I'm very interested in discussions regarding the playability of games. My good
friends used to design games and edited electronic games magazine in the 80s.
They tell me that some of the most playable games, or the ones that people
always go back to, are some of the simplest. (tetris, Space Invaders)
Initially, this surprised me, as I always thought that I'd much rather play
something intricate and challenging. I've found out about myself, at least,
that yes, the game has to have a certain amount of challenge involved, but not
too much. Of course, that kind of echoes an Aristotelian view of games: find a
median point that may be further away from your tendency than you're
comfortable with. Anyway, at some point, the game method has to become
transparent in order to make it playable and in order to build skill and
interest. So shooting games are often revisited, because the objectives and
methods are very clear, and the payoff is immediate.
Lots of food for thought, but we do revisit this topic from time to time.
interesting stuff.
Teresa
“We’re made of star stuff.”—Carl Sagan
On May 14, 2014, at 9:28 AM, dark <[email protected]> wrote:
> Hi Lisa.
>
> I'd be interested to know where to get the castaway and nebula games, they're
> not ones I've heard of before, though i confess as I've said before my taste
> for infocom style games with random puzzles has somewhat pauled of late due
> to frustration with said puzles.
>
> Beware the grue!
>
> Dark.
> ----- Original Message ----- From: "Lisa Hayes" <[email protected]>
> To: "Gamers Discussion list" <[email protected]>
> Sent: Wednesday, May 14, 2014 10:47 AM
> Subject: Re: [Audyssey] game taste was: Re: regarding temporal disturbance
>
>
>> Dark i"m not a fan of racing games either, but i play puppy one and love
>> that. The top speed games are well designed and i like them due to their
>> design. i love monkeey business and sod and love the challenge. I love the
>> older infocom games and games like hugecave. Mcmurphy's mantion and
>> tgheir's a game called castaway and nebula written by a guy called conrad
>> button that i love.
>> Lisa Hayes
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> www.nutrimetics.com.au/lisahayes
>>
>> ----- Original Message ----- From: "dark" <[email protected]>
>> To: "Gamers Discussion list" <[email protected]>
>> Sent: Wednesday, May 14, 2014 7:20 PM
>> Subject: [Audyssey] game taste was: Re: regarding temporal disturbance
>>
>>
>>> Hi Lisa.
>>>
>>> While I do agree in principle, and would never insult someone for liking a
>>> different sort of game, you do raise what is to me a far more interesting
>>> question.
>>>
>>> For me at least, there are design characteristics of good games which are
>>> independent of preference. ake top speed2 and 3. I do not personally like
>>> racing games, I don't find they interest me much at all, however I look at
>>> the feature list for top speed, the way the games are put together, the
>>> customization etc, and I can say independent of personal preference that
>>> they bare the characteristics of well designed games, even though their
>>> subject matter is not something which would make me want to play them.
>>>
>>> The problem with just saying "everything is relative" is that then you
>>> have no standard of comparison. Then if someone comes along and thinks Beep
>>> is the best game in the universe, or thinks say shades of doom or entombed
>>> is a terrible game, all you can say is "well I disagree because I like
>>> different games" Likewise, there is then little way that you can can give
>>> constructive cryticism to someone designing a game, sinse they can always
>>> ignore you comments and say "well I don't like that idea" and leave it at
>>> that.
>>>
>>> I actually studdied these sorts of questions when I learnt Aesthetics,
>>> which is the philosophy of art, but i'd say this applies just as much to
>>> games as it does to music, literature or anything else.
>>>
>>> Complete relativism is a very attractive proposition sinse it gives a
>>> validity to everyone's opinions, the problem is, (to quote a lign from the
>>> gondoliers), "when everybody's somebody then no one's anybody"
>>>
>>> This is why when looking at say the temporal disturbance, I'd first ask not
>>> whether I! like it in the game, but whether it contributes to what over all
>>> makes a good game.
>>>
>>> Of course, the idea of "what makes a good game" is another question as
>>> well, and one which is also up for debate, but it is the idea that there
>>> is! some set of universal design characteristics that you can! judge a game
>>> against that is the point.
>>>
>>> If all the list was just made up of people saying "I like this" and "I
>>> don't like that" then discussion would be a pretty pointless thing.
>>>
>>> Beware the Grue!
>>>
>>> Dark.
>>>
>>> ---
>>> Gamers mailing list __ [email protected]
>>> If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to
>>> [email protected].
>>> You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at
>>> http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org.
>>> All messages are archived and can be searched and read at
>>> http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected].
>>> If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list,
>>> please send E-mail to [email protected].
>>
>>
>> ---
>> Gamers mailing list __ [email protected]
>> If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to
>> [email protected].
>> You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at
>> http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org.
>> All messages are archived and can be searched and read at
>> http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected].
>> If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list,
>> please send E-mail to [email protected].
>
>
> ---
> Gamers mailing list __ [email protected]
> If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to [email protected].
> You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at
> http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org.
> All messages are archived and can be searched and read at
> http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected].
> If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list,
> please send E-mail to [email protected].
---
Gamers mailing list __ [email protected]
If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to [email protected].
You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at
http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org.
All messages are archived and can be searched and read at
http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected].
If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list,
please send E-mail to [email protected].
