Lunchtime Discussion: Fun

I also consider ‘What makes it a game?’ for today’s title, but I thought it was a bit long. Games are, or at least supposed to be, entertainment. Boil that down to the very simplest level and games should be fun above all else. For me it’s what marks out a game from simulation. Of course there’s other basic attributes that distinguish it from other entertainment, such as basic rules and that it’s interactive, but the fun part is key really.

This is what pushes me away from certain genres, and even particular games. I enjoy shooters, and Halo: Reach has me enjoying online shooters for the first time in a long while. However I really don’t want to play Modern Warfare 2 online unless it’s Spec Ops, I’ve never touched it and I’d be so far behind at this point that it just wouldn’t be fun. The way that I understand the levelling, and please correct me if I’m wrong, is that it’s tied to unlocks including better weaponry and perks. Being that far behind doesn’t sound like a lot of fun to me, it sounds like I’d just get killed a lot and probably called a ‘noob’ or something similar.

The same kind of rules apply for MMORPGs, and RPGs in general to some extent. I have played WoW on a free trial for about a week once. I could actually see the appeal at the time, it was enjoyable to start with. You level quickly at the beginning and get some sense of achievement.  However that slows down quickly, and some of the quests start to drag.

The real thing that put me off was both of my flatmates at the time were high-level players, one of them playing very heavily and active in an, apparently, respected guild. I could see what a time sink the game was for him, and the ridiculous amount of planning that had to go into big guild raids. It didn’t look like a game to me, it looked far more like work. I’ve seen similar attitudes in friends of mine who have become high level players in EVE, although with the strength of the in-game economy in that game the time sink attribute becomes hugely amplified. When you’re essentially running a business in game that kinda puts it outside of the ‘game’ label for me, it’s essentially a simulation at that point.

Are there games that stop being fun for you? Are there certain titles and genres you exclude because the amount of attention they require is far beyond the bounds of fun? In essence when does a game stop being a game?