作者：Stanislav Costiuc

最近我玩了《这是我的战争》，而当我想写一篇关于游戏的分析时，我所做的事便是去浏览网上关于游戏的文章以了解它们是否漏掉了一些特别的主题（最初我想以《这是我的战争》为例去讨论机制背景的话题，但是在Gamasutra上已经有人这么做了）。而在看了关于这款游戏的一些反馈与讨论后，我决定来说说一个更普遍一点的话题，这也是我在与其他开发者交谈时经常提到的内容。即电子游戏不应该再纠结于乐趣中。

this war of mine（frombilibili）

说实话，没人真正知道游戏中的“乐趣”是什么，这是经过许多开发者再关于“乐趣”的定义，如何寻找”乐趣“以及怎么赋予游戏”乐趣“的众多文章种都证实过的。我也想要强调，”乐趣“是没有任何错误的，这也是一种非常值得我们去追求的概念。但它同样也非常局限。我们甚至必须承认，我们其实是将自己和玩家禁锢于这样的思想中，认为优秀的游戏便是有趣的，糟糕的游戏即意味着它并不有趣。

在《这是我的战争》中有一段较漫长的时候，即因为持续的战争我不能前往大多数已被洗劫一空的区域，而新的区域又还未开放。除了其中还有一个区域外。那里住着一对年老的夫妻和守卫着他们的儿子。我不希望去打扰他们，但是因为食物越来越少，我的幸存者们都在挨饿着，我不得不前往他们的家并偷走所有的食物。之后当我需要更多资源，我也只能再去他们家了。当我再一次闯进门时，我并不想偷偷摸摸地，所以我只能射杀拿短枪瞄准我的角色的主人儿子。那对老夫妻扑在儿子的身上放声大哭，而我却四处寻找着我需要的东西。在那之后我的角色非常难过，我亦是如此。

我并未在此感受到“乐趣”。反而是满满的绝望与负罪感。其他玩家也会体验到和我一样的情感。但这时候人们就会很矛盾。因为我们都认为《这是我的战争》是一款优秀的游戏，但因为它并不是一款“有趣”的游戏，所以人们便会开始纠结地讨论为什么《这是我的战争》是有趣的或者就像有些人说的那样，这是一种特殊的”乐趣“。因为游戏很优秀，所以玩家能够享受其中，但如果说优秀的游戏便是有趣的，那么《这是我的战争》也应该是有趣的不是吗？

但事实上我们之所以去玩像《这是我的战争》这样的游戏并不是因为一些”特殊的乐趣“，而是因为我们喜欢游戏所呈现的体验。这也是为什么我们也会去玩有趣的游戏的原因。而这也是一款游戏的必要元素。吸引力。说实话，这也不是一个准确的描述，但与”乐趣“不同的是，它不会将我们禁锢于一种情感中，更多的是关于玩家投入了多少。

我曾经看过一个对于《这是我的战争》的开发者的提问，即他们是否会因为玩家可能不能感受到乐趣而担心游戏失败。我觉得会有这样的问题真的很荒谬。因为这便表示如果《这是我的战争》没有乐趣它就一定会遭遇失败。但所幸最终玩家们都很喜欢它。

准确的说应该是大多数玩家。你应该也仍会看到有人在说《这是我的战争》因为并不有趣所以是一款糟糕的游戏的讨论，然后那些喜欢游戏的人便会开始说它是如何以及为什么有趣。还有一些游戏因为通过一种全新方式而未能表现出传统的“乐趣”而被当成是不优秀的。亦有些游戏拥有一些传统意义上的乐趣和一些非传统乐趣元素的游戏，虽然能够呈现强大的体验，但是玩家还是会认为某些元素并不怎么样。有些游戏系列便因为开发者想要呈现出玩家所期待的“乐趣”而抛弃了一些创造性元素。

我们希望游戏媒体也能和电影，书籍和音乐等领域的媒体拥有同个接受层面，它们都未将“乐趣”作为唯一的要求。这些领域还会呈现出各种不同的情感去等待观众的接受。所以如果即使不有趣它们也具有吸引力的话，游戏又何必纠缠于乐趣呢？

作为开发者的我们应该尝试着去改变“游戏必须具有乐趣才能有吸引力”的错误观点。我们不仅应该这么教育玩家，也要如此教育自己。尽管我所交流的许多开发者都表示认同，但还是有很多开发者被那种错误的想法所蒙蔽。

所以这不会是件简单的任务，我们需要更多像《这是我的战争》这样不具有传统“乐趣”但也能吸引玩家注意的游戏。如果这种范式能够发生改变，全新情感将出现再游戏中，玩家也将不会因为它们并不“有趣”而拒绝接受了。就像伤感，希望，怀旧，孤独，性欲等等情感。有很多人尝试着去探索游戏可能呈现什么样的内容，但是他们却被局限于现有的游戏认知范围和用户群体中。

