Thoughts on Games
I feel lonely when I play a singleplayer game & I feel crowded (and in turn, lonely) when I play a team-based game. I need all of your attention. If you stop focusing on me I will simply destroy you.
Dual Games
If you asked me what my favorite kind of videogame is, I would tell you that it’s a Dual Game, and if you asked me “What’s a dual game?”, I would tell you that it’s like chess or tic-tac-toe: a game in which you compete with a single other individual. I absolutely adore Dual Games. I do not believe that this type of game is particularly better than any other kind of game, I have an admittedly extremely difficult time enjoying most games that fall entirely outside of this format. I find arena shooters, some roguelikes, and mechanics-light explorative games to be fun, I am less picky with boardgames (though, those are generally social experiences), but it is extremely rare that any singleplayer or team-based experience seem worth my time.
I enjoyed Elden Ring but my controller stopped working before I got very far, though. I enjoyed Oblivion, and I may soon return, but my save got corrupted. Of single player games, I enjoy most the ones that aim to be beautiful and ask little of the player such as Kirby: Air Ride, Disco Elysium, Yume Nikki, and Sanguine Sanctum. For example, I was profundly immersed and loved Dujanah, it has incredible depth, an absolutely wonderful soundtrack & sound effects, I found it nourishing in a way that a compelling movie, a delicious meal, or a moving book can be. That said, it seems to me that of all the games I can find nourishing, the single-player ones are few and far between, and the multiplayer ones are usually Dual Games. What could this mean?
When considering the difficulty of finding a videogame that can make me feel anything, I am reminded of the words of an oldhead I shared a community with,
“Games are still stuck being crossword puzzles handcuffed to novels.”
Videogame Endings
There are plenty of games with one definitive ending, take Mario for example wherein you must complete the story relevant quests or missions or whatever. There are also games where there are multiple endings, depending on decisions you make as you play them, I believe it’s not unheard of to have an ending (or endings) which require you to have completed the game before.
this is where Dual Games diverge from the rest of the pack: The stories they contain may seem repetitive, one guy wins and another loses, but these stories are alive. If that sounds like an exaggeration, consider for example the possibilities of how games can end.
Another way of looking at the endings of videogames is in the speedrunning community, where you can find the “any%” speedrun. In this challenge, you must reach the end screen as fast as possible: collectables need not be acquired & crucial moments may be skipped over. The any% represents a perspective wherein the game consists only of obstacles and ways around them. How do we get this over with?
The way Nuclear Throne handles endings is interesting to me in particular, where you can end the game once you’ve beaten all the levels, or if you’re competing for a high score on the daily, you can loop, and you go back to the first level. However, the first level is now (arguably) more difficult than even the hardest level from before you looped. I find it to be quite sleek and compelling as far as single player games go.
Now, let’s consider the ways a game of chess can end. In tournament play there are eight possibilities as a mode of ending any game. You may threaten the enemy king with an attack which he cannot avoid, and checkmate your opponent or the opposite may occur and your opponent may checkmate you. You may decide that the game is hopeless or you may grow tired and you can resign or your opponent may suffer the same problems and resign, and you may run out of time or, of course, your opponent may run out of time, and finally
Concluding Thoughts
I love games…If you ever really want to play some SSBM, MTG, TF2’s MGE, Chess, 20 Questions, or any other similar games (I’ve been considering getting into blazblue and SF third strike.) feel free to hit me up…
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