Game values

What would be the perfect game? We already know what makes a good one:

• Simple rules (so that everybody can join)
• As many possibilities as possible (so that we don’t get bored)
• Rewards (so that we can think we’re great)
• Multiplayer (because we are social animals)
• Emotions (so that we can feel alive)

I would add that I need a physical activity. I prefer a gamestick, standing up and moving my ass than a gamepad, on a couch thumbing slowly. Looking at the success of the Wii and Wii Fit, I’m not the only one.

I don’t play a lot of computer games because an awful lot of them don’t have the second point (like every games about killing/looting). If they have it, they don’t have the first one (like batshit crazy complicated real-time strategy games or rpgs).

That’s also why some FPS are attractive to me ( go from A to B the way you want; first two points checked).

All games have the third or the fourth in some way (they are actually tied together) but unlocking an achievement or an item on Steam or whatever doesn’t deliver a real joy for me.

The fifth point is so rare.

I realized that some of my favorite activities ever match these 5 points. There’s a pattern.

It’s called having fun and playing.

MUSIC

12 notes, you can go anywhere. If you think music as a road moving in time, you can go in dark places like bright ones or both at the same time. It’s almost infinite. The multiplayer part is obvious. Emotions are too: music is one –if not the definitive one- of the most powerful machine ever created to make you feel sad or happy or whatever in-between. Rewards are here too but they need a lot of time and dedication. Wait, don’t you have to play hours regularly to unlock stuff in your favorite mmo? Yes you have.

Friday, it’s time for butt sex. Why just friday?

SEX

Well I don’t need to show you how it matches the 5 points, we all play this game. I’d say the single-player game is pretty awesome too (don’t forget the second point)! I so freaking love this game, it’s insane sometimes. From the time I discovered I could play with my body to now I’ve never stop. Did you?

Do want. Forever.

SKATEBOARD

It’s so simple to put a foot on it and push to move. And yet there are countless tricks out there and years of practice before knowing how to do half of them. Because it defies physic laws, because it defies the city and urbanism, landing tricks and skating areas not designed for it are so enjoyable. Riding this deck like it’s part of your body, moving while standing up with the sun going down is so great. You can’t really skate alone, you need friends because it’s so hard you need people around you. Cooperation. Emotions. It’s more about mastering them, mastering your fear, mastering your doubts, your joy so you can do this treeflip anywhere, anytime.

Finished Go Game. Obsession’s over.

GO

I love this game. So much that I don’t play it, it obsesses me. I’d start a game and stare at it until my mind made every move possible or tried to. I had a two weeks game against the computer and it was so close and so hard. I forgot about it because I already had the three activities above going on, so.. Emotions. Because all stones are equal, you care about all of them, they all have something to do. In Chess you can sacrify a less important piece, because the game is designed about making one piece fall (the king). In Go it’s about space. It’s all about being together, stones support each other to avoid capture. And yet you have to conquer the space by placing single stone around. The conflict in your mind is infinite. Tragedy and drama coming from mechanics, suck it stories!

We definitely don’t value Gaming and Play enough in our societies. Games and the act of play are older than culture as Huizinga said. They are really part of us at a sub-level that culture can’t reach (yeah, animals are playing too). Culture is like history: learn from it and then, screw it like said Frank Lantz to Jesper Juul at The Art History of Games conference.

Play. Re-invent rules and systems. For that you’ll need time, skills, cooperation. These are values we should push more in this world and games are so good at simulate, stimulate and enhance them.

Culture is great but there’s a problem: it is stuck. It doesn’t move, it’s a point in time, it’s not dynamic. It’s not about systems and flow despite the fact that life is. Games are all about systems and flow.

Life is moving, we need activities that match that and that’s exactly what we do with games, all the time.

We need to value them more. Even more than culture.