Devlog On The Week (late I know)

Hi! My name is Natty, as you know, and I'm in your CMI 3377 class. I'll be honest, the reason I chose to take this class was because I registered really late, and when I read the title of the class, it seemed cool. I was really nervous about it coming in because I actually thought that it was a video game design class and I was worried that I'd have to code. As you know, I was in your CMI 3315 class. I fell behind really quickly and had a lot of trouble, so I ended up dropping. Nothing personal, my job was just giving me a ton of hours and I couldn't quit. I dropped all my classes that semester.

I hope to learn more about the history of games and about the science behind them. I was really pleasantly surprised to see what the class was about, and I really enjoy learning about the science behind the games. I'm also really looking forward to playing everyones games and being able to have an interactive classroom.

As for games I play, I like to play a lot of games that are considered "cozy". I don't know if that makes any sense, but some examples would be games like Animal Crossing, Firewatch, and Breath Of The Wild. I realize that BOTW does have fighting, which is usually something I don't care for, but I do love the open concept of the game as well as the map and the soundtrack for it. 

I guess you could say that I enjoy games with a wide playscape and with many little random objectives. I like the idea of having many things to do, and almost having a virtual separate life if that makes sense. Basically, I use play as a form of escapism, much like the reading mentions. I often find myself spending hours on Animal Crossing just doing mundane tasks: fishing, giving gifts to villagers, buying new clothes, and tidying up my island (which actually has 5 stars). When I play BOTW I just roam around the map talking to people and completing small side quests, I've actually had the game for 2 years and have never completed it because I never want to get past end game.

Something I find interesting about the games I play is that there is no real set of rules. In the reading, it explains that play is derived/meditated from rules, but my games aren't really. What are the rules in Animal Crossing? There really is none. Sure, there's objectives and goals to reach: level up your island, save Gulliver x amount of times and you can build the godzilla statue, level up friendships with villagers and receive their portrait, but there really is no don'ts in the game. The same can be said for BOTW or Firewatch. Sure, there are things to do, but there aren't a lot of things to not do. This is something I'd like to learn more about, the free-ness of play that still allows things to be fun. In other words: how free can a game be before it gets boring?