Discovering the Purpose of Video Games - The Doctine of Fun

Well, I realize that I'm not so active here yet and I may just be ignored, but I will at least give this a try. I worked very hard on the following information and I at least want to get some input on it. It is a very long post, so I hope at least one person reads the whole thing. It's common sense that a lot of people just don't think about, or don't care about.

http://img129.imageshack.us/img129/1007/dofun5tg.gif

I. The Purpose of Video Games

i. The purpose of video games is to have fun. Therefore, anyone can and should play whatever games they have the most fun playing regardless of what everyone around them thinks about it. If you have fun playing Halo, then go play Halo. If you have fun playing Final Fantasy, then go play Final Fantasy. And if you have fun playing Pokémon, then go play Pokémon.

ii. Because every person is different each person must determine for his/herself what games are the most fun. No one can tell them what the most fun games are and they cannot tell other people what the most fun games are.

iii. The rest of this document is based on the simple idea that video games are made simply for others to have fun. If you disagree with this statement, then you will likely disagree with every other statement in the document.

II. Concerning Opinions

i. An opinion is the beliefs and views of any person on any subject. No person can have the wrong opinion unless that person’s opinion contradicts fact.

ii. No opinion is fact and an opinion should not be presented as if it is a fact. If you opinion is a fact then it is not an opinion at all. It cannot be fact and opinion. It must be one or the other.

iii. An opinion does not need to be backed up by proof of any kind. A person has the right to decide to love or hate anything he or she wishes without any reason. However, having reasons helps your credibility and makes debating some topics at lot more peaceful. If you continually argue your opinion without any kind of argument except “because I say so” you will not accomplish anything except making a fool of yourself. On the other hand, if you continually try to destroy another person’s opinion without peacefully disproving it with facts you will also accomplish nothing except making a fool of yourself.

III. Concerning the Judging of Video Games

i. The most accurate video game review is the one you write yourself. Do not base your opinion of any particular game off of a review written by anyone but yourself. Every person is different and even a person that likes the exact same games as you could dislike or love a game that you may end up liking or hating.

ii. When reading a review written by another person keep an open mind about the game and always read several reviews in order to get many different perspectives on a game. If a person hates a game their review will often only point out the bad points of a game, and if a person loves a game their review will often only point out the good points of a game. Even a person who claims to or appears to review very objectively has a slight bias one way or the other. Therefore, the best way to determine if you will enjoy a game is to actually play it.

iii. After you have played a game you may write your own review however the statement that “the most accurate video game review is the one you write yourself” only applies to you. You should not expect that everyone would agree with your review because it is the “most accurate”.

iv. If you listen closely to a review of another person and then play the game and disagree go about doing so peacefully. You should not attempt to rip apart another person’s opinion because in the end all it will do is destroy your own credibility.

v. You cannot judge any video game, video game console, or video game accessory without first having experienced what that product has to offer.

IV. The Most Important Parts Of A Video Game

i. The most important part of a video game is the gameplay because without it you would have nothing (and nothing isn’t much fun).

ii. Gameplay is made up of many different parts, but the two most important parts are graphics and input. In either one of these is absent, then you do not have gameplay.

iii. Everything else adds to the game, but does not necessarily make it more fun to play. However, opinions can come into play that could change that. For example: If you love music, then a fully orchestrated soundtrack may make you enjoy playing the game more.

V. Concerning Fanboyism & Bias

i. The views of a so-called “fanboy” are nothing more than an opinion that is different from the opinion of the masses. Any person can decide to like only one video game company or to like many and there is nothing that anyone can do about it.

ii. Every person that has played any video game has a console or company’s games that they enjoy the most even if they own every console and games from many different companies. Everyone has a bias, and in that way we are no different than the fanboys.

iii. A fanboy (or fangirl) is not a person who spams and flames on forums. A fanboy is nothing more than a person who likes only one console or one company’s games for no particular reason other than that it is his or her favorite.

iv. A fanboy may or may not try to “convert” you. Yes, some fanboys spam and flame and get angry, but not all of them are like that. Therefore, you should not judge anyone just based on the idea that they are a fanboy. A lot of really nice and intelligent people call themselves fanboys.

VI. Concerning the Quality of a Video Game

i. No game is truly good or bad. It is nothing more than the opinion of a single person. In addition, everyone has their own opinion on what makes a game good or bad. Rather than trying to argue that a game is good, just accept that everyone has their own opinion and move on with your life.

ii. To anyone who still wishes to prove a game good or bad: Here’s what you do to prove this part of the document false. You take a poll of every person in the world on one video game. Every person must play the game and then tell you if they like it or not. If every person answers the poll the same way, then you have proven that there really is such a thing as a good or bad video game. Then of course, everytime a baby is born your poll is no longer accurate.

