Friday, November 9, 2007

Why I play games

I read another interesting article the other day on GameHelp on "Why We Play Games" and it had some interesting points, but the majority of which seems a tad superficial. For me, the reason why *I* play games are pretty straighforward, at least to my insane little mind, and are analogous to other real world activities:

1. Immersion : Ever read a really good book that keeps you up until 3 am, and then you look up and wonder why your kitchen is on fire from the dinner you started heating a while ago? Well, neither have I, but it's been close :) Whether it's a good book, good movie or a good game, you become the character you play. You can be master chief, the all powerful warlock or even just a humble little ninja, but the point here is that for a few hours, you leave the little stresses and worries of a regular life behind and live a much simpler/richer/different one. Good books do this the best IMHO.

2. Being part of a team : I'm a big fan of multiplayer, so much that rarely do I play a single player game more than a week or so before it joins the leaning tower of games in the living room. It's the same reason I like sports and will play on a freezing field with my team in the rain and have a blast, but giant sharks with lasers attached to their heads and crowbars to their tails can't pry my behind off the couch to go to the gym. The sense of camaraderie and teamwork that a good group gives you is priceless and good games capitalize on this.

There are other reasons too, (a sense of achievement - just like finishing a big project at work, and sometimes just good gameplay that is like watching a fun movie), but these IMHO are the big ones.