Describing A Game's Aesthetics

Think of your favorite game.  Now, pretend you're telling a friend about that game.  Do your best to describe the game's aesthetics.  Before you start, stop thinking about graphics.  When I say aesthetics, I mean the emotional responses evoked in you as a player when you're interacting with the game's systems.  Try to describe that.  It helps to think out loud.  It's easy to recognize incomplete thoughts when you try to convert the generalities in your head into something more concrete.

Here are some words I've used to describe the "aesthetics" my favorite games in the past: fun, innovative, interesting, challenging, pretty.  What do these words say about the gameplay experience I'm trying to convey?  Absolutely nothing.  I think that's a problem.

Too often, people discuss games in generalities, never traveling beyond the surface of "fun."  I'm definitely one of those people.  Too often, I talk about games without saying anything meaningful - something that myself or those I talk to can take with them to help inform their next gameplay experience.  This is one area of my relationship with games I'd like to improve.  I know a language exists for discussing games in meaningful ways, a language for use by both developers and players.  Most people just don't speak it yet.

Thankfully, lots of people, including the people who wrote this paper, have been looking at this problem much longer than I have.  Some of their suggestions for better ways in which to describe player experiences, or the aesthetics of a game, include:

• Sensation: Game as sense-pleasure
• Fantasy: Game as make-believe
• Narrative: Game as drama
• Challenge: Game as obstacle course
• Fellowship: Game as social framework
• Discovery: Game as uncharted territory
• Expression: Game as self-discovery
• Submission: Game as pastime

They provide some great examples of this game vocabulary in action:

• Charades: Fellowship, Expression, Challenge.
• Quake: Challenge, Sensation, Competition, Fantasy.
• The Sims: Discovery, Fantasy, Expression, Narrative.
• Final Fantasy: Fantasy, Narrative, Expression, Discovery, Challenge, Submission.

As is shown above, games are not limited to pursuing one aesthetic goal while forfeiting inclusion of the others.  Rather, games pursue multiple aesthetic goals to varying degrees in order to best achieve the desired gameplay experience.

I encourage everyone to try this as an exercise: Using only the eight words listed above, describe the aesthetic experience of a game you've spent considerable time with.  It doesn't sound challenging, but I, personally, find it rather difficult.  I plan on writing up my conclusions and justifications for some of my attempts at game aesthetics breakdowns at some point, so expect that soonish.

Cheers,

Danny