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We've all heard of the 10 Commandments... some religions tell us these are what we need to follow in order to be good people, and get to heaven etc.
Now, I'm not saying I agree or disagree, but have you ever considered how these reflect on our game playing activities?
In fact when you really think about it you'd have to agree that if a game deliberately breaks these commandments then in general is a great game to play!!
Could God have secretly given us a formula for game making success?
Let's examine this in more detail, one at a time:
--- You shall not covet your neighbour’s wife, servants etc. ---
OK, basically we are not allowed to lust after someone....
HHHHmmmmm... Have you seen how Lara Croft has been developing lately! How many of you have thought at least once that it’d be great to have a woman like that in real life. Also if our Lara didn’t have the looks she’s been graced with would she have caused such a media commotion as she already has? I don’t think so.
Also it has to be said that in general the male heroes of video games are rarely out of shape themselves. Actually that brings to mind an interesting topic.... Do girl gamers ever find male characters even remotely attractive ?!! (Feel free to use that one for future posts...).
Anyway the point here is that having attractive characters that we want to play with is a winning formula.
--- You shall not covet your neighbour’s goods ---
An easier one this... in every game there is a goal we must meet. There is always a prize to be gained. There is always something we want to have.
If you’re playing an RPG can you deny that you at least once (per game!) wanted an item that one of your companions / opponents has had in their possession?
If we didn’t care then designers wouldn’t include objects of our affection in our games... cars in GT3 would be botches, people wouldn’t have lasers – they’d have sticks, everyone would share everything. Not fun.
The lesson here is “Put in stuff that we want to collect”
--- You shall not lie ---
Not a thing that comes into every game... but is starting to.
Look at “The Thing” for example... who is lying and who is not makes for a very exciting and different game indeed.
Also, a sign of a good game is if it makes us lie automatically!
“Are you still playing that game? It is time for bed/dinner/yoga”... “NO”.
There you go! If a game is not good enough we won’t give it the time it deserves, and so we won’t lie about the amount of time we spend playing it.
So, make games addictive and of high quality.
--- You shall not steal ---
Many many good games include an element of stealth. We frequently find ourselves sneaking around stealing stuff.
In fact in almost every game we get items to pick up on our travels. We rarely pay for these things! Look at any Mario/Sonic/etc. game where we collect rings/coins/blobs – these are not ours to take. Someone has left these behind and here we come grabbing everything we can reach.
Sometimes the urge to steal everything makes us put in huge efforts to reach “that last item”.
Any game worth its salt needs stuff for us to steal.
--- You shall not commit adultery ---
Not too easy to categorise this one. It is not often that we have adultery in video games (in fact can anyone out there name a game where you have an affair.... apart from the Sims?).
But it is often the case that after we become very faithful to a particular console that we find ourselves eventually dumping it for a much better model, only returning when bored. I myself am guilty of this, being a N64 fanatic for years and years, swearing never to touch anything Sony... now look at me... just look! All I play on now is my PS2... my N64 is sitting getting dusty in a corner.
If there is any lesson in this it is to make your product so attractive that owners of other products will abandon them completely!
--- You shall not kill ---
Do I really need to write anything here? I don’t think so. Everyone is guilty of this one. Even Mario kills things.... Yes he does... jumping on someone’s head until they disappear constitutes killing in my book.
Moral: Killing - fun, not killing – not fun.
--- Honour your father and mother ---
You see, the last couple of commandments are the hard ones for a video game to break.
However it could be argued for this one that a good back-story where children rise up against, or conflict with, parents makes a good game more interesting. Look at Solid Snake’s conflict with his makers for example, that gave hours of story line in itself.
Lesson - character development and family conflicts make games more interesting.
--- Always keep Sunday holy ---
Emmm.... Well I play games on a Sunday, and by doing so surely must be violating every commandment that has come before this one... therefore I’m not keeping Sunday holy! And think about it... how many of you prefer Church (or whatever you go to) to gaming?
So, a good game needs to be so good that it’ll keep people playing even though it is a Sunday afternoon when they should be outdoors enjoying the world around them or doing something holy!
