Original Comment by: Slartibartfast
This was an interesting article, but I would have liked a little more meat to it (as usual
).
The idea of what makes games fun is something that I've thought about a lot. I too have read Raph Koster's book and enjoyed it immensely, but I am not certain I agree with his ideas. The idea of fun as derived from learning patterns is interesting and has merit, but I see fun as being broken down into more categories.
In my experience, there are a few things that can make a videogame fun: the mechanics themselves, the visceral experience, the psychological motivators behind them, or quite simply the story.
Videogames that depend upon mechanics for fun are very, very few, the classic example being tetris. It doesn't matter what those pieces look like, the game is fun at it's very core. This applies primarily to puzzle games.
More requently, videogames rely on the visceral in order to provide fun and/or a rush. Example: I love Burnout. I think it's a fantastic game. But could the mechanics be any more bland? Not really. But the game gives you such a fantastic rush that it becomes very, very fun. This applies to most FPS games as well.
A good example of an effective mix is Ikaruga. The game is so intense that it becomes a very powerful, adrenaline-inducing experience. Additionally, the mechanics are simple yet very clever, which is a hallmark of successful non-videogames (look at Go, for instance).
MMO's and other action-RPG's like Diablo fall somewhere else, though. They seem to rely more on psychology: the desire to collect stuff, and the desire to become more powerful. Diablo has pretty simple mechanics as well: walk around, kill stuff, gain power. There's not much depth there, nor is there much of a "oh my god it's like I'm right there" rush. But it's addicting because you want to find stuff and you want to become powerful.
Games that are fun because of the story are pretty obvious, I think. The mechanics/experience tend to fade to the background, or operate in such a way as to facilitate the story.
Examples of games that mix the psychological aspect with the story aspect would be pretty much any square-enix game. Sure you like the stories, but most everyone who plays also wants to get all the items and twink-out their characters.
What makes videogames so special is that they can have all these different types of fun. Traditional board/card games usually succeed or fail with the mechanics, and for this reason I think it is much harder to make a successful game of this type (and consequently I find them much more interesting). The visceral experience can play a roll, however: I don't think Munchkin would be quite so fun to play if it weren't for the fact that the cards are just absolutely hilarious. On the flip side, I think the famous Chez Geek is rather boring: yes the cards/themes are funny, but the gameplay itself is lacking.
