Inspired by this thread: https://www.resetera.com/threads/i-...-easy-mode-mod-and-it-was-fun-as-hell.162915/
I've been in and out of the linked thread all day and decided to make this thread in an attempt to have a civil conversation on what it means to play a game. As an enthusiast forum it's not rare to find opinions that weigh heavy on one side or another. On one end we have people clamoring that altering a game in any way isn't actually experiencing said game. On the other, folks say it doesn't matter as long as the player enjoyed their time with the game. At the end of the day none of it really matters. Once you buy a product, be it a game, movie, book, or something else, it's up to you how you consume it. If you want to read the CliffsNotes of a book instead of the full book, fine. If you want to listen to a piece of music without the drum track, okay. But the argument at hand is whether or not you "got what you paid for" or experienced the intended experience and whether or not that matters to you.
Now, like I said. It doesn't matter one way or the other. I'm perfectly comfortable saying that anyone should be able to take any liberties in order to enjoy what they want however they want but the question I'm posing to you is when does a piece of media/art/entertainment become something else and whether or not that piece was actually experienced?
I mentioned CliffsNotes above. For those of you that don't know what CliffsNotes are here is a Wikipedia blurb:
Basically they were designed to help student's learn the essential information within a given text quickly by condensing said information into what they deemed the most important or most tested bits. A sort of cheaters guide, if you will. If I were to say, for example, that I read Bram Strokers Dracula and upon further investigation was found to have read only the CliffsNotes would you say that I read Bram Strokers Dracula?
If I were to say I listened to and enjoyed Symphony No. 5 from Beethoven but had the French Horn removed or changed it from C minor to C major (this is actually a thing):
original:
would you recommend I listen to it the way it was wrote or would you say I got the gist of it?
Hell, I'll go so far as to say that eating a bacon cheeseburger without the bacon isn't eating a bacon cheeseburger. At that point it's just a cheeseburger. But when applied to a video game does that compare? Does removing one aspect out of a video game alter the game into something else? If we praise games as a whole, that is, the writing, the music, the art style, the gameplay, the difficulty, wouldn't removing one aspect change the game wholesale, thus turning it in to something else?
Again, I want to reiterate that it doesn't matter to me how people play games or consume their entertainment, only that I'm curious as to where people stand on what makes a game a game and when/if that game becomes something else.
I've been in and out of the linked thread all day and decided to make this thread in an attempt to have a civil conversation on what it means to play a game. As an enthusiast forum it's not rare to find opinions that weigh heavy on one side or another. On one end we have people clamoring that altering a game in any way isn't actually experiencing said game. On the other, folks say it doesn't matter as long as the player enjoyed their time with the game. At the end of the day none of it really matters. Once you buy a product, be it a game, movie, book, or something else, it's up to you how you consume it. If you want to read the CliffsNotes of a book instead of the full book, fine. If you want to listen to a piece of music without the drum track, okay. But the argument at hand is whether or not you "got what you paid for" or experienced the intended experience and whether or not that matters to you.
Now, like I said. It doesn't matter one way or the other. I'm perfectly comfortable saying that anyone should be able to take any liberties in order to enjoy what they want however they want but the question I'm posing to you is when does a piece of media/art/entertainment become something else and whether or not that piece was actually experienced?
I mentioned CliffsNotes above. For those of you that don't know what CliffsNotes are here is a Wikipedia blurb:
CliffsNotes (formerly Cliffs Notes, originally Cliff's Notes and often, erroneously, CliffNotes) are a series of student study guides. The guides present and create literary and other works in pamphlet form or online. Detractors of the study guides claim they let students bypass reading the assigned literature. The company claims to promote the reading of the original work and does not view the study guides as a substitute for that reading.[1]
Basically they were designed to help student's learn the essential information within a given text quickly by condensing said information into what they deemed the most important or most tested bits. A sort of cheaters guide, if you will. If I were to say, for example, that I read Bram Strokers Dracula and upon further investigation was found to have read only the CliffsNotes would you say that I read Bram Strokers Dracula?
If I were to say I listened to and enjoyed Symphony No. 5 from Beethoven but had the French Horn removed or changed it from C minor to C major (this is actually a thing):
original:
would you recommend I listen to it the way it was wrote or would you say I got the gist of it?
Hell, I'll go so far as to say that eating a bacon cheeseburger without the bacon isn't eating a bacon cheeseburger. At that point it's just a cheeseburger. But when applied to a video game does that compare? Does removing one aspect out of a video game alter the game into something else? If we praise games as a whole, that is, the writing, the music, the art style, the gameplay, the difficulty, wouldn't removing one aspect change the game wholesale, thus turning it in to something else?
Again, I want to reiterate that it doesn't matter to me how people play games or consume their entertainment, only that I'm curious as to where people stand on what makes a game a game and when/if that game becomes something else.
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