There is a Rouse in the House!

This reading talked about what players want. It was broken down into bullet points, which makes for easy bloggin’. He talks about how the creator of Pokemon wanted to make a game for himself rather then make it for everyone. That is an interesting thought, Now if only everyone made games like this.

He talks about why do players want to play. Players want a challenge, while socializing, and bragging to their friends and the world that they are the best. Players want en emotional experience that they can explore and fantasize. Sounds like me playing Madden.

It was interesting while reading each section; I was trying to think about a bad example and a good example of every element that was mentioned in this reading. I found it interesting that the author said that Sim City 3000 should be thought of as a “software toy,” rather than a game as there is no explicit goal. No wonder why it never got played in the library growing up.

Rouse also talks about what players expect. They expect a Consistent World, expect reasonable solutions to work. Expect Direction, and they expect to accomplish a task incrementally. They expect to be immersed, while expecting some setbacks, they should expect a fair chance but should not need to repeat themselves or get hopelessly stuck. The player should do work rather than hopelessly watch; as they do not know what they want but know they know when it is missing. Mentioning the game Grand Theft Auto almost seems fitting to go here. It took a long time to end the game, and crazy stuff was always happening. Ah, good times.