Sounds like someone flamed a game you love.

I don't play video games for fun. It's serious preperation for when I'm old enough to level up.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by rubah

Sounds like someone flamed a game you love.

---

No, this was written after hearing a lot of negative comments directed at hundreds of different people. Or, more specifically, after being an active member of Nintendo's forum for almost 2 years.

And to the other person that posted (sorry, I don't know names yet :(): no comment, but I hope you level up soon.

my theory: to do the money cheat and run over the police man

Lol, you play Halo? That makes you a terrible person.

rubah summed up my thoughts. I'm not a hardcore gamer, just a casual one, but relating that theory to music, I can see what you mean/

Quote:

---

i. The most important part of a video game is the gameplay because without it you would have nothing (and nothing isn’t much fun).

ii. Gameplay is made up of many different parts, but the two most important parts are graphics and input. In either one of these is absent, then you do not have gameplay.

---

While I agree with most of the rest (though I find the form of saying it like this annoying because it reads like a textbook, but that's just the hatred school has distilled in me) I must disagree with this. Gameplay makes a game, but that doesn't mean it is what causes the most enjoyment or fun. For me characters and storyline are each as important and together much more so. That's my opinion, and you state this like fact which seems to goa against your principles as it is a matter of opinion. You base your take of gameplay on the fact that you must have it to have a game, while for example there is no need for a storyline, and there are fun action games I play purely for the gameplay, but the most enjoyable moments I have had do not come from that.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by raskerino

While I agree with most of the rest (though I find the form of saying it like this annoying because it reads like a textbook, but that's just the hatred school has distilled in me) I must disagree with this. Gameplay makes a game, but that doesn't mean it is what causes the most enjoyment or fun. For me characters and storyline are each as important and together much more so. That's my opinion, and you state this like fact which seems to goa against your principles as it is a matter of opinion. You base your take of gameplay on the fact that you must have it to have a game, while for example there is no need for a storyline, and there are fun action games I play purely for the gameplay, but the most enjoyable moments I have had do not come from that.

---

You bring up an important point I forgot to mention. This is in no way perfect. I expect, in fact I want, people to disagree to help me make it better. I want the input of other people because I know I will never get this all done by myself or with the help of other people. This will be continually updated.

As for what you mentioned, I think you missed the point of the section, and I expected people to do so. What makes you enjoy a game and what are the most important parts of a game are very different. The original version went into those quoted parts in much more detail, but I thought I was repeating the same thing over and over so I took out some of it, but perhaps it should be added back in.

I state that graphics and input are the two most important parts as a fact because if you do not have graphics then you have nothing to control and if you do not have input then you have no way to control what is going on. Every video game has this and every video game must have these two things in order to be a game at all. Even games as old as Pong had these two things. You have to have a way to control what goes on, and something to control.

EDIT: Oh yes, and the textbook issue. You're not the first to say that (this has been posted on other boards, but all starting today). It is an issue I'm concerned about because a lot of people seem intimidated by it and as a result they end up not reading it. I felt this was the best way to organize the material in a way that it was easy to understand. I also felt it was more appropriate for the title. The original title was "The Articles of Fun" because they were seperated into seperate articles. I, and another friend of mine who has been giving some input, decided to go with the Doctrine name before I posted it anywhere. While it may seem unrealistic, and it most certainly is, I want to reach a lot of people with this. That's why it's been posted multiple times and why I am open to input from everyone else. Even though it may never happen, I want to believe that I can make this a well known writing.

Perhaps sometime I'll come up with a "less-textbooky" version, but for now I feel it's the best way. Of course, that is just my opinon on the matter.

I'm not really sure fun needs a doctrine.

It does now

This thread is depressing.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by ThroneofDravaris

Lol, you play Halo? That makes you a terrible person.

---

ToD wins... again :cool:

...:ezpimp:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v1...minusminus.jpg

You know that it deserves at least a D+

Well, thank you to the past few posters for proving my point about the disrespect many opinions receive. I'm not much of a Halo fan, I think I've played it a total of 5 times, but I don't believe playing Halo would make you a bad person.

By arguing the fact that you’re a terrible person, you’re disrespecting my opinion.

We're not disrespecting your opinion, guy. Well, at least I'm not.

I'm disrespecting your doctrine. There's a huge difference. :D

I got too lazy to read that, but i wanted to post anyway :)

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by KING OF THE INTERNET

ii. To anyone who still wishes to prove a game good or bad: Here’s what you do to prove this part of the document false. You take a poll of every person in the world on one video game. Every person must play the game and then tell you if they like it or not. If every person answers the poll the same way, then you have proven that there really is such a thing as a good or bad video game. Then of course, everytime a baby is born your poll is no longer accurate.

