Could some of the rides or attractions at theme parks be considered games? If so, could some of these games be considered video games? We will explore these complex and interesting questions as analyze some expert’s opinions on what makes up a video game.
When looking into what makes a good or even great video game one expert paper really stuck out to me, Studying Computer Games by David Buchingham. Buchingham brings forth how designer Celia Pearce sees how a game is defined with: a goal, obstacles, resources, rewards, penalties, and information. Buchingham also informs us on how Jesper Juul sees the games as: based on rules, have changeable outcomes, different values given to the different outcomes, player tries to reach the outcome they wish, the player is emotionally attached to the result to come, and they have a parallel outcome to consequences for real life.
Another article that I looked upon to get more information on this is What Makes a Great Video Game? By Jeff Gedgaud. According to this article what makes a great video game would consist of the “re-playablilty,” how easy it is to learn the game, the graphics of the game, and the cost of the game. What Gedgaud means when he says “re-playability” is just what it sounds like! That the player can play the game over and over without becoming bored after the second time around. If the game is much too hard to get the hang of, then you will not want to play it again. If the graphics are lame you will not want to see them again. And lastly if you pay too much money for a game then you will be let down at the end of the game, if it is not like what you expected.
After seeing what these experts of games think about all the elements that make up a game, is it possible that some items that aren’t always seen as video games could stand up to these make up of video games? I think so. Let’s take for example Toy Story Mania, found in the ever so popular Disney’s Hollywood Studios Theme Park.
When you start out on Toy Story Mania, you place your 3-D glasses on, climb into the funky looking carts with your partner and get ready to blast off. In front of you, there are sling-shot looking contraptions. The first time I saw these I remember thinking “what in the world is this!?” Then it hit me, that this could be a big factor in the game-play. In Toy Story Mania, the cart you are riding in takes you around Andy’s (the owner of all the toys) room showing you huge screens. On each screen there is a new task that is given to you. Using the sling-shot you will aim, and try to hit as many targets that you possibly can. Each target that comes up on the screen has different point values and different levels of how difficulty to hit them all based upon how high or low their point values. The 25 points are typically easier to hit, and will stay in one place, where as the 500 point targets are the smaller, moving all over the place, and coming straight at you (due to the 3-D effects). There is also a characteristic of this game that separates it from all the others around; it has 4-D effects too! That is you can feel some of the things that are happening on screen. When you hit the target made up on the water balloon, guess what you will feel? Yes water splashing out towards you!
One way that will help get across a better understanding of the experience of Toy Story Mania, would be to take some time and talk to some people who have already been on this ride. We are going to be talking to the Barrick family; made up of Fern, Steve, Haley, Janna (me!), and Emily Barrick. This family just recently spent a visit in all Disney parks this past month of May 2009.
To start off, I asked each of them to tell me what they thought a game was, and surprisingly each of them were pretty different. Haley being the smarty pants said “a game is something that engages your brain and can evoke certain feelings, or reactions.” Fern being a natural mother said “a game is something that you do to interact with certain people, like your family, or friends.” Emily, the baby of the family said a game is “something that brings happiness, and makes you active for a while.” Steve told me that he saw a game as “something that little kids play, and just end up wasting their time.” As for me, you will see.
Fern was the first person I started the interview with. “The first thing I noticed about Disney’s Toy Story Mania was how long the stand by wait was, and then I noticed the fast pass wait. It was much longer than all the other passes we have gotten. Around six hours for this one, whereas the others were only about one or two hours.” When I asked Fern about her experience in Toy Story Mania, this is what she had to say: “It was much more fun to be engaged into it, unlike so many other rides that you just sit there and be strapped in while you are getting ready to be tossed off. There is always the same kind of thing on those kinds of rides whereas while you go around Andy’s room there is always something new to aim your shot at. You want to hit the higher number on the targets so you can beat the person in the cart with you, and that makes it really fun.”
