What Do People See in Rythmn Games? Part 2

Yesterday, I left off with these two likely reasons that people would want to play rythmn video games instead over doing the same activity without the video game.

These are

• 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.

Today, I'd like to find others and identify the biggest reason for why these ryhtmn games are so popular.

To start, I mentioned that the games do give off an atmosphere since your getting visual images from playing the game. I didn't really on the fact that the songs play for you from the game though. However, this is pretty key in these games. Without actually hearing the soundtrack playing, I imagine it would be much harder to get down the rythmn. It would be easily set and done that the reason people play rythmn games is because they play the music for you to perform to. However, the fact that you can play songs from a computer or a boom box shoots this straight down. The games combine the songs with voice overs from narration and visual graphics and that is a reason to play the game over playing the songs off a computer or otherwise. That doesn't really add much though, because take away the song and you basically have what I previously referred to as "atmosphere". This only points out that "because the game lets you hear the song while your playing" is not a reason to play the game over real life versions, and that if the games didn't have the songs playing for you it would give you less reason to play the game over the real life versions.

Another possibility is that people play the games because they have loosely structure rules where as if they perform the activity in real life they can do whatever they want. While not as immersive as other genres, some rythmn games do still have a story mode where you do what the game tells you to do instead of free play. Real life is not beatable, however rythmn games are atleast to the extent of getting a 100% perfect play through on a hard as hell song (Through the Fire and Flames by Dragonforce anyone?). However, this still somewhat ties in with the point I made about achievement, but the structured side of this is justifiable still so that can be added to the list.

One final thing I'd like to touch on is the fact that it is a video game. Perhaps the reason some people don't want to play the real guitar is because it's not a video game. What I mean is that people have gotten so used to playing video games that even if there was no difference between a video game and real life they would still take the video game. Maybe people walk into gamestop and see a copy of Rockband on the shelf and that's why they ended up with it instead of the guitar which they would have had to buy elsewhere, or perhaps people bank on it being good because of they have the idea in their head that a video game is better regardless of what it is. Maybe an even better arguement is because the games have a controller-console-screen interaction. Yes, I think that is quite sound. People must want to play the games because they are video games afterall and as such allow the user to interact with the game and effect the audio/video outcome.

I suppose that's about it though. In video games there user is only aware of the input and output that goes into the game so I'd imagine thats about all they could expect out of purchasing a video game product.

Final Possible Reasons

• 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 rythmn games provide atmosphere into a room which makes it more entertaining then doing the activity normally.
• People play the rythmn games because they offer structure where as in real life without an instructor the equivilent activities pretty much are doing whatever you want.
• People play rythmn games because it allows them to affect the game world by wielding a controller of some sort.
  

You might wonder why I didn't include people playing the games because there friends are playing the games. Well, while people absolutely will and do play because others are playing, it doesn't give a reason for the first person to ever try the game out to play. I wanted to acknoledge the reasons why people played it in the first place.

Anyway, I'm sure there are a few valid ones that I didn't think of so feel free to point those out to me if you feel up to it. Alternatively, if you think I'm wrong I'm up for constructive criticism too.

What Do People See in Rythmn Games? Part 1

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.