The Three Parts of a Gamer’s Psyche

I have played many great games, but my favorites all have a special theme. My favorite games are generally the ones that express story the best. I would definitely call myself a story gamer like Arin talked about in his blog. However there is one catch. I would never say I ONLY play games for the story. I don’t. In fact, I believe most don’t. Games provide 3 general forms of entertainment that every gamer enjoys to a certain degree in video games. They provide a story, interactive gameplay and social interaction. These reflect the reasons why we play video games in the first place. It allows us to explore the gamer’s psyche and why they play what they do.

Games entertain us by providing a story. The best provide a great story that carry us through an adventure and leave us wanting more. Games like Uncharted, Mass Effect, and Skyrim all do this and have been critically acclaimed for it. Interestingly, those games all do it in a different way too. Uncharted focuses on a treasure hunter who is not unlike Indiana Jones. As the player controls him from a 3^rd –person perspective the game presents the story like a movie. He says little quips about the situation and expresses himself in cut scenes. This is not a game of player choice. It is very linear and uses cut scenes and the environment to elaborate on the plot. You are the star of the movie, but not involved in the overall creation of it. Mass Effect meanwhile focuses on player choice. Mass Effect is about a human who must save the universe from an apocalyptic event while navigating through a complex galaxy-wide alien political environment. In this game series you shape the story. It is less like watching a movie and more like making one. You are the director. You can’t do anything you want- you are still restricted to the choices the game wants you to have, but you can mold your experience. You are not the writer, but you do have a creative impact. Skyrim is about a man with special dragon-like powers investigating the sudden resurgence of dragons. You have the most choice here. You mold the character you are to a high degree- you can’t even hear him speak his own words. You have to imagine it. There are more side quests and main quest material, you are encouraged to go off the more linear path and do your own thing. You are most like the writer of the movie here.

Games entertain us also just through game play. Arin talked about this extensively. Games like Gears of War, Modern Warfare, Heroes 3 and 5, Company of Heroes,Starcraft and Age of Mythology all focus on game play to entertain us. These also can focus on different types of game play though, not unlike how story games focus on different types of storytelling. Gears of War and Modern Warfare focus on the quick action and the reflexes of yourself as you engage the AI or other players as effectively as possible. The focus is not so much on the story (however it is usually kept in some capacity to provide a framework for the game play), but on how to make the character feel cool, or to ensure the player is having fun as much as possible through the action. Story, especially when it gets deeper and richer, can slow down the action too much.  Heroes 3, Heroes 5, Company of Heroes, and Starcraft are also about the game play. Instead of an action focus however, it is a strategy focus. This is the fun of beating an opponent (AI or human) within the framework of a set of rules created by the game designer. It is not so much about the action, but the thrill of high stake engagements where everyone has a chance at winning. It just depends on how well you set-up your base and strategized.

Lastly, games entertain us by providing a social framework to hang out and play with others. Most games, especially nowadays, have some multiplayer aspect to it. In many games the multiplayer is deeply tied with the game play and adds to it. There are, though, games that are just about the social interaction and it is for that reason that socialization is justified as an independent part of a gamer’s psyche.  Games like Runescape, World of Warcraft, Champions Online, and Dungeons and Dragons Online all focus on providing for socialization. You may have noticed they are all Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Games. This is with good reason. Most MMORPGs don’t have spectacular game play or storylines. Game play is generally for the technical reasons of not having the game be too taxing on the player’s machines and to avoid lag having too much of a factor. Storylines are bad because they generally go into the kill X, bring back Y pattern.  There are exceptions of course, and those are to be commended. Now, instead of game play or storyline most of these types of games focus on the player interaction. They do this through clans, grouped instances, minigames, group quests and general Player vs Player combat to name some. These games tend to draw you in because you want to be with friends who play it or want to do something fun with somebody, but don’t have anyone of convenience to invite.

Of course, not all games can be easily grouped into one of these 3 groups. Some actually can be put in multiple groups. Take Batman Arkham Asylum, Skyward Sword and Portal, for example. These are all great games that fit very well into both the storyline and game play groups. Batman has a focused story like Uncharted but also has critically acclaimed combat. The combat is intuitive and very flashy. It is just fun to use and works well with the game. In fact such game play adds to the story by helping immerse you into Batman.  Skyward Sword is also has great story and game play. In fact, the game has been critically acclaimed for its story. It immerses you into the society you live in so you can better feel the importance of saving your town and friends. This adds to the game play by having what you are doing mean something. Boring parts of game play is not a chore until you reach a cool part, but can in fact be made cool by the importance of the task. Portal is a great match of story and game play by having puzzles that are not too difficult or too easy to figure out and by having an intriguing story made so by a charismatic villain. These inform each other by having the game play help define the villain and by having the villain push you to continue the game play and reward you for getting through it.  A game that shows a mix of game play and socialness to a strong degree is League of Legends. It is strongly focused on game play but also relies on skilled teammates for higher level play. Without socialness a team can be easily outmaneuvered and lose. Teamwork is of upmost importance and therefore so is the acts that keep teams together and creates them in real life. The path to do better in game play is a team you can trust.

So then, what does this all show about gamers? It shows why we play games. We play for the story we can live through or perhaps create ourselves. This can provide a host of benefits for us. From escapism to better handle stress, to reassurance in the forces of good, from excitement of seeing great acts of daring-do to courage to uphold goodness like our favorite heroes. We also play for the game play. The game play teaches us strategy and intelligence in strategy games and trains our reflexes and awareness for shooters. It provides distractions and so provides stress relief. Gamers play social games to train and exercise their social skills. They play to learn how to work together as a team and just to grow in friends and with friends. Gamers play to share fun together and so make it all the much better. We may all prefer certain games, and maybe that shows what we value by seeing what virtues are being promoted by that game, but games share types and so share benefits. Games from each category are important and a good thing to play.