--- You shall not take the name of the Lord in vain ---
You can tell when you are really enjoying a game because if something goes wrong (or in fact sometimes when things go really well) the air will invariably turn blue with abusive language!
If you don’t care about a game you probably won’t get so involved that each time your character gets in a pickle you curse like a sailor! Although I admit that on many an occasion I have cursed a game for being crap!
A good game stirs up people’s emotions and causes them to swear at the TV constantly.
--- You shall not worship other Gods ---
How many times have you enjoyed a game so much that you have become very addicted to it... to the extent that it consumes all your thoughts (well for a while anyway!). That means that you are not thinking of anything else... you are giving all your energy and thoughts to a game... isn’t that worship!
Just look at the amount of posts on these forums dedicated to individual games.
Final lesson... games need to be so addictive that we don’t care about anyone or anything around us while we are playing (and sometimes while we are thinking about playing!).
At the start of this post I intended to prove that the 10 commandments give game developers a template for what makes a great game, and that’s what I have done. In fact each section above contains a handy lesson for any budding developer out there!
I have also shown how we conflict with the 10 commandments when we play the games that we love.
But, what have we learned from all this? Are we all doomed to an afterlife in hell? Are we all bad people? Do all dead consoles go to hell?
And what about us gamers? If we had to have 10 commandments for good game playing what would they be?
Here’s an attempt:
You shall not miss a coin/ring/gem
You shall not leave anyone alive
You shall not skid off the track
You shall not miss when you snipe
You shall not squeak when you sneak
You shall not miss the goal
You shall not ignore the rocket launcher in favour of a handgun
You shall not fall short on a jump
You shall protect your companions
You shall save frequently
Any other ideas?
Thanks for reading!
NOTE: please do not view this post as slagging anyone’s beliefs! It is just a bit of fun.
Now, I'm not saying I agree or disagree, but have you ever considered how these reflect on our game playing activities?
In fact when you really think about it you'd have to agree that if a game deliberately breaks these commandments then in general is a great game to play!!
Could God have secretly given us a formula for game making success?
Let's examine this in more detail, one at a time:
--- You shall not covet your neighbour’s wife, servants etc. ---
OK, basically we are not allowed to lust after someone....
HHHHmmmmm... Have you seen how Lara Croft has been developing lately! How many of you have thought at least once that it’d be great to have a woman like that in real life. Also if our Lara didn’t have the looks she’s been graced with would she have caused such a media commotion as she already has? I don’t think so.
Also it has to be said that in general the male heroes of video games are rarely out of shape themselves. Actually that brings to mind an interesting topic.... Do girl gamers ever find male characters even remotely attractive ?!! (Feel free to use that one for future posts...).
Anyway the point here is that having attractive characters that we want to play with is a winning formula.
--- You shall not covet your neighbour’s goods ---
An easier one this... in every game there is a goal we must meet. There is always a prize to be gained. There is always something we want to have.
If you’re playing an RPG can you deny that you at least once (per game!) wanted an item that one of your companions / opponents has had in their possession?
If we didn’t care then designers wouldn’t include objects of our affection in our games... cars in GT3 would be botches, people wouldn’t have lasers – they’d have sticks, everyone would share everything. Not fun.
The lesson here is “Put in stuff that we want to collect”
--- You shall not lie ---
Not a thing that comes into every game... but is starting to.
Look at “The Thing” for example... who is lying and who is not makes for a very exciting and different game indeed.
Also, a sign of a good game is if it makes us lie automatically!
“Are you still playing that game? It is time for bed/dinner/yoga”... “NO”.
There you go! If a game is not good enough we won’t give it the time it deserves, and so we won’t lie about the amount of time we spend playing it.
So, make games addictive and of high quality.
--- You shall not steal ---
Many many good games include an element of stealth. We frequently find ourselves sneaking around stealing stuff.
In fact in almost every game we get items to pick up on our travels. We rarely pay for these things! Look at any Mario/Sonic/etc. game where we collect rings/coins/blobs – these are not ours to take. Someone has left these behind and here we come grabbing everything we can reach.
