Welcome back to my blog! It's been a while since I made my last post, that being on how failure in games can lead to enjoyment. Today I'll be focusing on a much broader topic covered a little bit later on in the book: How we can be a part of something greater through video games. What that means is through our collective gaming culture, becoming a community of gamers all focused on one universal goal. McGonigal talks about how "In April 2009, Halo 3 players celebrated a collective spine-tingling milestone: 10 billion kills against their virtual enemy, the Covenant. That's roughly one and a half times the total number of every man, woman, and child on earth" (McGonigal 95). Why does something like this matter, you may ask. The 10 million enemy defeats was a symbol for the dedication of the fans. Sure, fans knew there wasn't any real importance or consequence to saving the human race in a science fiction video game, but even though there was no realistic value, there was meaning. This meaning was the feeling that we were all a part of something much larger than ourselves. McGonigal quotes philosopher Martin Seligman: "The self is a very poor site for meaning...the larger the entity you can attach yourself to, the more meaning you can derive." (McGonigal 97) This being said, it wasn't the Covenant kills in Halo 3 that gave it value, rather it was the massive communal goal that made it seem meaningful. Thus proving that something doesn't need to be real for it to have real meaning.
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| In "The Tower" with friends celebrating after a collaborative effort to complete the raid. |
Likewise, in the game Destiny (which I referenced two posts ago), has a very similar concept. In the game, you are stopping the alien forces known as the Fallen, Hive, Vex, Cabal, and Taken. Though as an active player of the game I've defeated many a foe, it's not always about my individual efforts. Everyone I've played with has helped to contribute to the ever growing number to the expansive, epic universe created around the game. Another way Destiny is similar to Halo 3 in this way is the environmental design in the game. McGonigal describes the development of Halo 3, stating that it took Bungie three years to craft this gaming cathedral, with a team of more than 250 artists, designers, writers, programmers, and engineers collaborating together. (McGonigal 105). Destiny, having also been developed by Bungie, had this same care, attention to detail, and intricacy put into it as Halo 3. The Moon, one of the planets in particular, is very beautifully designed and well thought out, proving that good environmental design can make the experience all the more epic.
My question for this post is:
How does a larger community of players or environmental design help to change the experience in your eyes? Does it make it more or less epic to you?
McGonigal, Jane. Reality Is Broken: Why Games Make Us Better and How They Can
Change the World. New York: Penguin Group, 2011. Print.
Having a large community of players changes the experience for me by providing something else to react with other than the game itself. In most cases it makes the experience more epic by the uncertainty that comes with a larger community of players making each interaction unique.
ReplyDeleteA large community of members certainly makes the game more epic to me. The community changes the experience in my eyes like you mentioned by adding community goals such as the halo kills. Not only that but it adds some competitiveness, leader boards in games give you something to strive for.
ReplyDeleteIn addition to your points, I'd argue that a large amount of a game's 'epicness' is dictated by how it feels to perform actions. Bungie is great at this, making gunplay feel satisfying for the player. Thing like screenshake, sounds, and special animations for critical hits makes it "epic" to take down an enemy.
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