Playing/Watching Games

During our lab last Wednesday we had the chance to play 6 different games with a partner and alternate between playing and watching. Of these games I felt the two games that had the strongest connection was Jurassic Heart and World of Dads. They both had a strong connection, i felt, was because they both had a narrative. They both told the story and the player was able to be swept along. Although they both had different approaches toward getting the player hooked to the story, they both did it well. Jurassic Heart had beautiful art that fits the story very well and had nice dialogue while World of Dads didn’t have that nice of artwork but looked pretty comedic in that the art is fun to look at and laugh about. The dialogue in world of dads correlated to how the player will experience the game so it was interesting to see what the story had in store for us, the players. Third game I also wanted to mention was the QWOP game. Although many others already knew about this game, I didn’t so it caught me by surprise as to how hard it really is. Just trying to get him move the right way was frustrating and i end up falling down to the ground without ever taking one step. I played cat mario and that was less infuriating than this game. During the times we took turns playing and watching, I noticed that while watching another person play, ideas would pop up and i’d want to try them, however I couldn’t since it was my turn to watch. I felt that by watching instead of actually playing you have space to really think of the game and strategies. Also some other things I noticed was I can see where and when the player comes to a change of pace in playing. Such as from the game “This is the only level” it was easy to tell when my partner had a hard time and trying to figure out the level. As the observer I would try to give my ideas on how to solve the puzzle. Ultimately as the observer I ended up wanting to try and enjoy playing the game by getting involved as well by giving my ideas to puzzles and playing along with the story from Jurassic Heart.

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