EPTIts 2015, and I will attempt to keep up this blog in the manner outlined in the last entry; as a way to frame what I do and think about gaming. This, in a more mature and mindful way that I have ever articulated it before. To random readers, keep in mind that I'm deliberately using language that can be comprehended by people that don't really play games. (I actually do know some of those! if you do too, feel free to share or steal my ideas)
So.... to kind of reiterate my last entry; why do I play games?
I view gaming as a pursuit of novelty, by interactive digital means. Novelty in the sense "something new and interesting", witch if you think about it is at the very heart of all worthwhile forms of cultural / creative / recreational life. Playing a game is interacting with a digital framework that is designed to create novel experiences, or better yet - interacting with people through a digital framework - people you would never meet or have reason to interact with otherwise, people that might be fucking great.
In my opinion, having a good time with something stems from two sources – the characteristics of the activity and the approach taken when engaging in the activity. This applies to gaming as well as other things we do. Going forward, I aim to play games that are socially encouraging and have a design that offers many novel experiences through playful means.
The idea with this and some future blog entries is to apply this perspective to games that i have played and valued a lot the last few years, lets start with Starcraft. (lets be honest, I "value" this game, more than I play it):
Starcraft: A game I've learned to play alone. A game that from my point of view seems impossible to master, but offer endless possibilities of incremental improvement: Improvement of strategies that involve management of yours and your opponents resources, information about decisions and even attention; multitasking and physical as-fast-as-possible execution of strategies, as the game is played in real time and things can happen very quickly and simultaneously...
As such, the game is characterised by deep strategic competitive game-play. It has given me many novel experiences in victory and defeat(!). However, because of the isolated nature of the strides made in the hard fought 1v1 battles of this nimble-fingered mind-KungFu, i couldn't keep up my approach. A competitive approach, by my standards. I couldn't really replace it with another approach either - knowing that any experiences rendered by other Starcraft i played couldn't possibly come close in quality to my more competitive strides.
I can still play, i can still "get a hit" every now and then. However, Starcraft - representing 1v1 RTS as I know it* - is in itself not socially encouraging, nor is any conceivable game-design playful enough to take the edge off the jaw-clenching effect that a complex real-time 1v1 competition tends to induce. I believe this is why I don't play it as much as I used to (i know many share this sentiment). The second expansion product titled "legacy of the void" aught to inject some socially encouraging design, witch I'm hoping will alleviate this, for a while.
For the uninitiated, the game-design I'm thinking about will enable players to cooperate two by two in the identical framework that 1v1 games can be played, experiencing and learning together while being able to extrapolate lessons learned and apply them to their individual 1v1 strides, as well as put to use any know-how about 1v1 that they have acquired - from their own games, watching professional play or other sources - in a social setting.
Next week!(?) me and Heroes of the Storm - Why you shouldn't live your life one solo-queue at a time and what you should do instead!**
* RTS: Real Time Strategy
** Solo-queue: The act of joining a match-making queue alone, to play a team game.
