Com597 Journal#1 – About Games

We played several different in the class and that was a fun experience. Some games are really interesting, and some are quite painful to play. I mean, PSP and DS have this small screen, I really have to try hard to focus. Besides that, that was my first time to finally play Wii, and I realize why it is so popular among youth and old. It’s simple, it’s fun, it’s pretty, and it can bring everybody together. It could create a happy ambiance while I am playing and my friends/family are cheering and laughing.

For Gwap, I think it’s a smart idea to have players to play games with automatically assigned strangers. It gives some players a feeling that they are not alone, and it also offers a certain level of uncertaincy which might add some excitement to the games. The disadvantage is that players do not have the full control over the outcome.

Maxis just announced its SimCity series is the best-selling computer game in history. What makes it so popular?

Many then-famous game companies rejected Will Wright’s original idea of Sim City because it is a game with no “purpose”, players can not achieve the “ultimate victory”, for game production corporations, this game sounded meaningless.

Game designers need to think about different ideas for different potential customers. Some players indeed prefer traditional games that they can expect “final-victory”. For those players, the goal of the game should be clear, the way to get there should be clear, too. It is fine to design difficult games, but players should still be able to win at the end.

Meanwhile, producers/ designers should realize the limits of game design, image resolution and players’ hardware requirement would always be the issues. The coolest idea means nothing if it can’t become true. So making the game interesting and fun should always be above of making the game look cool and beautiful. Nintendo’s games follow this rule consistently. Super Mario gave players a different game experience to its players, it does not have the most fancy images and effects, it is a very simple game with simple ideas, but it is the game that known by almost everyone, even people who does not play games.

The new trend of game design are ideas like Sim City, which allows players to have the opportunity to create their own world where they have the full control of it. There is no final victory, no evil monsters to kill,  how the city develops totally relies on players management ability. For games like Sim City, players can stay in the game as long as they want to, they should be offered a fully opened space, meanwhile, game companies should also offer enough supportive platforms for players to use and continue their missions.

In general, a good game should provide enough clues for players to be in danger, to take challenges and to gain certain knowledge from the experiences/ mistakes.(Sounds like real life!) Also, a good game should not be too complicated. It could be a difficult game, but still should give players a fair chance to reach the goals. And do not try to interfere with players’ sense of free will.  Nobody likes to feel like being played as a puppet, especially when he or she is already playing a game.

I don’t think I am those game production companies’ target customer, which means I barely play digital games on my computer or on TV or on any machine. Occasionally, I might play some free games online, and I really love Bejeweled. I have to admit that I was addicted to it for a while.

As a non-heavy game player, a good game means it has to be simple, easy to understand, but also be challenged and sophisticated enough for a 34 year old adult, most of all, it has to be free, if it happens to have nice colors and cool sound effects, I would call it a good game for me.