If you are anything like me, one of the only few reasons one can contemplate as to why one would click an article titled as such is maybe because of the possible, eluding irony of the question and one may wish to find that aforementioned irony within the article itself. EIther that or, the article’s title has sparked a genuine interest that you find yourself asking yourself more and more often as this video game generation continues down its timeline. Whatever the reason, this site (or the general gaming attitude of the gaming population today) has forced me, and now you to seek the right answer. At first glance this article kind of answers itself, in as far as what fun isn’t….which will be what this article is. I mean, reading is boring right?? For some perhaps. Also, when asked, the obvious answer comes right to us. What is fun to you can range through a myriad of things such as: Riding a bike, skating, playing sports, dating, exercising or playing video games. I ask you to focus your attention on the last selection. Playing, Video Games.
Obviously, playing video games is tremendously fun, otherwise I doubt any of us would be on this site. What we play, how we play, who we play with and when we play all vary between us with some starking differences and striking similarities. Some of us like split-screen, some of us like Online Multiplayer, some like long, single campaigns, others like 1 on 1 matches. Whatever your preferences, you enjoy what you do because of your individuality. Something a “professional” reviewer nor a friend can ever take away from you. What is fun to you and who you are, are directly related to one another. Obvious article is obvious right? Yet more and more today, I’m finding gamers around the world surrendering their individual tastes to these “reviewers.” Month after month they allow reviewers from all sorts of mediums to inject what goes into a gamers veins as respected opinion and transform it into a volatile solution which is then extracted or spewed out by that gamer as irrefutable fact or irreparable coercion. Needless to say, this isn’t the case with everybody, I just wish to address it and ultimately try to avoid a possible epidemic.
Before we can find the right answer, we must both find the right question and then make sure we understand what we are asking. According to Dictionary.com, fun can be defined as a noun: something that provides mirth or amusement. A verb: to joke or kid, or an adjective: of or pertaining to fun, esp. to social fun. The part of speech which wish to use this word in today is fun used as a noun or adjective. Now I personally like fighting, racing, TPS’s, FPS’s and RPG’s games usually in that order. Thousands of variables can be drawn to help define how fun these games are to me. Another thousand can show how fun they are not to someone else. All of these possible outcomes only should tell us one very important thing. Why are we letting something as arbitrary and absolute such as a review, help centralized what is constituted as fun? Even more so, why are we so adamant about throwing around what we judge as fun, (something that is unique to us as individuals) and passing it off as fact? Using a system as absolute as one mediums (man, magazine, website, etc.) opinion, no matter how well-respected, and using it to try to define something as capricious and dynamic as our own personal “fun factor systems” is mind-boggling in itself. As you can see, the entire thought process behind it is essentially flawed. It is equivalent to trying to use mathematics to explain social interactions.
Initially, I first conceptualized this article to be focused around the understanding of how and more importantly, why do gamers in this age more so than any other, allow other gamers (because thats all a reviewer is) to contort the notion of what is to be enjoyed on a console beyond their own personal, unmistakable preference? However, I believed the prospect of trying to first understand what compels a person to enjoy a game seem much more profound, essential and relevant to all of us. When I ask the question “What exactly is fun?”, Im doing so in an informal, ironic attempt at using reverse psychology to illicit a particular response from you. The response is one that shouldn’t have to be voiced, just realized and punctuated with a mental “oooooh, i see what he’s doing.” This simple, yet ambiguous question interestingly enough, doesn’t have any one answer and that’s the point of this article. Too many gamers today subject their sense of what’s fun into an arbitrary, numeric value system, designed to delegate what is fun or how fun something is, into how fun is something supposed to be or should be in accordance with a guy’s opinion or the general consensus. If needed be, the concepts, semantics and debates of such a question can go on forever, touching bases on points not brought up, and ones that may not need to be. More so than anything, my words today were just meant as a slither of enlightenment in an effort to awaken that individualism that resides inside all of us and lost within too many. What compelled us to favor sports games more than fighting, or MMO’s over Puzzles, what essentially defines us as a gamer should never be decided by an outside source. We, who enjoy what we do not because we were told to, but because we want to, cannot let the sudden insurrections of these console wars and armchair gaming journalists rob us of the gift that comes with being an individual. Help rekindle and transform that gaming spirit back into your heads then into your hearts, where only you and your unique gaming prowess can define what exactly is the definition of fun.*
* the previous errors in the original article have been ironed out
Square Enix is shifting its strategy to aggressively pursue multiplatform releases and focus on quality over quantity.
Yup, it's official. FFXVI and FFVII Rebirth didn't sell as much as they expected.
Hopefully the next Nintendo system isn't a potato and it can contribute to FF sales in future as well, in addition to PC releases. If this ensures the long term health for SE and franchises than like FF and KH then I'm all for it.
Paul writes: There's no doubt that ArcRunner is a fun blast.
Review - FRONT MISSION 2: Remake is a game worth checking out if you like the genre. For rarity alone, it has to be worth a try.
F is for friends who do stuff together U is for Ukelele N is for any where and anytime at all.
Fun-not black ops
fun-Uncharted 2
Nice read. As a fellow blogger (not on this site though), your writing style reminds me of my own (the introspection, the quotes, the self-awareness, the parenthetical thoughts, the lists of examples, the logical progression of questions and answers, etc.) The intro comes off a bit pretentious and trying to be overly clever, and a bit redundant/nonsensical ("irony of the question being questioned" (I too admit to do the exact same, especially with my intros) and at first I was confused/failed to see the irony of the question you referred to, but you addressed it thoroughly at the end for a nice, full-circle conclusion to your article. I thoroughly enjoy the dashes of wit and philosophical questions imposed as well.
Great stuff, and if this is your first blog entry, its awesome. Sadly, my video game writing days have taken a back seat over the past 3-4 years from undergrad and med school (just started last semester).
Keep up the good work, as it is both enlightening and exciting to read entries like this that ask the questions we gamers so often overlook, yet influence our enjoyment or decisions we make whether we realize it or not.
Certainly more interesting and thought-provoking than reading another "Top Ten" list or "Why X system is better than Y system" blog, or the sad, sad quality of articles headlining the N4G page.
For instance, I had to dig through N4G to find out the biggest gaming announcements (and actual gaming news) this week of Final Fantasy XIII-2 being unveiled, a new trailer of Final Fantasy Versus XIII, or Portal 2's free offering/cross compatibility on PC/Mac with purchase of the PS3 version. The hottest news/headliners though have revolved around Geohot, the whole piracy feud, and consistent articles about hacking, 360 vs. PS3 crap (also about hacking). Jeez...to miss big gaming announcements to see more of these company bashings is irritating.
Do you know of any other gaming sites that offer some sort of aggregate system of up-to-date news/articles?
Joystiq is great for knowing the big gaming announcements immediately, but it sadly doesn't offer other writing pieces besides blurbs of news (given its blog format).
I may not know what fun is but I hope to recognize it if I ever encounter it.
Wow, great writting great question great thinking. In total agreement the number scoring system of games annoys me greatly, and how so many games get instantly lower or higher scores because of competitive games or the platform its on, honestly wish gaming journalists were more lyk you with core questions and brilliant writting styles, just amazing
well that was enjoyable.
too bad 98 percent of the n4g people who read it will be lost before the fourth sentence.:D