i'll not attempt to abridge the article. Just pointing it out to those who'd find interest..http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/181329/Beautiful_folk_play_and_emergent_interaction_in_Journey.php#.UJ80muTWLIw
Best statement in the entire article, imo.
Players want to have the tools to tell their own story.
The tools are those game mechanics that the developer's provide.
Lego and Minecraft have done so well because they provide simple tools for people to express themselves.
From the extensive reading's i've done online to ascertain "what MMO players want" in the hopes of finding the key to a great game that will be designed, minecraft simply proves the point that simplicity and freedom trump all.
One of my favorite types of interaction is emergent partnerships in competitive environments.
An example would be a share-owning game, where two players each own shares in a single company and both try to improve it, because the two improving one company can each gain a significant advantage over the other players.
A journey example would be having a flying contest and linking up with another in order to outfly everyone together. However, the ending result only allows one winner, so at some point the incentive structure changes and it no longer makes sense to fly together.
Minecraft's success is the illusion of creating something worthwhile, for little physical effort. There is no practical use for anything you create in Minecraft outside of the system. Many games have this same sort of principle. Many require even less mental effort than Minecraft. I'm not even saying it's a bad thing.
I don't think people have gotten less smart, but I often wonder what we would have created had we spent our effort on making things in the real world instead of building virtual empires.
Perhaps the inability to express comes from the lack of resources, which games like this overcome by allowing the user access to a nigh-unlimited pile of resources. That's a good thing. I can play games about creating businesses, or running countries, but I do not have a country or a company to run in real life, and with my political experience and financial resources, it isn't likely to happen any time soon.
I actually don't like MMOs or games like minecraft for the same reason. You spend so much time building something (castles, characters, guilds) and it has no real meaning.
I rather plays SP games that have a good story. It is like watching a good movie or reading a good book but feels like you are changing the plot as the story goes.
FPSs are fun until I remember that I'm no good at them, so only die and never kill.
MMOs are fun until I realize that I'll really never have the time to get to level 60(or whatever), and once I got there the game would be boring anyway.
Dwarf Fortress is fun until I realize there's no point to my crummy fortress.
I think I agree with TorinReborn - I like plot-driven RPGs as opposed to open sandbox games. Metal Gear Solid 2 & 3 come to mind.
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