What Makes a Good Game?

Posted on by Mattias Lehman

gentleman-gustaf-figure

It may seem strange to hit this topic now; I haven’t even defined what I think a game is! For now, I’m going to put that question off, but say that there are three types of games:

  1. Puzzles – These games involve one (or more players) trying to solve some system. These games can be played with some goal: ‘how do I solve the puzzle?’ or in a more exploratory manner: ‘what exactly can I do?” Games that are puzzles include:
    • Computer Games: Platformers, Adventure Games, Simulations (Civilization/Sim City)
    • Physical Games: Rubik’s Cube, Mind-Benders, Logic Puzzles
  2. Competitive Games – These games involve multiple players competing against each other within the constraints of some rule system with defined victory conditions. Some of the players CAN be AI simulated; as such, these games can be played as puzzles.
    • Computer Games: Starcraft, League of Legends, Street Fighter, HALO, Simulations (Civilization/Sim City).
    • Physical Games: Chess, Basketball
  3. Collaborative Games – These games involve multiple players working together (potentially somewhat competitively) to create something.
    • Roleplaying Games
    • Team-building games?

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Delays

Posted on by Mattias Lehman

I thought I’d give a quick update; our weekend adventure proved to be more excitement than we could handle!

I ended up succumbing to the heat with a fever and earning a wounded knee, while Jason lies stranded in Spokane, Washington. We will return to regular posting shortly.

Monaco Steals Hearts and Minds

Posted on by Henry

For those of you out there already aware of Monaco and its rave reviews, this will be very familiar.  If you haven’t yet read those reviews, they’re right.  At least, the ones that refer to Monaco as delightful and occasionally vindictive are.  It’s a wonderful heist game that — as you keep taking — just keeps on giving.  I haven’t yet finished the game, and I anticipate many more hours with it.

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The Mongoliad, Book One

Posted on by Henry

The Mongoliad, Book One, is the first in a series of books written by a collection of authors (Bear, Bear, Brassey, deBirmingham, Moo, Stephenson, Teppo).  It is an alternate history starting in 1241 AD with brief moments of the fantastical / spiritual.  They make no jokes about the devastation wrought by the Mongols, and paint a convincing portrait of medieval Europe (everything is dirty and most people are poor).  It’s a quality story, with the promise of more good tales to come.

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Plans and Celebrations

Posted on by Mattias Lehman

Hello readers!

This post is under my name, but really, it comes from all of us here at Fistful of Wits! How can I say that? Because Henry and Jason are in town! We’re here to help some old college friends celebrate the completion of their theses and their imminent graduation, but while we’re here, it’s time for a little bit of collaboration! So here’s a sneak preview of what you can expect to see next week!

Next week, we’re going to be focusing a lot on the idea of games as cinematography, through discussions of narrative tools such as ‘cameras’, ‘focus’, schticks, and more. I also hope to put out my first short story! There also might be a first recorded RPG going up; if not, maybe just snippets of one. And finally, select clips from our first few planning sessions (over Skype)!

But expect next week to be spotty as we recover from our revelry.

Servant of the Dragon, by David Drake

Posted on by Henry

Servant of the Dragon is the third book in the epic fantasy series Lord of the Isles, written by David Drake.  Published in 1999, it is a excellent sequel and addresses the few issues that I previously had with the series while continuing the better traditions of the first two books.  I recommended the series before, I recommend it even more strongly now.  If you want to dive into a fantasy setting built on the sunken ruins of an Atlantean past, constructed from the stones of Sumerian mythology and mortared with Greek and Roman poetry, this is the series for you.

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Game Analysis: Great Gatsby for NES

Posted on by Jason "Zeeblee" Leonard

Zeeblee

It has been a good long while since I’ve read The Great Gatsby, but I’m fairly sure that The Great Gatsby for NES does not truly reflect the novel in any way outside of its cutscenes and aesthetic.  It’s built just like any old platformer where it tells you the controls, but doesn’t tell you anything about the game world (though the controls are not displayed in-game).  It’s really short, so there isn’t all that much to actually comment on, but I found it enjoyable and worth a playthrough.  The lack of a pause button means it’s sort of an all-in adventure, but due to its short length that’s actually not that awful.