Sometimes the urge to steal everything makes us put in huge efforts to reach “that last item”.
Any game worth its salt needs stuff for us to steal.
--- You shall not commit adultery ---
Not too easy to categorise this one. It is not often that we have adultery in video games (in fact can anyone out there name a game where you have an affair.... apart from the Sims?).
But it is often the case that after we become very faithful to a particular console that we find ourselves eventually dumping it for a much better model, only returning when bored. I myself am guilty of this, being a N64 fanatic for years and years, swearing never to touch anything Sony... now look at me... just look! All I play on now is my PS2... my N64 is sitting getting dusty in a corner.
If there is any lesson in this it is to make your product so attractive that owners of other products will abandon them completely!
--- You shall not kill ---
Do I really need to write anything here? I don’t think so. Everyone is guilty of this one. Even Mario kills things.... Yes he does... jumping on someone’s head until they disappear constitutes killing in my book.
Moral: Killing - fun, not killing – not fun.
--- Honour your father and mother ---
You see, the last couple of commandments are the hard ones for a video game to break.
However it could be argued for this one that a good back-story where children rise up against, or conflict with, parents makes a good game more interesting. Look at Solid Snake’s conflict with his makers for example, that gave hours of story line in itself.
Lesson - character development and family conflicts make games more interesting.
--- Always keep Sunday holy ---
Emmm.... Well I play games on a Sunday, and by doing so surely must be violating every commandment that has come before this one... therefore I’m not keeping Sunday holy! And think about it... how many of you prefer Church (or whatever you go to) to gaming?
So, a good game needs to be so good that it’ll keep people playing even though it is a Sunday afternoon when they should be outdoors enjoying the world around them or doing something holy!
--- You shall not take the name of the Lord in vain ---
You can tell when you are really enjoying a game because if something goes wrong (or in fact sometimes when things go really well) the air will invariably turn blue with abusive language!
If you don’t care about a game you probably won’t get so involved that each time your character gets in a pickle you curse like a sailor! Although I admit that on many an occasion I have cursed a game for being crap!
A good game stirs up people’s emotions and causes them to swear at the TV constantly.
--- You shall not worship other Gods ---
How many times have you enjoyed a game so much that you have become very addicted to it... to the extent that it consumes all your thoughts (well for a while anyway!). That means that you are not thinking of anything else... you are giving all your energy and thoughts to a game... isn’t that worship!
Just look at the amount of posts on these forums dedicated to individual games.
Final lesson... games need to be so addictive that we don’t care about anyone or anything around us while we are playing (and sometimes while we are thinking about playing!).
At the start of this post I intended to prove that the 10 commandments give game developers a template for what makes a great game, and that’s what I have done. In fact each section above contains a handy lesson for any budding developer out there!
I have also shown how we conflict with the 10 commandments when we play the games that we love.
But, what have we learned from all this? Are we all doomed to an afterlife in hell? Are we all bad people? Do all dead consoles go to hell?
And what about us gamers? If we had to have 10 commandments for good game playing what would they be?
Here’s an attempt:
You shall not miss a coin/ring/gem
You shall not leave anyone alive
You shall not skid off the track
You shall not miss when you snipe
You shall not squeak when you sneak
You shall not miss the goal
You shall not ignore the rocket launcher in favour of a handgun
You shall not fall short on a jump
You shall protect your companions
You shall save frequently
Any other ideas?
Thanks for reading!
NOTE: please do not view this post as slagging anyone’s beliefs! It is just a bit of fun.
Drunk Cow wrote:
> And trust me this post wont be offended because their religios becuase
> I'm the most religios person here
?
Strange comment to make that .
How do you know wether I will be offended or not ? What makes you more religious than anyone else ? Are you a Vicar or something ? Even if you were how would that make you "more" religious ?
Daft.
> And trust me this post wont be offended because their religios becuase
> I'm the most religios person here
?
Strange comment to make that .
