Blog Post 10

Wednesday’s class by far was the most fun I have ever had in class. For the entire day we played various board games as a class for research. I will admit that I am a hermit and I was not very fond of playing board games with other people, but in the end, it was something that I enjoyed and wish we had more “research” days like this. The games I played were Taboo and Trivial Pursuit: Disney Edition. Both games were fun to play and throughout both I tried thinking to myself what makes them fun and enjoyable.

What really does make a good game? Is it characters? Could it be the object or premise of the game? Maybe it’s the whole ordeal of just playing with a group of people. Through this research process, I discovered that I am a fan of word games. Most of the games I play online involve thinking around words or finding words through jumbled letters, but most of my friends dislike them as do many others. Personally, the essence of a good game is defined by the individual preference of the person who plays it. What I may define as a good game, another might say it’s boring or pointless.

All in all we can agree on one thing: a good game makes us want to play it again. We say a game is our favorite because it makes us long to play again and the outcome is usually always different. When designing elements of a game, one must think about the target audience as well as its creative aesthetic. Most people want to see something new and exciting, not something that has been seen over and over again.

Many of us love a game because of certain characteristic it posses, however, the said characteristics does not necessarily define the game to be successful. When presenting ideas of a game, the successfulness of it should be marketed and advertised to a target audience in the best way possible. A game needs to be presented to an audience effectively or else it will suffer in the economic market whether or not the game itself is good or even great.

As designers, it is our job to effectively produce a great game with an amazing way of marketing and advertising it. We must learn this study and practice as much as we can now in school before applying our knowledge in the real world. The more we explore, the better we become.