我们应该努力去冲破束缚，拓宽视野，并确保我们所热爱的媒体不会受到任何限制。让我们不要再纠结于创造有趣的游戏，而是去创造真正吸引人的游戏。

（本文为游戏邦/gamerboom.com编译，拒绝任何不保留版权的转发，如需转载请联系：游戏邦）

Video Games need to stop HAVING to be fun

by Stanislav Costiuc

I was playing This War of Mine lately, and what I do when I want to write a blog analysis of a game, is I first check online what posts there are already so to know if there’s a particular topic that wasn’t explored (I first wanted to talk about context of mechanics using This War of Mine as an example, but there already is a great post about it on Gamasutra by its lead designer). But seeing some of the feedback and discussions around the game have inspired me to talk about a more general subject, one that I touch pretty regularly in conversations with other developers, and consider to be very important. Video games need to stop HAVING to be fun.

Now, let’s put aside the fact that nobody really knows what ‘fun’ in games is, as evidenced by countless arguments between developers on the topics of definition of ‘fun’, how to find the ‘fun’ and what makes a game ‘fun’. I would also like to note that there’s nothing wrong with ‘fun’ and it’s a very good notion to strive to. However, it’s also very limiting, and, sadly, very spread out. I would even say that we’ve conditioned ourselves and players to think that good games are fun and bad aren’t.

In This War of Mine, there was a prolonged moment of time when I couldn’t access most of the scavenging areas because they were blocked by ongoing fights, and new ones weren’t opening up. All the available locations were fully scavenged, except one. There lived an elderly couple with their son who was protecting them. And I tried for as long as possible to not break in… but food was running low and my survivors were starving. So I got to that house and stole all the food. Later when I needed more resources and that was still the only place that had something to scavenge, I broke in again, but didn’t manage to stay unnoticed and had to kill the son before he shot one of my characters with a shotgun. And then as parents were crying over his body, I rummaged everywhere to get what I need and leave. The character felt very depressed after that, and so did I.

‘Fun’ wasn’t the emotion I’ve experienced. It was despair, sorrow, guilt. Other players also experienced these kind of emotions (which, I would like to note, are different from the kind of emotions most other survival games provide). People are conflicted, however. This War of Mine is considered to be a good game. But because it’s not necessarily a ‘fun’ game, people in discussions start twisting words and definitions to argument why This War of Mine is ‘fun’, or as some people put it, ‘a special kind of fun’. Because the game is good, they enjoy it, and as good games are fun – This War of Mine has got to be ‘fun’ somehow, right?

But the thing is, we are compelled to play games like This War of Mine not because it’s some ‘special kind of fun’, but because we’re engaged in the experience that it builds and makes us go through. This is precisely why we play fun games as well. And that is what games HAVE to be. Engaging. And, to be fair, it’s also a pretty loose term, but unlike ‘fun’, it doesn’t try to steer into a specific spectrum of emotions, but more to how involved a player is.

I’ve seen a question targeted towards a developer of This War of Mine, if they weren’t afraid the game would fail because people might not consider it to be fun. And it’s ridiculous that we still live in a time when that’s a legitimately valid question and concern. Because, This War of Mine could absolutely fail due to it being something else than ‘fun’. Luckily, the game was enjoyed by players.

Well, most of them. You can still find discussions where people say This War of Mine is a bad game because it’s not fun… and then people who liked it start talking about how and why it is fun… And then there are other games – some try to do interesting and innovative things that aren’t traditional ‘fun’, so people might not consider it to be good. There are games with a lot of mechanics that are considered to be ‘fun’, but also some elements that are not traditional ‘fun’, even if they strengthen the experience, and players start arguing about those elements as they might not be considered ‘good’. There are some game series that lose their uniqueness and innovation because in sequels developers are pretty much forced to steer more into the way of ‘fun’ to be more accepted.

And we want the medium to be on the same level of acceptance as movies, books, music… but neither of those has ‘fun’ as being one of the requirements. There’s all sorts of emotions that they can provide and that are readily accepted by people. So if they all don’t have to be fun to be engaging, then why games have to be?

It’s up to us as developers to try and shift the paradigm from ‘Games have to be fun’ to ‘Games have to be engaging’. Reeducate not only the players, but ourselves as well. While there are a lot of developers I talked with who agree with the point I’m making here… I’ve seen and heard developers who are baffled by the thought and think that it’s quite frankly bullshit.

So it’s not going to be easy, and we need more games like This War of Mine that aren’t traditional ‘fun’, but capture players’ attention (and it doesn’t mean they have to be dark and depressing, but different). And when the paradigm shifts, a full spectrum of new emotions will open up to freely examine and experiment with in games without fear that it’s not going to be accepted because it isn’t ‘fun’. Wistfulness, hope, nostalgia, contemplation, longing, sexuality, and many, many more. There are people who try to explore what other things games can be, but they’re limited in scope and audience by the established perception of what games have to be.

So let’s work towards removing the shackles, broadening the horizons, making sure that the medium we all love isn’t confined by any notions. Let’s stop making games fun, and start making them engaging.（source：gamasutra）