How do you know wether I will be offended or not ? What makes you more religious than anyone else ? Are you a Vicar or something ? Even if you were how would that make you "more" religious ?
Daft.
Nice post.
Also cues you up for other similars, such as the 7 deadley sins....
Also cues you up for other similars, such as the 7 deadley sins....
Very good Kenv. GAD potential I think.
And trust me this post wont be offended because their religios becuase I'm the most religios person here and I don't find this offensive.
And trust me this post wont be offended because their religios becuase I'm the most religios person here and I don't find this offensive.
Heh.
We've all heard of the 10 Commandments... some religions tell us these are what we need to follow in order to be good people, and get to heaven etc.
Now, I'm not saying I agree or disagree, but have you ever considered how these reflect on our game playing activities?
In fact when you really think about it you'd have to agree that if a game deliberately breaks these commandments then in general is a great game to play!!
Could God have secretly given us a formula for game making success?
Let's examine this in more detail, one at a time:
--- You shall not covet your neighbour’s wife, servants etc. ---
OK, basically we are not allowed to lust after someone....
HHHHmmmmm... Have you seen how Lara Croft has been developing lately! How many of you have thought at least once that it’d be great to have a woman like that in real life. Also if our Lara didn’t have the looks she’s been graced with would she have caused such a media commotion as she already has? I don’t think so.
Also it has to be said that in general the male heroes of video games are rarely out of shape themselves. Actually that brings to mind an interesting topic.... Do girl gamers ever find male characters even remotely attractive ?!! (Feel free to use that one for future posts...).
Anyway the point here is that having attractive characters that we want to play with is a winning formula.
--- You shall not covet your neighbour’s goods ---
An easier one this... in every game there is a goal we must meet. There is always a prize to be gained. There is always something we want to have.
If you’re playing an RPG can you deny that you at least once (per game!) wanted an item that one of your companions / opponents has had in their possession?
If we didn’t care then designers wouldn’t include objects of our affection in our games... cars in GT3 would be botches, people wouldn’t have lasers – they’d have sticks, everyone would share everything. Not fun.
The lesson here is “Put in stuff that we want to collect”
--- You shall not lie ---
Not a thing that comes into every game... but is starting to.
Look at “The Thing” for example... who is lying and who is not makes for a very exciting and different game indeed.
Also, a sign of a good game is if it makes us lie automatically!
“Are you still playing that game? It is time for bed/dinner/yoga”... “NO”.
There you go! If a game is not good enough we won’t give it the time it deserves, and so we won’t lie about the amount of time we spend playing it.
So, make games addictive and of high quality.
--- You shall not steal ---
Many many good games include an element of stealth. We frequently find ourselves sneaking around stealing stuff.
In fact in almost every game we get items to pick up on our travels. We rarely pay for these things! Look at any Mario/Sonic/etc. game where we collect rings/coins/blobs – these are not ours to take. Someone has left these behind and here we come grabbing everything we can reach.
Sometimes the urge to steal everything makes us put in huge efforts to reach “that last item”.
Any game worth its salt needs stuff for us to steal.
--- You shall not commit adultery ---
Not too easy to categorise this one. It is not often that we have adultery in video games (in fact can anyone out there name a game where you have an affair.... apart from the Sims?).
But it is often the case that after we become very faithful to a particular console that we find ourselves eventually dumping it for a much better model, only returning when bored. I myself am guilty of this, being a N64 fanatic for years and years, swearing never to touch anything Sony... now look at me... just look! All I play on now is my PS2... my N64 is sitting getting dusty in a corner.
If there is any lesson in this it is to make your product so attractive that owners of other products will abandon them completely!
--- You shall not kill ---
Do I really need to write anything here? I don’t think so. Everyone is guilty of this one. Even Mario kills things.... Yes he does... jumping on someone’s head until they disappear constitutes killing in my book.
Moral: Killing - fun, not killing – not fun.
--- Honour your father and mother ---
You see, the last couple of commandments are the hard ones for a video game to break.
However it could be argued for this one that a good back-story where children rise up against, or conflict with, parents makes a good game more interesting. Look at Solid Snake’s conflict with his makers for example, that gave hours of story line in itself.
