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Underground > Games & Gameplay >

'What do you get out of this?'

semioticrobotic

22:15 / 12.07.05

I was sprawled out on the living room floor playing X-Men Legends last night when my mother approached and sat down on the sofa. She watched the screen for about five seconds as I rapidly mashed buttons to free Jean Grey from a hoard of attacking soldiers, and then quietly turned to me and said:

"What do you get out of this?"

For once, my mom wasn't being cynical or attempting humor; she honestly wanted to know. Why the heck was I doing what I was doing, and why did I enjoy it so much? What did I derive from doing this so many hours each week?

And I really didn't know what to say. I finally said: "I don't know, Mom. It's hard for people my age to explain to people of your age what we get out of this."

I'm curious: why do 'lithers play videogames? What do they "get out of it," if anything?

Tryphena Absent

00:56 / 13.07.05

Does your mum enjoy playing any games? Why do people enjoy playing Patience or doing Jigsaws? And how about non-competitive word games and crossword puzzles? Is it the same kind of thing?

I don't think it is generational, I think it depends entirely on whether you're the sort of person who enjoys playing games on their own and I'm not sure the type of game matters other than preference-wise.

01:00 / 13.07.05

I think the type of game does matter. I used to be passionately into computer adventure games (of the GO SOUTH, HIT TROLL WITH IGNORE BUTTON variety) but never took to arcade or shoot 'em up fare. Similarly, I could get into crosswords but not jigsaws.

Point: there are subtypes of 'game-player'.

semioticrobotic

01:22 / 13.07.05

My mom enjoys board games and the general solitaire game every now and then (she actually plays this one the computer when she can). She likes games as a social utility, something for parties and picnics, that sort of thing. So, Ganesh, I agree the type of game matters.

So is sociability and the social component of some games her reason for playing? It's not, as it often is for me, the logical challenge of navigating a formal, rule-bound system?

*

05:47 / 13.07.05

Something I get out of video games is the ability to explore in a different persona a world with different limitations, which is why Morrowind and similar open-ended, immersive RPGs appeal to me so much. That's rather genre-specific, but there are so few video games which I like. I also like to be able to change the limitations of the world, expand the boundaries and contract them, and set my own challenges.

I expect I would have just as much difficulty explaining this to my mother, who never got into Morrowind but is currently thrilled with something involving a flying cute dragonlet and some fireflies, and has played through all the Harry Potter games to this point. Which is to say I'm not sure it's generational or cultural, either. I think it's more what kinds of challenge one finds appealing, and I'm not sure what factors affect that.

11:11 / 13.07.05

X-men legends is probably a really bad example to use as to ann observer over a short period it justlooks like a "stoopid" hit other people game.
I played it obsesively, for a while, because it was the xmen as I wanted to see them and the feeling of taking part in these battles I'd read about was kind of thrilling.
(apart from the fatc that if I don't perform a bonus danger room mission straight away I seem to lose the option)
I haven't gotten back into it in a while now however.Something like morrowind does give me more of a sense of accomplishment because of the way the game plays out. It might need to be noted that I have been working on a frustrating project in work for nearly four months without any sense of accomplishment during this time. Havign a nice clean resolution to a task or dungeon in morrowind help me at least get over that feeling of frustration.
I need to go away aand think about this now.

12:30 / 13.07.05

So is sociability and the social component of some games her reason for playing? It's not, as it often is for me, the logical challenge of navigating a formal, rule-bound system?

Sounds like it.

G's point is important. Adventure games - yr Monkey Islands or Broken Swords - are all about realising a fixed solution to a puzzle. There's little to no freedom in how you go about reaching that solution. As such, the appeal is second guessing the designer, as well as making your way through a linear storyline. That doesn't mean that they can't be social, though - that puzzle-solving, narrative driven sort of thing is perfect for involving people who aren't holding the controller, which is where this comes in:

Point: there are subtypes of 'game-player'.

One of those subtypes is the secondary player, the person who observes somebody else controlling the events on screen but contributes just as much to it by offering suggestions or simply becoming involved in the atmosphere. The feeling of fear that I experienced while playing Project Zero was increased by having another person in the room with me who was just as involved in it.

I play games for a number reasons. The score challenge is one - getting into competition with other people is part of it, but it's also about challenging yourself, pushing yourself to get that little bit further than you did before. Outwitting the designers again, too - figuring out the peculiarities of the scoring system and working a strategy to ab/use it. Then the social thing comes in again, with the sharing of those strats with other people so that they can improve their game or you can learn stuff that you wouldn't otherwise know. Some games are so entertaining or original that you play them simply to see what comes next, be that in terms of storyline, aesthetics or challenge - I stuck with Psyvariar partly because I wanted to see how ludicrous the bullet patterns became on the hidden levels. And again with the social gaming, the only reason I play online games is to experience them alongside other people.

I think that it's true to say that all games can offer those experiences, regardless of genre. How appealing you find a game depends on how it balances them, to what extent it offers some of them over others and which of them you get the most from.

13:08 / 13.07.05

Because people tend to complain when I stand on a rooftop shooting people in the real world. There's lawsuits and other unpleasantness.

semioticrobotic

23:33 / 13.07.05

Dupre -- You make many intersting points, and I'm going to try to tease something else out of them. See what you think:

Many of the reasons you give for the appeal of videogames can be applied to other tpyes of games, such as board games (sociability, having fun in rule-bound systems, etc.) Why do you think my mom likes board games but not videogames? If these characteristics are universal, shouldn't she logically like all kinds of games?

