RPG musings
Mar. 2nd, 2004 12:54 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ria_oaksOkay, this was supposed to be a "very abridged" version of a musing/rant/beginning of an editorial I was thinking about. Ended up writing the rant. ^^;; It's very rambly and non-formulated right now - mostly me just pulling out ideas, sticking them out there, and ranting randomly about RPGs in general. ^^ Anyway, the thought I had while having a bath and not reading Devils was "what makes an RPG fun?" What was it about playing FFT again this evening that I found so damned enjoyable? I was thinking over how I act when I play RPGs; the things I say, do, etc while fighting a battle, wandering through a dungeon, or watching a cutscene. And came to some possibly interesting conclusions... least I think they're interesting. ^^ Curious? Read on. And any feedback would be v. nice (see comments after cut). So, without further ado...
I was musing on what exactly is it that makes an RPG "fun"? Gameplay? Plot? Characters? Graphics? Minigames/sidequests? Wandering around doing fucked up stuff? Or something else? And decided that it was something of a combination of the first one and the last two. Yes, including the "wandering around doing fucked up stuff". Because, playing FFT today, it occurred to me that a great deal of the "fun" value in RPGs, for me at least, is made on my own, and has little to do with the actual game. Things like having an all-chemist battle and giggling my ass off as I thwack pathetically at monsters with them. Things like narrating over the game as I walk through dungeons/fight battles/and occasionally make snarky comments at the characters/plot. I don't know if that qualifies as making me sounding insane as I talk loudly and animatedly to myself while playing RPGs, but dammit it's fun. *grins* I suppose that what it does is bring a whole different, more personal level to an RPG - I'm not just having fun with the gameplay/plot, but I'm making up my own fun as I go along - and that fun will be different for everyone. Heck, an example not my own - the amusement that![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
bronzejarith and I were getting out of her jacking up Lulu's HP levels to ridiculous heights. Stuff like that, the personal differences in each game and the personal experiences and opinions that we bring to a game, are, IMO, an important part of what makes a game fun for me.
Of course, not to say that the gameplay and plot aren't enjoyable - usually the gameplay has a large part to do with the abovementioned fun, since a lot of the stuff I'm amusing myself over is battle/gameplay-related things. And, of course, making silly cracks at the characters/plot is always fun. ^_^ But I wonder - does the fun in an RPG come from the actual gameplay and plot themselves, or what we bring to them, how we interpret them, and the ways we act while playing a game? I love various RPG plots, thought they were emotional, powerful, exciting, etc. But that's different from pure "fun" - that's an enjoyment of a well-crafted storyline. The pure, silly, joy and amusement often comes from things I mentioned above - our personal experiences in a game, regardless of how silly or pointless they may seem to another.
Right, since this has long since stopped being an abridged version of my argument, I'm going to list some examples. Some of these I'll likely work in to the proper version of this which I may or may not write as an editorial for RPGamer.
Going back once again to FFT - where does the main sense of "fun" come from in that game? Certainly the story is intriguing, exciting, rather overly-complex, but still interesting and full of political intrigue, backstabbing, wars, etc. From that comes a general appreciation and enjoyment of a good, fascinating plot - but, for the most part, on a serious level - not exactly a cheerful game. So, then we come to the gameplay - really the key element of FFT, it being a TRPG. So, wherein does the enjoyment of the gameplay lie? For those who have played and enjoyed it, I don't think I need to explain why the battle system itself was fun - it was simply a fairly well-crafted, enjoyable battle system that managed to keep battles fresh and exciting throughout the game. But doesn't half the fun of an FFT battle come from what we as the gamer, bring to it? The way we form our party, the normal soldier characters that we create until they become distinctive characters of their own in some sense, the manyfold decisions one can make in an FFT battle. The silly enjoyment I get out of making jokes at the screen, insulting my characters, doing stupid things like running around in circles hitting myself to gain JP while some more nearly-dead enemy cowers in the background, doing... hell, whatever I do during an FFT battle. That enjoyment comes in part because of the actual battle system, but also in how I interpret what's going on and how I fight that particular battle.
