Why Don't People Play Games - Game Invaders: The Theory and Understanding of Computer Games - page 57

WHY NOT ASK THE PLAYERS?
Now that we have our working example we can get back to the main question. And
to start off, why not simply ask people who play games why they do? When Clive
asked students taking his Games Futures module in October 2006 he got the follow-
ing answers:
1. Escapism
2. Competition
3. Entertainment
4. Not always “ fun ”
This is an interesting list. Escapism and entertainment are reasons for playing games
that would be common to forms of noninteractive entertainment such as feature
fi lms and novels. However, competition sets games apart from these, more tradi-
tional, forms; it' s diffi cult to see how you could gain pleasure from being competi-
tive in watching a fi lm or reading a topic. We take “not always ' fun ' ” to mean
games can often be diffi cult, frustrating, and challenging, but this does not stop
people playing them. In other words, the aesthetic pleasures we gain from games
do not have to be easily gained. You could, and people certainly do, read “ diffi cult”
novels to challenge yourself. But is this a common pleasure of the medium? People
don't do crosswords or Sudoku because they are easy. “Not always ' fun ' ” is almost
certainly a common pleasure for the casual as well as the hardcore player. Being
challenged is a common pleasure of many forms of entertainment. If you think
about it, the word “fun” did not actually come into our aesthetics. Fun is just a
particular form of pleasure.
One thing to bear in mind is that the vast majority of those taking part in this
discussion were people who would be categorized as “hardcore” players in terms of
International Hobo's Demographic Game Design Methodology discussed below.
Many hardcore players will play a new game simply because it is new; they will take
pleasure in being “early adopters” and will want to be able to express their opinions
of a new game in order to continue to affi rm their hardcore, early adopter status.
Responses from casual players might well be somewhat different or include
other reasons. Taking into account some of the gameplay preferences of casual
players and personal discussion with them, we can suggest the following additional
reasons for playing games:
• Passing the time
• Learning
• Fear
By fear we do not mean in this case the fear experienced in playing frightening
games (although this is itself a very real motivator for certain demographics; those
who like playing Resident Evil, for instance). What we are talking about here is the
fear of the consequences of not playing certain types of game. A particular example