Brown's Bit By Bit

Halo was a watershed game for me when I was a teenager. It was the first time that I was playing a game that was actually a legitimate part of cultural lexicon. Before I had only been playing games that were no longer popular or not as popular as they once were. But when my step dad bought an x-box and introduced me to Halo, that finally changed. I played it religiously with my step dad after school on the Campaign mode and sometimes by myself and I was blown away by the game. I had never seen anything like it before. The graphics were stunning, the controls were varied but not too complicated, and the story was just as well written as the best sci-fi films. Halo was also a landmark for me in the sense that it was the first video game I remembered beating and finishing to completion. So many hours of my teenage years were spent playing Halo and it will always have a special place in my heart and it is one of the few games that made me feel a sense of euphoria and elation up

I have recently started to play more mobile games. And what I have noticed as of late is that so many of these games provide multiple cheats for reaching certain point goals, or winning mini games within the game. These cheats are provided deliberately by the game developers and the coders to make the player continue playing as long as possible. Even basic trivia or riddle games have the same formula. Oh and if it is a game that requires lives, even if you run out, you can watch a video or another ad and get more lives or just wait till the next day and your lives are replenished. This takes a lot out of the challenge of gaming in my eyes and makes things a lot easier for the player and easier for the developers and the companies that made the game to make more money, but it cheapens the overall gaming experience. It essentially gives the player a free pass for their mistakes. But I cannot argue against the fact that it can be effective. Thanks to these cheats I was able to continue pl

Now that some much needed history and context has been added as to what makes video games fun, it is time to take a good look at the circuits and computer chips and see what elements combine together to make a video game fun . After playing games on that I find to be particularly fun like Super Mario All Stars (SNES) and Donkey Kong Country (SNES) , I have come to the conclusion that what makes them and any other game fun is a combination of factors. Easy to comprehend and grasp controls, level design that is not frustrating or overly complex, innovative and creative graphics, satisfying sound effects and score, and near flawless mechanics. The fact that each game provided nostalgic memories and similar feelings associated with them was also present. To further solidify my theory, I played games that I did not find to be fun at all like Silver Surfer (NES) , and The Rocketeer (SNES) and they had some factors that were in common. They both did not have easy to co

In 2015, The Pew Research Center found that “49 percent of Americans say they sometimes play video games on a computer, TV, game console or portable device like a cell phone (Wagstaff)”.  Because of this incredibly high number of the American public that at least play video games in some capacity, one can argue that the majority of the public in America today finds video games as fun and enjoyable than any other activity, if not even more so. This represents a massive shift in what Americans used to do for fun. Provided by WestHost While it is true that some children still play outside and play games like kickball, it is also true that the number of kids and even adults that play other activities than video games as their main form of fun is a lot smaller of a percentage nowadays than it was in the past. A massive aspect of this occurrence is how video games make us feel in unique ways that other activities do not. In order to fully understand how video games make us feel in un

Video Games are usually synonymous with fun , much like any other form of play, video games can be a thrill to the senses and be some of the most rewarding activities out there. But what is it exactly that makes games fun? And are there particular elements in any game that determine how fun a game is and is there a way to take those elements and use them to make the experience of playing a game that is not considered fun enjoyable?  Now in order to really find out the answers to those questions, it is necessary to dig deep and discover what fun is and means, what its correlation is to video games , and how all of this creates the foundation for fun to be tied to video games. The Miriam Webster dictionary describes fun as “what provides amusement or enjoyment”. And also according to Miriam Webster, fun first appeared in the English language in the 1600s in France and the term made its way to the United States when petty criminals from London were carried over to the shores of the USA

I just like most people who are gamers or keep track of the latest gaming tech, wonder often what the next big breakthrough will be when it comes to gaming technology. Will it be bigger, stronger and faster consoles with beyond HD or 4K graphic capabilities? Or will it be another perephrial, motion control advancement or further enhancements of VR? I remember when the Nintendo Wii's motion controls were the next big evolution in gaming and being wowed by the simple act of bowling with the controllers. But that seems so quaint now and outdated. That's how fast gaming tech has advanced over the years. And I do ponder whether or not the advancement is happening too fast for us to appreciate the next great frontier in gaming and gaming technology. Take the Power Glove for example. It was a collassal failure, but it was one of the first motion controllers to ever be released to the public. And for its time, it was state of the art. Now its a joke and a meme thanks to its inclusi

Donkey Kong Country on the Super Nintendo is the quintessential DK game for me personally and far surpasses any of its predecessors. It is just as fun to pick up and play today as it was in 1994. It is not just nostalgia talking either. This game does not monkey around. Its controls are nearly flawless, the level design is quirky and full of flavor, the graphics are amazing for the time, and it even has an infectious soundtrack that really gets you in the mood. Even when the difficulty level ramps up it never becomes too frustrating that you want to shut off the game and throw the cartridge out the window. It was a highly successful and critically acclaimed game for its time and has still to this day lived up to its classic status as one of the greatest games on the SNES. And it will always be one of my personal favorite games. It is that good. But not everything about the game is great though. The advertising for this was pretty awful and has not aged well at all. Especially t