Game Elements

I thought there was a valid point made in the article about it being hard for game designers to be able understand what part of a game is successful by someone saying to them "it was fun". I think the only way designers will be able to use peoples feedback on games is through the use of a proper critical analysis. 

The reading talks about atomic elements of games which is a term I have never heard before and I also didn't realise there was so many of these elements. I believe that you need to understand these elements in order to be able to give a proper critical analysis. I believe this because as stated in the reading "Analysing a game requires looking at all of the game’s working parts, and figuring out how they fit together and how a play experience arises from them." This means if you don't know the games working parts, how can you truly analyse it without playing it. 

This is also the case in terms of designing a game as also stated in the reading "Designing a game requires the creation of all of the game’s parts. If you haven’t defined the formal elements of your game in some way, then you don’t really have a game… you just have the seed of an idea." This would indicate that if you don't understand the elements, you won't be able to define them which you need to do in order to create a game.

I read a piece of text about Games as Systems and it made me aware of how changing even one formal element of a game, can make for a very different game. The piece gave an example of how changing the number of players in a game could affect what kinds of objectives could be defined. I would have thought changing something like that wouldn't have really mattered at all but I was wrong. I was unaware that certain games had multiple different systems within them as well. I found this fascinating as I  always thought each game only had the one system it ran off. 

I also read a piece of text about Theme (Narrative, Backstory, Setting) which highlights the benefits of having features such as a theme, narrative, backstory or setting. I think that it is very important to give players an opportunity to establish an emotional connection with a game or character whether it be through a good theme, narrative, backstory or setting. I think this is what makes a player invest that extra little bit in a game due to that emotional connection which not only makes it easier for them to play but also makes them want to play the game more.

I finally read a piece of text about Player Interaction which talks about different ways to interact with players. The text also states how player interaction is "often-neglected but highly important" and I could really relate to this statement. I think it usually gets overlooked because it seems such a small part of the game to everything else going on but in reality, it is something you do very often within in a game so it has to work well. The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim was easily one of favourite games I have ever played and one of the main reasons was down to how good the player interaction was in the game. There was nothing hugely amazing about it apart from it was simple, clear, easy to use and had multiple interaction options. This made me excited when it came to interacting with a player because I felt spoilt for choice with the various ways I could approach a player interaction.

"I'm finding it hard to establish a connection here..."
Created by: Zarela Yaluk Mosquera
Source: creativecommons
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