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Whilst buying my first wave-bird, I heard a GAME(tm) attendant manipulating a 2 year old (or thereabouts) into buying Max Payne. Fair enough, but it was his arguments for buying the game that made me feel homicidal.
Argument 1: It's full of action! It goes all Slow Motion(tm)!!!!1!
Argument 2: It's fun.
The child bought the game, thanked the attendant and left smiling, as did the attendant who pocketed the child's birthday money.
I'm no child. I don't buy games on the basis that they've been claimed fun. What is fun anyway? I Torticollis shall blindly guide you through my analysis of fun.
Analysis 1; "Hey, we all like it a little different" -The Strokes: It is fair to assume that a person's attitude is structured upon his upbringing and enviroment as well as inherited behaviour traits and intelligence. To put it simply, fun is personal opinion, but it goes deeper than that. For example, A fundamentalist christian will find GTA offensive and not enjoyable whereas others may see it as a gaming masterpiece. Fun is that sentence at the end of a magasine review saying "If you are a star-wars fan, then...". Fun's importance is greatly underplayed, as it is impossible to judge. I don't like "doom", millions do. To me, it's repetitive and mind numbing. In seeking for more depth in my games, I'm narrowing down the type of games I will play. The only beat-em-ups I have ever liked are soul caliber and rocky, In that more tactics are needed rather than knowing combos. I can't stand chic. Chic is idealism, and I don't take to kindly to idealism.
People have different Ideas of what a video game should be like.
Analysis 2; "If you can hear a piano fall, you can hear me coming down the hall" -The White Stripes: Video games all mean something different to different people. For some, it's an art form, a method of expression mixed with interaction, to others, it's an occasional past-time to waste time inbetween playing football. One thing gaming is, is competitive. To not feel little need to be competitive takes the fun out of computer games. In searching for different things in life. Fun is completely different. But what does this word mean? The dictionary defines it as "A source of enjoyment, amusement, diversion, etc". This common adjective has a less than satisfactory definition. Fun is a sensation, that produces merriment in contrast to the dullness of life. For a child, a real life scenario game is fun (playing with dolls for example), because it is exaggerated. In order to need fun, life must be dull. It could be seen as a paradox, but the need for life only stems out into fear of a hell or lack of conscious thought. We need fun to add to our lives, but fun is something completely different for everyone. Life's not fair, some people may find "clayfighter 63 1/3" fun (I know someone who thinks so) but for the person who enjoys the game, it's fun, so it doesn't matter to him. If I die and there is no after life, I won't care because I won't have conscious thought. If someone like "Clayfighter", to them, it will be a good game, because they will think it is.
The video game's market is growing rapidly, and this can either mean lots of identical games, or it could make a greater range of original games. As far as individual fun and video games are concerned, things can only stay the same or get better.
Here's to hoping for the latter.
Torticollis.
(Delete the space between the end of reserve and the start of co)
How do you do it
Excuse me whilst I kill myself...
*sob*