[crAzerk]

This is an entry for the contest stated here

What makes you fall in (or out of) love with a game?

Is it the dazzling graphics? Is it the competitive but socially bonded community? Is it some aspect of the game that you really enjoy, such as the engaging lore?




For me, a game needs to have
1) Sufficient Complexity
2) Positive Hedonic Value

+ Show +

1) Sufficient Complexity
A game cannot be too easy otherwise I won't enjoy it. That could be why I steer clear of grindy RPGs and don't find games with simple mechanics too engaging.


Starcraft 2 was a good example of a complex, layered game. There are many layers of the game you need to perfect in order to do well :
There's the basic scissors-paper-stone of knowing what to get to counter what (game knowledge)
There's the mechanical ability to execute what you want to do (macro/micro)
There's the cognitive demands of multitasking and knowing timings, etc



All in all, the game provided sufficient cognitive stimulation to keep me engaged and wanting more.

So why did I stop playing Starcraft? This happened when HotS came out. I still bought the game, completed the game, yadaayada. Even played one ladder game for the sake of it.

I stopped playing because I found the game to be TOO cognitively demanding. And I realized this wasn't just after HOTS (which required the learning of new units, counters, combos, micro, strategy) but something I felt since the end of WoL.

After every game I was drained. Each game of Starcraft was too tiring. I wasn't enjoying it anymore. The complexity of the game had backfired and made me fall out of love with it. I just wasn't getting sufficient hedonic pleasure from it

2) Positive Hedonic Value
Hedonic value, simply put, is how good (versus how bad) something makes you feel.
For example, you eat a good tasting slice of pizza but get a stomachache - you feel bad but the satisfaction of the taste compensated for it and you had an overall positive experience.
On the other hand, if the pizza tasted bad AND you got a stomachache, its clear that the pizza gave you negative hedonic value.

While it was satisfying to win games in SC2, the fatigue/exhaustion from the mental/physical exertion, coupled with the sour taste of occasional defeat meant that the overall hedonic value of SC2 had become negative. I wasn't enjoying the game anymore.

I moved on to League of Legends (I'm going to ignore any flame baits comparing DoTA and LoL or how LoL sucks), a game I found fun, satisfying, and engaging.

Different champions had different skill caps, and different roles had different cognitive requirements (e.g. laners are focusing on how to out-CS and harass your opponents; junglers are focusing on which lane to go to based on which objectives are up AND their best guess of where the enemy jungler was)
The game also had a way to make you feel strong and powerful, with killing streaks, good score lines, playing a team fight well, etc.



The game needed you to think well and focus, but was not too cognitively demanding that I felt drained after each game, and also made me feel satisfied enough after each game. I had fallen love with LoL.

But what goes up must come down.

Being a team-oriented game meant much of the game outcome was dependent on how well your teammates play relative to the opponent. It wasnt like SC2 where your own performance determined the outcome.
As a result, toxic players abound, people who frequently blamed their team for losing, picking on underperforming individuals to rationalize their losses, creating a hugely negative game experience.

These were not all that frequent, but CAN happen in succession (e.g. 5 games in a row w really toxic teammates) which is very demoralizing.

Games become a babysitting experience where I had to get toxic players to shut up (in a civil way) and get underperforming players to keep up (though some are lost causes) while I had to suck it up. I found this particularly draining, since on top of this I have to ensure I'm personally playing at my best. The hedonic value of LoL began to dip towards the negative, and I began to play LoL less and less.


I don't really know how to end this writeup, so I'll just wrap up with my current state.

I managed to grow accepting and learnt to cope with toxic/bad players. I accepted them for part of the game, and accepted that there will be games which I just can't win because of them. This acceptance meant the negative hedonic pull was considerably mitigated, and I began enjoying LoL again.

TLDR - I like challenging games but I play games to enjoy myself too. Once a game becomes negative in hedonic value, I tend to stop playing it.

The rest of the post basically elaborates on these points : what they mean and why they're important to me, and how these factors influenced two games ive played, SC2 WoL and LoL.


If you don't like reading, you can skip that and just go straight to posting a reply, I'd love to hear what you think.
What makes you love a game and why?
And if you go further, what makes you stop loving the game?

[mGGNemesis]

I love a game like sc2 which is mentally challenging, requires certain skill and ability, isn't repetitive and senseless (was playing fb games for a year before sc2 was out) and the social aspect of it keeps me going.

