I think being an older gamer since the 90's I feel like some genre and even just game in general made the concept of "game" more and more thin, not that I proclaim or that I am against such game to exist, but I am just curious.
Basically it is the recent release of "Unpacking" (see the steam link if you dont know) and seeing some streamer and walk through because I was curious. And from the information, the game can be done in about 3h (or less), with a single, simple mechanic and very very small "difficulty" or even challenge.
And then just simply asked myself, what really constitute a game? is it just offering a small tidbit of interaction? offering the immersion or the ambience (like walking simulator with "choice matter" such as the Telltales series or similar). Is offering just an "experience" enough to be said considered a "game" or the definition is too abstract?
Should we have distinct offering where we have "game" and "application that offer an experience"? or we dont and we just mix everything together and its on us to page through those?
Again, I am not where near being against such experience, I can truly see the interesting in "interactive" movies, but to me, I can't say they are "game" per se, but other than just having maybe a pointless different category, I dont know.
So what does really is a game, because even "big" game now, become more and more about experience
We basically lost some "meaning" with the removal of "fail" state, having more and more "open" world, filled with "void", we renewed with the old idea of "collect-a-thon", dressed the timed wasted with "fake" difficulty or short game with grinding or long distance travel with no actual reason or meaning. Game with no real "end game" such as many rogue like (binding of isaac) or what we could call "completion" is just "grinding" (time invested) more or based on luck or such mechanic a person as no real control other than just play "more".
Starting to see more and more trend with game that want you to go back every day or such (daily runs), but I just dont "get" the concept, why can't I just have those "daily" run, 4 or 5 times in a row and being a different "daily"? just to have arbitrary randomness of something hidden with real life constraint?
Basically it is the recent release of "Unpacking" (see the steam link if you dont know) and seeing some streamer and walk through because I was curious. And from the information, the game can be done in about 3h (or less), with a single, simple mechanic and very very small "difficulty" or even challenge.
And then just simply asked myself, what really constitute a game? is it just offering a small tidbit of interaction? offering the immersion or the ambience (like walking simulator with "choice matter" such as the Telltales series or similar). Is offering just an "experience" enough to be said considered a "game" or the definition is too abstract?
Should we have distinct offering where we have "game" and "application that offer an experience"? or we dont and we just mix everything together and its on us to page through those?
Again, I am not where near being against such experience, I can truly see the interesting in "interactive" movies, but to me, I can't say they are "game" per se, but other than just having maybe a pointless different category, I dont know.
So what does really is a game, because even "big" game now, become more and more about experience
We basically lost some "meaning" with the removal of "fail" state, having more and more "open" world, filled with "void", we renewed with the old idea of "collect-a-thon", dressed the timed wasted with "fake" difficulty or short game with grinding or long distance travel with no actual reason or meaning. Game with no real "end game" such as many rogue like (binding of isaac) or what we could call "completion" is just "grinding" (time invested) more or based on luck or such mechanic a person as no real control other than just play "more".
Starting to see more and more trend with game that want you to go back every day or such (daily runs), but I just dont "get" the concept, why can't I just have those "daily" run, 4 or 5 times in a row and being a different "daily"? just to have arbitrary randomness of something hidden with real life constraint?
Last edited:
