With all the varied genres and styles of game it is easy to lose track of the fundamental elements of gameplay they contain. Playing a game usually involves the player performing a sequence of actions to reach a goal. For example a platformer has the actions of run and jump, with the correct sequence guiding the avatar over platforms and around hazards to his target. Taking a broader view, these actions also include navigating the start menu, clicking through tutorial screens, and any story events. All of these actions take time and the total play time for a game has a calcuable mix of time spent on each action. We can add here the non-action of simply waiting to see the game unfold, whether in a cutscene or during play – for example watching where the ball travels after taking a shot at golf.
This is a very reductive view of gameplay, if we add the context of an action to a unit of play we get a more varied list of elements – for example jumping to get up a step, compared to jumping onto a moving platform in time to excape the falling spikes and while timing the jump to avoid spinning blades. For the player the first action is routine and easy, whilst the second is skillful and risky. The simple action I call a Task, the tricky action a Challenge. Tasks are routine, habitual parts of a game – there is no substantial threat compared to the abilities of the player. Challenges need the players attention, they have a reasonable chance of failure that has consequences to the player such as losing health or the delay of having to replay a section.
I can broaden the definition of a Task from a micro-action like pressing the jump key to any duration of gameplay that contains purely tasks. For example – traveling back over conquered screens in a platformer with a key, navigating the shop screens, defeating grunt level enemies in an RPG perhaps while grinding for goods or XP. In some games the Challenges are well spaced – perhaps a boss battle every quarter of an hour, the rest of the time gameplay is safe and routine.
At this point it may seem that I am attacking rote gameplay and tedium in games – but I am not. Neither do I equate Task with Easy and Challenge with Hard. I am not a fan of Hard games, but I love plenty of Challenges. I mentioned the non-action of waiting, to me routine riskless gameplay is closely akin to waiting and so I would like to discuss Tasks in that context. Waiting sounds most tedious – and often even a shiny well crafted cutscene with a genius plotline will leave us hammering our controller looking for a skip button. But sometimes we are happy to wait and watch – indeed in the real world we will wait and watch entire sports events, theatricals, movies – with decreasing opportunities for interactivity. I suggest that some active parts of a game can be less fun than other purely waiting parts. For example – retracing your path over routine platforms with a key is less fun than watching an intricate sequence of bombs explode to solve a puzzle. Perpetual interactivity is not crucial to a game’s enjoyment. Risk free Task oriented sections of a game – while interactive – are not demanding and are only subtly different to waiting and watching.
So long as a Challenge is not too hard or frustrating it can be engaging and fun on its own merits and would stay fairly fun even with primitive graphics, an abstract setting and no context. The skill required to beat it and the risk of failure would be the same in either case and a big part of the fun comes from those aspects. Now on the other hand – imagine a stunning cutscene with amazing graphics and plot… then turn it abstract and you are left waiting in front of a blank screen. Clearly no fun at all to be had from abstract waiting in that case. You might get a little satisfaction watching a puzzle bomb sequence explode as a list of dissapearing circles – but much less than in the original, and mainly as satisfaction for solving the puzzle rather than any visceral enjoyment. The flip side to this is the fact that the simple routine parts of a game, the reassuring smooth sections between the rapids, have the opportunity to either be as boring and painful as the cutscenes we just have to skip, or as interesting and enjoyable as a bright unfurling story.
If it is not clear by now, I am not a fan of 100% Challenge based games. I enjoy having time to get absorbed in a game world without constantly fearing for my life, and sections of story and sightseeing are a welcome break from crazy hard boss fights. As the percentages shift, perhaps as far as 95% Task based I am happy spending the time building my skills in a fairly safe zone preparing those 5% tricky sections – but I am only happy to do so if the wider qualities of the game engage my interest and give me enjoyment. Grinding, retracking, repeating simple tasks for that 95% in a game that is boring is worse than a terrible cutscene – there is no skip button.
So there you have it – I admit that I like games that are mostly unchallenging – but a much greater challenge is to create an exciting and interesting game that stands up through the routine Tasks and manages to entertain throughout.
