Random Gaming Thoughts

[BurningDoom]

I'm going to stop using the word "gameplay" in most cases.

It's a stupid word, and it sounds stupid to someone who hasn't already gotten used to gaming lingo. Why?

"This book is well-printed, but it has terrible bookread."

"I love this movie. Its moviewatch is really nuanced and polished."

This word is so broad that it doesn't mean anything. When talking about games, I think we should say exactly what we mean. We would have better discussions and better reviews with more specific information.

Saying "Online gameplay is available" does make sense - the word isn't completely useless, but I'd rather that most of us strike it from our vocabulary.

There's a reason. You don't interact with a book or movie, but you are actively interacting with a game. Totally different experiences. And the word "gameplay" basically refers to how well the game interacts with the player.

[Valkyrie-Favor]

You do interact with every book or movie you consume. That's the whole point.

As to "how well the game interacts with the player" - what does that even mean? The most we can take from that is "It's a good game" or "It's a bad game." It contains no other information, and there's nothing that can't be said without the use of the word "gameplay."

[BurningDoom]

You do interact with every book or movie you consume. That's the whole point.

How do you interact with a book or movie? You sit there, stationary, and watch or read it.

[Valkyrie-Favor]

I suppose you could just sit there and stare at a TV that is displaying a movie without paying it any attention. You could stare at a book without bothering to see what it says.

As soon as you get involved with its content - when you're feeling and thinking with and about it - your interaction with is more meaningful than the random encounters with strangers you do business with at the supermarket.

It's true that reading a book won't affect the ink on the page, but it will affect that book's meaning for you. The more closely you read it, the more it will change and the more meaning you will get. Maybe you'll even read too far into it and get things the author never intended - but that's fine. To the reader, a book's message is nothing more than his understanding of it. As that changes, so does the book.

So interaction with books is just as necessary as it is for videogames. Some books even require more skill than others to interact with. The difference is, and always has been, that books must be imagined while videogames can be seen.

[Hobie-wan]

You do interact with every book or movie you consume. That's the whole point.

No you don't. You receive the book or movie's output and that's it. You do not send anything back out that affects the movie or the book. It does not change. Now your interpretation or imagination can differ your experience from another person, but you do not change the media's output.

One could simply say that a game has good "play" as opposed to "gameplay", but it doesn't flow as well IMHO unlike saying that a book was a good read or a movie was a good watch.

[Valkyrie-Favor]

You do interact with every book or movie you consume. That's the whole point.

No you don't. You receive the book or movie's output and that's it. You do not send anything back out that affects the movie or the book. It does not change. Now your interpretation or imagination can differ your experience from another person, but you do not change the media's output.

One could simply say that a game has good "play" as opposed to "gameplay", but it doesn't flow as well IMHO unlike saying that a book was a good read or a movie was a good watch.

For the individual reader, a book or movie is nothing but his interpretation of it, which much change depending on how much of it he consumes and how he consumes it. That's true of games, of course, but they provide a more obvious mode of interaction too.

I wonder, can we say the "game" is changing or that the "game state" is changing? After all, every possibility is included in the software and we can never go beyond that without modding the game. Can we change the game itself without changing the code? Bah. This is just me using "game" in two different senses - as in, "the game of baseball," and "a game of baseball." Never mind.

I like the sound of "play" a lot better than "gameplay," but I still don't want to use either. They're too broad to be useful. Do you agree, outside our tangent discussion about books and movies?

[Hobie-wan]

For the individual reader, a book or movie is nothing but his interpretation of it, which much change depending on how much of it he consumes and how he consumes it. That's true of games, of course, but they provide a more obvious mode of interaction too.

Again, the output of a book or movie does not change. A book still has the same words and a movie still has the same images whether a user is paying attention to them or not. A book you've never read is absolutely no different than one you've read 2 chapters of or have read the whole thing 5 times. You are only consuming and changing it in your mind, you are not affecting the book itself. It is a passive experience with the physical object.

Take 5 pages out of the middle of a book and it will always be that same 5 pages. Take 5 minutes out of the middle of a movie and it will lways be that same 5 minutes. Take 5 minutes out of the middle of a game and you'll be in a different position with a different score or different levels than everyone else, or will have at least taken a longer or shorter time to get there in the case of puzzle games that only have 1 solution per level. This is because you have interacted with it and affected the media.

[BurningDoom]

Well, Hobie seems to be doing a better job stating my point. So I'll just refer you to his post.

[Valkyrie-Favor]

Again, the output of a book or movie does not change. A book still has the same words and a movie still has the same images whether a user is paying attention to them or not. A book you've never read is absolutely no different than one you've read 2 chapters of or have read the whole thing 5 times. You are only consuming and changing it in your mind, you are not affecting the book itself. It is a passive experience with the physical object.

I know that. I have read books before. Your physical experience with the book doesn't matter much. I enjoy the smell of an old book just as much as anyone, but I would never sit around sniffing my bookshelf

It's the information that counts, the message. For conveyance to occur, we need a sender and a receiver. It's pointless without both. When you receive the message and react to it, you're interacting with the text. Maybe you could say it's the other way around. Has a book every changed you?

It doesn't make sense to treat a book like a game this way - saying it's non-interactive because it doesn't change the same way games do is absurd. Once you perceive the text through your eyes, ears, or fingers, the interaction stays in your brain. The physical book's only purpose is to get the words to you! Would you expect your Super Mario Land cart to change after you beat it?

[BurningDoom]

I see what you're saying, what you're describing is an active imagination; but an active imagination is far different from the way you actually interact with a game and input commands. Books and movies are the same story every time, whether you have an active imagination or not. But with a video game, the input you give the game changes the what's happening on the screen. You actually have to use critical thinking skills and react to what's going on in a game, which you don't do in a book or movie.