Ty Lee versus Toph

Game Value: Penny Arcade vs. Aquaria

A lot of people have been complaining about the $20 price for Penny Arcade’s “On the Rain Slick Precipice of Darkness” (RSPD). RSPD has about 8-10 hours of gameplay for $20, which is a high price for 8-10 hours of gameplay, especially on a game with incredibly low replay value.

The counterargument is that compared to other forms of entertainment RSPD is a good value, and that $20 isn’t that high a price tag anyway. The thinking is that you could, comparatively, rent $20 worth of movies, that’s $5 per movie, and let’s say on average every movie is about 1 hour and 30 minutes long. That’s 4 movies you could rent total for about 6 hours of entertainment. RSPD then is worth 2 hours more entertainment, and let’s not even get into the hypothetical question of comparing RSPD’s value to actually going to a movie theater (if you measure time=value...) The other counterargument is that $20 isn’t that hard to come by if you limit yourself to how much you can spend in a given week on entertainment, not to mention you could pick up Portal from the Orange Box for $50, and Portal has a short gametime as well.

The problem with the first counterpoint is that we shouldn’t compare the amount of time/value of one product for the amount of time/value of another unrelated product. Movies and games are different, and thus comparing their price values will always be a tricky thing (unless you’re only watching movies or playing games specifically to kill time.) Conversely I could spend $200 on a hooker for 45 minutes of entertainment and I doubt there’d be a soul alive who would say playing a videogame would be time better spent. There’s a plethora of indie-games out there for $20 and less, and most of these games cost less than RSPD, last longer than RSPD, and have better replayability than RSPD. Aquaria also costs $20, but is incredibly longer, deeper, better polished, and in general a better game with infinite replay value (dev tools are included with each purchase, and an intuitive map creator.) This of course doesn’t even include Xbox live games, considerably cheaper and with a greater value.

RSPD does give less value per dollar than most other choices, and the complaints of people who purchased the first game are very valid. Of course fans of Penny Arcade will purchase this game, and any games after it for the same price tag, in the long run I think it’d be wise of PA to simply drop the price down to the $10-$15 dollar range. I’d believe they’d reap far more than their $20 offering for a game that, is fun, but not $20 worth of fun... Unless you’re a hardcore PA fan.

The General Makeup of Games

Short note: These are based around my own thinking and observations. In other words I'm a lazy bastard who doesn't read books on the subject, even though I should. If you happen to know of a book about game design and such with a similar hypothesis, or an outright definition (something like Understanding Comics or Story. Both of which I'm going to steal from, as far as format is concerned.) I'm not going to pretend as if I have actual researched knowledge into the field, or that I'm some kind of expert, but I do want to see what other people think of the ideas I guess.

Video Game Composition

So, a video game is a game played on a computer, against a computer or another human opponent using a computer (basic stuff.) "Game" in general has a lot of definitions, but I'm going to say a game is composed of two things: rules and a goal. A goal contains the conditions for victory and the rules are the laws by which one must follow to attain the goal. Furthermore, rules have a hierarchy, and can be bent, broken and overwritten. Specific genres of games have similar goals or rulesets that set them apart from other games. For example, sports video games have rules and goals based on sports in the real world while platform games have goals based on reaching hard to get places and rules for governing movement.

A game must always have rules, the goal is secondary (it might exist, or in some cases not exist at all.)

Video Game Archetypes
(Here's where I start stealing from Robert McKee and Scott McCloud...)

I see video games falling into three archetypes: Classic Games, Sandbox Games, and Story Games.

Classic Games: These are games like Pong, Duck Hunt or Madden 08'. They have basic rules and a goal.

Sandbox Games: These are games like Eve Online or Sim City. They have no strong central goal, instead leaving it up to the player to determine what goal he/she wishes to pursue. There is also usually many rules dictating several activities, from walking to deep space mine excavation.

Narrative Games: Narrative games I'm not as sure about, however they fit as the anti-thesis to Sandbox games so it feels right, for now. They have a strong storyline (goal), and usually lots of rules on how to get there. The best example of one I could give would be a visual novel. If Sandbox games are all rules and no goals then Narrative games are all goals and few rules. Continuing the visual novel example, in a Narrative game you could date the spunky red-head, or the quite be-speckled girl. Perhaps the furtive teacher, or the girl who runs the general store. There are many choices and multiple endings/goals for the player to reach. However the player reaches these goals through simple dialogue trees and choices.

tl;dr

All games are composed of:

-Rules
-Goals

Rules can be broken, bent, created or rewritten, rules are also a requirement for games. Goals do not have to be in a video game for the program to be considered a game.

Games come in three archetypes:

-Classic games (Pong, Duck Hunt, Team Fortress 2)
-Sandbox games (Eve Online, Sim City, Second Life)
-Narrative games (Phoenix Wright, Maniac Mansion, Facade)