Game design: from pong to next gen

Right, so before getting into this I want to first talk a little about the term Game-play itself, it seems like everyone says it but what does it actually mean, most people probably can't tell you. Now I did a little research and I found this quote " A game is where 2 or more competitors compete for set goals within the confines of a set of rules".
Now taking into account this definition is clearly referring to sports or board games, this does not mean we can't apply the same logic of thinking to a video game. For example in an online multiplayer game such as Call of Duty , players compete against each other for either the most kills or the most flags etc, this is your set of goals, the set of rules applied is what guns are available to you along with gear and perks. Whereas in a single player experience you are competing against an AI or the game itself to win, your goal being to complete the game and the AI's goal is to stop you, both of you still have a set of rules you have to follow, the AI's usually will differ from the players but it still has rules otherwise you would never win.

So taking this into account this means that game-play is the manipulation of the goals and rules the game is built around, enjoyable and well thought out goals and rules in-turn results in good game-play and vise versa. Meaning good game-play is the core of any game, because controls should be built with the rules in mind and visuals an sound are only stimulants to enhance the experience of completing the set goals, as most people wouldn't enjoy staring at a page of code and inputting values to progress.

But to complicate things further you do have to take the genre of your game into account when creating your goals and rules, for example an RPG is going to have much more complex goals and rules than say a point A to B shooter simply due to the nature of the game with varying paths, gear, exp progression, skills and side quests being a few of the main points.
But on the whole I feel that as long as you abide by the fact that your goal needs to be challenging but fun and your rules are fair then you will be okay.

My personal opinion on who some of the lead developers in Gaming include, Rockstar for their GTA and Red Dead Redemption games.

Red dead Redemption at its time of release was highly praised for being a huge open world game with great horseback and gunplay mechanics, it captured what you imagine to be the spirit of the Old West perfectly. Along with this it had great online multiplayer modes where you and your friends would set up a posse and wage wars against other peoples gangs, fighting over land and supplies.

Rocksteady for the Batman Arkham games.

To be frank the Batman Arkham games are the only good superhero games ever made, in my opinion obviously, they introduced us to a fluid fighting and combo system that was previously unheard of in games, shame it's been poorly ripped off by many other series'. On top of this the games sport tight controls, interesting environments, tonnes of content and stellar voice acting.

Naughty |Dog for the Uncharted series, Jak and Daxter, Crash Bandicoot ad The Last of Us.

If you want to know about The Last of Us you should read my blog on it.

I didn't want to think of just AAA titles so I want to include Behemoth for the Alien Hominid games, Castle Crashers and Battleblock Theatre.

Behemoth always make fun an innovative co-op experiences that hearken back to the 16-bit era where you would invite a few friends round and sit down with Golden Axe and just have fun.

What i find most important when I play a game is to ask myself  " am I enjoying this " because generally if your not enjoying playing the game then there is not much point playing it, now not enjoying the game doesn't mean it's bad, it may just not be your style, so finding what kind of games you like is the most important factor. I absolutely love playing RPG's, spending hours molding my character, finding the best gear, doing side quests and exploring the world. But I have friends who hate that now does that mean Skyrim for example is a bad game? No, no it does not, it just means it isn't right for them.

Gaming is all about personal opinion and choice, my girlfriend will spend hours on end day after day playing Animal Crossing, because she enjoys collecting all her things for her house, interacting with her town and so on, I find it dead boring yet Animal Crossing sells millions, so am I wrong? Again no, for me it is dead boring but for her its the exact opposite, it is for this reason the term game-play has such a abstract and watered down meaning, in turn causing knowing what makes good game-play hard to put your finger on.

I feel Sid Meier, creator of the civilization series, quote to have hit the subject on the head.
He says "Gameplay is best defined as a series of interesting choices set out for the player".
The key word here being Interesting.