---

Or you look at reviews, sales figures and player-written reviews.

Which you know, is the sensible way to do it.

Quote:

---

i. No game is truly good or bad. It is nothing more than the opinion of a single person. In addition, everyone has their own opinion on what makes a game good or bad. Rather than trying to argue that a game is good, just accept that everyone has their own opinion and move on with your life.

ii. To anyone who still wishes to prove a game good or bad: Here’s what you do to prove this part of the document false. You take a poll of every person in the world on one video game. Every person must play the game and then tell you if they like it or not. If every person answers the poll the same way, then you have proven that there really is such a thing as a good or bad video game. Then of course, everytime a baby is born your poll is no longer accurate.

---

This is dealing with absolutism, and absolutism is a very frail argument for anything. There is a deep, inherent fallacy in saying that no game is good or bad simply because somebody SOMEWHERE might enjoy it. There is and will always be a natural arc of quality that can be agreed upon.

You are more than welcome to hide behind the defense of opinion, but I can present facts that can back up a statement.

Let's examine a hypothetical game. This game has a lot of spelling and grammatical mistakes, and the story line is absolutely nonexistent. I can say with some certainty, due to my expertise in the field of writing, that the game is poor in the areas of storyline, grammar, and spelling. You can attempt to refute it, but your argument is moot because you are fighting a losing battle. No matter how much you try to refute it, you WILL be wrong because the game IS what it is.

By this token, while there is a great deal of gray area in judging a game, there is still a certain level of quality that can be agreed upon as fact. People might dislike a game for any different reason, but just about every gamer can see the inherent flaws in any given game just as well as they can see the good points.

There is such a thing as a bad game. They do exist, I've played them, and I can say with some certainty that the game is, in fact, bad. Someone can refute it to their heart's content, but unless they can present factual evidence to debunk my extensive lists of reasons why the game itself is bad (which they would not be able to do due to the inherent lack of quality in the game itself).

First off, thanks to everyone for the criticism. I wish the other forums I posted this on would come up with arguments against it. I'm not perfect, and I know my post isn't either.

@Behold the Void: Thank you for your post, best so far.

You can present facts that show the grammar mistakes. That I cannot argue because if something is mispelled, then it is mispelled. However, whether or not that would actually make the game bad is again a matter of opinion.

You can also present "facts" to say the story is bad, but what if I hate reading anything in a game and the story is the last thing on my mind? If I don't care about the story or grammar then perhaps I'd find the game fun to play.

In that case, it would be your opinion that the game is bad because the story is nonexistant and the game is full of gramatical errors (kinda like my spelling job of that word) and it would be my opinion that the game is good because they don't trouble me with long sessions of "A pressing" to get through all the boring text so I am always actually playing the game.

As for presenting facts, the only one you have presented is about the grammar, and that cannot be debunked. But the fact that the grammar in this hypothetical game is horrible may not effect how much fun another person has playing it.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Lindy

Or you look at reviews, sales figures and player-written reviews.

Which you know, is the sensible way to do it.

---

In order for that to be the same thing that I wrote, you would have to find a review written by everyone in the world instead.

Sales figures do not tell you if people liked the game or not. Perhaps the game had a lot of hype and millions bought it and didn't like it and returned it?

It's not the same thing because what you wrote was idiotic, simple as that.

SENSIBLE people, which really isn't you, define a game as good or bad by looking at sales figures, popularity, official reviews AND player reviews.

Regardless of hype and oversales, all three of those will give a definition of a game as good or bad, because you're looking at all the angles. In fact, most of all of the time, official and player-based reviews cover everything you need anyway.

You don't need to go ask everyone in the world, you're going to extremes to try and prove a point and quite badly failing at it.

And a "Doctrine of fun" is a complete oxymoron, you're setting up rules on how to have fun and if people play games to have fun then they should just PLAY the games, rather than fussing over pointless "rules".

I agree with Lindy on this matter.

I also never thought I'd say that.

It's disgusting, I know, but sometimes I'm actually logical.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Lindy

It's not the same thing because what you wrote was idiotic, simple as that.

SENSIBLE people, which really isn't you, define a game as good or bad by looking at sales figures, popularity, official reviews AND player reviews.

Regardless of hype and oversales, all three of those will give a definition of a game as good or bad, because you're looking at all the angles. In fact, most of all of the time, official and player-based reviews cover everything you need anyway.

You don't need to go ask everyone in the world, you're going to extremes to try and prove a point and quite badly failing at it.

And a "Doctrine of fun" is a complete oxymoron, you're setting up rules on how to have fun and if people play games to have fun then they should just PLAY the games, rather than fussing over pointless "rules".