Next I talked to the person who was in the same cart as Fern, Haley. Haley had a similar experience to what Fern had, but she felt that the game was a little over rated. “The wait was over two hours long, just so you could ride around in some cart for five minutes and take a shot at things that were sometimes moving, and sometimes still” Haley said. “Not only that, but it was difficult to keep an aim for the targets, after a while your eyes start to hurt because of how much movement there is on and off the screen.” I would have to guess that Haley would like the mainstream rides that buckle you in and throw you down a steep hill just to get you to feel some kind of rush from it.
Next I talked to Steve, the big scary dad. Steve had a much different experience than that of Fern and Haley’s because his partner was someone that he had never even seen before. He told me that he was expected just to go by himself when all the ladies in his family decided to go with one another. But let me tell you, he was way off on that one! Steve was set up in a cart with a young boy, who couldn’t be older than seven. At first the little boy was afraid to go on the ride with this six foot three man like my father Steve, and I wouldn’t blame him. Steve told me that he didn’t feel like he shot as many targets as he would have if he knew the person in the cart with him, or at least if the person who he was going with wasn’t terrified of him. Maybe if the stranger who was put in there with him wasn’t so scared of him, he would have been more engaged in the game, wanting to get more shots and end with more points than the stranger. I think Steve would have even been more aggressive if he was with one of the members in the family! He is one of those guys who wants everyone to be happy, so he let the little guy in there with him win. . . by a long shot!
Emily is one competitive girl when it comes to games, sports and all that kind of stuff. I got the pleasure to be in the same cart as her. Emily wouldn’t go for the small point value targets. Nope, she would go for the huge ones that were really hard to hit. Emily told me that “it felt better to hit the big ones because they were more of a challenge and I know not that many people would have been able to hit them.” I on the other hand just hit as many small ones as I possibly could. I thought, in the long run that small ones will add up because I hit so many of them. Was I wrong or what!? Emily beat me by around 2,000 point just because she aimed more so for the large numbered targets, and I aimed for the smaller, but easier numbered targets. Emily also said “I wish the game had a shorted line, that way I could ride it all day long, and I could get more and more practice on aiming for the targets.”
For me, I remember one of the first things my mother wanted to go see was Toy Story Mania, and I thought it would be a little kid ride. I remember thinking it would be just like the tea cups that you go on with your little sister just to make them happy. So we got our fast passes, and waited almost all day to be able to go on this famous ride. It was such a long wait we ended up leaving for dinner and coming back just for that ride! Let me be the first to inform you that it was much worth the drive all the way back to the park. Even when the fast pass line was longer than the ones of other rides, I was excited when I saw all the decorations and items on the wall of the waiting area. In our time of waiting I didn’t have enough time to see all the cool things all around me. There were toys, characters, drawings and such all throughout the line! I guess that long stand by wait was worth it with all the interesting things they had waiting in side. When we got closer I realized I needed a riding buddy, so I quickly grabbed my younger sister to ride with me. Then we hopped in and saw it was a shooting game. “Yes” I thought to myself, “I picked my little sister, the easiest person to beat in the family!” But as I have said before, she beat my badly. All the hard targets she hit really added up, unlike bigger number of small point targets in the end. Each time we came to a new screen I was anxious to see what the next one was, and the one after that one. The game seemed to go by so quickly, but it was such a blast. It definitely made my top ten attractions at Disney World.
