Last week in class there was a discussion on social justice representation in video games. One of the topics that we discussed were about queer and indie games. We played a little bit of the popular indie game Journey produced by thatgamecompany and analyzed a few aspects to the game. One thing that was brought up during all of our discussions was one about how queer games weren’t fun. That got me thinking- do games need to be fun?

When you think of a fun game, what game or type of game comes to mind? The answer to this question varies from person to person because “fun” is a subjective term. According to the paper “Game Studies for Great Justice” by Amanda Phillips, “un-fun” or bad games include those that “annoy, anger, disappoint, and hurt” (Phillips 4) These games can be further categorized as “easy games, boring games, ugly games, amateurish games, glitchy games, experimental games, and unfinished games” (Phillips 4). This is the total opposite of big budget AAA games that are often well crafted, has interesting narrative, and is aesthetically pleasing. However, Phillip does argue that these “un-fun” games still offer something extremely important: art and creativity. A lot of mainstream AAA games are usually limited in creativity and has only one purpose: to make money. One example I can think of was the increasing popularity of multiplayer online battleground games when I was in middle school. At the time, there were many titles to choose from such as league of legends, DOTA 2, Heroes of the Storm, etc. To me all of them were basically the same game with different paint jobs. It was pretty obvious these game companies were trying to capitalize on the MOBA genre popularity. If you really think about it, this situation isn’t unique. A lot of games that are our there are usually very similar to each other with the only difference being their aesthetics and narratives.

When examining Journey, it may seem like a boring exploration game. However, it’s narrative gives something (at least I think) more valuable: an experience. At the beginning of making my Twine game for my creative project, I feared that it was going to be boring. I was stressing out on what can be done to make the game more fun. I planned on adding mini games to each stat up choice. However, I quickly realized I couldn’t go it by the due date due to Twine’s limitations as well as my own limitations when it comes to programming. After stressing about it for a few weeks, I was a little relieved after this class. Our discussion really did help me realize that it was okay for my game to be boring. To be totally honest, the boring aspect to it really fits into the overall narrative of my game.

At the end of the day we should realize that games don’t need to be fun. Games can be used as an art form to convey a narrative, an experience, an emotion, or a message. In a way, that’s more valuable than fun.

Work Cited:

Phillips, A. (2018). Game studies for great justice. The Routledge Companion to Media Studies and Digital Humanities, 117-127. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315730479-12