Why I play games: One gamer’s exploration into their hobby

From flash games on a series of browsers (including the now-defunct Internet Explorer) to Purple Place on my grandfather’s Window XP, computer games always brought me great joy.

The first memory I have of being deeply immersed in a game is with Fireboy and Watergirl: a flash game which would have its player clear a temple filled with levers and buttons. What immediately attracted me was the need to apply myself beyond what I was used to. Fireboy and Watergirl asked you to think about precision and timing – elements of gameplay that require you to utilise logic and critical thinking. As someone who never understood Maths, puzzle games helped me realise that logic goes beyond conventional mathematics, and can be quite fun!

I never had a conventional gaming set-up, though. No consoles, switches, or gaming PCs. I’d go on ‘Friv’ and look for whatever looked fun, colourful, and had a puzzle element or a story. Still, these experiences were fleeting – I struggled to find something longer that could deeply immerse me.
The longest narrative-driven game I had played until this year was probably the 2021 Google Doodle game Champion Island, a Japanese role-playing game (JRPG) which celebrated the Tokyo Olympics. It’s a free game that can be played on the Google browser, containing elements of Japanese culture and some stunning cut scenes.

What I really enjoyed, though, was the idea of having a choice

Most of the game seemingly revolves around completing and mastering Olympics-themed challenges, including skateboarding, table tennis, rugby, climbing, artistic swimming, running, and archery. What I really enjoyed, though, was the idea of having a choice, as the game presents you with opportunities to help people along the way. If you choose to help people, you can uncover a deeper story. The game also doesn’t last longer than three hours if you get the hang of the sports-themed challenges quickly enough, and it is a really fun taster if you’ve never played story-based games.

It was this year that I experienced a sense of financial independence and had the liberty to buy myself games. After asking my friends for recommendations for games that revolved around stories or puzzles, my love for them was resurrected. I still don’t own any additional gaming equipment, and I buy games individually on Steam whenever I have enough money saved.

I first downloaded In Stars and Time, based on a recommendation. The game, a turn-based role-playing game (RPG), featured its protagonist, Siffrin, a traveller with memory loss, Who, with their friends, Time.

I was reminded of how games can help exercise the brain!

There were also elements of logic and critical thinking through the game’s combat, which revolved around ‘rock, paper, scissors’. This reminded me of my flash game days, and I was reminded of how games can help exercise the brain!

After never really playing longer, narratively driven games, I felt an eye-opening revelation. Games can be like living in a story – they can engage their players in a world to a deeply immersive degree. Similar to how a book can craft real worlds, and a television show can have great breadth, games can be another incredibly exciting form of storytelling.

As a creative writer, this deeply piqued my interest. Games were no longer just ‘games’, they were stories I could play – stories I could feel a sense of agency in.

After several weeks of In Stars and Time, a truly enjoyable game that required its players to piece together an intricate mystery, I was ready to dive into story-based games.

Other great titles I had the liberty to enjoy included OneShot, Undertale, and Omori. OneShot being a game I would recommend to those interested in trying out story-based games, as it is a pretty short experience (about four hours) and is mostly puzzle-based, with no combat. The puzzles can be quite tricky, but the game world is incredibly crafted, and it has some great music to boot.

This is rare to experience through other conventional modes of storytelling

In my newer experiences with gaming, what I ultimately enjoyed the most was trying to figure out how a game is structured. When we think about stories, we think of a linear narrative – a point where tensions rise, a point where the problem is solved, a point where it all ends. With story-based games, it isn’t so clear.

A visual novel like Slay the Princess, for example, engages you in a time loop, where crucial details may change in every iteration. The narrative makes you take choices, which results in you feeling a sense of control. This is rare to experience through other conventional modes of storytelling (although ergodic literature and experimental films can be incredibly effective here). I suppose I play games now because they fascinate me. You get to utilise not only artistic creativity, but also a deeper, innate sense of logic. There is a deep-rooted structure in all the chaos.

In the end, ‘why I play games’ has many answers

Recently, I’ve been playing Stardew Valley, which is a cross between open-world, RPG, and simulation. In this game, a farmer is trapped in a dead-end corporate job, but upon the death of their grandfather, they get a chance to move to Stardew Valley and bring their late grandfather’s farm back to life. While it doesn’t have an intricate, overarching story, Stardew Valley has multiple NPCs, which you can befriend through a points system through gifts and regular engagement through dialogue. It also has an intriguing sense of community built around the Valley itself, which was something I could relate to coming from a collectivistic culture.

In the end, the question ‘why I play games’ has many answers: they engage me, make me use problem-solving skills, and most importantly for me, introduce a (comparatively) young, unique, and dynamic form of storytelling that is highly worth exploring.
Also, they’re just really fun!