Poll: For Science!

[Oddgo]

Ok, so this might be a bit of a dry submission, but I believe it holds the potential for helping us understand video games, and their value to ourselves and others a little better. This involves a bit of reading and research, so please understand that before you continue.

Basic Information on Herzburg:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frederick_Herzberg
The Wikipedia page explains exactly what his theory is composed of, but I will retype the basic idea here. Herzburg believed that in business, employees can be both motivated and demotiavted by different things. He theorizes that an employee can have job satisfaction if he or she is able to be motivated and certain expectations (hygiene factors) about the job are met. Hygiene factors don't necessarily motivate the employee, but will demovtivate them if they are absent or not experienced to the full expectation.

Motivator Factors:
-Achievement
-Recognition
-Work Itself
-Responsibility
-Promotion
-Growth

Hygiene Factors:
-Pay and Benefits
-Company Policy and Administration
-Relationships with co-workers
-Supervision
-Status
-Job Security
-Working Conditions
-Personal life

Now, how does all this apply to gaming? I have composed a simliar list of items to the ones above, except the purpose of these ones are to allow someone to enjoy a game and become truly immersed, instead of finding job satisfaction.
The items are as follows:

Gameplay Factors:
-Challenging gameplay
-Entertaining gameplay
-Flow of combat/actions on screen (may not always apply)
-Active involvement of the player
-Balance between player's capabilites and OpFor capabilities (OpFor could be AI or another player)
-Smooth, nonobstuctive interface for the player to perform an on screen action
-Growth of player's in-game capabilities (leveling system/unclocking new abilities, ect., may not always apply)

Story Factors (may not always apply):
-Believable, relatable characters
-Round, developed characters
-Progressive developement of charaters
-Believable, understandable story
-Holds the players interest, motivates them to see it through
-Plot is tight, self-contained, and leaves few to no questions unanswered
-Mood and setting are both appropriate and immersive
-Moral or lesson is learned by the player, main character(s), or both

Other:
-Graphics are smooth and contemtporary (This is a sifficult one to gauge, I know)
-Environment is befitting of the games other elements (linear or sandbox, as well as the color and shape of the gameworld are all included here)
-Game overall is immersive (go by Ben Croshaws definition, see here: http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/columns/extra-punctuation/8243-Extra-Punctuation-A-Handy-Glossary-of-Yahtzee-Terms)
-Game overall is focused (yes, I am encorporating a bit more of Ben's article here, see his definition once again for focused)


There are probably a multitude of ideas I missed here, but I just wanted to place a few basic ones and then pose this question.
Which elements, as stated here or constructed by yourself, are hygienic in nature (they must be there, or they obstruct the player's experience) or motivatonal (they don't have to be there, but they promote your experience if they are)?

I apologize in adavance for the length of the reading, but I believe it was necessary to fully encompass the idea.

 

[Oddgo]

Personally, I cannot select a single element; they have dependence of varying weight, but I cannot defer each one differently.

 

[mmmurple]

I think that if you get some very nice, polished and intuitive controls and team that with some simple but refreshing gameplay people will have enjoy playing it. Case in point; Portal was a short and very simple game and featured few characters and only fleeting glimpses of the protagonist, but a novel premise made it one of the most loved games out there.

 

[Anarchemitis]

Frederick Herzbergis is sciencier than you are.

 

[Oddgo]

I think that if you get some very nice, polished and intuitive controls and team that with some simple but refreshing gameplay people will have enjoy playing it. Case in point; Portal was a short and very simple game and featured few characters and only fleeting glimpses of the protagonist, but a novel premise made it one of the most loved games out there.

I enthatically agree. Portal was a great game for these reasons. Additonally, I think good controls would be hygiene. This is kind of what I was hoping for; a quite classification of which element is what.

 

[Oddgo]

I say the most important parts are Gameplay along Story. A game could have an amazing story that boggles the mind but the worst gameplay ever and you won't play it. Or a game could have a real shitty story and amazing gameplay and unless your some fanboy of the series you won't play it.

So, you would say that story and gameplay could be either hygienic or motivatonal?

 

[ImprovizoR]

It really depends on the game. In Bioshock for example it's a mix of story and atmosphere, in Oblivion and Morrowind it's just the atmosphere. In most FPS games it's the gameplay. In third person games it's almost always the story, like in Max Payne. In RPG games, well in RPG games every element is just as important.

 

[SomeBoredGuy]

FOR SCIENCE?!

OT: The most important part of a game for me, I guess, would probably be that the gameplay has to be entertaining in some way. If a game doesn't pass that hurdle, it's not gonna stay in my collection for long if I can help it most of the time.

 

[GodsAndFishes]

Gameplay has to be good. Like Crackdown, its plot is near non-existant, but the gameplay is so fun that it just doesn't matter. But if its all plot and really shite gameplay, then I'd put the game down quite quickly. Although I don't like the gameplay for the Legacy of Kain games, but I own and play all of them purely for the plot.

 

[hittite]

So long as they keep the action coming and don't make the cutscenes too long, I'll stay pretty well immersed.

 

[mmmurple]

People will play anything. There are some Flash games on the internet that I've plugged dozens of hours into. As long as its responsive and theres a goal. hot ninja moon moon is worth a look at good controls and simple gameplay.

 

[Defense]

I bought Drakengard a while ago for the story. I'm still playing it despite the repetitive hack-slash-button mash gameplay.

I'd say the story, just as long as the gameplay is average enough I would be willing to play it. Strangely enough, the story is anything but necessary for me, as any element can draw me in. I still play Demon's Souls on occasion, and we know the amazing story Demon's Souls has.

 

[Rakkana]

It's hard to pick between them so I'll list my preference in each field.

Gameplay Factors: Challenging gameplay(A challenge will often keep me playing games I've become sick with.)

Story Factors: Moral or lesson is learned by the player, main character(s), or both (I like learning about myself.)

Other: Game overall is immersive(Lack of immersion can kill a game for me)

 

[Oddgo]

I like the wealth of answers here, despite the sidestepping of my format (no biggie, but I taste a little bitterness). I would conclude from your submissions that gameplay is hygienic. In others, something that must be well done, and is simply crushing when it is not. Story seems to be a bit more grey, but I believe this may be inherent wiht the very nature of video games. Each a has it's own set of qualities that make it great, and each contains intergral elements that it simply could not do well without.

Maybe this will help: try attributing my question at the end of the first post to a single genre of games. This may yield something I missed. I am still trying to apply a rule of thumb, but maybe it isn't possible to do so without making an independent rule for each type of game out there.

 

[Oddgo]

It's hard to pick between them so I'll list my preference in each field.

Gameplay Factors: Challenging gameplay(A challenge will often keep me playing games I've become sick with.)

Story Factors: Moral or lesson is learned by the player, main character(s), or both (I like learning about myself.)

Other: Game overall is immersive(Lack of immersion can kill a game for me)

Hurrah! A cookie for you sir!
Sorry, but this answer is exactly what I was looking for.

 

[Redlin5_v1legacy]

I can't pick one element that specifically dominates the experience for me. I think all elements of a game are integrated and a such if one fails, it weakens the game as a whole. I give every part of a game equal importance...

Well almost every element, I think Multiplayer is not vital to my experience in any way.