September 19: Do Games have to be fun?

At the end of the second chapter of his book, James Newman settles on the use of Gonzalo Frasca's definition in describing video games:

“any form of computer based entertainment software... involving one or multiple players in a physical or networked enviroment” (Page 25 of Videogames, Kindle edition, my italics)

The use of the word 'entertainment', and the author's focus on play, lead to an interesting question: Do games have to be fun?

In other mediums, there exist examples which, even when they achieve mass popularity, tend to avoid any connotation of 'fun' or 'entertainment'. For example, few people would describe the film Schindler's List as 'fun', or a book on the Armenian Genocide as an 'entertaining' read. Such examples are not conventionally 'pleasurable', but are often pursued out of an interest in empathizing with and understanding terrible misfortune.

More banal examples exist as well. Instructional films or technical manuals are instances where watching or reading is performed for purely instrumental reasons, without any expectation of pleasure. Additionally, many professional sports, from chess to football, are performed by the participants as work rather than leisure; an NHL player may enjoy playing hockey, but that is incidental to his employment obligations.

Do similar circumstances occur in video games? Certain Japanese visual novels have been referred to (if Wikipedia is to be believed) as Nakige - 'Crying Games'ⁱ, that focus on producing sadness and melancholy amongst players. In the western context, the game Richard and Alice (Owl Cave, 2013) offers a bleak story and ultimately little reward in the end for the player's efforts. Such games rely on emotional value to attract players, rather than more conventional thrills.

Electronic training aids – perhaps most well known in the form of language-learning software – may fit the definition of 'video games', yet are undertaken chiefly for practical purposes. The line between training and leisure is perhaps most blurred by the offerings of Czech-based Bohemia Interactive, which produces the ARMA series of games. Bohemia has used the game engine of ARMA to produce the Virtual BattleSpace (VBS) series of training aids, which are marketed to military forces. A US Marine may 'play' VBS 2 insofar as he interacts with the software, but he is hardly expected to enjoy doing so – indeed, many of the 'fun' elements in the civilian equivalent may well have been removed.

Finally, the phenomenon of E-Sports has in large part replicated the dynamic present in conventional professional sports. A professional player of League of Legends (Riot Games, 2009) or Starcraft II (Blizzard Entertainment, 2010) is quite likely to enjoy the game, but their frequency, consistency and intensity of play is determined not by individual preference, but by team demands or financial opportunity.

Such examples prove problematic for the above definition. It seems more desirable, in my opinion, to return to definitions centred on interactivity – regardless of the problems they may pose – rather than do battle with the subjectivity introduced by a term such as 'entertainment'.

i“Visual Novel”, last modified August 19, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Visual_novel#Nakige