I post this in the Junk Drawer but it's kind of serious.
I've often though and have done for a while, that "Games" is almost a derogatory term for what they actually are. With things like Battlefield 2 and Counter-Strike I can see where the term "game" comes in, but realistically computer games are so much more than just games. For instance, games now all have incredible graphics and physics, essentially reconstructing the physical world with lines of code. That's bloody impressive! The graphics point covers all recently released games, yet reconstructing the world on a screen isn't enough to truly differentiate between games and... well whatever the rest are. Battlefield 2 for example would be considered a game, round after round of just shooting the other guy. Multiplayer games then, can perhaps be seen as games.
Yet what about the others? Right now we're holding out and saving pennies for upgrades for the next generation titles which look oh-so-cool. Crysis and Call of Duty 4 among others. These 'games' are indeed more than just games, Hell they're more like movies, the only difference is that you take the movie at your own pace and actually are a part of the story. One so-called 'game' that I'm looking forward to in the probably distant future is "Alan Wake", you've probably heard of it, it's the one with the insane graphics. This is a psychological thriller with a storyline so intricate that Hollywood wouldn't have a chance of portraying it. How can this be considered a meer game?
Computer games has come a long way from Pacman and Snake and although some still have very two-dimensional tasks and consequences, others tell stories more interesting and better formatted than at least 80% of films. They take longer to make as developers need to recreate the world; I mean things like re-creating how light behaves and setting how heavy different items are still blows my mind. Developers also have opportunity that film makers don't by adding more detail into the story because they don't have the pressure of fitting everything into three hours. The word "game" when applied to some of these masterpieces just doesn't say it at all. My parents for example do not understand how complicated and how much work is put into them and probably because this type of interactive computer software is still dubbed "game" for simplicity's sake. It does require an appreciation of what is actually being created to find value in things that are deemed playthings by many people.
[/random rant]
I've often though and have done for a while, that "Games" is almost a derogatory term for what they actually are. With things like Battlefield 2 and Counter-Strike I can see where the term "game" comes in, but realistically computer games are so much more than just games. For instance, games now all have incredible graphics and physics, essentially reconstructing the physical world with lines of code. That's bloody impressive! The graphics point covers all recently released games, yet reconstructing the world on a screen isn't enough to truly differentiate between games and... well whatever the rest are. Battlefield 2 for example would be considered a game, round after round of just shooting the other guy. Multiplayer games then, can perhaps be seen as games.
Yet what about the others? Right now we're holding out and saving pennies for upgrades for the next generation titles which look oh-so-cool. Crysis and Call of Duty 4 among others. These 'games' are indeed more than just games, Hell they're more like movies, the only difference is that you take the movie at your own pace and actually are a part of the story. One so-called 'game' that I'm looking forward to in the probably distant future is "Alan Wake", you've probably heard of it, it's the one with the insane graphics. This is a psychological thriller with a storyline so intricate that Hollywood wouldn't have a chance of portraying it. How can this be considered a meer game?
Computer games has come a long way from Pacman and Snake and although some still have very two-dimensional tasks and consequences, others tell stories more interesting and better formatted than at least 80% of films. They take longer to make as developers need to recreate the world; I mean things like re-creating how light behaves and setting how heavy different items are still blows my mind. Developers also have opportunity that film makers don't by adding more detail into the story because they don't have the pressure of fitting everything into three hours. The word "game" when applied to some of these masterpieces just doesn't say it at all. My parents for example do not understand how complicated and how much work is put into them and probably because this type of interactive computer software is still dubbed "game" for simplicity's sake. It does require an appreciation of what is actually being created to find value in things that are deemed playthings by many people.
[/random rant]
[Blinking eyes thing]
Steam: http://steamcommunity.com/id/tzyon
Steam: http://steamcommunity.com/id/tzyon
