Good comment! As you mentioned video games provide both. On the one side there are games that are like slot machines, that attract causual players woth repitive grinding mechanics and be addictive and maybe even harmful for longer consumption. On the other side there are great games that let the player express himself, let him be creative, let him shape the world, let him decide which path he goes. The later category brought us superb games like GTA V, Deus Ex, Minecraft, Mafia, Age of Empires, Flight Simulator, Last of us, etc
I think that the addictive quality is a key component of all games -- perhaps especially the great ones. In a good game the compulsion is balanced with the creative/rewarding aspects to create an positive experience.
But even then I often find that the addiction outlives the reward. If I play a great game for an hour, it's engaging and satisfying. Two hours in, I may be tired and frustrated, but the addictive quality keeps me going past the point where I ought to take a break.
For me, the experience often ends up a net negative. I play longer than I intend to, neglect other activities, and am left feeling restless and unsatisfied.
You are right. Interesting. It may also depend on the gaming device. On PC I am used to be able to save a game at any point. (except for some console ports) I think that makes a huge difference, as there is then no need to play another level or play past another save point, I just hit ESC and click on save and close the game when I want.
Sadly more and more games are multi platform and even if they allow you to save it's often only outside/after of a mission, or even if they allow you to save at any point, if you load the save game you are reset to the last invisible save point and have to replay it from there. That's the most off-putting experience and I am pretty sure it also manipulates people to play longer than the want, and as many don't know better (don't even know the free saving possibility from PC) they don't have a bad taste about it.
Quick save and quick load also is or was part of popular PC games, I mentioned above. It allows one to try out something, if it turns out that it was a really bad idea, I can go back and try it in a different way - something that's invaluable in Deus Ex 1 and RTS like Age of Empire series. With console games like Uncharted series or GTA series it's not possible, and I wish it would be possible (at least on PC were the disc space for save games is let's say near infinite). A really cool feature that I know only from Codemaster racing games (and Braid) is the playback feature, that allows you to go back in time (1-2 min) and try it again in a different way. I wish most games would come with such a playback feature, it's really great and useful. And games could limit it to eg 5 playback activation per level like Codemaster games (depends on easy/medium/hard level).
Comments
Good comment! As you mentioned video games provide both. On the one side there are games that are like slot machines, that attract causual players woth repitive grinding mechanics and be addictive and maybe even harmful for longer consumption. On the other side there are great games that let the player express himself, let him be creative, let him shape the world, let him decide which path he goes. The later category brought us superb games like GTA V, Deus Ex, Minecraft, Mafia, Age of Empires, Flight Simulator, Last of us, etc
I think that the addictive quality is a key component of all games -- perhaps especially the great ones. In a good game the compulsion is balanced with the creative/rewarding aspects to create an positive experience.
But even then I often find that the addiction outlives the reward. If I play a great game for an hour, it's engaging and satisfying. Two hours in, I may be tired and frustrated, but the addictive quality keeps me going past the point where I ought to take a break.
For me, the experience often ends up a net negative. I play longer than I intend to, neglect other activities, and am left feeling restless and unsatisfied.
You are right. Interesting. It may also depend on the gaming device. On PC I am used to be able to save a game at any point. (except for some console ports) I think that makes a huge difference, as there is then no need to play another level or play past another save point, I just hit ESC and click on save and close the game when I want.
Sadly more and more games are multi platform and even if they allow you to save it's often only outside/after of a mission, or even if they allow you to save at any point, if you load the save game you are reset to the last invisible save point and have to replay it from there. That's the most off-putting experience and I am pretty sure it also manipulates people to play longer than the want, and as many don't know better (don't even know the free saving possibility from PC) they don't have a bad taste about it.
Quick save and quick load also is or was part of popular PC games, I mentioned above. It allows one to try out something, if it turns out that it was a really bad idea, I can go back and try it in a different way - something that's invaluable in Deus Ex 1 and RTS like Age of Empire series. With console games like Uncharted series or GTA series it's not possible, and I wish it would be possible (at least on PC were the disc space for save games is let's say near infinite). A really cool feature that I know only from Codemaster racing games (and Braid) is the playback feature, that allows you to go back in time (1-2 min) and try it again in a different way. I wish most games would come with such a playback feature, it's really great and useful. And games could limit it to eg 5 playback activation per level like Codemaster games (depends on easy/medium/hard level).