Games As Stars

I had a eureka moment earlier today while thinking about Nintendo’s latest Mario game, Mario Galaxy and why Nintendo always seems to get the “fun” part of their games perfect every time. My realization was that I hardly every played games for just pure enjoyment anymore. My play sessions usually have a purpose, whether it be for reference of some play mechanic or some art style, there is always a purpose. Very seldom do I take a game at face value and digest it as a piece of entertainment. I wondered if other developers experienced this same eureka moment or if I was the only developer who seldom played games for enjoyment.

There is a movie that demonstrates this point very well, albeit for a different subject matter. The movie was Men In Black. The scene was near the beginning of the film where D and K were sitting down after K had blasted Mikey, an alien refugee. The dialog goes like this:

“They’re beautiful aren’t they?”

“What?”

“The stars. We never just look anymore.”

It was strange how it all just clicked all at the same moment. I think I’m going to make a point to play for fun more often.

You can watch the scene I’m talking about here.