Define: "Playability"

This thread is in some ways connected with the 'what makes a platform game great" ones.

Ok, what does it take to give a game red-raw playability?
Why are some games totally addictive?

I can pull one such game out of the pack and attempt to explain what made it so damn playable ..

Game: Sensible World Of Soccer
Platform: Amiga

This game had my brother and I permantly locked to the miggy for months on end. The game just played so well and gave many a battle between us. We must have broken several cheap joysticks too at the time. Such was the demand required on chasing and kicking the ball around the pitch.
The game has excellent fluidity and well balanced breaks in between. There's just a special feeling when the players arrive on the pitch ready for the match.
The new PC Sensi soccer just doesn't have that same 'feel' (although that's another debate)

Player 2, game on ...

Game:
Platform:

What made sensible soccer (The original), so playablle was as one of my friends said, (During a drunken student tornement), and I quote

('Cept he slurred the word more)

well it depends on who you are and what you like as I would never play a footbal game no matter how good it was.

Now Game: Speedball 2, Platform: Amiga is a different matter, that game was just great. The game itself was fun but more fun was upgrading the characters at making the tougher and trying to actually beat the game. It was well balanced. RPG "improve character" elements always appeal to me, but not other people...

The terms "playability" and "gameplay" are just fancy ways to say "fun". Since we're not a bunch of clones, there can be no universal, concrete way to identify what is fun or not. In short, since playability is a subjective concept it is impossible to define it. I could give you my personal definition, but it would be useless to you unless you only want to make games that particularly cater to my tastes.

I know that's not really the sort of answer you're looking for, but attempting to define playability is almost a philosophical exercise.

When you play a game, you and the game become one. The game is an extension of you. The character or ship in the game is further an extension of you. You take it personally. You identify with it.

This is where the first hurdle comes in because if a game is really sucky at giving you a sense of unity with it, then you aren't going to experience affection for it. Unity=Love. So if it does a good job of sort of getting out of its own way and letting YOU be the star in the game, then that's a good thing and that makes it playable. Otherwise it will create a sense of separation which basically is a killjoy.

Beyond the part where you identify with it and can relate to it, the game also has to provide enough freedoms that you can express yourself unencumbered and pursue your own interests. If the game keeps trying to force things on you that you really don't want, that's a turn off. If the game prevents you from doing something that you'd really like to do, that also diminishes the playability.

To be truly immersive and enjoyable a game has to basically be a reflection of the `mode of existence` that you would exist in where you feel at your best. You have to have freedom, flow, beauty, efficiency, consistency, trust, awareness, and various other `positive things`.

Above and beyond having the freedom to do what you want, if the game provides you with a certain range of things you can do, those things better be fun. The atmosphere has to be good. I think there is also a delicate design element of how you make progress - it can't resist you too much or it will overwhelm you, and it can't step back too much or it will bore you. Everyone needs a certain personal level of stimuli in order to feel excited and interested without being overwhelmed. Strike that balance, on a per player basic, and they'll be happy.

A playable game makes you feel good, gives you a sense of accomplishment and does so through giving you awareness of what you did and did not do. It should never be unfair, it should be compassionate, and encouraging, and help you to grow as a player. A good game is a good teacher.

To me games have personalities. What personality would you want a game to have in order for you to get along with it? What game personalities will you clash with? Generally speaking, if it is a well-rounded, loving, appreciative, fair, honest, decent, and generally virtuous in the way that it presents things to you and behaves toward you, you're going to probably stick with it more and enjoy it more. A playable game is one where you can be `at peace` with what has happened or happening, whilst at the same time being excited about it. If you just make the player feel anxious or frustrated or unfairly upset or unfairly attacked or shut out, etc, all that cold separation-based stuff, the game will suck.

It also helps if the game is cool and you can do cool things that you can't do in a physical human body, as this is freeing to the spirit.

o.O

Well, in contrast - I never liked SWOS - I always preferred the side-on (touchline camera) football games on the Amiga. I found the overhead ones unplayable.

I am not sure there is a overall playable game - someone is always going to not like it - it's an art of providing for the masses.

(cough) bloody hippy (cough)

However, I generally agree with Daniel's points, (although I think the language is overley flowery)

I Loved Xenon II on the Amiga.

