what makes a game....?

[Mod_Man_Extreme]

I've had the idea for an op-ed series relating to games and how they play a part in my life for some time now, so better late than never I've decided to go ahead and let it loose upon the world for all to see. I hope you guys enjoy what I've got to say, and feel free to share your opinions along with your experiences on the topic/s at hand in the thread below each post.
Enjoy,
Kevin

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what makes a game....?, what makes a gamer....?

I was born on Feb. 20, 1992 in Hackettstown, NJ. You may be asking yourself why should I give a damn? Well I don't really know why I started it like that, but I guess that since I was going to start from the beginning of my journey into the 'gamer' lifestyle, I should start at the point where it all began (for me at least).

No, that was simply the day I was born. My journey into gaming began on two key dates, late 1993 when my father died, and sometime in 1995 when I first laid hands on his NES. For the next four years that would be the only home game console that I knew existed. For those few years I mastered the five games we had for it, every nook and cranny of Super Mario Bros., hours and hours of Duck Hunt, weeks and years of Hogans Alley, Gotcha, Freedom Force, Kung Fu, and Golf. The obsession was truly enforced when my mother told me that the box I had been playing all of this on was my father's; at three years old having something of my father's to keep as my own was the equivalent to learning the secrets of the universe.

Timeline - Late 1998-1999:
From that moment on the majority of my spare time was spent on that box, until I met my first and for quite a while best friend. Ironically with the same first name (Kevin, for those of you who skipped the introduction) we instantly hit it off. My friend had the first 'new' box I ever played, a SEGA Genesis. For the next few years we played through Sonic the Hedgehog at least 10 to 15 times, and spent countless hours playing Streets Of Rage (Axel Napalm FTW!), Sonic 3D Blast, Revenge Of Shinobi, Golden Axe, Super Hang On, and Outrun. I would obsess over finding a Genesis of my own until 2004 when I found out about Game Crazy, and eBay.

Timeline - Late 1999:
Soon after me and Kevin had a falling out as all childhood friends eventually do and was left SEGAless. But as I sat in school eating lunch I began hearing about a new Nintendo that one of the kids in my class had gotten for his birthday, and so began my quest to get a Nintendo 64. For two years I begged my mom, and dropped hints every time we even got near an electronics section. Then on X-mas morning under the tree I think it was maybe the second or third present I opened, but I freaked out like any little kid would when I got my N64.

Timeline - Present:
Over the years I've amassed over a dozen systems and have never lost an interest in my hobby; I guess that the universe just works everything out for better or worse when it comes to certain situations, but throughout all my life I've been lucky that most of my friends and the situations presented to me either enjoyed games, or were game related in some way.

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Anyhow that was my .02 on the history of my gaming life in a nutshell, and it would have come out better but I'm a crappy writer when it comes to writing about my life and my 'history'.

-Kevin

[Mod_Man_Extreme]

what makes a game....?, what makes a game....?

(Heh, I guess I could have done better on the title for this article but oh well, on with the show. )

I've been asking myself lately, what makes a game truly a game? Is it the graphics, the controls, gameplay, story, what is it? Now over time I've realized that all of these things are incredibly important in their own right but not immediately necessary for a game to truly be a game. I mean Super Mario is the same story every time, Zelda always saves the princess, and MegaMan will forever contain controls that are easy to pickup, but will kick your ass until you truly play the game for an extended period. Other games such as RPG's can have horrible controls, and terrible gameplay but deserve merit for the beautiful stories that they tell through the worlds they insert you into; it can be best compared to a horribly worn book that you still keep on reading because it's 'your' copy and not some generic off the shelf 'new' one.

But in the course of my search I have come to dislike or in some cases even hate certain types of games. Most games which claim that they need to be experienced fit into this category, along with the it's the new (insert title here) games, or the games that everybody has to play just because everybody else is playing it. These games have begun to change everything for the worst in most cases, but the rare few that have managed to halt or reverse some of the process deserve all the recognition that they can get.

Games like Mirrors Edge, and Patapon that have really sparked some creativity and freedom back into an industry that has begun to grow stale after nothing but FPS after FPS for the better part of the last six or so years. These kinds of games allow me get back to my roots in gaming, with their slick controls and smooth gameplay coupled with the completely new concepts they created gives me some hope that true 'games' can once again be the spotlight of gaming, not simulations and 'experiences'.

Then again some games deserved to be called experiences due to the simplicity and grandeur that they oozed form your TV into your brain stem, followed by blowing your mind. Such qualifying 'experiences' that got a chance to truly earn the label were games like ICO, Shadow Of The Colossus, and REZ to name a few. These are games that to a passer by might seem like boring, generic, or eccentric titles that wouldn't be worth their time, but put a controller in their hands and it instantly becomes enthralling to them and they feel compelled to enjoy them to the fullest extent possible.

