What do you like about gaming?

LouZiffer wrote:

I like emergent gameplay which uses the game in ways that might not be intended by the game's creators. If features/bugs can be exploited or combined in amusing ways, I'll figure out how.

I like this too. I like meta-gaming games and figuring out what makes them tick, seeing where event trigger boundaries are, and so forth. It's really interesting to, for example, glitch through a wall and skip an event trigger that's responsible for the actions of enemies in the next room. Seeing the enemies just stand there gives interesting insight into how the developers made the game.

I think this sort of thing also satisfies the rebellious part of me that enjoys breaking rules. Games are a damageless environment to do what you're not supposed to.

Explosions.

Killing people and things in a fantasy environment can be very therapeutic.

I like the sense of exploring new and possibly dangerous places while sitting in a comfortable chair at home. If there are good puzzles or characters or thought-provoking themes in the mix, too, then I'm all the more interested.

Listening to other people talk intelligently about video games.

Having fun, hanging with friends, and getting some good co-op games going.

I like the spectrum of feelings that games can create. The tension of walking through The Depths in Dark Souls, the giddiness of finding out a character likes me in Persona (just happen actually), the excitement of getting a neck crack in Splinter Cell, the fear of watching the bloody mirror in Silent Hill 3, the frustration of being sniped in Battlefield, can't really be reproduced in other mediums.

Also, look at those games. Five very different games, with very different mechanics, in very different genres.

Strangeblades wrote:

I like games with tough choices. (The Walking Dead, Witcher, Witcher 2, FTL, any rogue-like, XCOM)

I've been liking games with rogue-like elements too lately. XCOM, FTL, Don't Starve. I also like survival oriented games where the odds are stacked against you like Zafehouse and DayZ.

Alright. I gamed a lot as a kid & teenager to feel empowered. I gamed for some time longer in my early adulthood to escape all kinds of bad things. Then there was a huge lapse.

Now I play again. Now I'm asking why.

I love returning to a great cast of people. Whether it's a Shin Megami Tensei game, or Saints Row the Third, or the GWJ TF2 server, there's a feeling of being among friends. It's not the same as being in theaters or doing after parties or any of that, but there's some sense of community.

I like having my mind picked at. Portal was about as far as I would tolerate a puzzle game, but the subtext of both games really played with me. Again, my fascination for the Shin Megami Tensei games probably stems from this. The political tones of Devil Survivor 2 absolutely did this. Playing Jedi in Saint's Row the Third is on the far opposite end, morally an intellectually, yet equally effective. There's a combination of escapism, but a touch of empowerment in the face of something very unknown.

It also gives me things to do with my family, assuming we're ever on the same page. Pokemon has been some good bonding time with my wife and oldest son.

I've always been a bit high strung (I know right?! Bet you'd never know from interacting with me on here!) and my brain tends to always be moving at a million miles an hour. It's very exhausting and frustrating sometimes. While I like other entertainment activities, playing games is the thing that by far has the best effect of calming my brain down and letting me zone out and really get into what I'm doing. I'm not sure if it's because it's an interactive activity as opposed to a passive one or what but nothing else I've found to do has the same effect. I also do like the idea of being "in control" of what I'm doing as opposed to just watching something else happen. I've never been an extroverted person and really cherish my time to myself so I tend to prefer single player games as a result but I will play multiplayer stuff in spurts.

I don't know if I can really express an answer to this question. I game the way other people watch TV at times.

Parallax Abstraction wrote:

I've always been a bit high strung (I know right?! Bet you'd never know from interacting with me on here!) and my brain tends to always be moving at a million miles an hour. It's very exhausting and frustrating sometimes. While I like other entertainment activities, playing games is the thing that by far has the best effect of calming my brain down and letting me zone out and really get into what I'm doing.

I am definitely down with all this. It is like something I can focus on that will occupy my brain while also not stressing me out very much. Different games fill different roles for me. Some are relaxing, some are stress reliving, and others are just something to kill time while at work (my job involves a lot of waiting while software installs or just waiting for someone to break something) or on the toilet.

Also I think games may have helped keep me alive at a few points in my life. I have had some bouts of depression in my teens and twenties and without the ability to escape into a good book or game I may not have been able to cope with it.

Total escapism, getting my mind off things, taking out my stress on a pixel bad guy, companionship, roleplaying, and just plain fun.

Being a participant.

I like a lot of the general interaction stuff as well, but it's a bit more than that. I am not a member of the audience, I'm a member of the cast in a game. I am directly involved. Even if this means I'm running through a scripted sequence I get the excitement of pulling off the crazy stunts instead of just watching someone else do them. This also means the big emotional moments carry that much more weight since they rely on me being absorbed into the world.

This is mostly true of story-based games, but this doesn't stop other games from being just as engaging.

GIVING THE PLAYER CHOICES

1) Playing self-centered characters. Knights of the Old Republic 1 - played a total self-centered jerk. Made me uncomfortable the whole time. Plan to play the KTOR 2 the same way.

2) Playing my Commander Sara Shephard as a paladin. Even when it would feel good to blow some space a**hole away, my baby kept her cool, and brought the bad guys to justice.

A lot of ways to answer this, but I love immersive worlds. I think the first 50-75 hours of New Vegas and Skyrim were the best. Everything is so new, explore every nook and cranny, before you start "figuring things out"

I like games that elicit a visceral reaction. That tends to be faster paced things, but that's probably because it's easier to get an adrenaline rush from those. TF2, Burnout, currently Bulletstorm, these are all adrenaline fueled experiences, and they hook me in that way. Things like Thief and System Shock 2 can do the same, but it takes a lot more crafting to make a genuinely immersive slow-paced game, so those experiences are fewer and further between. Characters that I honestly like can also elicit those reactions, depending on what you do with them; my favourite moment in Saint's Row 3 is still singing along with What I Got.

I like other games, but the ones that twist my nerves, good or bad, are the ones I like best.