I realized after I came back to playing games again, that most of the games I played since I was a teen were RTS games. However while I would play those games for quite a while, internets were new then and not as good as now so the only social aspects of it was between my brother and myself. Most girls (if any and definitely not in my circle of friends then) didn't play back then but I still loved the games I played back then because of the challenges they posed. Also completing those games before the guys I knew did, gave me a great sense of achievement

Repetitive pretty games like Farmville, Café World etc, didn't retain my interest for too long cos it's boring but why do I still play them? Because my friends were playing them

So sc2 being both being a RTS game and the social aspects/community just keeps me playing and more interested longer Still amazes me to play games with people from around the world (and not just my brother *no one tell him that*)

[Melord]

i fell in love with starcraft when i saw the trailer love on first sight baby il never let go

[sR.Kumo]

I honestly don't know if I can call it "falling in love" with the game, so for that reason I'll just describe it as getting very attached to the game...
Falling in love with the game itself implies it was something to do with the game, but for me honestly, I don't think there's anything about a game that makes me like it.
For me, the main thing that causes me to be attached to the game is the community I find revolving around it, and whether I manage to dig myself a spot in that community.

+ [Further explanations & examples] +

The primary examples I can speak of for this are Minecraft, Runescape, and Starcraft II.

+ [Minecraft] +

I first started playing Minecraft around February of 2011, and I got into it because my group of friends in the school I was at, convinced my to start playing it.
This immediately meant, I had 4 IRL friends already playing the game. As great as online friends are in a community, in my opinion nothing can replace IRL friends who play it too.
I started off playing on private servers with them, that they hosted, playing adventure maps and small survival worlds. Two of those friends left that year, though. The remainder of us went on a public server, and one of the friends who left that year also joined us there. after that, when there was just me and one other friend left actively playing, we found another server, and because that friend of mine was still there, I still enjoyed the game thoroughly. On that server, we found a community to be a part of, and I made friends with various people, many of whom I'm still in contact with, and a few of whom I've met when I've travelled countries :3
Although that one last friend of mine left, I stayed playing the game because of those online friends of mine.
Over the course of two years, that community sort of dispersed and dissolved, and no longer played the game. I've tried to find other communities to be a part of for Minecraft, but all I've found seem too tightly knit for me to actually get into, and I'm no longer really motivated to play the game.

+ [Runescape] +

I started playing this ages ago, and because of how Runescape was at the time, there was no large online community that you could be very tightly knit to, so I just had a few IRL friends (two friends of mine, and my brother), and one or two online friends that I very regularly interacted with on RS. The game was great fun, levelling together, questing together, trading, PvPing, and everything else that the game involved. Over time, my friends stopped playing, as as Runescape got more and more different from the runescape I loved, I gradually stopped playing.

+ [Starcraft II] +

I started SC2 because some of my online friends (who I've known since I started playing Minecraft), recommended it to me. Although I rarely play with them anymore, I still have a community to call my home, so I still actively play the game. Although at times I hate the game, and at times I love it, I couldn't imagine stopping playing it as long as I had an active community to be a part of while I played it.
That's also the reason why I tried to join a clan the moment I got here, since it's much more fun for me to be a part of a clan within a community, that's like double the motivation to keep playing :3

Originally Posted by mGGNemesis

I love a game like sc2 which is mentally challenging, requires certain skill and ability, isn't repetitive and senseless (was playing fb games for a year before sc2 was out) and the social aspect of it keeps me going.

I created extra facebook accounts so I could send myself gifts on Pet Society and Yoville (y)

[teddyoojo]

fell in love with dota watching The International 2012

[Elusory]

For me, game with a sense of "progress" would capture my heart. Hence, I do not really play any single player games (GTA, Half Life, The Last of Us, BioShock, games with storyline). I prefer games that are online because at least your progress can be seen by others and more importantly, by your friends. I don't really see a point in "hey dude look I beat Portal 2 man" but I do see a point in "hey man my dps in D3 is 400k".

There was a time I remembered, I said that I would prefer to read the wiki for the storyline of such games than to buy it and play it through myself. My friends just said "You are the kind of people who spoil the game market". I just laughed it off.

Apart from the progress thing and maybe even the social aspect, it's best if the game somehow can make you some money. Call me money-minded, but that's how I got into games like MapleStory, RuneScape, and even Neopets at one point in time when my friend told me the rate people were buying NPs for. Sadly, there are always people much better than you at making money out of these games, so I didn't get my chance. At least I made something from the auction house in D3!

+ [About my take on StarCraft with no relevance to the OP] +

For StarCraft it's not so much of a game anymore to me, but more of a sport and lifestyle. Even though there's no opportunity to make any money from this game (although I've won $2 from Playhem last time), and in fact I'm putting money into this game (buying cheap HD passes, donating to Dragon, sponsoring part of the GPDL), I still would like to hop onto the game and play some matches, come to this site and chat whenever I can. When you participate in community sites, StarCraft doesn't seem to stand alone by itself anymore, but it goes together with whichever community site you visit. You can never just do one of them only anymore.

[NairX.Totodile]

i just play starcraft because i play starcraft? o.O if not i find it challenging and want to take down duh pros

[VorteX]

Originally Posted by crAzerk

What makes you love a game and why? And if you go further, what makes you stop loving the game?

