Chapter 1. Why are games fun?

After reading that chapter I think one reason why games are fun is because having fun is the opposite of depression. It talks about how some people think they want to go and lay down and not do anything and that will be better than work. If you go lay down and do nothing you will eventually sink into boredom, then eventually into depression. If your playing your mind is concentrated and you accomplishing things that makes you feel better. It talked about how people who play video games actually watch less T.V. the fewest. This surprised me at first but then I thought about it and realized that I get bored watching T.V. pretty fast. The book had a saying from Bernard Suit that said “Playing a game is the voluntary attempt to overcome unnecessary obstacles”. Which basically means that somebody agrees to play a game under certain rules. The book uses golf as an example. You have to use clubs, start far away, and have to try and get it in the whole in the fewest amount of strokes. I think when you play under certain rules like golf you get a better sense of achievement because it makes the game harder. I know when ever I would use cheat codes I wouldn’t feel the same because it was to easy and i didn’t feel like i accomplished as much. The book also says there are four major parts. Goals is the first one which is any type of thing you need to accomplish. Second is rules, which is what everybody needs to follow to play correctly. Also it is limitations on how one would reach a goal. Feedback is the third, and that would be like a points bar or kill meter or anything that keeps track of how good your doing or something that tells you what you have done. Last is voluntary participation. This means everybody agrees to the rules and goals and follows them. All of this makes sense to me and is pretty much why I think games are fun.