After having watched a very interesting video about video game physics, I’ve been hit with a deeper understanding of the video game aesthetic. When I speak of aesthetics I’m talking about what is particular about an art form. What makes a movie a movie? What makes it different than a book? What an a movie do that other arts can’t? When I speak of video game aesthetics it means I am asking similar questions about it.
In many video games, skill is a very important factor. This is fairly apparent in many racing games, where how you drive is the focal point of the game. It was amazing to see in the video how very mathematical this can become. The physicist in the video explain how the cars slipping physics is able to be explain by a complex 3d curvature of space, and it is the players ability to stay within some of the limits of this 3d shape that will help them drive well to maximize there speed.
Now after seeing the 3d curve, it seems rather simple, but the fact is that video games require the user to infer the system that is behind the game. By playing the game, the player is creating a model of the game in there head which they then use to win the game. A skilled player will make a highly detailed model, and thus they will be better at the game.
I find this interaction between player and game to be central to my understanding of video game aesthetics. Video games are really about figuring out the system behind what you see and than being able to take advantage of it.
What comes after this system is the fact that a player needs to be motivated to learn the system. Are you going to lure them in with points, high score, story, exploration, adventure, human competition. Is there some underlying truth to the background system that is actually valuable enough to be a motivation? Perhaps a driving simulation is so effective that you actually learn to drive from it?
A game is truly effective when it has both it’s hidden system and motivation well worked out. If the system is not fully fleshed out, and not complex enough, there is no interest in it. If there is no motivation to learn the system, no one ever will.
I’m sure Mory will probably have a response to this. I feel like I might be reiterating things I said before, but I feel I am being a little bit more precise with what I am saying.
Kyler
3 comments:
You're right, I do have something to say about this.
I can't agree with any sentence that begins with "Video games are really about...". Video games aren't about any one thing. Videogames are diverse. I've played some absolutely brilliant games which have nothing to do with "learning the system". (The Path, for instance.) And even in many games where there is a system you can get better at, that's not the appeal. The appeal of a party game is spending time with friends, the appeal of an adventure game is its story. I played The Sims 2 long past the point where I understood exactly how to make my Sims happy, because the fun of it was enacting little melodramas.
So don't paint all videogames with one brush.
I guess I didn't make it clear enough in the post, I don't think the system or the motivation is more important than the other, I think both are essential. All of the examples that you have given represent games that have great motivations, yet they also have good underlying systems. It is likely in this games that the systems aren't as important as in other games, but there still needs to be a certain balance.
Party games-
System: All of the rules of the games, all the game mechanics.
Motivation: You can have fun and be competitive with your friends.
Path- (I don't really know anything about it so I'm guessing)
System: Puzzles and navigation of a world.
Motivation:Intriguing story and locals
The Sims 2-
System: An a complex simulation of human life that allows for a multitude of things to happen. It is an enormously deep simulation with the ability to do nearly an unlimited number of things.
Motivation: For some it is doing well in the simulation. For others it will be to make up stories. Because the simulation and system are so robust the possibilities for motivation are vast.
Hopefully this clarifies that I'm not trying to say that video games are one and only one thing.
Mory's crazy I agree entirely.
-Z
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