Comments on: The Multiple Appeals of Gaming

By: Geek Studies » The “Lost” Appeals of Gaming

Geek Studies » The “Lost” Appeals of Gaming — Thu, 12 Aug 2010 17:39:22 +0000

[...] Culture Association conference in St. Louis on what I’ve been referring to around here as the multiple appeals of gaming. I’ve been coming back to the paper on and off ever since, poking and prodding it in an [...]

By: Geek Studies » Heavy Expectations

Geek Studies » Heavy Expectations — Tue, 20 Jul 2010 19:28:03 +0000

[...] of mastery that this game frustratingly denied to players who see games as about this appeal over all others. Rather, I restarted a couple scenes because control and interface issues occasionally presented [...]

By: Geek Studies » Geek Studies in Philadelphia & St. Louis

Geek Studies » Geek Studies in Philadelphia & St. Louis — Sun, 28 Feb 2010 09:24:30 +0000

[...] I’ll be presenting a paper that originated as a loosely-connected series of posts here about “The Multiple Appeals of Gaming.” Let me know if you expect to be at the conference and feel like discussing geeky things, as I have [...]

By: Geek Studies » What Heavy Rain Might Tell Us About Choice

Geek Studies » What Heavy Rain Might Tell Us About Choice — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 15:55:33 +0000

[...] complete way possible than they are in exploring characters or themes (what I’ve described elsewhere as prioritizing “mastery” over “story”). This raises some interesting [...]

By: Geek Studies » New Game Minus

Geek Studies » New Game Minus — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 15:46:29 +0000

[...] the choices you make don’t even really matter at all. This experience relies on a blend of story-oriented and mastery-oriented appeals, where the challenge of the game heightens the sense of drama and tension in the story, and vice [...]

By: Geek Studies » Player Types, Styles, and Contexts

Geek Studies » Player Types, Styles, and Contexts — Mon, 03 Aug 2009 22:14:44 +0000

[...] I’ve long tried to describe gaming styles as a number of potentially overlapping styles or “appeals” rather than as something inherently tied to personality. Personally, I tend to play more like a [...]

By: Geek Studies » Blog Archive » “You are dead. Continue?”

Geek Studies » Blog Archive » “You are dead. Continue?” — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 15:08:53 +0000

[...] well. We’ve already discussed around here how gaming encompasses multiple appeals (as have a number of other writers), but some opinions are set on the issue. Even as some [...]

By: Jason Tocci

Jason Tocci — Sun, 20 Apr 2008 20:51:50 +0000

Just as a follow-up about feeling in-character and the awkwardness about doing awful things: I just came upon another post on the Mass Effect forum indicating something similar. Writing of one scene where an old acquaintance asks for help getting someone out of prison who committed a violent hate crime against aliens, a player notes: "I was going to [help the prisoner] on my racist renegade playthrough, but once I found out what he did I just couldn't do it." It's kind of weirdly fascinating to me that someone would go to the trouble of playing the protagonist as a violent racist (speciesist?) just to see what happens, but still couldn't follow through with it all the way because it seemed so wrong.

By: Jason Tocci

Jason Tocci — Sun, 13 Apr 2008 15:42:36 +0000

Good question about Sim games. I would’ve said they’re about fooling around, especially as Will Wright himself describes them as toys. Then again, I realize now that there may be a difference between the pleasures of “fooling around to break the rules” (which may be deliberately subversive) and “fooling around to explore the world.”

Animal Crossing offers another example of this. You live in a little village populated by animals who end their sentences with customizable catch phrases like “meow meow.” The game has no real point or ending, as far as I know. Maybe there’s a difference, though, between wandering around and exploring and digging up fossils just for the sake of fooling around, and altering an NPC’s catch phrase so they end every single sentence with the words “blue balls” (as my friends did).

As for how you did on that text adventure: I think that anybody still making text adventures probably doesn’t feel entirely beholden to the “you must win or lose” convention common elsewhere in the industry. I mean, they’re certainly not beholden to the “you must have graphics” convention.

And I’m with you on Riven; that’s the only game I ever bought a strategy guide for (because I just wanted to see the end of the damn thing).

By: Church

Church — Sun, 13 Apr 2008 02:17:48 +0000

I am indeed glad to hear that The Greater Internet Fuckwad Theory was used in an academic setting.

More semi-random thoughts: Where do Sim games fit in? I’d think they’re largely under Tomfoolery, but part of me rebels against that because I’m usually frustrated by their lack of transparency (I read rule books as entertainment, so I may be an outlier here. (A good friend of mine plays them exclusively and enjoys teasing out what the unspoken rules are.))

The linear vs. branching story games are interesting for similar reasons. I tend to like both at various times, and am frustrated by both as well. Too linear (Myst 2 comes to mind) can get you bogged down at one point, while too much branching can leave you wondering if you’ve done well or not (depending on the feedback.) I’m thinking particularly of a text adventure game I played a bit ago (yeah, they’re still around) that had a very weird ending. I’m still not sure if I ‘won’ or ‘lost’ that game, or if I had merely reached the end.