The Game has to be fun and entertaining (and Stress-Free), that will keep my interest. I like games, that has a small learning curve, not just spend hours on hours, days or days, weeks or weeks, month on month, or years on years, just to get LITTLE better at a game. I know some games can take awhile to understand to play, which i don't mind, but SC2 you can literally spend weeks upon weeks and even months to get better (even slightly).
Me personally like to win games and not lose. But I hate to lose more 51% of any games i Play (which i am). You got to admit, who like losing? So if i lose too much, i get bored if it. Simply because i suck at that game.

Originally Posted by crAzerk

2) Positive Hedonic Value Hedonic value, simply put, is how good (versus how bad) something makes you feel. For example, you eat a good tasting slice of pizza but get a stomachache - you feel bad but the satisfaction of the taste compensated for it and you had an overall positive experience. On the other hand, if the pizza tasted bad AND you got a stomachache, its clear that the pizza gave you negative hedonic value. While it was satisfying to win games in SC2, the fatigue/exhaustion from the mental/physical exertion, coupled with the sour taste of occasional defeat meant that the overall hedonic value of SC2 had become negative. I wasn't enjoying the game anymore.

I agree with what you say. I maybe be bronze league (currently Leagueless), I know i wont win every game I play in SC2, but to lose all or majority of the time it is not fun. Even when i try and practice, it dosesn't seem to do much in terms of getting some wins in SC2 (1v1s). So I lost motivation to play SC2 anymore and I haven't laddered in the last 2 season (also not laddering in this current season), being playing Arcade in NA (even then i getting bored of Arcade).

Prior to me not playing SC2, i was laddering (sometimes still hang out in the lobby/main screen). Most of the games back than, was always so stressful to play (dealing with many stuff that can happen in the game). In my opinion, games are suppose to be entertaining and stress free. So I probable will not buy "Legacy of the Void" (unless i magically get better and motivated to play). To this day, i haven't laddered or practiced.

Originally Posted by crAzerk

I stopped playing because I found the game to be TOO cognitively demanding. And I realized this wasn't just after HOTS (which required the learning of new units, counters, combos, micro, strategy) but something I felt since the end of WoL.

I found WOL, must easier to play than HOTS. In my opinion, it was reasonably easy to scout the opponents and to determine what he (opponent) is doing. I remember scouting after 9 Supply Depot or after first Rax in WOL, which is reasonable good time to scout you opponent. Where else in HOTS, there so many Strategy, with the same opening (too hard to determine in the early game to tell what your opponent is doing). For example, in Protoss, it's harder to tell if they are 4gating or getting pretty quick MSC in the early game.

Originally Posted by AxS.Kumo

I started playing this ages ago, and because of how Runescape was at the time, there was no large online community that you could be very tightly knit to, so I just had a few IRL friends (two friends of mine, and my brother), and one or two online friends that I very regularly interacted with on RS. The game was great fun, levelling together, questing together, trading, PvPing, and everything else that the game involved. Over time, my friends stopped playing, as as Runescape got more and more different from the runescape I loved, I gradually stopped playing.

I Played Ruenscape before for a few years. I stopped playing Ruenscape, because i got bored and i didn't want to pay for the member's server. I pretty much finished the free version of RuneScape (all free quests has completed, a few of my skills are maxed level, while my other skills are decent high). This leaves me nothing to do, except to grind out other skills to Max (which i didn't want to do, so i quit). When i first picked up the game it was fun to play, explore the lands. Train and use the skills. It was fairly easy to learn how to play the game. As in Other games, there always will be those players who bad manner, but in my experience RuneScape Generally have a good Community, which i like.

I also played an Korean Game called "Gunbound", it was very fun to play (it requires skills to play, so hence some cognitively to play), it takes time to learn and play (but not as much as SC2, as I have pointed out). But I quit playing it because the Game Master (creator) was keep introducing overpowered items and avatar (that people can buy in real life cash, naturally has a massive advantage in the game), which that requires little to no skill to use and (can beat you with relatively easy, no matter how skilled you are, its like bring a knife into a gun battle) as well as due to those these OP items many many people quit and waiting for a game to start can be a easy 20+ minute wait. So i quit playing Gubnbound.

For those you played Gunbound, would probable know about this. For those who don't know what Gunbound is, it is a game similar to Worms (but more advance), it requires you to make judgement and your experience beat the other team, using wind values, how much power to go into the shot and what degree/angle to launch the shots. The Aim is to beat the other team. Otherwise i would be still playing Gunbound and I probable wouldn't have gotten SC2 instead (i prefer to just to play 1 game at a time).

[Fracture]

I love games for so many different reasons. I don't really stick to a genre when I find a game I enjoy. I'll play games for both single player story and competitive multiplayer. I feel that's the main reason I fell in love with starcraft 2. I love the story and love the lore (still praying for a movie) but I also loved how competitive the multiplayer is. I'm not exactly the most talented player in the world but I always just felt so good winning a match.

I think it's also a matter of the rewards you get from the game. The way it makes you feel. Whether it's winning multiple matches in a row or finally unlocking that last achievement.