Wk. 8 - Motivations to Play

I read the article. It made my head hurt. Because whether it's games or film, it's all there for the sake of escapism. And all of Yee's catagories of motivation are essentially tied to escapism. Achievement - you're not a badass in the real world, no one's a badass in the real world, except Samuel L. Jackson, so it's cool to be the badass champion of a videogame; Social - We've talked about this, when you're in a game, you're not really socializing as yourself; Emersion - At least this catagory is admitting to being escapism.

I suppose that apart from anything else, I'm an old-fashioned soul, and I believe that what draws people is character and story. I guess it's different with games, but when I look at the shelves in EB-Games, I see boy games and I see girl games, and that's why boys go for certain games and girls go for others. Not because they have different modes of thinking, but because games are shoved at the one or the other.

For me and my assignment, I have a strong lead character, good supporting characters and a great story. That'll draw audiences and that will hook audiences. The interactive element, that's just gravy.