First Time For FINAL!

What’s a Game to YOU?
So many people have different ways they see a game, and all the things that make up a game. People who take the time out of their everyday lives to play video games, play them for fun and to sort of get away from the regular everyday stress and worries.
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 fourth 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 the 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 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 easy it is to hit them, all based upon their point values. The 25 points are typically easier to hit, and will not move around, 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).
One way that will help us to get a better feeling of how it was to be in 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. Let’s start out this interview with Fern. “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 blasted 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.”
Now let’s talk to the person who was in the same cart as Fern, who was 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 shoot 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 dad Steve, and I wouldn’t blame him (haha). 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 his 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.
After this mini interview with the Barrick family, I would definitely consider Toy Story Mania a type of game. Sure it might to 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 book. 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!
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.