Okay, that's enough FFT. *thwacks self* Having FFT kick right now, case you haven't noticed. ^^
Next, a few, hopefully quicker, other examples:
Xenogears - yes, it had one of the most engaging, complex, deep, fascinating RPG plots ever conceived. Yes, it had a fairly enjoyable, well-implemented battle system (okay, well, to some extent... ^^;; *remembers gear battles with a shudder*). Yes, it had interesting, well-written, distinctive characters. But come on, who are we kidding? One of the most fun things to do in that game was to jump up and down on top of people's heads and riding around on top of chickens. Don't deny it. *grins* And aside from that, again with the storyline and such, half the fun for me, anyway, comes from making snarky, shallow comments towards the screen (usually things like "Krelian! My love!" and "Hehe, Ramsus is so Krelian's bitch..." Okay, so I've never actually said the latter in the game. Still.). Not to mention spending hours making idiotic lists and transcribing my favourite scenes... Anyway, really large parts of Xenogears were not that fun - most of the dungeons were tedious and make me shudder to recall them. So where did the fun aspect of that game come in? See above. ^_^
FFX - as much as I've come to appreciate and enjoy the plot in retrospect, at the time, well... I spent most of the time laughing my ass off over Tidus. Which was a large part of the fun of FFX, actually. ^^;; That and making Tidus hop around on one leg by tapping O while running. Yes, I've done this many times while level-raising. Anything to keep me from wanting to kill someone from spending hours in the bloody Omega Ruins... -_- Still working out what it was about X that made it fun - because, while I wasn't particuarly entranced by the storyline while playing it, I did find it strangly addicting and fun. I think that was in large part the gameplay, but again I think I definitely brought some of my own enjoyment to it (largely by squeeing whenever Auron came onscreen... -_-)
Okay, getting late and I'm tired. ^_^;; I'm still musing over other examples, but actually I think that FFT in many ways is my best example of this - perhaps attesting to the fact that much of a game's fun is in the gameplay? Well, suppose that's not really surprising... Regardless, I still hold that the fun one derives from a game's gameplay is not just the actual battle system itself, but what the gamer brings to it and what they do to make it speficially their own.
So, there's my thesis... not exactly organized right now, and very rambly. Am thinking of trying to put it all together into coherent form and submit it as an editorial to RPGamer, once I can forumlate it into a proper essay of sorts. I imagine there have been other editorials done on this subject, and I may try to find a few to see what I can add to my argument, but for now I'm sticking with my main idea (ie that of personalized fun) as my primary thesis. Any thoughts on the subject would be appreciated. I've stated my personal experiences in RPGs - what about you guys? What makes an RPG fun to you? What kinds of pointless, silly things to you do to amuse you as you play a game? How do you make a game "your own", as it were?
Bed now. *clunk*
I was musing on what exactly is it that makes an RPG "fun"? Gameplay? Plot? Characters? Graphics? Minigames/sidequests? Wandering around doing fucked up stuff? Or something else? And decided that it was something of a combination of the first one and the last two. Yes, including the "wandering around doing fucked up stuff". Because, playing FFT today, it occurred to me that a great deal of the "fun" value in RPGs, for me at least, is made on my own, and has little to do with the actual game. Things like having an all-chemist battle and giggling my ass off as I thwack pathetically at monsters with them. Things like narrating over the game as I walk through dungeons/fight battles/and occasionally make snarky comments at the characters/plot. I don't know if that qualifies as making me sounding insane as I talk loudly and animatedly to myself while playing RPGs, but dammit it's fun. *grins* I suppose that what it does is bring a whole different, more personal level to an RPG - I'm not just having fun with the gameplay/plot, but I'm making up my own fun as I go along - and that fun will be different for everyone. Heck, an example not my own - the amusement that
bronzejarith and I were getting out of her jacking up Lulu's HP levels to ridiculous heights. Stuff like that, the personal differences in each game and the personal experiences and opinions that we bring to a game, are, IMO, an important part of what makes a game fun for me.Of course, not to say that the gameplay and plot aren't enjoyable - usually the gameplay has a large part to do with the abovementioned fun, since a lot of the stuff I'm amusing myself over is battle/gameplay-related things. And, of course, making silly cracks at the characters/plot is always fun. ^_^ But I wonder - does the fun in an RPG come from the actual gameplay and plot themselves, or what we bring to them, how we interpret them, and the ways we act while playing a game? I love various RPG plots, thought they were emotional, powerful, exciting, etc. But that's different from pure "fun" - that's an enjoyment of a well-crafted storyline. The pure, silly, joy and amusement often comes from things I mentioned above - our personal experiences in a game, regardless of how silly or pointless they may seem to another.
