JLT
Posts: 740 Joined: Jan. 2008
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Quote (Tom Ames @ Sep. 09 2011,07:49) | Dwarf Fortress was fun to read about, but the game-play is so tedious that I seriously wonder if it's not an elaborate hoax. |
LOL, true. It is in early alpha, though, there's still hope that at some point Tarn Adams will make the gameplay a little less unyielding. OTOH, a lot of the fun of this game comes from the multiple ways in which you can horribly fail, which is mostly due to its elaborate (euphemism FTW) gameplay. There're even mods out there (e.g. Genesis mod) which make it even more complicated, believe it or not. I mostly mentioned it in this thread because Tarn Adams definitely hasn't read any articles about gameplay design.
I thought about the gamer stereotype that Louis mentioned in his OP, and I think we can all agree that in most cases it doesn't fit, but maybe that is the reason that it comes up so often. It makes it so much easier to say that You Are Not Like That. The stereotype is perpetuated by all the gamers who distance themselves from it. E.g. "I play only one game," "MY social life isn't affected by my casual gaming," "I don't spend much money on games/gaming", "I go to the gym", all with the unsaid "In contrast to REAL gamers" in front of it.
The more interesting question is, why we feel the need to do that.
My theory is there's this idea still floating around that only things that serve a purpose are worth doing and that doing something just because it's entertaining is a waste of time. So, you "don't watch that much television, mostly news and documentaries, really," you put non-fiction books and "literature" in the front row of your book case, and if all else fails, you say that you play DF, which has accurate water physics and a very steep learning curve, or Minecraft, which is very creative, or WoW, which is actually a very positive social experience and helps you improve your real life managment. All of that might be true, but the main reason you play it is that it is entertaining, and, hey, what's wrong with that? At least we aren't overweight or live in the basement. ;)
-------------- "Random mutations, if they are truly random, will affect, and potentially damage, any aspect of the organism, [...] Thus, a realistic [computer] simulation [of evolution] would allow the program, OS, and hardware to be affected in a random fashion." GilDodgen, Frilly shirt owner
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