---

While you may get a definition, that won't necessarily be accurate. If you base your opinion off of other people's opinions and sales data without ever actually playing the game then all you've done is take someone elses opinion and made it your own. What if, after forming an opinion based on reviews and sales data, you actually play the game and find that you love it?

And as I said in the message, this whole thing is a lot of common sense that people tend to ignore. I'm not creating any rules here, I'm making gamers aware of the rules that are already in place. This is simply "forgotten info". Gaming communities have turned into wars over Nintendo or Sony or Microsoft and when someone buys a game you hate then the "appropriate" thing to do is tell them they suck rather than respecting their opinion on what makes a video game fun to play. Fanboy is a word that is thrown around to mean idiot, spammer, and flamer and when people read that IGN gave a game a game under an 8 they immediately assume it sucks.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Yumil1988

While you may get a definition, that won't necessarily be accurate. If you base your opinion off of other people's opinions and sales data without ever actually playing the game then all you've done is take someone elses opinion and made it your own. What if, after forming an opinion based on reviews and sales data, you actually play the game and find that you love it?

---

Thanks for that one Captain Obvious.

But I'd rather look at reviews, previews and other peoples thoughts of games before I go out and spend my money on one, because looking at something as wide as that WILL give an accurate view.

EDIT : Another thing I noticed that made me laugh.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Yumil1988

I'm not creating any rules here, I'm making gamers aware of the rules that are already in place.

---

Wait, what? Since when have their been RULES over how people think about games? There's never been anything like that, so don't try and think that you're bringing up something people should know and follow, because you're not. You're pulling something entirely pointless and wasteful out of your behind.

I don't care if you want to read a wall of text or not, there are still variables that can define a bad game from a good game. These include things such as:

Poorly executed plot that is either completely nonsensical, utterly cliche, just plain stupid, or a combination thereof.

Bad controls or play style. The hit detection is bad, the controls are unresponsive, the way the game is played is just plain stupid, etc.

These are two major points of a game that can factor into it being a bad game. Others can include hideously subpar graphics (for the time in which the game was made), terrible sound, poor mood setting, etc. etc. Usually it is a combination of these that constitutes a bad game.

To determine whether a game is or is not bad, you simply take the following factors.

Every variable that is, in fact, bad (I can prove these on a case-by-case basis). What the game is intended to do. For example, a game with a poor story that is mainly made to be a mindless shooting game can still be a good game. A game that is supposed to be a mindless shooting game with few weapon choices, bad hit detection, and wierd controls, however, is another case entirely.

Once the variables have been properly assessed, it is a simple matter to determine whether the game is, indeed, bad. One can also do this by looking at the reaction of gamers to the game. While there could be a percentage of gamers who enjoy the game, if the game is regarded as a bad game by a good percentage of gamers who gravitate towards several different styles (for example, if the FPS crowd dislikes an RPG it might not be a big thing, but if the RPG crowd dislikes it, it is another matter entirely), it is generally easily considered to be a bad game, especially after the variables and reasons as to why it is a bad game are brought into light.

Consequently, this is the basic outline of how most game review magazines and other such mediums judge games, and when done correctly it is VERY accurate.

I disagree with you on Fanboys or fanboyism. It is an objective thing. A fanboy is a person who can never see the bad side of their game(s) of choice. It's always the absolute best available, and the next one (if it's a series) will always surpass all other pretenders. I've dealt with them on several boards.

As to gameplay, it is somewhat objective.

For one thing, the controls should be fairly simple to understand. If there's a convention for the way the controls opperate, don't mess with them. If X is jump in every platformer out there, don't make O jump for yours. I have a game that does this, and I eventually gave up on it because I'd hit the wrong button when trying to jump. And for the interfaces, keep them simple and easy to understand. FF8 suffered because of a junctioning system that was tedious and complicated to set up.

For another thing puzzles should be logical in the context of the world. Don't make me do something that is supposed to make me die in that world. And don't make the puzzle depend on me knowing something that isn't common knowledge or that I'd have no way to find out by that point in the game.

Most of the rest depends on the game type.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Gnostic Yevon

And don't make the puzzle depend on me knowing something that isn't common knowledge or that I'd have no way to find out by that point in the game.

---

You're making me think of exactly one puzzle where that is so true.

Fatal Frame/Zero, First Night door number puzzles.

You have to know, and it is hinted at nowhere in the game, that the Japanese numbering on these circular locks begins at zero and goes ANTI-clockwise. This is despite the single document that refers to it is one that likens it to a clock which, as we should all be used to, goes clockwise.

Of course, it was a great game aside from that, but one or two frustrating puzzles like that can entirely throw what would otherwise be a great game.