Pleasure, Pain and Play.

Games are similar to other media forms such as television and books in various ways, such as sound effects and a story line. However, games are also very different to other forms of media as they offer distinct aesthetics that are located in the play itself. There are three theories into the aesthetics of play. Reward, flow and iteration.

Reward.

Clearly defined rewards such as more life, better weapons and progress to the next level keep the player interested. The type of reward is actually irrelevant as ‘video games that do something to make the player feel good will be played again’ (Loftus. E, and Loftus. G, 1983, pg. 14); meaning that rewards make the player feel good about themselves and their skills at playing the game. There are four types of rewards. Glory, Sustenance, Access and Facility.

Rewards of glory; the pleasure of the player due to factors such as high scores.

Rewards of sustenance; character maintenance; which could include more health and new weapons.

Rewards of access; progression to new levels, locations and resources available in the game.

Rewards of facility; the enhancement or new abilities of the character; such as new skills.

The game I have played in order to analyse the three aesthetics of play is Samorost 2. In this game you have to solve a number of puzzles in order to progress to new areas and finally save your dog.

The rewards I gained were rewards of glory – I found pleasure in simply being able to complete the game, rewards of access, which was when I finally managed to progress to new areas of the game and rewards of facility – where I picked up objects, which in turn helped me progress. These rewards reinforced my playing as each time I nearly gave up, I would gain a reward which spurred me on.

At times I did feel flow within the game. When I was thinking hard of what I could do to go to the next level, I would concentrate solely on the game and time seemed to fly by. I was actively engaged and had clear goals of what I wanted to achieve.

Iteration played a big part in this game. Each time I tried a sequence that didn’t work, I would play the same sequence but change a little bit of it. Almost repeating my earlier actions but changing one small thing in hope that it would work.

From these examples it is possible to see all three aesthetics of play that encouraged me to play on. Either though I didn’t find Samorost 2 very fun to play, I still sat at my computer for a length of time until I completed it.

Word Count: 450


Bibliography.

Loftus, E. F. and Loftus, G. R. (1983) Mind at Play: The Psychology of Video Games, USA: Basic Books, Inc.