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[TekunoRobby]

Read: A Theory of Fun by Ralph Koster
http://www.theoryoffun.com/

You don't have to agree with his viewpoints but he does bring up a lot of interesting ideas.

 

[Synth_floyd]

POKER. I play poker for money cause sitting in front of my comp for hours at an end clicking "fold" most of the time is anything but fun.

 

[DjangoReinhardt]

If I'm not enjoying a game, I stop playing it. I'll give it the benefit of the doubt for an hour or two if it's well-reviewed and/or supposed to start slow, but that's the extent of my mercy.

 

[djtiesto]

If fun's not the main reason you play games, then what is? To get more geek cred on a message board...?

 

[Dilbert]

Playing PC games competatively isn't fun for the most part.

I would agree with this. I'm basically done with online FPS because they just piss me off beyond belief.

 

[PolyGone]

on a portable, sometimes you will play a game you've got in there, not necessarily to have fun but simply to pass the time, ie when waiting for a bus or something.

 

[TekunoRobby]

on a portable, sometimes you will play a game you've got in there, not necessarily to have fun but simply to pass the time, ie when waiting for a bus or something.

You're still doing it to have fun or at least have more fun than staring at the sky twiddling your thumbs.

 

[dog$]

Two pages? Shit, I'm late.

I'll start in saying that I usually say I don't play games for "fun" but that's because any "fun" I have is completely inadvertent and secondary to whatever experience I'm seeking, which is usually challenge. I probably wouldn't consider it straight-up "fun" to spend an hour of Nethack just to get down to Ludios and get breathed on by a black dragon and die, or to play a shitload of IIDX 14A's and watch my meter never rise above 2% in playing Quasar 14A; in fact experiences like that are downright aggravating and disheartening. But, that's what keeps me coming back; where I'm finding my "fun" is in trying to surmount challenges which I fully believed were impossible before.

Beyond that, any "fun" I have in videogames is purely in novelty or with other people.

This thread should just plainly show to everyone that you can't use the word "fun" as some sort of metric when discussing videogames, because no two people operate under the same definition of the word. Furthermore, nobody should be surprised if there are certain individuals who don't put "fun" as their #1 priority in playing, and nobody should put any value into other people who use the word "fun" as a justification for their preferences.

 

[RevenantKioku]

Oh don't worry. I've looked down upon you and your opinions for quite a long time now.

 

[Xellotah]

Games like TV ( and books even ) can be played passively, as a way to distract yourself. So it needn't be fun, challenging or even engaging. I'm not saying that is what you should do, but I'm sure everyone must have played a game every now and again, just because there was nothing better to do.

 

[TekunoRobby]

I'll start in saying that I usually say I don't play games for "fun" but that's because any "fun" I have is completely inadvertent and secondary to whatever experience I'm seeking, which is usually challenge.

Challenging oneself is still a subset of fun. You're engaging the brain with challenging and exciting experiences, be it through the difficulty of besting your previous score or proving to oneself that you're better than the artificial intelligence. The definition of the word is still the same (and still just as vague), however one's own extrapolation as to what can provide fun is different. It will always be the priority in the realm of entertainment.

Games like TV ( and books even ) can be played passively, as a way to distract yourself. So it needn't be fun, challenging or even engaging. I'm not saying that is what you should do, but I'm sure everyone must have played a game every now and again, just because there was nothing better to do.

However you're playing/reading/watching it to have more fun then doing nothing so in the end you're still playing/reading/watching to have fun.