Right, since this has long since stopped being an abridged version of my argument, I'm going to list some examples. Some of these I'll likely work in to the proper version of this which I may or may not write as an editorial for RPGamer.
Going back once again to FFT - where does the main sense of "fun" come from in that game? Certainly the story is intriguing, exciting, rather overly-complex, but still interesting and full of political intrigue, backstabbing, wars, etc. From that comes a general appreciation and enjoyment of a good, fascinating plot - but, for the most part, on a serious level - not exactly a cheerful game. So, then we come to the gameplay - really the key element of FFT, it being a TRPG. So, wherein does the enjoyment of the gameplay lie? For those who have played and enjoyed it, I don't think I need to explain why the battle system itself was fun - it was simply a fairly well-crafted, enjoyable battle system that managed to keep battles fresh and exciting throughout the game. But doesn't half the fun of an FFT battle come from what we as the gamer, bring to it? The way we form our party, the normal soldier characters that we create until they become distinctive characters of their own in some sense, the manyfold decisions one can make in an FFT battle. The silly enjoyment I get out of making jokes at the screen, insulting my characters, doing stupid things like running around in circles hitting myself to gain JP while some more nearly-dead enemy cowers in the background, doing... hell, whatever I do during an FFT battle. That enjoyment comes in part because of the actual battle system, but also in how I interpret what's going on and how I fight that particular battle.
Okay, that's enough FFT. *thwacks self* Having FFT kick right now, case you haven't noticed. ^^
Next, a few, hopefully quicker, other examples:
Xenogears - yes, it had one of the most engaging, complex, deep, fascinating RPG plots ever conceived. Yes, it had a fairly enjoyable, well-implemented battle system (okay, well, to some extent... ^^;; *remembers gear battles with a shudder*). Yes, it had interesting, well-written, distinctive characters. But come on, who are we kidding? One of the most fun things to do in that game was to jump up and down on top of people's heads and riding around on top of chickens. Don't deny it. *grins* And aside from that, again with the storyline and such, half the fun for me, anyway, comes from making snarky, shallow comments towards the screen (usually things like "Krelian! My love!" and "Hehe, Ramsus is so Krelian's bitch..." Okay, so I've never actually said the latter in the game. Still.). Not to mention spending hours making idiotic lists and transcribing my favourite scenes... Anyway, really large parts of Xenogears were not that fun - most of the dungeons were tedious and make me shudder to recall them. So where did the fun aspect of that game come in? See above. ^_^
FFX - as much as I've come to appreciate and enjoy the plot in retrospect, at the time, well... I spent most of the time laughing my ass off over Tidus. Which was a large part of the fun of FFX, actually. ^^;; That and making Tidus hop around on one leg by tapping O while running. Yes, I've done this many times while level-raising. Anything to keep me from wanting to kill someone from spending hours in the bloody Omega Ruins... -_- Still working out what it was about X that made it fun - because, while I wasn't particuarly entranced by the storyline while playing it, I did find it strangly addicting and fun. I think that was in large part the gameplay, but again I think I definitely brought some of my own enjoyment to it (largely by squeeing whenever Auron came onscreen... -_-)
Okay, getting late and I'm tired. ^_^;; I'm still musing over other examples, but actually I think that FFT in many ways is my best example of this - perhaps attesting to the fact that much of a game's fun is in the gameplay? Well, suppose that's not really surprising... Regardless, I still hold that the fun one derives from a game's gameplay is not just the actual battle system itself, but what the gamer brings to it and what they do to make it speficially their own.
So, there's my thesis... not exactly organized right now, and very rambly. Am thinking of trying to put it all together into coherent form and submit it as an editorial to RPGamer, once I can forumlate it into a proper essay of sorts. I imagine there have been other editorials done on this subject, and I may try to find a few to see what I can add to my argument, but for now I'm sticking with my main idea (ie that of personalized fun) as my primary thesis. Any thoughts on the subject would be appreciated. I've stated my personal experiences in RPGs - what about you guys? What makes an RPG fun to you? What kinds of pointless, silly things to you do to amuse you as you play a game? How do you make a game "your own", as it were?
Bed now. *clunk*
