When I speak of "rythmn" games I basically mean any game where you have to perform some action to match the beat of the music. This genre includes games like Rock Band,Dance Dance Revolutions, Guitar Hero, Osu!, and others.There is a good reason to bring this up. You don't actually need a video game set to play the guitar, and you don't need a dance pad to dance (to be honest I wouldn't really call your typical DDR player a good dancer anyways). So why do people bother forking over the money to do something they can do without the game. That's what I'd like to digest here.
Well, lets start with the basics. These are video games were speaking of and a lot of video games let you virtually do stuff you could actually do in real life. So perhaps its all about what the activity's value as a game has over doing it without a giant LCD screen.
One thing most video games, and all rythmn games have are a point system. Is gathering points what makes these games so popular? Well lets think about it for a minute. A high score means personal achievement, so perhaps people want that achievement from the game. While you can still get achievement out of playing the guitar in real life, perhaps if you and your friends are gamers you would get more attention by playing the game rather then the real life thing. Another sign of ones achievement in a game is the announcer and audience that accompanies every player. You don't even need real people there to get the feeling that people are cheering you on at a solid performance. The idea that the games give gamers a sense of achievement they can't get from performing it normally seems pretty plausible, however there's more to the success of ryhtmn games then that.
What I mean is, not everyone who plays rythmn games are in fact gamers. Many people play these games casually and as such would not get noticed by bragging about their high scores to their normal friends. Are the games just fun so people play them? Well obviously they have to be fun or else people wouldnt play them. Does that mean doing it without the video game aspect is boring? Certainly, the games provide a certain level of atmosphere for one playing the game. These video games are visual, where as dancing or playing a guitar normally does not have flashy graphics.
So that leaves two possible points so far beyond "because they're fun"
- People play rythmn games because it gives them a sense of achievement they can't get from performing similar activities in a non-game fashion.
- The game provides atmosphere into a room which makes it more entertaining then doing the activity normally.
There are certainly more things to touch on, so I'm going to make this a two part analysis and finish up tomorrow.
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