Why I play video games: One gamer’s exploration into their interest

From flash video games on a sequence of browsers (together with the now-defunct Internet Explorer) to Purple Place on my grandfather’s Window XP, laptop video games at all times introduced me nice pleasure.

The first reminiscence I’ve of being deeply immersed in a sport is with Fireboy and Watergirl: a flash sport which might have its participant clear a temple full of levers and buttons. What instantly attracted me was the necessity to apply myself past what I used to be used to. Fireboy and Watergirl requested you to consider precision and timing – parts of gameplay that require you to utilise logic and significant pondering. As somebody who by no means understood Maths, puzzle video games helped me realise that logic goes past typical arithmetic, and will be fairly enjoyable!

I by no means had a traditional gaming set-up, although. No consoles, switches, or gaming PCs. I’d go on ‘Friv’ and search for no matter regarded enjoyable, vibrant, and had a puzzle component or a narrative. Still, these experiences have been fleeting – I struggled to seek out one thing longer that might deeply immerse me.
The longest narrative-driven sport I had performed till this yr was in all probability the 2021 Google Doodle sport Champion Island, a Japanese role-playing sport (JRPG) which celebrated the Tokyo Olympics. It’s a free sport that may be performed on the Google browser, containing parts of Japanese tradition and a few gorgeous reduce scenes.

What I actually loved, although, was the concept of getting a alternative

Most of the sport seemingly revolves round finishing and mastering Olympics-themed challenges, together with skateboarding, desk tennis, rugby, climbing, inventive swimming, working, and archery. What I actually loved, although, was the concept of getting a alternative, as the sport presents you with alternatives to assist folks alongside the way in which. If you select to assist folks, you’ll be able to uncover a deeper story. The sport additionally doesn’t last more than three hours if you happen to get the grasp of the sports-themed challenges rapidly sufficient, and it’s a actually enjoyable taster if you happen to’ve by no means performed story-based video games.

It was this yr that I skilled a way of economic independence and had the freedom to purchase myself video games. After asking my associates for suggestions for video games that revolved round tales or puzzles, my love for them was resurrected. I nonetheless don’t personal any extra gaming gear, and I purchase video games individually on Steam at any time when I have the funds for saved.

I first downloaded In Stars and Time, primarily based on a suggestion. The sport, a turn-based role-playing sport (RPG), featured its protagonist, Siffrin, a traveller with reminiscence loss, Who, with their associates, Time.

I used to be reminded of how video games will help train the mind!

There have been additionally parts of logic and significant pondering by means of the sport’s fight, which revolved round ‘rock, paper, scissors’. This jogged my memory of my flash sport days, and I used to be reminded of how video games will help train the mind!

After by no means actually taking part in longer, narratively pushed video games, I felt an eye-opening revelation. Games will be like residing in a narrative – they’ll have interaction their gamers in a world to a deeply immersive diploma. Similar to how a ebook can craft actual worlds, and a tv present can have nice breadth, video games will be one other extremely thrilling type of storytelling.

As a inventive author, this deeply piqued my curiosity. Games have been not simply ‘games’, they have been tales I might play – tales I might really feel a way of company in.

After a number of weeks of In Stars and Time, a very gratifying sport that required its gamers to piece collectively an intricate thriller, I used to be able to dive into story-based video games.

Other nice titles I had the freedom to get pleasure from included OneShot, Undertale, and Omori. OneShot being a sport I might suggest to these inquisitive about attempting out story-based video games, as it’s a fairly brief expertise (about 4 hours) and is generally puzzle-based, with no fight. The puzzles will be fairly difficult, however the sport world is extremely crafted, and it has some nice music in addition.

This is uncommon to expertise by means of different typical modes of storytelling

In my newer experiences with gaming, what I finally loved essentially the most was attempting to determine how a sport is structured. When we take into consideration tales, we consider a linear narrative – some extent the place tensions rise, some extent the place the issue is solved, some extent the place all of it ends. With story-based video games, it isn’t so clear.

A visible novel like Slay the Princess, for instance, engages you in a time loop, the place essential particulars might change in each iteration. The narrative makes you are taking selections, which leads to you feeling a way of management. This is uncommon to expertise by means of different typical modes of storytelling (though ergodic literature and experimental movies will be extremely efficient right here). I suppose I play video games now as a result of they fascinate me. You get to utilise not solely inventive creativity, but additionally a deeper, innate sense of logic. There is a deep-rooted construction in all of the chaos.

In the top, ‘why I play games’ has many solutions

Recently, I’ve been taking part in Stardew Valley, which is a cross between open-world, RPG, and simulation. In this sport, a farmer is trapped in a dead-end company job, however upon the dying of their grandfather, they get an opportunity to maneuver to Stardew Valley and produce their late grandfather’s farm again to life. While it doesn’t have an intricate, overarching story, Stardew Valley has a number of NPCs, which you’ll be able to befriend by means of a factors system by means of presents and common engagement by means of dialogue. It additionally has an intriguing sense of group constructed across the Valley itself, which was one thing I might relate to coming from a collectivistic tradition.

In the top, the query ‘why I play games’ has many solutions: they have interaction me, make me use problem-solving abilities, and most significantly for me, introduce a (comparatively) younger, distinctive, and dynamic type of storytelling that’s extremely price exploring.
Also, they’re simply actually enjoyable!