Gameplay? .: Task Six :.

Gameplay put simply is the way in which the gamer interacts with the elements in a game and the games ability to command the gamer's attention. A game that captures your imagination and attention would be considered to have good gameplay although since we're all unique little flowers opinion and preference plays a heavy role! As they say one man's meat is another man's poison, a game that one person rates highly could be considered to have poor gameplay in another persons eyes. Its an age old argument that applies to pretty much everything in the world. If we were all robots ... boy, then we'd see some results!

Gameplay is an important element in Game Design for me. I wouldn't say I don't care for graphics and sound because that would be a blatant lie, everyone likes good graphics, it makes that gaming world oh-so-realistic. Graphics are nice but not as important as gameplay in my eyes. I like to feel involved with a game and interact with the elements it presents. Preference of Gameplay is never set in stone, I feel that mood can change your preferences easily. One day i'll feel like a god-sim because I want to feel dominating and superior, and the next i'll want to take on the role of a WWII soldier because I want to vent some anger on AI opponents. Personally I think unbeatable gameplay lies on the shoulders of a well-designed MMORPG. ( Here we go again lol >.< ) I've just recently started playing Guild Wars due to the Halls network blocking my precious WoW ports but I think this game has good gameplay and playability. There's something about striving to become better than thousands of other subscribed gamers that just makes me tick!

I would think that Game Design is a long winded process therefore hard to pin-point the "leading lights". I can imagine that a company would do market research into what's hot and what's not, current technical limitations etc and then forward that information onto a design team who would mould and shape that idea and pass it back to the funders who would like or dislike the idea. If anyone should claim the spot light I would say it belongs to the teams Art Director. This figure has the responsibility of channeling everyones ideas into a potentially succesful game. Although this director is the overlooker of the project I would not say it was entirely all his responsibility. The work load of the game would be distributed between the different members of the team and possibly different work teams.

Genre and Gameplay are important factors when designing elements for games. You want the elements to appeal and hold the audiences attention and you want them to relate closely to the game's genre. From experienece I would say that puzzles are a good element to use in action games to break away from the mindless gun blazing titles and add an interesting degree of challenege. A good example of how genre changes certain elements in the game would be to look at Silent Hill. The graphics, mood and gameplay is all based around a high-tension horror genre and everything works together like a well-oiled machine.