Lesson - character development and family conflicts make games more interesting.
--- Always keep Sunday holy ---
Emmm.... Well I play games on a Sunday, and by doing so surely must be violating every commandment that has come before this one... therefore I’m not keeping Sunday holy! And think about it... how many of you prefer Church (or whatever you go to) to gaming?
So, a good game needs to be so good that it’ll keep people playing even though it is a Sunday afternoon when they should be outdoors enjoying the world around them or doing something holy!
--- You shall not take the name of the Lord in vain ---
You can tell when you are really enjoying a game because if something goes wrong (or in fact sometimes when things go really well) the air will invariably turn blue with abusive language!
If you don’t care about a game you probably won’t get so involved that each time your character gets in a pickle you curse like a sailor! Although I admit that on many an occasion I have cursed a game for being crap!
A good game stirs up people’s emotions and causes them to swear at the TV constantly.
--- You shall not worship other Gods ---
How many times have you enjoyed a game so much that you have become very addicted to it... to the extent that it consumes all your thoughts (well for a while anyway!). That means that you are not thinking of anything else... you are giving all your energy and thoughts to a game... isn’t that worship!
Just look at the amount of posts on these forums dedicated to individual games.
Final lesson... games need to be so addictive that we don’t care about anyone or anything around us while we are playing (and sometimes while we are thinking about playing!).
At the start of this post I intended to prove that the 10 commandments give game developers a template for what makes a great game, and that’s what I have done. In fact each section above contains a handy lesson for any budding developer out there!
I have also shown how we conflict with the 10 commandments when we play the games that we love.
But, what have we learned from all this? Are we all doomed to an afterlife in hell? Are we all bad people? Do all dead consoles go to hell?
And what about us gamers? If we had to have 10 commandments for good game playing what would they be?
Here’s an attempt:
You shall not miss a coin/ring/gem
You shall not leave anyone alive
You shall not skid off the track
You shall not miss when you snipe
You shall not squeak when you sneak
You shall not miss the goal
You shall not ignore the rocket launcher in favour of a handgun
You shall not fall short on a jump
You shall protect your companions
You shall save frequently
Any other ideas?
Thanks for reading!
NOTE: please do not view this post as slagging anyone’s beliefs! It is just a bit of fun.
Now, I'm not saying I agree or disagree, but have you ever considered how these reflect on our game playing activities?
In fact when you really think about it you'd have to agree that if a game deliberately breaks these commandments then in general is a great game to play!!
Could God have secretly given us a formula for game making success?
Let's examine this in more detail, one at a time:
--- You shall not covet your neighbour’s wife, servants etc. ---
OK, basically we are not allowed to lust after someone....
HHHHmmmmm... Have you seen how Lara Croft has been developing lately! How many of you have thought at least once that it’d be great to have a woman like that in real life. Also if our Lara didn’t have the looks she’s been graced with would she have caused such a media commotion as she already has? I don’t think so.
Also it has to be said that in general the male heroes of video games are rarely out of shape themselves. Actually that brings to mind an interesting topic.... Do girl gamers ever find male characters even remotely attractive ?!! (Feel free to use that one for future posts...).
Anyway the point here is that having attractive characters that we want to play with is a winning formula.
--- You shall not covet your neighbour’s goods ---
An easier one this... in every game there is a goal we must meet. There is always a prize to be gained. There is always something we want to have.
If you’re playing an RPG can you deny that you at least once (per game!) wanted an item that one of your companions / opponents has had in their possession?
If we didn’t care then designers wouldn’t include objects of our affection in our games... cars in GT3 would be botches, people wouldn’t have lasers – they’d have sticks, everyone would share everything. Not fun.
The lesson here is “Put in stuff that we want to collect”
--- You shall not lie ---
Not a thing that comes into every game... but is starting to.
Look at “The Thing” for example... who is lying and who is not makes for a very exciting and different game indeed.
Also, a sign of a good game is if it makes us lie automatically!