I think the music track (Bomb the Bass I think) was nice and punchy, the decent choice of weapons for your ship and the feverish action to gather as many cash producing bubbles as possible all added to exciting gameplay.

Not to mention that the graphics were pretty outstanding and you really wanted to get just that little bit further to see how cool the next enemy would look.

So I would say the following (depending on the game genre)

1. A soundtrack that suits the mood of the game
2. Allow the player some freedom of choice/movement
3. Nice graphics dont hurt, but dont concentrate on them in leiu of gameplay.
4. Enough opposition to make the players goal difficult to achieve, i.e. more enemies, smarter enemies, faster moving objects, time limits etc the list goes on.

The idea of playability is different for different people I think, puzzle gamers are looking for something different to RPG'ers who are different again to Shoot em ups etc.

If you create a game and think its fun to play, then there will no doubt be others out there who will think the same.

Hope some of these ideas are useful.

Playing whilst not caring about what and why...loosing time, loosing wife, loosing hair, loosing teeth...




Jump over these and beware of the evil pixel exact sprite collision like in Maniac Miner :O)

...........:............:......:......:....:...:..:.:.:.:.*

An enyoyable game you can come back to time & time again.

Personally, I found Turrican & Turrican II (Amiga... boy, there's lots of Amiga games being mentioned here) to represent the ultimate in playability. Turrican III seemed to lose the gameplay a bit in favour of graphics to my mind, but there's probably plenty of people who would disagree.

The sheer number of varied weapons in Turrican kept me playing, as well as all the hidden areas etc. But what I really liked was the sense that the game felt like it "wanted" me to win. There was always just enough extra lives and power-ups floating around to keep me going to the next level, and even more extra lives as you started to explore a level a bit more within the time limit.

The music was an added bonus (the CD soundtrack rocks! My wife, however, disagrees.), but the gameplay, the sense that there was always jsut one more thing to discover in a level, has kept me coming back for many, many years. I still keep an A1200 around to boot it up from time to time (and, for when I'm really feeling in a retro mood, an A1000).

@taumel, one day, I could "feel" how close I was to finishing Turrican, so I decided to keep going until I did. Made me 1/2 hour late for my shift at work, and I got a ticking off for it... but it was worth it!

One definition: Game should be easy to get into, controls should be intuitive, game plot/goal/mechanism seemingly simple (but would actually hide underlying complex strategies and possibilities).

Example: Chess (although most people don't think it's "fun", me included)

...And there's Google:

http://www.google.fi/search?num=100&hl=fi&lr=lang_en|lang_fi&defl=en&q=define:PLAYABILITY&sa=X&oi=glossary_definition&ct=title

:)

Up, Down, Left, Right, A, B, Start.

neilo: everytime retro or platform or plain good games come up I mentioned those two games on C64 and Amiga. Finished them both and boy were they the ultimate. III wasn't as I good I agree. The huge open levels, exploring, finding bonuses, weapon upgrades, fact it wasn't too hard, interested varied graphics, weird sidescrolling and vertical scrolling levels etc, bosses all added up to a great game.

Just though of some other highly playable games. The Ultima series esp. VI, VII, VIII (platform: PC/DOS). Everything worked, you could go into houses and open draws and look in their cupboards and baskets etc, mainly it was just clothes, but sometimes not. Also you could stack items on the game screen. In VIII I got stuck in a hole and used bits of rubble to make some steps to climb out, this was wicked. Plus the plot and atmosphere was great. There was something about each village you went to where you realised something was wrong with the inhabitants because they were missing a virtue - it was erie (is that how you spell that?)

Man thats a cheat for so many things,

I think the Level Select for Sonic was the main one I remember. Boy that made the game cool :-)

Am i allowed as a german to say that i disliked all Turricans? :O) Hmm yes i think that's okay! I played PogoJoe till i fall asleep...there were lot's of better platformers around than Turrican in my opinion, no matter which version.

@neilo
I know what you mean. Psst: As my parents were on holiday once a time i had one week so i told the school i was ill and so had the time to play through Dungeon Master. Hah that was fun! :O)

Actually, it was Up, Down, Left, Right, A, B, C, Start.

oooh I wonder if it works on the GameCube version. what is it? [edit] OK got it, I'll try it later.

