The history of video games is beginning to have deep roots, so that now this form of entertainment, like many other similar (Television, Cinema, Reading, Music) extremely widespread at all latitudes, represents one of the areas of market producing the highest revenues. Recently there was just passing on the film world-wide revenues.
As with any type of standardization, the genre was on the one hand made it more accessible and understandable to have the greatest penetration possible (and bring in more revenues to the Software House and the Publisher) while leading to a simplification of the genre, resulting in disappointment for all those who were fans.
Personally, I delight in video games when there was the Commodore 64 (if I remember from 1987 or 1988 ... but around that time), while taking advantage of other means in possession of my friends and relatives (Amiga, Spectrum). In the early '90s are then able to get my first IBM compatible personal computer, a 386 20 MHz, 1 MB of RAM and 40 MB Hard-Disk. I've also known some to the console (always latch, never bought one). As always, my platform gaming is the PC.
give a precise definition of the Games is not easy, for two main reasons.
The first because it comes as a very small area, where in addition to the games you want to create a very experienced to see what we could create with a computer, it appeared that not all framed a kind of entertainment, with its peculiarities, its own strengths, its flaws.
The second is due to drift, now in place for years, which increasingly tends to create games that are really kind interactive movie, the aim is not to solve a very specific game situation, but to have a story to follow where the player does is say "go ahead" to the game itself.
purpose of my talk is to provide an interpretive key to what should be a video game, obviously based on personal experiences and my vision of this world. The aim is not to define what are our individual taste, there are people who love video games for only a few purely marginal. It wants instead to try to give the most objective explanation of the phenomenon, devoid of even purely commercial speech, or of personal taste.
As with all areas of games, a video game is an activity, individual or cooperative, which means a precise number and type of basic elements (ie the "Rules") trying to get a result very specific purpose. It represents a sort of challenge that the player (or players) have to overcome in order to achieve the disparate goals (from entertainment, to that of education, a pedagogical one, and so on). A basic level, a video game is no different then by any other type of game exists, even in the broadest form of the word.
The difference is, of course, given by the instrument through which you can engage in this activity play: that is, through an interactive electronic device, through which certain types of controllers (which are the mouse & keyboard, or a Game Pad, or the Wii controller, or the simple hands, or in the future who knows what deviltry) we get a visual response to the screen (and in some cases even auditory), which produces certain effects on the game, developed by the same game engine that has been programmed.
A game is characterized by numerous factors, some fundamental, others less important but still useful to define them better and to enrich them. As it comes to games, the key issue is, and always will be, the gameplay. The Gameplay is all the mechanics behind the game, and then that set of rules and goals that define the game itself, as well as defining the genre within which you are moving.
And here is the fundamental dilemma that arises, we can distinguish two main categories.
The first is that it considers as the only gameplay element for the game. All other aspects (graphics, sound, Plot, Setting, Characters, Level cinematograficità, Interface, Level Design, Animations, Balance) are only secondary and should not contribute to the final evaluation of the game as a game.
The second is that instead considered important elements for evaluating the other aspects, and often there are players who, faced with a poor gameplay and poor, enhance the product they are facing thanks to other aspects such as the plot of the story, the charisma of the characters or graphics technically high level.
I think the truth lies somewhere in between, with one important consideration. The gameplay is the key parameter for the assessment of the game, followed directly the Level Design and Interface importance of play for (the first is concerned with how they are structured the game environments and meetings, the second allows the player to interact more or less smoothly with the game).
All other elements, which are numerous, contributing to "complete" the best gameplay in two very specific ways.
The first is relative to give the game its own identity in play, for example explanatory, there is a difference from playing Civilization to the PC or to play at a table with friends. Many elements can be called "secondary" are used to give more depth to the game and will help us focus in gaming and in particular allow to have the best diving in the game, make it more enjoyable and to produce feelings of game can not be obtained through other types entertainment games.
The second is based on the idea that, depending on the kind proposed, the ones that we can also define secondary aspects contribute as an integral part of gameplay. Attention, simply do not enrich the game, but in some respects part of the gameplay itself.
It 'good to do some examples to better understand the concept. I will make them based on the concept of gender.
Sports Genre: Take a game like FIFA 11 (or Pro Evolution Soccer 2011, PES abbreviated 11). These 2 games each year battle for recognition as the definitive simulation of football. The basic gameplay is so well known: simulation of football, with all the attached rules and competitions. Through our controller directly control the players on the field, they decide the moves and actions (whose success depends on a combination of personal skill and statistical parameters of the various players in the game) and obviously the goal is to win games.
These games have some elements of "extras" that enrich them and they tend to immerse the player, as if he were experiencing first hand the events: the commentary, the "interludes" (ie actual video clips) that simulate events such as the entry in the field of players or the proposition of a replay on a foul or an offside, the sounds of the stadium to sideline coaches, music in the various game menu ... Gameplay with all elements that have nothing to do, but that "complete" the game and make it better.
The gameplay, however, is based on the game of football. So then one aspect, which is usually secondary, acquires its own importance in the context of Gameplay: The Animation.
