Task 11

So the other day, I got a Wii. My friend who was with me had kindly bought 2000 Wii Points as a christmas present, so from the beginning there were going to be some retro shenanigans, and that's fine.

We rushed it back, as fast as the middle-of-nowhere countryside horse and carriage could go, through forests, treacherous mountain passes, through river fords and over a rather enormous ravine. We eventually arrived at his hut on the summit of a great grassy hill, and headed inside. Once we'd connected everything, cast the necessary spells to get the generator working and precariously balanced the sensor bar, we began...

And it was marvellous. We took our turns to create Miis; our characters for use in some Wii games like Wii Sports, selecting all manner of grotesque facial shapes and features, eventually arriving back at the main Wii Channel menu screen, and we thought 'Let's try the shop'. It connected first time, gave us a list of games to download, and we settled on Golden Axe.

I bought the Wii, and the first thing we did was play retro.

Now, to my generation, that is, Generation Y, retro gaming is the thing of kings. Almost all of us love to delve into the games of yesteryear, mainly going for the stuff of the late 80s and early 90s. The thing is, if you ask anybody older than us, the grumpy adults that are around today, all of them seem to hate the idea of retro gaming.

Perhaps it's because they were there when gaming first took off, so they've seen it from the very beginning. If that's the case, I understand that there'd be nothing particularly special about that certain period of gaming (This is a lie, but I'm keeping it civil in case I write too much). To us, they were the magical games around when we were little, so maybe that's the case, or maybe it's the gameplay.

How games have changed since then. Back in the day, games were difficult. On consoles especially, there were no saves, not every game had level codes even. With things like Gunstar Heroes which I'm also playing on the Wii, you got your lives and that was it. No saves. You had to complete the game in one sitting or that was it. It kept you coming back for more, and ensured you got really good at it. The game was a cruel bitch and no mistake.

Today, games are much more drawn out, cinematic affairs. Even mindless shoot-em-ups like Gears of War are done beautifully (Although GoW is best of the bunch in that respect). This, however isn't gameplay - at least, not in my opinion. If a game is like a body, gameplay is the skeleton that gives it shape and keeps it strong, rather than all the muscley bits that define what it looks like and how far it can throw a caber.

Back in the day, since graphics weren't really anything to gawk at, you'd better have had a good skeleton in your game, otherwise you had nothing. Games were sold on their gameplay alone, and that's why we have classics today. But that still doesn't tell us what gameplay is. What IS gameplay?

"Gameplay includes all player experiences during the interaction with game systems, especially formal games. Proper use is coupled with reference to "what the player does"."

Aha thank you, Wikipedia. But you see, Gears of War and Gunstar Heroes have the same gameplay, surely? In both you're a character with a gun, who can use different kinds of guns in the course of the adventure. Both shoot bad guys, both can run around, dodge shots, kill bosses. Sure, one's 2D and the other is fully 3D, but you still follow a pre-determined path in both. Yet clearly, looking at them and playing them, they're completely different. Maybe it's because of the Game Mechanics. I say, Wikipedia, tell us more...

"Gameplay refers to overall game experience or essence of the game itself. There is some confusion as to the difference between game mechanics and gameplay. For some, gameplay is nothing more than a set of game mechanics. For others, gameplay, especially when referenced in the term of "basic gameplay" refers to certain core game mechanics, which determine the overall characterics of the game itself."

So perhaps I'm thinking of basic gameplay. Maybe Gears of War and Gunstar Heroes have the same basic gameplay.

Or maybe this whole area is just a confused fuzzy mass that I need to think about for a while longer.

Clearly this is more complex than I first thought. Does gameplay really exist? Is each game unique? I might be able to come up with an answer, myself. But first, I need to think about it a bit more.