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 comprehend and grasp control schemes, possessed frustrating and overly complex level design, and nowhere near flawless mechanics. But some of them did have decent graphics as well as satisfying sound effects and score. They both also had nostalgic feelings and memories associated with them.
Ian Bogost's scathing chapter on the mobile game, Flappy Bird in his book How To Talk About Video Games delves deeper into what makes bad games no longer fun. In this chapter he says that games like Flappy Bird, Silver Surfer and The Rocketeer are "detritus that we encounter from time to time and that we might encounter as detritus rather than as meaning" (Bogost 9). This lack of meaning to gameplay leads to the negative factors associated with games that are no longer fun for the player being multiplied in their destructiveness. It eats away at the players desire to continue playing the game and any opportunity to have fun as a result.
Because of the similarities between the two types of games I played, I had a revelation that it is possible that fun video games are fun to play because of the game's code and mechanics and not due to aesthetics. That fun video games rely upon machine actions more than they do upon operator actions.
In order to identify the precise elements of a fun video game and to narrow down my results, I decided to play a control video game. One that I have never played before that I knew was difficult and known to be a frustrating game and one that I had absolutely zero nostalgia for. To see if during gameplay I could uncover a way to use the newfound elements of a fun game and see if they could make a game that is not inherently or immediately fun, a fun and enjoyable playing affair. The game I hand picked was the infamous I Wanna Be The Guy.
In conclusion, I have determined that it is indeed possible to use certain factors that make games fun and apply them to games that are not initially fun to make the game fun. But only for a short amount of time. What makes a game fun or not is still in the end ultimately up to the player and their individual tastes and personal tolerances. My tolerance for hard games is lower than most so it was quite difficult for me to try to find that much fun in a game like I Wanna Be The Guy. But thanks to the fun factors I found by doing these experimental playthroughs, I was able to at least make it tolerable for a time and a legit challenge and I also learned to appreciate the game in ways that I never thought were possible.
At the end of the day, I had fun putting this series of posts together, researching high and low and playing various different games both good and bad, and most importantly I hope you had fun reading and interacting with the posts, thought about fun and video games in ways that you might not have thought of before and try out this experiment for yourself sometime and see if you can make those games that just grind your gears and drive you up the wall and are the antithesis of fun worth playing again.
Works Cited
Wagstaff, Keith. “Pew Study Finds Half of Americans Play Video Games.” NBCNews.com, NBCUniversal News Group, 15 Dec. 2015, www.nbcnews.com/tech/video-games/pew-study-finds-half-americans-play-video-games-n480386.
Galloway, Andrew R.. "Gaming: Essays On Algorithmic Culture" University Of Minnesota Press.
Bogost, Ian. "How To Talk About Video Games", University Of Minnesota Press; 1st edition (November 15, 2015).
Mikulak, Anna. “Not Just Fun and Games.” Association for Psychological Science, 30 July 2015, www.psychologicalscience.org/observer/not-just-fun-and-games.
I'm slipping into midnight under harsh light...
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