You know, this could just boil down to my mother's particular temperment, but I'm curious to see if anyone can point out something deeper.

01:30 / 14.07.05

Could it have anything to do with the fact that we're (in general) living in a society that allows for excitement as luxury? That we seek adrenaline, or mental occupation, through games, is maybe just because people need to be occupied? People who love their work, or live lives that cause them to be active, often don't play as many games.

By this point, it's a hobby that most of us love, and play out of habit and enjoyment.

Do you think it's possible we need to play games, or that games do satisfy a need beyond just enjoyment?

There's also the exercising of imagination and creativity that comes out of playing games, a mental problem solving we don't always get to try out during the day. 'What do we get out of this?' The answer at it's deepest, may be, we get quite a lot.

09:21 / 19.12.06

Well, I play several types of game, for different reasons. If I'm by myself, I'll play a console RPG, usually one that is non-linear or at least with a strong customization aspect. I'm a big fan of other worlds and strange characters, and read comic books for a similar reason. This might very well be generational, as I've seen no console RPGers who didn't start as kids/teenagers, even if they are in their 30's now...

when I'm with friends, I'll almost always be playing a P&P RPG or miniatures game, though we do occasionally break out Soul Calibur. I, personally, am not a very competative person, and don't really get into 4-player deathmatch style stuff, other than the generic fun of running around in a video game. My roommate, on the other hand, can't understand how I can play Any 1-player game, and plays games for the social aspect almost exclusively.

I think in general, some people play games because they enjoy the interaction with other people, while other people just like the nature of games, or certain types of games, and will seek them out even without friends. Video games make this possible in a way that cards and the like couldn't really capture, so, generationally, there are probably more people who play games by themselves now than a generation ago.

13:52 / 19.12.06

I think that mostly I play games for the escapism. It's the chance to be in a world that revolves around the player, enabling them to do things that are impossible, illegal or very painful out in meatspace. It's all about experiences - I jumped out of a plane, I killed all those police men, I saved the world from an alien invasion, I made this amazing machine out of random crap.

Sometimes (rarely) there are compelling narratives too, like in Max Payne or Half-Life, but oftentimes you'll play a game just for the satisfying game mechanic, be it how it feels to shoot a demon in the face with a shotgun to how a car handles as you drift around a corner at 100 mph, but usually I play for the emotional reward, the way it makes me feel when I do something really hard, or pull of an amazing trick that I'm only ever going to get right that once.

I think that also, games are the one entertainment medium left that have the power to scare me. Horror films stopped doing it for me in my early teens, but the feeling of terror you get from many computer games is unsurpassable, a genuine tear-inducing gut-terror that comes from losing yourself completely in the universe of a horror game. Zombies! The creeping dread of knowing you're being hunted down by the undead legions of hell, you can never escape and it's happening right now to me, rather than I'm watching it passively in a movie.

Happy Dave Has Left

14:56 / 19.12.06

I'd have to agree about the scare aspect John, I crap myself fairly regularly playing all sorts of games, mainly FPSs - this is mostly I think because, being free of the time structures of film, sudden bangs, zombies and other shocks can come at literally any time.

04:56 / 20.12.06

Clearly it's because your mum isn't a supporter of mutant rights.

STOATIE LIEKS CHOCOLATE MILK

09:12 / 20.12.06

For me, it's largely escapism. Same as with comics, films, books and drugs. That probably says more about me than it does about games, however.

I love the immersion. I love being in these fantastic worlds, doing really cool shit. And yes, I love being scared, and games have the capacity to do that- it's something I don't think has yet been used to the fullest extent of its potential, but maybe that's something for another thread. This is why I love survival horror games the most- I think fear is a very useful tool in attaining total immersion, in making me feel like I'm actually there.

Much as I love the social aspects of something like World of Warcraft, I'd be perfectly happy to just play singleplayer games forever, if I had to.

The generational aspect I think is more to do with bad press than anything else. Recently, the *spit* Daily Mail (of course) had a massive article on a guy who was allegedly addicted to World of Warcraft. Someone wrote in the next day (and surprisingly got printed) to say that pretty much all the things they'd said about his habit in the article (seemed lost in a world of his own, got pissed off when people interrupted him playing, was really upset when the clinic told him he'd never be allowed to play again, spent hours on his own doing this stuff) were equally applicable to reading a good book. Which got me to thinking- obviously the experiences are very different, but for me, most of what I'm looking for in playing games is pretty much the same as I'm looking for when I read.

(Incidentally, I'm none too bothered as to whether videogames are ever accepted as being an art form- I couldn't give a fuck, really, as long as people still make them and I can still play them- but as a medium, it's still very much in its infancy. Remember that the novel used to be looked down on as a trashy medium. I wonder what people in twenty years' time will be doing that I won't be able to see the appeal of).

Janean Patience

09:19 / 20.12.06

I wonder what people in twenty years' time will be doing that I won't be able to see the appeal of.

Cock Ring Rodeo.

Tuna Ghost: Pratt knot hero

17:44 / 20.12.06

It's already huge in the east.