Architecture of games varies greatly, from monitor screens, to table tops, to open fields. Not only do the creators design a game, but half of the ‘art-aesthetic’ of games is created by the players’ direct actions. Rarely in card games will people have the same hand draws from one game to the next. Rarely will people follow the same exact pixels, to the T, on a certain map, in a given video game. Tic-Tac-Toe many be one of the only games with a recognizable limited number of play paths. Even then, someone can make something like the “Triple Triad” game within the Final Fantasy series which allows players to pick their own cards for “X’s and O’s.”
I first heard the “Homo Ludens” concept from the Kojima Productions’ mission statement earlier this year. Let me tell you why Metal Gear Survive is not as bad as you think: “Sometime the beauty of play resides in the tension between control and chaos.” That gets too personal, other than the fact that message boards like “Never Be Game Over” exist on Reddit. “r/neverbegameover” is a subreddit where, even with the given canon of the story, series creator Hideo Kojima intentionally left out massive amounts of details (ON PURPOSE). He likes to leave clues for people to solve in a vast contrived augmented reality game (called his life), between his twitter posts and his website meta data. There are players who may play the games and put them down afterwards, or those who want to know why they just experienced what they did. It makes no difference to the outcome or rankings of a game complete, but the act of deciphering or simply learning of the clues is still found entertaining by many people. Another good quote of Chapter 7 was “One cannot understand the playing of games without the rules of the game.” Too many video game publishers are run by the generic board room of investors who never touch video games. Konami’s CEO having admitted to not playing games before. He doesn’t have to be a hardcore gamer per-say, but he should have some idea of what his company sells for client perspective. I’m sure other companies have the same issue, but Konami gets the most media coverage lately. A game can have the best graphics, or card stock, or bounciest ball, but without the passion of the creator, these objects may as well just be shown in a museum as finished products. To actually play with these objects is to continually change the objects, not physically, but by perspective of the player. If you can’t have your own fun with something, then move on until you do. If you can’t find anything, then make it yourself. Every one perceives things differently.