Pointless Games and Game Elements

Luigi Death Stare

Over at Kotaku, Chris Person  made some short comments about Mario Kart 8. He states that he likes it, but that what he likes the most is Luigi's Death Stare. This made him reflect on games, and he came to the conclusion that the best things in games are pointless. He says that Team Fortress 2's The Spycrab Walk, The Lightsaber Flourish in Knights of the Old Republic, and the jump in Ni No Kuni stand out  as some of the useless "my favorite things on a game" elements. Those are interesting examples, and while this is not a universal phenomena, I'm inclined to partially agree that this is true not only of game elements, but also of games themselves. 

Shooting stuff at GTA V

Let's think of Grand Theft Auto V. In GTA V, players have an open world where they are "supposed" to do quests that further the narrative in order to "win" the game. However, most people don't "play" GTA V like that. Most of us (or, at least, many of us) will simply explore the world and go wild. They will try to find jets and helicopters to dive into a pool from 10,000 feet in the air. They will try to make trucks do backflips. They will try to go on rampages to see how far they can get. By and large, this is pointless play. There is no point to it, other than for players to say "look what I did!"There is no saving the world from a greater evil or some girl to be rescued. There is no grail quest. There is only "I did it just because".

Goat Simulator

The same is true with the recent Goat Simulator. This game was released first as an engine demo depicting a goat going on a rampage. Players liked the video so much, that they asked the developers to create a Goat Simulator, and they did. In Goat Simulator, players are given a goat and a world. There is no point to the game other than to run around and see what players can do - make the goat fly, make the goat slingshot, wreck stuff, whatever. There is no progression in the game. There is no win state in the game. There are no stages. It is, essentially, a pointless game. But it is well-loved by players. 

Even within games where there are purposes and win states, players sometimes prefer pointless play. In Bethesda's masterpieces, the Fallouts and The Elder Scrolls, players often prefer free play and random exploration over the path determined by the narrative. In Watchdogs many people are already foregoing narrative in favor of rampaging. 

Of course, this doesn't mean that people only want pointless play, or even that pointless play is superior to more traditional play. No doubt many if not all of us have a "favorite games" list, and the entire list is filled with purposeful games, games where players are given a clear goal, and sometimes maybe even a story to go with it. My list has titles such as Dragon Force (conquer the world, defeat evil), Beyond Oasis (you are the spirit king, go wake the spirits), some Final Fantasies (form a party, defeat the bad guy), and Bethesda's works (save the world from evil / invasion / pestilence). My kid prefers the Mario and Sonic titles (collect stars and beat stages to progress), the Angry Birds games (knock down pigs, move to the next stage), and Pokemon (be the very best, like no one ever was). But that doesn't mean we don't enjoy some utterly pointless Disney Infinity Sandbox Mode every once in a while.

Shepard getting her boogie on

The truth is that while pointless play and pointless elements in games may not make or break a game, nor are they REALLY something that most of us would put in a realistic "favorite games" list or "favorite things about a game" list, they are special. We all love that Commander Shepard has a dancing animation in Mass Effect and that we can pet Agro in Shadow of the Colossus. It shows the detail that went into making the game. Pointless details like these give us an added feeling of "this is cool" while playing. But let's face it, everyone's favorite thing about Mass Effect was the talking/shooting elements and everyone knows that the best thing about Shadow of the Colossus is the feeling of victory after taking down an enormous walking mountain. Likewise, we all like that we can go anywhere in Skyrim, but we know that once all the quests are completed there is no reason to go back to the game. However, pointless play does let us take control away from the developer. It lets us do things we weren't intended to do in an order not intended by the developer. It gives us freedom. It gives us control.

And if one thinks about it, that's what play is all about. Control. That's why so many people who go to work to make money to by clothing and food and hate it sit down with World of Warcraft to mine ore to make weapons to sell to buy better equipment and a mount - because of control.

But that we can discuss some other time.