Games Are Movement Experiment: part 1
When looking at ways to critique video games, I’ve spent much time looking at narration. All games have a story. Stories, however, are not necessarily games. While I looked at other attributes games have, I realized that all videogames take place on a monitor. There is always a visual play space; generally a multi-dimensional playspace.
In order to do anything in the playspace -the portrait in which we play- there needs to be (at least) two other components: a player-character, and the ability to manipulate the PC.
Games require movement.
There is only one other medium that is reliant on movement: dance.
If both games and dance are about moving in a space, there must be something said with movement-focused design. Games like Bayonetta featured a two-button difficulty mode. It made high-end combos much easier to do. The elaborate maneuvers remain in the easier difficulty game. It made the game equally rewarding for less required skill. I believe the same thought process is what makes summoning in Final Fantasy appealing.
Motion is key to videogames, but not every game outside of the monitor. The core mechanics to most pen-and-paper games are about stats and verbal narration. MUDs are purely text-based and feature no visual movement at all. Board games, however are about moving models around a playspace and fall into my (currently broad) category of motion-required games. The Great Dalmuti, a card game, is all about moving around and changing seats around a table. These gestures are at the core of what makes them good games.
In the future, I intend to do more research and explore the concept of movement in games; specifically to need for it. I want to try to answer questions about how systems (like MUDs) are able to be appealing to players without any animation. I will look at games with extravagant moves and animation that aren’t necessarily games. Through that, I hope to come up with ideas about the importance of movement in games.
This theory is a long way out from being concrete, but here’s the starting foundation.
Recently, I figured out how to add comments to my Tumblr page. Feel free to tell me what I may be doing wrong or what books/games I should be checking out.