“Are you still playing that game? It is time for bed/dinner/yoga”... “NO”.
There you go! If a game is not good enough we won’t give it the time it deserves, and so we won’t lie about the amount of time we spend playing it.
So, make games addictive and of high quality.
--- You shall not steal ---
Many many good games include an element of stealth. We frequently find ourselves sneaking around stealing stuff.
In fact in almost every game we get items to pick up on our travels. We rarely pay for these things! Look at any Mario/Sonic/etc. game where we collect rings/coins/blobs – these are not ours to take. Someone has left these behind and here we come grabbing everything we can reach.
Sometimes the urge to steal everything makes us put in huge efforts to reach “that last item”.
Any game worth its salt needs stuff for us to steal.
--- You shall not commit adultery ---
Not too easy to categorise this one. It is not often that we have adultery in video games (in fact can anyone out there name a game where you have an affair.... apart from the Sims?).
But it is often the case that after we become very faithful to a particular console that we find ourselves eventually dumping it for a much better model, only returning when bored. I myself am guilty of this, being a N64 fanatic for years and years, swearing never to touch anything Sony... now look at me... just look! All I play on now is my PS2... my N64 is sitting getting dusty in a corner.
If there is any lesson in this it is to make your product so attractive that owners of other products will abandon them completely!
--- You shall not kill ---
Do I really need to write anything here? I don’t think so. Everyone is guilty of this one. Even Mario kills things.... Yes he does... jumping on someone’s head until they disappear constitutes killing in my book.
Moral: Killing - fun, not killing – not fun.
--- Honour your father and mother ---
You see, the last couple of commandments are the hard ones for a video game to break.
However it could be argued for this one that a good back-story where children rise up against, or conflict with, parents makes a good game more interesting. Look at Solid Snake’s conflict with his makers for example, that gave hours of story line in itself.
Lesson - character development and family conflicts make games more interesting.
--- Always keep Sunday holy ---
Emmm.... Well I play games on a Sunday, and by doing so surely must be violating every commandment that has come before this one... therefore I’m not keeping Sunday holy! And think about it... how many of you prefer Church (or whatever you go to) to gaming?
So, a good game needs to be so good that it’ll keep people playing even though it is a Sunday afternoon when they should be outdoors enjoying the world around them or doing something holy!
--- You shall not take the name of the Lord in vain ---
You can tell when you are really enjoying a game because if something goes wrong (or in fact sometimes when things go really well) the air will invariably turn blue with abusive language!
If you don’t care about a game you probably won’t get so involved that each time your character gets in a pickle you curse like a sailor! Although I admit that on many an occasion I have cursed a game for being crap!
A good game stirs up people’s emotions and causes them to swear at the TV constantly.
--- You shall not worship other Gods ---
How many times have you enjoyed a game so much that you have become very addicted to it... to the extent that it consumes all your thoughts (well for a while anyway!). That means that you are not thinking of anything else... you are giving all your energy and thoughts to a game... isn’t that worship!
Just look at the amount of posts on these forums dedicated to individual games.
Final lesson... games need to be so addictive that we don’t care about anyone or anything around us while we are playing (and sometimes while we are thinking about playing!).
At the start of this post I intended to prove that the 10 commandments give game developers a template for what makes a great game, and that’s what I have done. In fact each section above contains a handy lesson for any budding developer out there!
I have also shown how we conflict with the 10 commandments when we play the games that we love.
But, what have we learned from all this? Are we all doomed to an afterlife in hell? Are we all bad people? Do all dead consoles go to hell?
And what about us gamers? If we had to have 10 commandments for good game playing what would they be?
Here’s an attempt:
You shall not miss a coin/ring/gem
You shall not leave anyone alive
You shall not skid off the track
You shall not miss when you snipe
You shall not squeak when you sneak
You shall not miss the goal
You shall not ignore the rocket launcher in favour of a handgun
You shall not fall short on a jump
You shall protect your companions
You shall save frequently
Any other ideas?
Thanks for reading!
NOTE: please do not view this post as slagging anyone’s beliefs! It is just a bit of fun.