The one thing I will comment on is how I think it did a poor job of educating the player on how to fight the first boss.  Your attack (throwing a hat) operates as a sort of player-seeking boomerang.  The first boss is most easily defeated through the use of this mechanic by throwing the hat and then jumping up near the boss, but there is a problem:  the game doesn’t really present this to you as something important to practice until the boss fight.  Just about every enemy you encounter can be dealt with by just throwing the hat straight at them, which then also makes it bounce straight back to you.  The range on the default hat (there is a yellow hat power-up) is also extremely short, so there isn’t much opportunity to alter its trajectory.  On top of that the screen is actually rather thin, and since it tracks the player avatar (keeps it in the center) the short attack range of the default hat ends up being almost equal to your field of vision.  This makes it so you can’t really prepare for enemies by throwing out long shots, which also means that there isn’t much time to play with hat trajectory.  The issues of range/sight combined with how just throwing straight is all you need means the player likely won’t discover and develop the technique(s) required to manipulate the hat projectile in the first boss fight until that very boss fight.  Developing the skill required to defeat the boss is also rather unsatisfying as it never comes up again and the rest of the game can pretty much be played as before (throwing straight shots).

But I’m willing to look past this flaw because of just how classy the game is.  Or maybe it’s because I drank a martini every time I grabbed up a martini power-up…

Zeeblee

Horror and Predetermined Outcomes

Posted on by Henry

In my article on how I run a game, I mentioned that there are specific genres in which I’ll sometimes accept predetermined outcomes.  I’ve most often experienced this in horror games, where both the players and the PCs know that there will be certain terrible things that happen, regardless of the actions taken by the PCs.  But why does this work?  How could any player enjoy knowing that their terrible doom approaches?

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Training Exercise

Posted on by Mattias Lehman

Ultimately, roleplaying is a game of imagination and improvisation. Some people find that they have trouble with these faculties. I feel forced to credit my own proficiency in these areas to a number of games I played as a kid, and still occasionally play, as well as a few hobbies of mine. I think it should come to no surprise that most roleplayers are also writers or actors; in fact, I noted the similarity between the three media in previous articles, and many actors are famously in support of D&D/credit it with stimulating their mind.

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Classification Necessary: Problems with Horror

Posted on by Jason "Zeeblee" Leonard

Zeeblee

A week ago I was going to write an article to bounce off of Mattias’ horror game article about SCP Containment Breach.  A week ago I was going to use Hostel by Eli Roth as a sort of whipping boy/strawman example of what makes a bad horror movie.  But in my haze of sickness, working nights, and sleeping for multiple days straight I realized that my perspective on what “horror” is was flawed.  I searched for definitions to support my claim that Hostel was not a horror movie because it offered no scares and no suspense, but I was met with definitions that incorporated discomfort and sickened responses.  Being horrified is not just being scared, but also being disgusted.  In this way Hostel can still be called a horror film (but still not a good one).  But this broadness of definition offers up a problem, one that I ran into a lot when I used to work in a video rental store (yes, those still exist), and the problem is:  When someone asks you to recommend a horror movie, how do you respond?

As most people would do I always end up recommending my favorites, but I’ve noticed that my favorites never really include movies from the genre of horror that Hostel was aiming for.  I’m a big fan of suspenseful films like The Shining where the focus of the film is to make the characters feel uncomfortable as opposed to films like The Girl Next Door (Jack Ketchum’s version) where the goal is to make the audience feel uncomfortable.  Now, you may argue that the goal of The Shining was to make the audience feel uncomfortable, and you would be correct, but it does so by making the characters feel paranoid and unsafe, and the audience then empathizes with them also feels paranoid for the characters.  The Girl Next Door on the other hand makes the audience uncomfortable via the brutal treatment of the characters.  The audience isn’t paranoid about whether or not they will be safe, but is instead disgusted by just how unsafe they are, and rather than paranoia of the future the audience is more hopeful that the present situation will end.

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