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Re: April NPD or Everyone Drinks except Nintendo
Old 05-18-2008, 10:57 AM   #2
Renwood
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Default Re: April NPD or Everyone Drinks except Nintendo

Quote:
Originally Posted by BreakABone View Post
I own and to some extent enjoy Brain Age, but the game itself has no real goals. If you get a Brain Age of 20 it isn't an end really. Just means you are sharp that day or know how to cheat the system well.
Brain Age does have a goal when I play it. I play it to achieve or to maintain the lowest possible age. That's the goal I give to myself within the framework of the game. It does not explicitly encourage me to that specific style of play, but it is set up to allow it. My mom plays Brain Age for specific portions, and rarely if ever tests her age day-to-day. She plays free form, and sets up her own goal of wanting to do math problems faster that day. The game isn't directing her. She's directing her.

So this becomes hazy when we look at other games with the same mentality. What is the long-term goal in Halo 3 multiplayer? If its ranking, then what happens when I've achieved the highest possible rank? Is my goal then not to maintain that? What if I wasn't playing for rank to begin with? My goal was to win each game I entered. That's my soft goal. But there's no hard limit on "winning"; each time is like the first time. There's no progression outside that ranking that I might or might not care about. I'm not forced into anything. I have set up my own goal again.

More generally, isn't my ever present goal with a game to enjoy myself? That's what I consider a game; something I do for derived enjoyment. Games give me that enjoyment in different ways. Some have fun mechanics, some make me think, and some are just aesthetically pleasing (or sometimes, displeasing like in Silent Hill), and I like being transplanted into the world they're pushing.

"Sort of like the Sims"; do you consider the Sims to be a non-game? Similar to Brain Age, there are arbitrary goals in place, but I rarely followed them. I liked to wall off the Sims and make my own goals for the day. Its similar with Grand Theft Auto. The story is there with its linear progression and set of developer-set goals, but I spend the bulk of my time on free play, where the only goal is to see what I can and cannot do within the game world. There is no goal or "reward" in that for me beyond "personal satisfaction"

Quote:
Originally Posted by BreakABone View Post
No More Heroes is fun. And enjoyable but its one of those games even I know you have to take the really bad to enjoy it. While the main action segments are fun, the game around it is hit or miss.
It's not good in the same way it is not bad. Its average and adequate, but not remarkable, and when its peers are, it becomes unnecessary. Until such time as it is the only game left unplayed from my library.
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