For a book from the same Playful Thinking series as Sicart’s Play Matters, Katherine Isbister’s How Games Move Us is much more straightforward. Rather than dance around definitions and the like, How Games Move Us states its topics and supports it with evidence from studies and quotes from well-known game designers.
In the first chapter of the book, Isbister discusses how choices in games and in game design can invoke emotion is players. Within the opening paragraphs, I found myself strongly connecting to the ideas proposed in the text. I have always found it hard to get into watching a new movie or television show, as sitting and watching characters do things was boring compared. Instead I favor books and video games, where I could at least stop and imagine what later plot twists and outcomes might occur. The rest of the chapter, as it covered the various aspects of flow, emotions, avatars, NPCs, and customization, also touched on things I found myself enjoying in games. Making a character and inventing a personality before going out to explore a world as that character always made playing special compared to just being an already established character, although the choice of what to do depended on the story.
Of course, some of these aspects are not exclusive to video games. Gamebooks such as Choose Your Own Adventure and Fighting Fantasy share these traits of character customization and choices influencing outcomes. One of them, Sorcery! was later made into a video game by Inkle, who also did 80 Days. Further still are a few particular forums I browse, where “quests” are run by a forum member and other users vote or write in on actions to take. These are not video games, but my enjoyment of both these and video games, and the use of similar concepts, certainly explains why I was attracted to both.