I enjoy playing video games. They provide an effective escape from the crazy day-to-day of life. With all the games to choose from it's a daunting task to say, with any finality, what games drive me.
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| Dwarf Fortress |
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| Dwarf Fortress |
So I'll take a different approach. I'll begin by describing the game format and then dive deeper from there. So, without any delay:
- Open world
- Sandbox
- Emergent gameplay
- Everyman
- Procedural generated worlds
- Replay value
- Defined story that provides some depth or realism to the world
- No hand holding, or only during the "tutorial" stage
An open world is simply one where the player is able to run off in any direction and have a vibrant world open up for them to explore. There are no boundaries or invisible walls or other game engine constraints to prevent one from fully looking into every nook and cranny of the world. Now, that isn't to say that the world has no bounds. It's be impractical to have a game where there aren't boundaries. But those boundaries should feel organic and not jarring which only serves to remove the player from the experience.
A sandbox game, for me, simply expands on the open world and provides a rich interactive experience for the game. For example, if I run up to a tree and I have an axe I'd assume that I could chop that tree down and gather wood. With that wood I might be able to build a fire, or use a skill such as carpentry to refine that wood into planks that can then be useful for building a home. Having a fully destructible world can be a challenge due to restraints inherent to the computer being used to play the game. However, if the game can present an organic way of informing me what I can and cannot do, then I will accept what comes. If I run to that tree with my axe and I cannot chop it down then I'll know not to try that again on any other tree. Ultimately, however, a sandbox game should allow you to do damn near anything within the limitations of the computer's power to calculate all the conditions.
Emergent game play is a game's ability to adapt to choices in the game. If I do X then Y happens which may trickle down to Z. As a brutish Orc, I may run up to a hapless human traveler and kill them on the spot. That human was a noble with a powerful family. That family commissions a hunt for me and soon the whole world is looking for me. The game (a sandbox open world one) would evolve to the ever changing dynamics that arise from general game play. In other words, the world is not on rails like a roller coaster moving from A to B with no segue to other challenges. It's the butterfly effect.
I enjoy games that let me be the Everyman (or woman). Most games present the player character as a hero, either from the start or as a direct evolution of the game progression. Emergent game play might allow me to eventually evolve to that hero but I shouldn't necessarily start out as one. I rather like the idea of man-vs-everything games. That lonely survivor trying to make a new start after a post-apocalyptic disaster or zombie infection. My skills, attributes, and abilities should reflect my status of a normal Joe and allow me to build out that character however I choose - even if those choices progress to a dangerous handicapping of the character. Choices should matter.
Procedural generation of a game world (or a portion of it such as randomized dungeons, villages, or minor zones) is fantastic. It allows immense replay of the game since you know that each play through will be different in several aspects. I don't care for games that you beat once and never touch again. Games that rely on memorizing patterns or shortcuts do not interest me nearly as much as ones that allow me to continually test myself in the world. I get that major points of interest may not do well as procedural objects. Cities should be the same since they don't change over the course of time, generally. But dungeons and other minor outlying zones do rather well when they are random. They need not be random each visit in a single game save, but each new game should have them regenerate so that The Blighted Cove isn't the same round grotto each time I play a new game.
That leads, naturally, to replay value. If I play a game once and never touch it again then that game better have been a AAA top selling title that was immensely joyful to experience for that single play through. But I much prefer a game that will allow me to start over and see things fresh. There are many ways of accomplishing this, but Dwarf Fortress and the rogue/nethack games exemplify this. Those worlds (large or small as they might be) are random each and every time you start a new game. This means that I won't know the ending before the game is done. And in the mantra of Dwarf Fortress, "losing is FUN!"
A game's story line is important. No one really wants to play a game where there is no narrative that drives some of the action. If I'm just plopped into a world without any clue of what to do then I'm happy to figure that out - if the game is a proper open world sandbox that allows for emergent game play. One can quickly determine what is possible and what isn't. But if the game doesn't allow for this then give me a story that can at least jump start the game play. "You are alone, tired, cold, and hungry. Do what you can to survive." That small "story" is enough to know that I'm screwed from the start and I need to get moving or I'll die. A game's story needn't be like a novel with a start, middle, denouement, and conclusion. But it should at least try and paint some sort of picture that can get things moving. Nothing ruins a game faster for me that one that has a crap story (or, worse yet, none at all).