In a game like that of a football simulation (and in general of a sports game) the animations are very important, both qualitatively and quantitatively. Quality because it is through their performance then the player makes his play. When dribbiamo a defender or Cristiano Ronaldo Gennaro Gattuso, the animation must be able to restore a sense of play that is reflected in the success (or less) of the game. So then the performance of Cristiano Ronaldo appear more fast, precise and fluid than that of Gattuso, and may not be easy to maintain. If there is a clash with defender, the animation will have to return a sense of who has the best in the crash, as if the ball squirts away for possible side effects (falls, possible faults).
Quantitatively, because there are more animations, more detail will be possible to describe a given action, and more gambling opportunities are provided to the player.
RPG Genre: The basis of an RPG is to "interpret" a well-defined character. This is the basis of gameplay. In some ways can be defined as acting as if we were actors. They are therefore different elements that affect directly the quality of the game: the environment in which we move, the plot is proposed, the characterization of the various computer-controlled NPC, the ruleset, the Dialogues, the graphics on an artistic level.
The first items listed above (Setting, Plot, NPC) are essential, because our interpretation of the character (and thus define merits, defects, features, character, etc.) pass through its relationship with the outside world. To take a trivial example, play an evil character changes completely if done in a world full of peace or in a place where corruption and personal interests reign supreme. The setting is particularly important to define how a certain choice is reflected with our precise consequences.
addition to moral choices and practices, alongside the discourse of the "possibility" in your hand. And now here it becomes important to the ruleset, that is all that collection of data and statistics that define the extent to which the character is skilled in carrying out certain actions. A well-studied ruleset allows for actions and tests in many areas, where the fights are merely a part. On the other hand, one of the key aspects of an RPG is to make it possible to achieve certain results in different ways, possibly precluding some "ways" in areas where the character is not sufficiently skilled.
More generally, in an RPG are the key decisions taken by the character, according to which story, gameplay and other aspects of the game can take several folds. Even the dialogue and then not play a secondary aspect, is the simplest and most effective way to indicate the character's choices and behaviors, but also to highlight the qualities in which (from RuleSet) excels, such as inserting lines of dialogue available if you have a high enough score for a particular characteristic. Then of course everything has to be reflected in the game, be it short or long term, otherwise it remains an end in itself and completely unnecessary.
Genre Survival / Horror: Take a game like Amnesia: The Dark Descent. If we analyze only the gameplay, we realize that a game is quite boring and lacking in stimulation: a sort of adventure game in which to move forward, you have to solve small puzzles usually very immediate and obvious.
But the main purpose of the game is not as simple as that, the game is structured in such a way as to be lived with a high level of tension, possibly trying to surprise the player (possibly with real shots of fear) or holding always on the qui vive. A game like this requires that issues such as the lighting of the environments and lighting effects, sounds, music, Scripts are carefully designed to make the gameplay well. The Level design is almost essential with the use of small spaces, always partial visual, labyrinthine places, sections of the game required. If Amnesia is analyzed in this respect is that for which it is been programmed, it is a superior product, though perhaps not for the faint of heart. In addition, the very fabric of the game (that travels on matters esoteric and mysterious, and is told through documents in fragments throughout the game) goes to dive in and create tension. Here, the total immersion in the game is the hub through which everything revolves. And here, too trivial puzzle which is based on the game, become elements of challenge to overcome.
FPS Genre: Also in this genus, which also is based on the gameplay, pure and simple, has some elements that help enrich it. In particular, the level design and graphics at the technical level. The Level Design becomes important because add tactical depth and different situations depends very much on how the various levels of the game are structured. In some ways it is essential, where the pure and simple gameplay would be reduced simply to shoot all the enemies in the area. The technical level of graphics is essential because it is a genre where the visual aspect has its importance. See and find the enemy, assess the compliance of an area, decide how to move and where to move ... all tactical choices of which also depend on what we see and how we see it.
These are just some examples to show how the various elements involved in a video game to make it good: at the top of the pyramid is the gameplay, one step below the elements that enrich the gameplay itself and relies heavily on the kind of game we want to produce, and finally all other items, which generally are those that contribute to raising to the first overall pick a title.
On the other hand, every video game has a number of elements that combine to define it as such, and even minor issues at first characterize the appearance, and therefore they too have their importance, albeit small , in the overall assessment of the security.
It is important to give due weight to these factors and remember that this is not another medium of entertainment. Too often games are juxtaposed to films or books, and too often we tend to make a video game movies a kind of "interactive" with no challenge, just to see how the story ends. I find this concettualmenter wrong.
It 's true that now the part of the plot is present in almost all games, but it is true that this can not become the main element because otherwise there is nothing that present a kind of film (or, worse still, a book) in another form, for its intrinsic characteristics, is not the best way. A plot or setting, can certainly enrich a video game, and indeed sometimes be an incentive to continue, but it can never be elevated above the challenge inherent in the concept of gender itself, over the concept of gameplay, otherwise would not be a video game.
These distorted thoughts, very attached to "cinematograficità" of the title, lead to a wrong basic reasoning: a story of a film or a book, are always better than a video game. Are no better or worse: they are simply proposals in various ways, and the choice of which system to choose depends a lot on what we propose as the ultimate goal.
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