Why We Love Playing Games

Everyone plays games, from physical games to digital ones. It is widely discussed before: Why people like gaming? Basically, the reason is to have fun. Today I would like to talk about why I like playing games. I’m quite open to all kinds of games and am not very picky to them. In this passage, I’ll focus on digital games and board games that I played most. So here are my ideas on why I love gaming:

1. Games are meant to be interesting, imaginative, relaxing and enjoyable. Like interactive comic or TV series, games are very interesting and they can help you kill boring time as well as relax people. In order to make players enjoy the experience in the virtual worlds that they've created, game designers are always trying their best to create novel mechanics and gameplay.

2. I love playing with others in game worlds. Teamwork, social and PVP are definitely the key words for almost all multi-player games. Some games allow us to cooperate with others. For instance, MOBA games such as League of Legends or Dota allow players to communicate and achieve the goal with the help of each other. Multiplayer role-playing games such as World of Warcraft or Dungeons & Dragons allow players to enter a dungeon and kill bosses with different characters in various classes. From these games, we always feel that one person can never rescue a world on his own. It can be really painful if you play with randoms who are not skillful or you are not familiar with each other, but you can try to communicate with them. If you achieve your same goal by talking to each other, it’ll be a good game. There are also many light-hearted games that stress social features much. Do you often send out or receive request from your friends on Facebook through Hay Day or Candy Crush? These social games are so popular that almost everyone is playing or has played them. To some degree, it is because you see your friends are playing them now and that you help each other by a few clicks. I remember the first master I had in MMORPG games; she was very responsible for me and treats me as a close friend in real life. She is my mentor to this game genre. She also brought lots of friends to me and made me feel like being at home. I was really amazed at the beginning. In return to her accompany and help, I wrote lyrics and recorded a song as a present to her. Competition is another side of social features of games. I believe that player is much more interesting to play with than all the AI of games.

3. People like challenge. Some games are really hard to play. They are designed for some so-called hardcore players. Even you are smart, skillful and experienced, you might not play them well. People don’t like things that are too easy to complete. Think about the feeling after you solve some complicated puzzles or command something that seems to transcend the limit of humans. The sense of accomplishment along with the rewards offered by the game will make players feel content. In this case, games are your good friends; they will never trick you and will always provide equal rewards after you reach some goals.

4. Games link your body and mind together, which simply makes you feel comfortable. Someone said that play is simultaneously a source of relaxation and stimulation for the brain and body. Once I read from a book in which it wrote, that a prisoner will feel good even when he cleaned his place. This is because when you do something right physically, no matter how simple it is, you’ve completed a conjunction of body and mind, which is a basic level of happiness. I was amazed when I first read this thought in Zhang De Fen, a Taiwan writer and spiritual mentor’s book. However, I realized that it’s true when your brain control your body to make and are told it’s something right that will simply make you feel joy. So game is a thing that you will probably find yourself enjoy playing it as long as you are playing it.

5. Games are artworks. With the development of digital arts, games are becoming more and more visually and aurally adorable. As a 3D artist, I always focus on the beautiful graphics when playing a game with great visual elements. In my opinion, graphics might not be the most important thing for games, but a game with bad aesthetic implementation will definitely make a failure. So as the sound, because sometimes we find that sound can be more powerful and convincing when creating the atmosphere.

6. We love stories that have twists and turns. When I was a little girl, my favorite games are Xianjian series RPG games. For some genres such as RPG or AVG, story plays an important role. The first work of Xianjian series was released in the year 1995. At that time, digital arts and game engines are not well developed, while it made a hit by its touching stories. I also remember when I first played Gujianqitan (another Chinese RPG game) through, It was the last second week before a final exam. After that, I had a strong feeling that compared with the big disaster happened to the main characters, everything is not that important in my life. But it doesn't mean everything in real life is meaningless. On the contrary, then I cherished my life for being so harmonious. I worked harder, because I felt it is happiness that I can achieve what I want with my effort.

7. To experience what we will never experience in real life. When I talked about Gujianqitan, I also think up that this game created a long journey that I won’t have chance to experience in my real life. Games are virtual worlds. Many game developers are trying their best to achieve immersion using new technologies so that people can feel like they are in real world. People are curious about unknown things and games provide infinity possibilities. It is a big difference that when you hear or read something from experience it by yourself. You can’t really think as your parents unless you’ve grown up. However, games have the potential to make you experience something by using elements like graphics, sound, interactions, stories, etc. Other examples, like when I play Warhammer Fantasy, I play as if I’m really leading an army of high elf and that my opponent’s Skaven army will definitely get panic when I killed most soldiers of one square team. And when we play Dungeon & Dragons, we are really exploring in a dungeon where Goblins will appear and hurt us so we need to take actions fast!

8.People like to customize or own something even in virtual worlds. Think about any simulation game such as Clumsy Ninja or Princess Maker. Even other games like Plants vs. Zombies ask you to name your something at the beginning which will let you have the feeling that ‘I will take charge of this’. We start to like this from we were kids, children enjoy decorating their clubhouses several times a day.

9. I really love collecting things. Although it sounds not fun at all and a little stupid, I just like having collections of a bunch of virtual props and the sense of being wealthy in game. This is a reason why in some cases, the game will let you physically reap or collect what you get with a simple click, rather than have the item in your ‘inventory’ automatically. That’s because game designers want to convey the feeling that ‘It is me who just got something with my hands!’

10.Games help you exercise your brain and learn something new. Meaningful pay is also a goal of successful game design. Not only educational games, many entertaining games can help you exercise your brain from time to time. We can say that strategies are necessary to all kinds of games. What’s more, being themed differently, there are many things we can learn while playing games. For instance, Monopoly teaches us economic, while some anecdote based games teach us history and mythology, which may help us understand our real world better.

Above are the top 10 reasons why I love playing games. There are other ones like ‘It’s nothing but addictive!’, ‘sometimes I like to solve puzzles alone’, ‘I want to show off to others!’, ‘I design games so I must play a lot’, and even ‘I learn English!!!’ (Please don’t laugh. ^^) …Well, hope you find something in common or something meaningful. Thanks for reading and enjoy playing!