Naked
I've always felt that video games are rather reductionist in nature. Let me explain, I feel like there is an element of video games that seeks to minimize the choices at hand for reaching a particular goal. You have an objective, you have characters and there is an inevitable and imminent end. Even games that have a high replay value only offer so much in the realm of expansion; there are no artificially intelligent games. Rather than seeing that reality as a limitation of the scope of enjoyment offered by video games, I feel that such a paradigm is their greatest strength. It is the reason I gravitate toward specific video game- they offer an experience, one that is specific and compact. On that note, I always felt that the worst video games were the ones that tried to accomplish too many facets of gameplay. With the introduction of open world style games, there has been an increased demand for diversity in gameplay options and sub sequently competitors all over the world have been racing to engineer the most multi-layered and multipurpose games. That phenomenon has been detrimental to the individuality which was once so characteristic of games. Interestingly, there has been a recent plethora of backlash against games that "do too much" because they generally become plagued with bugs and glitches. Even worse has been the advent of LDC, or downloadable content. Pay-to-play add ons have surged video game sales since their introduction and have pervaded many popular franchises in the contemporary gaming world, to the point were games are becoming an overly expensive and daunting experience.
It is for these and variety of other reasons that I believe we ought to introduce simplicity back into virtual gaming.