The games that developers took what they had and made something out an underpowered, or unsuccessful system that was a true game are the ones that command my respect. Games such as Panzer Dragoon, Jet Set/Grind Radio, and the original Super Mario Bros. forever have a place in my mind as three of the truly best games ever made. Super Mario Bros. took two buttons, some imagination, and a leap of faith that gave rise to the video game industry of present day after the collapse of 80's. Jet Set/Grind Radio looked at traditional gameplay, graphics, and style, said no thanks and gave us a slice of uncensored mid-late 90's Japan on a shiny plastic disc. And finally Panzer Dragoon, this game makes the cut not because it had an innovation that put it above and beyond the competition, or some radical feature that turned heads; no this game simply felt like it did everything right. At the time of it's release 3D rail shooters were staring to become more common so it didn't have the crowd wooing factor had it been released a few years earlier. So what makes this game simply feel right? Episode 1 of the game sums up why this game simply stuck out to me. The sense of awe and childish smile that found their way onto my face, while my eyes and ears took in the sights and sounds of flying on a dragon over sunken ruins while an orchestra plays one of the most beautiful pieces of music ever put in a game made all of it just click for me in the strangest most childlike sense possible. But in the end I guess that's what makes a game....right?

Anyhow this is starting to get a bit wordy and that's not my style. Nope I like to make an impact and get you thinking about what you think makes a game this or that.
Later....
-Kevin

[J T]

Then on X-mas morning under the tree I think it was maybe the second or third present I opened, but I freaked out like any little kid would when I got my N64.

Was this you?

Anyways, it's nice to hear the story from someone fairly younger than me (I was starting highschool while you were busy still being born). I've seen games grow up from the early days when I owned an Odyssessy2 and a Colecovision and spent countless hours in arcades, all the way up to now. I always wonder how the younger generations experience games having not grown up alongside their early development.

[silverback]

nice story there.

I'm 9 years older than you and first computer was a spectrum 48k.

As to the question what makes a game, well its the need to go back and keep doign it, wether or not its kickinn a ball off a wall or destroying armies in space.

I think some games are take it or leave but some work their way ionto your brain that you have to beat it, wether its completing resi 5 with only the knife and not dying or winning every race in forza and never losing.

[RemyC]

Other games such as RPG's can have horrible controls, and terrible gameplay but deserve merit for the beautiful stories that they tell through the worlds they insert you into

Stories can be enjoyable...but do they really make a game? Sure they can add to a game...but I strongly believe that they do not make a game.

[Mod_Man_Extreme]

What I meant by that was RPG's for all of their gameplay, inventory and job systems don't require a story or fantastic gameplay but both of them can be equally as important to the overall experience. Although some RPG's don't always have the greatest gameplay but can be supported and stand on their own due to the story; while others don't have a particularly memorable story but are remembered for how well they played all of their other strengths to keep the game afloat.

[Mod_Man_Extreme]

Then on X-mas morning under the tree I think it was maybe the second or third present I opened, but I freaked out like any little kid would when I got my N64.

Was this you?

Anyways, it's nice to hear the story from someone fairly younger than me (I was starting highschool while you were busy still being born). I've seen games grow up from the early days when I owned an Odyssessy2 and a Colecovision and spent countless hours in arcades, all the way up to now. I always wonder how the younger generations experience games having not grown up alongside their early development.

No, the reaction was similar but I didn't waste my time freaking out over the box, I opened that thing up and had it plugged in within five minutes. Ironically my mom had bought the Atomic Purple bundle that had the extra controller in clear purple, and thought that it came with a free pack-in as well. This led to an 8 1/2 year old kid crying and an incredibly confused parent that didn't know what she had done wrong until reading the back of the box and learning that the games pictured were sold separately. Later that day I was going into my room and found a box on my bed that turned out to be Super Mario 64 and the problem was solved.

I personally wish I could have been there during the glory years of the arcade scene. Heck I'd give anything to get to play Street Fighter II, Sega Rally, and Afterburner in the true honest to goodness arcade cabs. But that's slowly becoming a pipe dream as most of these machines are hard or even impossible to come by nowadays in their original setting. Out of the few arcade games I've had the luck to play in an actual arcade Street Fighter III was one of the first, and for the two or so hours that I spent at the bowling alley glued to that machine I was happier than I had been in along time as
I got to feel somewhat how a gamer would have felt when arcades were truly the kings of the gameworld.

As for how I experience games, the best way I could describe it is that the 16 and 32 bit generations (I'm lumping in the Dreamcast as well due to it's release date and short lifespan) still wow me more than any other before or since due to all the incredible games and ideas that were unleashed during these years, and how such incredible games were created on such limited hardware.

Graphics themselves never impressed me either. When I opened that N64 and played Mario 64 for the first time I didn't think that the graphics were amazing, I was busy being wowed by the scope of the world with all of it's little intricate details and quirks. Like how Mario was talking at the startup screen, or how I could see his facial and bodily expressions change when he got hurt, caught on fire, after having collected another star, or when he died. This is what really struck a chord with me during my transition into 3D from the scrolling and sprawling worlds of 2D games. The change in controls, viewpoint, and perspective wouldn't have meant anything if the games themselves hadn't truly evolved along with it and I'm glad that I never had anything but an NES until that day, because it made me truly care about what made gaming important, not the graphical leaps, not the story or even always the gameplay, but the games themselves.