12-03-2011, 12:57 PM
These quotes are years old but still valid.
We play games, all types of games, to satisfy needs. The needs can be light-hearted such as the need/desired to be entertained, or deeper, such as the need for social acceptance and validation. I can elaborate on this in detail if someone really wants to have this conversation.
When engaging in more formal games, such as PBM games or computer games, the titles that "hold us" tend to have one thing in common: They generate an "unanswered question" that is relevant.
We play the game until we no longer have relevant unanswered questions to ask.
In PBM these questions generally revolve around "how to do" something or the implementation of certain tactical elements in our game. We play a game one way, then we want to try it from another perspective, or with this approach or that approach. Once a player is satisfied and no longer has that "unanswered question", they put the game down and move on. We can see this occur in computer games all of the time, when we put down the game well before the game has “ended”. The reason is that we no longer care because we have already “been there and done that”, and there are no more questions that are relevant that need answering.
In PBM, especially in team play, this can last longer due to social obligations. We see this phenomena with on-line games such as World of Warcraft, Dark Age of Camelot to name a few that facilitates team play and players continue to engage in these offerings because of the social connections they have there. There is a little web based game called Astro Empires that did a great job of capturing the essense of political/social obligation and has tens of thousands of players even though the game itself is painful to play.
I do not feel that content is not King. I believe that this mantra originates from marketing and financial folks who subscribe to the “bigger is better” philosophy and do not fully understand the nuances of this ever-changing and converging entertainment field.
I feel engaging content is the key. The content that captures one of the “I”’s: Imagination, Intellect, or Individualism of the person who is “consuming” the content.
Kindest regards,
Jim
We play games, all types of games, to satisfy needs. The needs can be light-hearted such as the need/desired to be entertained, or deeper, such as the need for social acceptance and validation. I can elaborate on this in detail if someone really wants to have this conversation.
When engaging in more formal games, such as PBM games or computer games, the titles that "hold us" tend to have one thing in common: They generate an "unanswered question" that is relevant.
We play the game until we no longer have relevant unanswered questions to ask.
In PBM these questions generally revolve around "how to do" something or the implementation of certain tactical elements in our game. We play a game one way, then we want to try it from another perspective, or with this approach or that approach. Once a player is satisfied and no longer has that "unanswered question", they put the game down and move on. We can see this occur in computer games all of the time, when we put down the game well before the game has “ended”. The reason is that we no longer care because we have already “been there and done that”, and there are no more questions that are relevant that need answering.
In PBM, especially in team play, this can last longer due to social obligations. We see this phenomena with on-line games such as World of Warcraft, Dark Age of Camelot to name a few that facilitates team play and players continue to engage in these offerings because of the social connections they have there. There is a little web based game called Astro Empires that did a great job of capturing the essense of political/social obligation and has tens of thousands of players even though the game itself is painful to play.
I do not feel that content is not King. I believe that this mantra originates from marketing and financial folks who subscribe to the “bigger is better” philosophy and do not fully understand the nuances of this ever-changing and converging entertainment field.
I feel engaging content is the key. The content that captures one of the “I”’s: Imagination, Intellect, or Individualism of the person who is “consuming” the content.
Kindest regards,
Jim