I'm never talking to you again...

/me is watching his clock and counting the time till... ;O)

Grey, I don't think the GC has a C button, does it? o.o

well no it has X Y and Z and they are mapped onto the original controller buttons so it might work...

taumel: /fingers in ears la la la I can't hear you TRAITOR.

Probably be selling my GC this week for about £15. :(

Got any good games?

I haven't got ANY games (sold them all ages ago) hence why I'm selling the GC. It's just sitting there doing nothing. :)

@Grey
I will make some signal in your blog...well, actually i did already. :O)
17 minutes, holy cow that was longer than i expected...

big10p: Oh well.

...Did someone else say something? I thought I heard a squeek.

I have two GC.

Anyone want one?

I'm thinking about using mine as a door stop. They sure aren't worth bugger all. :(

It's a shame we can't sell them, but at least the GC is so cheap to buy, anyone who wants a new current gen system can pick one up dirt cheap.
I got mine for £60 *2* years ago.


Oh, and Zelda II sells for £24.99 at my local GameStation.

Zelda II for christ sake. £24.99....!!!

...beware the squirrels in your house...they might sound a bit unhealty when you stand on them... :O)

...beware the squirrels in your house...they might sound a bit unhealty when you step on them... :O)

GC is a great console, I get all the game cheap used off ebay or from GameStation in Yeovil (town of excitement ... not)

o.O Whats up with taumel? Thats not even a double post :-D

Grey, seriously, Zelda II for £24.99 from GameStation. Can you beleive it?

Well I've been waiting for Resi Evil 4 to go cheap but it doesn't seem to drop, it's maintaining a price like gold or something.

LOL. That's the EXACT shop I'll be selling my GC to. Co-inky-dink! Isn't there a GameStation nearer to where you live? And Yeovil, yeah, I'm sayin' nothing... :P

Er, is that expensive or cheap? :P I remember seeing 'Story of Mana' (or whatever it's called) RPG for the SNES for £100 in GameStation! I bet they bought it from someone who didn't know it's worth, for about a fiver. :/

gamestation buy nintendo games at fixed prices. Zelda II = £2.50. Apparently it's a good game. Worst. Zelda. Ever.

£24.99 is crazy expensive! :)

lol, Yeovil is good for 2, nah 3 things 1) Gamestation and maybe game x 2, 2) the pasty shop on the corner, 3) the chavettes in crop tops and g-strings (but only for looking, you wouldn't want to touch). Yeovil is a 40 minute trip for me, 20 miles through crap slow roads. That £100 game is mental! (the price not the game).

Cyg: Yeah it sounded a lot. Windwaker was good, mine came with the last Ninento 64 Zelda on a bonus CD.

My GC came with the zelda disk that had Zelda I, II ( I think), OOT, Majoras mask and a demo of Wind Waker. it was awesome :-)

Yeah, I had that version of Wind Waker but never got around to playing the extra games. I only played a bit of Wind Waker before getting bored. :/ Wind Waker was the first Zelda game I'd tried - I guess it's just not my cup of tea.

Yeovil: There's actually another game shop, called 'Chips' or something, in Glover's Walk, next to the legendary 'Acorn Records'. As for the Chavettes, there are a few lookers, but most of them are pushing prams! :/

Windwaker was great, it got hard early on though on this barrel hiding level, but then after that when you got the boat and everything it was cool.

Yeah I've been to Chips before, they have funny tokens that look like old pound notes. re: Chavettes. Someone I know said if they have a pram, at least you know they "go" :-)

Most chavs by me are pushin 1, maybe 2, if not, soon to be 2 prams.

Also, they usually have some unsightly skin somewhere.

Usually on their face.

[edit]
http://www.chavscum.co.uk/

Cool.

It's the cheat for almost everything konami game at one point :)

> Well I've been waiting for Resi Evil 4 to go cheap

It probably won't, not whilst it remains probably the greatest game ever to have been released in the past 4-5 years.

lol

What makes me sick is my mate knew I wanted Resi Evil 4 for ages and then he goes and buys a gamecube (second hand) and a new RE4 for £12 off ebay and I never seen a deal like it before or since!