And we're left with the "no hand holding" rule. For the love of god, do not hold my hand in a game. Let me figure it out. Let me solve the puzzles. Don't deus ex machina a solution for me and don't provide some idiotic trope that gets me through to the next phase. I expect my games to have some degree of challenge (even if I can set it to "newbie friendly" or "insane mega death"). I don't like games on rails. If the story line is on a rail then the game had better let me do what I want when I want. If I don't want to go off and kill some dragon that holds a grudge against humanity and time then I'm not going to go off and kill that damn dragon - and the game better be happy with that choice.
So from that list, I can present a list of games that have set themselves apart by ticking as many of those boxes as possible. From these below you can get an idea of other titles that fit the bill as well that I didn't include.
- Dwarf Fortress
- Rogue and the so-called "roguelikes" such as the classic nethack
- The Sims
- Morrowind
As you can see, graphics are a lesser concern for me. I do enjoy eye candy but not if that graphical immersion sacrifices the overall game play. Graphics are not a solution for a poorly designed game. I enjoy playing Skyrim. I love that game. But it isn't winning awards from me since I find several mechanics of the game more than a bit wonky (compared to Morrowind, say). The Sims 4 isn't nearly as open a world as The Sims 3 was by any stretch of imagination but it does provide that Everyman and sandbox feel where I can do almost anything I'd like to attempt.
Of course, that list leaves off a ton of great games from the early days of computer gaming. Concepts like "open world" and "sandbox" were not around back then. So to conclude, I'll mention those titles from my childhood that still hold value for me.
- Nearly any Infocom interactive fiction
- The Bard's Tale
- Ultima IV
- Most SSI adaptations of the classic TSR Dungeons and Dragons
- Lode Runner
When I was a kid, computers weren't powerful. My first games were all text based and, damn, were they amazing. Infocom was a company that excelled at interactive fiction. The language parser used in these games such as Zork, Spellbinder, and The Witness were nothing short of spectacular. The allowed for complex grammar to play the game and solve puzzles. One of the reasons I love games with puzzles that require solving is directly tied to my getting so stuck in Infocom games.
The Bard's Tale series is one of the best computer RPGs that I've ever played. They were full of amazing design decisions (for the time) and the transitions between cities such as Skara Brae and the various dungeons was nicely done. You control a party of adventurers to go off and do great things. Or not. I spent so much time in the cities doing basic mapping that I oftentimes forgot that there was a plot happening around me!
One of the best games I ever played was Ultima IV Quest of the Avatar. The Ultima series of games evolved from once having really simple vector style graphics all the way to some beautifully created worlds in the later releases. But Ultima IV has held dear to me over all the others. It's the first one that I fully mapped out and completed all by myself. And it took for-freaking-ever! From charting moon gates to finding all the mantras and runes to tracking down the goddamned bell, book, and candle I was never bored. And all that glorious mapping! I love to map in games and, sadly, many games these days provide a silly on-screen compass and minimap that totally absolve the player from those basic responsibilities. The story was on rails, but you weren't obligated to go off and finish the game.
SSI was an amazing company that produced all of the classic TSR games based on the Dungeons and Dragons property. Curse of the Azure Bonds got more play time than other titles but all of the games were nothing short of amazing. I love to play pen-and-paper D&D so seeing it translated so well to the computer was like Christmas.
Lode Runner was simply marvelous. It was a platform puzzle-like game where you negotiated a mine gathering loot. Various enemies would spawn up and chase you around. They were an annoyance and sometimes proved to be real menace. The game included a level editor which allowed you to design your own game levels to play and give to your friends. I spent so many hours with graph paper drawing out levels and that directly led me to total appreciation of any game that came with an editor. Lode Runner is a simple enough game to play and it lends itself well to a beginner/intermediate programmer challenge. It can be implemented in ASCII, traditional tiles, or even 3D.