Thinking back to how the Barrick family described what a game is to them, did Toy Story Mania fall into the game category? Toy Story Mania does bring up feelings that make you want to hit more and more targets, just like Haley said a game would do. It also gave us a chance to bond amongst each other, even when we were sometimes in different carts. After the ride we all talked and talked about how cool it was inside there, and we did bond over that. Even my father who wasn’t with anyone else in the family while on the ride joined in on our talks. Emily saying it is something that brings happiness hit it right on. This ride really brightened our day, and gave us more energy to get back to the car when we were all pooped out from the heat and everything else that happened that day. As for Steve, I would have to say his didn’t connect with Toy Story Mania. It’s just too much fun to be a waste of time! Believe it or not Toy Story Mania also has some of what the experts say make up games. Like Pearce said there is a goal- to get the most points, obstacles- how it got harder to hit the high targets, resources- your good aim, rewards- winning in the end, penalties, and information- hit as many target as you can, using your own strategies. Sure not all of her elements were matched up with something from Toy Story Mania, but it came pretty darn close to it. If there were penalties in it, I think that would just take away from the fun that could be happening. As for Juul’s make up of being based on rules- not keeping your opponent from hitting targets, have changeable outcomes- not always being able to hit the same targets over and over, different values given to the different outcomes- different point values, player tries to reach the outcome they wish- try to beat the other person in your cart, the player is emotionally attached to the result to come- they want the bragging right when they get out, and they have a parallel outcome to consequences for real life- they can see that each target they hit is like them reaching a goal in life. Smaller goals in life are easier to get to like the smaller point value targets, and bigger goals in life are harder to get to like the higher point value targets that are moving around everywhere. Lastly for Gedgaud’s makeup of the “re-playablilty,” how easy it is to learn the game, the graphics of the game, and the cost of the game. Like Emily had already said, she wished she could play it over and over all day long, so they “re-playability” is without a doubt there. This is one of the easiest games there is to learn to play. You get the hang of it after like fifteen seconds of sitting there. The graphics inside the game are neat, as well as the ones that are on the walls of when you first walk in! The cost of the game is just the cost of your normal day ticket to a Disney park, and if you are there already it is free! That makes Toy Story Mania a game that stands up to most of all what the experts say a game should be.
After this mini interview with my family the Barricks, I would have no question that Toy Story Mania a type of game. Sure it might not live up to some expert’s theories of what makes up a great game, or any kind of game, but who says I can’t make up my own theory of what makes up a fantastic game? I think this ride that is a game, and a game that is a ride all at the same time has really helped me to make up a formula that is what makes up a game for me. That formula would be made up of: engagement, strategy, graphics, and being able to play it and get different out comes from it each time. Each of these elements are seen in Toy Story Mania, thus it is a game in my mind. Each person based on who they were playing with and their relationship toward one another affected how engaged they were in the game. How badly they wanted to win was also affected, and how they reacted when they got more and more points as the game continued. The strategies used by each person can be varied each and every time this is played, or gone through. For example each time they are taken to a different screen to possibly play a different strategy. Seeing what is in a game can also make the difference in how it is portrayed. If you have to shoot a cute little baby lamb instead of a bad ugly person who wants to shoot you, that would not be a fun game for anyone who really has feelings for cute baby lambs. And lastly each time you go into Toy Story Mania, there is always a huge possibility that you will get a different score. In fact it would be rather difficult to get the same exact score over and over again. Each time there will be targets that you might shoot and not even know that you are going to hit them!
There are a few things that I would have to say that would make Toy Story Mania a tad bit better. To start off with if you know Toy Story and Toy Story Two (the original movies) you know that when there are certain characters that come about, there are certain things you can expect from them. Take for example Stinky Pete. Something Toy Story Mania could have that really would make the rider remember going on, are smells. And with Stinky Pete, they could have a short lasting stinky smell that would come right after Pete. Another thing that could be an improvement would be the number of people in each cart. Going on with a bigger amount of people would help them to get more of a feeling of bonding. People from families with off numbers of people, like mine, would not have to sit with a complete stranger like my father had to do. The list could go on and on about all the cooler things that could add to the fun at Toy Story Mania, but I feel these two are at the top of my list.
Toy Story Mania might be one of those things that some people won’t know how to classify as. I hope after this essay more and more people will think twice about how they are going to see games, or rides as games.
Work citations:
*Gedgaud, Jeff. "What Makes A Great Video Game". Associated Content. June 3, 2009
*Diane Buckingham David, and Andrew Burn. Computer Games. Cambridge: Polity, 2006 w.associatedcontent.com/article/3531/what_makes_a_great_video_game.html?cat=19>.
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