I think we've all had that one game that is the hardest to put down. I've started this thread in an effort for me to get back down to the basics of what makes a game fun. Since lately ... I haven't produced a single quality thing outside a demo of a catapult launching crap (and I do mean... crap) SOOOO... Here's my entry JezzBall: This game is great. Me and my buddies played this in physics the whole semester on our TI-83+'s. Funny thing is we had the highest physics scores the high school had seen in 10 years. BUT, outside that, the game is truely great. I enjoy trapping that infernal ball. I think what makes this game great is that it has almost infinite replayability. It also has just the right difficulty, not being too hard or easy. All right, first stone on the wall Have fun, toXic1337

I find that one of the most important elements of a game is it's story (Maybe not for FPS games, but that's something different)

Perhaps I should try again... one the the most important elements to making a game IMERSIVE is it's story.

That's why I keep going back to games like the Monkey Island series, myst (yes, it had a story, just took a little while to find it), Blade-Runner, and the grand-daddy of all adventure games, Zork.

Back when many of these games were made, the graphics were... limited, so the developer had to fall back on something else, (in this case story) and focus on it to make the game good. (Now a adays games seem to all be judged by their screenshots... I mean was there really anything more to Doom3 than eye candy?)

There were sucky old games too, however, today's experience many times isn't like it was before. There are many factors about this, but I think it all comes down to "I am making this game because I want a game like this to exist" instead of making a living out of it.

To follow up the comment on the last post, I heard once that Tolkien wrote books because there were no books available that gave the kind of experience that he was looking for. So he created the kind of book that he wanted to read.

Now on a completely unrelated note, I was just thinking about a similar question recently and I think back to hours and hours put into games like Ninja Gaiden for the NES. This might have been the first game that had cut scenes and a very imersive story for a side scrolling action game. The graphics were clearly NOT top notch. The game play was ok, but it still keeps my attention today.

I think what makes the game so great for me however is the nostalgic value more than anything else. It was great for the time but my memories make it timeless.

What made them fun? Low standards.

They were simple. That's what made them fun.

John B

I think it was more simplicity. Anyone could jump on a goombas head in mario, anyone could setup blocks on Tetris, anyone could hit a ball with a paddle on pong, and anyone could slice things up with Zelda.

Nowadays games seem to get more complicated and i believe a lot of fun is lost when you do complicated things (games where you need to do a million things before the level is over, or the games focus more on frusterating the player than them actually having fun).

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Original post by dgaf What made them fun? Low standards.

Check.

We extended those games with our imaginations, and now that we're not playing them and comparing them directly with modern games, our imaginations kick in and extend our memories of them so we perceive them as having been better than they actually were. I recently played and saw a bunch of older games played, and they sucked. And some of them were "classics."

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Original post by Oluseyi Quote: Original post by dgaf What made them fun? Low standards. Check. We extended those games with our imaginations, and now that we're not playing them and comparing them directly with modern games, our imaginations kick in and extend our memories of them so we perceive them as having been better than they actually were. I recently played and saw a bunch of older games played, and they sucked. And some of them were "classics."

This is true, some games I remember from years ago as being great are now a bit lacking. However, when I say "lacking", it's usually the interface that's the problem. Trying to go back and play Final Fantasy is a pain because you can only buy items one at a time, you don't know how good a weapon in the shop is compared to a weapon in your hand, etc. Fallout would be much improved with a "take all" button and being able to transfer more than 999 of something at a time (a pain when something cost on the order of 10k bottle caps). On the other hand, I went back and played Metroid and quickly became re-addicted. Same with the Mega Man games, and Sonic the Hedgehog, and even Mario Bros.

Why are these games so great? Easy to learn, hard to master. Playing these old games, the levels keep getting harder but there doesn't seem to be any end in sight. I hadn't beat Mario 2 until a couple years ago. And Metroid? For a while, I would've sworn that those areas went on forever. Games these days are meant to be beaten. If you can't reach the end, you've been cheated out of part of the experience. If you didn't reach the end of these old games, that was cool; it was still fun to see how far you could get. I remember when I finally beat level 4 of Super Mario Bros. Such a hard level. However, the game was still fun to play even when I struggled with level 4. I could do better at the earlier levels by beating them more quickly, with more points, or with more style.

Anyone who knows me knows that this isn't some sort of hardcore "Games should be hard and only True Gamers should be able to beat them". Have you noticed the popularity of these cheesey little games? I don't know the current fashion, but Bejeweled was in this category. My room-mate plays some sort of gold digging game, and also really enjoys Tradewinds (I think that's the title). Games you can pick up quickly, quickly surpass your ability, but quickly start you back at the beginning to try it again. These also tend to post the high scores online. This is very much like back in the day when I'd tell a friend or they'd tell me "I finally beat level X" or "I finally broke 10,000 points" or whatever. It wasn't about winning, because winning was beyond the abilities of most mortals. It was about how far you could get before losing and, to some extent, about being able to get farther than that other guy.

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Original post by Oluseyi Quote: Original post by dgaf What made them fun? Low standards. Check. We extended those games with our imaginations, and now that we're not playing them and comparing them directly with modern games, our imaginations kick in and extend our memories of them so we perceive them as having been better than they actually were. I recently played and saw a bunch of older games played, and they sucked. And some of them were "classics."

i have to disagree. i thought maybe it was low standards / old technology, or nostalgia, or whatever that made those old games seem better than they possibly could be.

but, i just bought the megaman anniversary collection (for gamecube) and the original zelda for GBA, and they still are damn fine games. i kinda wish i didn't remember them so well, as i know the solutions to almost all the puzzles.