Rafux said:
You can go to youtube and watch all the branching paths or even pretend you press a button and load the right video. Gameplay is the group of mechanics and rules that make a game fun, just like football, just like monopoly, just like hide and seek. Video games have stories and such to keep you playing and move the scenery along , but story is not the focus by itself if it was then you can just watch a video or read a book and skip gameplay altogether. |
Nope. When I watch a playthrough of Dear Esther I can't look at what I want, I can't turn back, I can't walk slower to ponder over what I just heard or saw, I can't walk faster when I spot something interesting in the distance. It's not the same. With a video I'm not involved, I'm a passive observer watching someone else play. It's fundamentally different.
Never played an outdoors puzzle quest kind of game as a kid? Follow a path set out by markers? That's considered a game too. Heck adults still do it, it's called geocaching.
