted, then move on to how a computer game could fit into that puzzle.
At first I thought of other forms of entertainment - I mean Movies & TV etc, sports, artistic endeavours, shopping/collecting, and card games etc. (By the way shopping sounds better if you think of it as collecting!) I’ve since thought of reading - although I don’t do much of it, it is enjoyable when I do.
That was all very well, but what did I actually enjoy about those things… they’re all quite enjoyable, but why?
So I came up with a list of more basic attributes that make those things enjoyable to me. Here they are:
- Freedom & Creativity
- Thrilling & Adrenalin
- Mystery & Suspense
- Challenging & Competition
- Spectacular
- Achievement
(Have I missed any - let me know!)
So now I can breakdown each form of entertainment into the various items in the list … like ticking boxes. For instance movies are good at 2, 3 & 5; sports good for 2, 4, 6 and a bit of 1; art 1 & 6 and so on. So how does a modern computer game stack up then? Lets consider HL2, I suppose it does 2, 4, 5 & 6. That’s not too bad but it’s missing 1 and 3. Some people may argue that there is some Mystery and Suspense there as well… so let’s say it is mainly missing “1. Freedom and Creativity”.
Flipping that over, computer games are out there that feature freedom and creativity and they do very well. I’m thinking here of Sim2, and many of those MMORPG’s and say Second Life as well. However, those games are then missing some of the things that make HL2 enjoyable. Plus they do have some negative aspects that I haven’t considered in my analysis, but come up sometimes to make things less enjoyable. I suppose, ease of use, exertion and time constraints are a few of those things. So to sum it up, I’m not entirely sure, but I can’t really think of any computer games that ‘tick off’ all of those attributes.
On a side note, I had a look at Second Life - hardly a computer game as such… more of a chat room with visuals and economy. I did find it interesting and sort of fun. Mind you, I’m not sure how I would enjoy it over the long haul. You are constantly waiting for things to download into your world which takes a bit of the shine off, not sure if caching improves things there with time… I guess I have to spend more time with it before I can say whether I will get into it… Which I think is part of my problem with those games. Hours and hours have to be spent to get to grips with what’s going on - to become one of the ‘in’ crowd - to find it satisfying. I suppose there’s a certain amount of gratification that comes from achieving that goal and in the process. (On a side note of a side note - I have been taught that a economy based on no real tangible value is a false economy and will one day pop! - it seems that property value inside Second Life has to be one of the most literal examples of “no real tangible value”! but anyway it’s a fun ride for those who have tickets I suppose)
Back on track and I’m wondering if the future for computer games involves ticking more and more of those attribute boxes I listed, 1 through 6? By doing so, will that mean success for such a game? Naturally, various games will come out that will move the benchmark up for each thing, more suspense, more spectacular, more action… but is it possible to come up with something that will tick all boxes…. and will that be a breakthrough?
In my next and possibly final part to this little series, I’ll look at what happens if I apply a bit of each of those attributes to the design of a computer game… we’ll see what comes out; and if it sounds any good!