Today in class we talked about genres and game sales. It made me wonder about what type of genre player I am. Although I know that I have always loved RPGs, what other games are marketed toward people like me? If I pick up an occasional platformer, am I a part of a different market as well? What about online games?
Fortunately, I was able to gain a partial understanding through the games I played in class. I began with Bejeweled, which I had become quite familiar with over the summer. I worked at a library, and we were given hour-long shifts at the front desk. I would play Bejeweled (since someone coming to the desk was a rare sight). Playing in class again was fun, as I began to get faster and faster at the pattern recognition. Puzzle games are really fun for me, and I do think that is because, as discussed in lecture, people enjoy them who want something that is intelligent but does not require competition. I hate competition because I strive to do well at whatever I do, and I hate it if people have to start comparing each other. I have been a winner and a loser before, and both are not entirely perfect. Losing is sad and can be made much worse if the winner boasts. As a winner, I feel bad for the other people that wanted to win. I also loathe anyone who is full of themselves, and I feel as if I can never be entirely happy in my pride as a winner since it was at the expense of other people.
This is probably why I enjoy RPGs. They allow me to have a sense of achievement without it being at someone else’s expense. However, I do not find myself drawn to all RPGs. I have played Earthbound on and off in the past and had the chance to play Ultima for about half an hour today. I found the early RPG format easy to understand but I was not particularly captivated by the game. I was annoyed with the simplistic graphics and basic story. The concept of the avatar was interesting, especially as two of my peers had begun the game and found different scenarios. I was confused by the controls (sometimes the emulators’ controls aren’t always the most logical). For this reason, I couldn’t figure out how to save, but I didn’t mind much when it was time to go. Unlike Final Fantasy X or even Bejeweled, I wanted to stop because food seemed like a bigger priority.
The other game that I checked out today was the demo for Deus Ex: Invisible War. I gave it a genuine effort, trying to understand all the controls and making sure that I would be able to progress forward in the game. I read all the hints and talked to everyone that I could, exploring and getting chastised by the guards for wandering around. I was disappointed when the one person I was officially going to talk to seemed to lead to a dead end, so did the other thing I had heard about: going toward the landing pad. The guards had all explicitly told me not to do this, and, at this point, I still had not figured out how to fire my weapon. I pressed all the buttons and couldn’t get anything to work, so I assumed that it would come out later. I ended up being shot at, so I escaped and ran away into some dead-end alley. I heard voices nearing, and, when I discovered that I couldn’t hide behind the dumpster like the weaponless weakling I was, looked for other desperate options. I found a grate which led to a darkened area with a bunch of pipes and I was suddenly shot with some sort of green plasma. I looked up to see an odd green alien thing (in what I mistakenly thought was a somewhat realistic game) and was soon killed by said green alien thing. After this confusing, bumbling episode, I had absolutely no motivation to go back and try again.
After today’s games, I have realized a few things: (1) I probably will never really enjoy games that involve physical darkness, shooting, and suspense; (2) I like RPGs, but only if they are artistically beautiful and allow me to achieve to reach a narrative goal; and (3) puzzle games, especially the free, repetitive online type, are very addicting for me. I will still play games such as Deus Ex for at least a few minutes so that I can understand the basic mechanics, which I consider to be important as a game designer. I may always like puzzles because I feel smart for recognizing patterns. As far as what I actually buy (or rent, for that matter), I think that RPGs will still remain my favorite. Even if I do play platformers once in a while, the RPGs are really the only ones that that have been able to capture my heart.