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the word fun is a noun meaning
light-hearted pleasure or amusement or
an adjective meaning entertaining or
enjoyable for 25 years now we've been
held back by the idea that games are
only about fun 25 years of constraining
the medium to this tiny spectrum of
experience thinking about games only in
terms of a single emotion it's time we
stopped doing that not because want the
fun games to go away but because we want
to see other kinds of games too no other
medium out there limits itself to
delivering on fun exclusively and
they're better for that what if the only
movies coming out were dumb summer
Blockbusters and the only books were Dan
Brown novels wouldn't that suck I mean
summer Blockbusters can be awesome but
think of how many other great films we'd
miss out on limiting all of Cinema to a
single genre would just get stale and
boring after a while which brings me
back to games why do we fiercely cling
to this self daming constraint of only
creating fun it's because of fear on
both the industry and consumer level
we're afraid about what might happen if
we step out from behind the old Shield
of saying we're only about making fun if
we stop dismissing ourselves as a
children's Pastime and acknowledge that
like any medium we can engage in a
plethora of ways what does that mean
does it mean we have to be responsible
does it mean we'll have to push
ourselves rather than just cranking out
the same kinds of games we already know
how to make over and over probably but
like I said it's time it's time we
expanded our Horizons and embraced the
Myriad other ways that games can
enthrall us it's time we change the way
we talk about games and start to ask not
what makes a game fun but but what makes
a game engaging it's time we do this
because it lets us make more types of
games it lets us make better games and
the fun games are only going to get more
fun as a result but most of all it's
time we do this for ourselves because
whether we acknowledge it or not it's
happening when you play Silent Hill
you're not experiencing light-hearted
pleasure when you play through a tragic
visual novel you're not necessarily
finding it enjoyable or amusing but
you're definitely engaged and that far
more than fun is what we as human beings
want from our entertainment as a player
you may not see it but there's a
continual industry conversation about
find ing the fun in every title even
where it may not be appropriate and it's
handicapping games constantly imagine if
the crew behind Schindler's List got
together looked at a rough cut of the
movie and said H we need to find the fun
in this thing imagine if Steinbeck
finished Grapes of Wrath and then the
editor sat him down for a meeting and
said look John it's great I'm just not
sure it's fun enough it sounds
ridiculous but that's what happens with
games all the time just look at Silent
Hill Homecoming was an attempt to bring
much more fun to the series and look
what happened in fact I'd say that the
more recent grasshopper manufacturer
games have now that they're trying to
make their special brand of crazy more
fun in a traditional sense I'm sure suda
51 fans will agree with me his Insanity
was pretty engaging to begin with this
terminology problem not only prevents us
from creating whole genres of games but
it also confuses discussion of existing
game design everything we create right
now has to somehow fit into the fun
category so we get all of these game
reviewers and designers trying to
rationalize why horror is fun or
attempting to explain why adding IR Rand
to Bioshock somehow made it more fun
rather than just letting these things be
something else it's like when those 17th
century alchemists developed the fiston
theory in an attempt to explain how fire
worked and then they made all sorts of
erroneous assumptions based off of that
false premise because they just couldn't
see past the box of hypotheses they'd
already made game design keeps running
into walls and filling itself with crazy
twisting logic just because we can't let
go of our dependency on fun people often
ask that age-old question when will a
game make you cry while others of us
remember the times games already did
make us shed a tear well whenever it
happens unless those are tears of joy
when a game makes you cry it won't be
because you're having fun you'll be
engaged sure you'll be engaged as hell
but that won't be because you're having
fun and you know even the things we
think of as fun are better because they
aren't entirely about fun Star Wars The
Matrix the Lord of the Rings they're all
better for being able to tap into things
that aren't purely fun Final Fantasy 10
System Shock plcape even games like the
Sims and civilization are better for
moments that aren't simply about
light-hearted pleasure all fun all the
time is a lot like all candy all the
time no matter how good it tastes at
first by the 20th Snickers bar you're
just sick of it a little Savory makes
the site even better so let's stop
focusing exclusively on fun and start
examining what makes something engaging
because that includes fun Fun's one of
the most engaging things out there but
it's not all there is and let's talk
about the ways that games are actually
engaging us with deep personal drama
with terrifying sights with romantic
sentiment or with an adrenaline high
like diving out of a speeding plane but
let's not confuse our terminology or
limit the medium any longer just because
we're afraid of the challenge there will
always be games about having fun but if
we're going to truly get the most out of
this medium or even if we want to just
get the most fun out of it we got to get
over this fear it's time to move beyond
the fun and take this thing to the next
level thanks for watching we'll see you
guys next week
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