How did
Assassins Creed: Unity portray meaningful play?
Meaningful
play? First of all we need to establish what that actually means. It
could mean a plethora of different things, such as how did it make
YOU feel, or how did it make ME feel, or for a matter of fact how did
it make every single person who has played it feel, this is what we
need to track down and find out before we begin. If this is the case
then we need to break down the words, first of all lets start with
“meaningful”, as stated in the Oxford English Dictionary [1928]
“Meaningful – to have meaning, function and purpose” and its
that key word “purpose” that I would like to refer to, for a game
to be a game it needs purpose, for it to have solid purpose it needs
function which in turn creates meaning to the players. Next up is
“play” as stated by Oxland [2004] describes game play as“…[the]
components that make up a rewarding, absorbing, challenging
experience that compels [the] player to return for more.” and this
is exactly what ACU [I will now use ACU in position of Assassins
creed: unity] has done, the company behind it (Ubisoft Entertainment)
have created a game with so much depth and a story that over loads
your senses infused with game play that “blows you away”, it all
fits together to create such an immense emotional experience that you
do not want to put the controller down, you strive to know more about
the leading hero in his journey in understanding and revelation it
makes you feel like you're there with him during the midst of the
French revolution.
You
play as Arno
Dorian
son to a father part of a secret assassin order there to protect the
world from the Templars evil plans, after witnessing the brutal
murder of his father Arno is taken in by his fathers closest friend,
growing up constantly running from the memory’s of that day Arno
finds out about his fathers true agenda and vows to join the order to
avenge his fathers death and catch the man who did it.
We,
as the player, must connect to a character to find any possible
meaning within, and I believe Ubisoft have done this very well, they
have made us feel compassion towards Arno, towards the lose of his
father and the ever spiralling pit of destruction the Templars seem
to cause him during the game. People who have been through traumatic
situations or even people who haven’t can understand the meaning
behind Arnos attitude and by doing this Ubisoft have created the game
so we sink deeper into the whole with Arno and its our job to rescue
him from that pit and bring justice within the game space.
With
the addition of optional missions we can also find other ways of
connecting with Arno and the games world, with things like solving
murder cases or running assassin missions to better our stature
within the order, this creates purpose beyond the obvious (main story
line), making a world within a world so to speak deepening our
immersion and strengthening our connections.
Meaningful
play can also be found within this game due to the historic period
the game is set in, with it being set during the French Revolution
we can encounter historic figures such as Napoleon, Marie Antoinette
and Anne-Josèphe
Terwagne ,
all very big figure heads during the span of the time, this also
gives us reason to take it out of the game space to go research
things we might of found interesting during time with the game which
in turn then makes us come back to the game, to learn about these
people as (again) if we were standing right infront of them. This
creates a lot of meaning for players becoming connected with just
more then Arno.
All
of the above can then relate to this “magic circle” This circle,
as Huizinga (1971) states, must entice the player into it in order to
experience meaningful play. Salen and Zimmerman (2003) develop on
this point, and suggest the ‘magic circle’ is a finite space
with infinite outcomes.
The
time I spent with this game and to then think of it in a sense that
is beyond just “play” I have learnt that a lot more goes into
games such as this, the emotions to create this game surpass just a
physical sense but a deep mental state that all players will
hopefully begin to understand after playing this beautiful game, I
know I will and I know others will to, whether I be a day, a week or
a year later players will go back to experience the true outstanding
work Ubisoft have gone into making the game. But thats the whole
reason of this essay isnt it? To discuss and prove meaning to
players, to talk about the reason why players continue to go back
over and over again to get their quick “fix” of their favourite
game(s), to lay down the law so to speak of what makes games...games.
I
would like to end this essay on a quote by Kücklich from his paper
called Perspectives of Computer Game Philology [2003] “It is
therefore the player’s desire to become the model player of the
game that enables him or her to identify with the avatar, and thus to
interact with the game world and make progress in the game, which in
turn is perceived
as
narrative development.”
Bibliography
Oxland,
K. (2004) Gameplay and Design.
London; Boston: Addison-Wesley
Salen,
K and Zimmerman, E. (2003) Rules of
Play: Game Design Fundamentals. Cambridge: MIT Press.
Huizinga,
J. (1949) Homo Ludens: A Study of
the Play-Element in Culture. London:
Routledge
and Kegan Paul.
Kücklich,
J. (2003) Perspectives of Computer
Game Philology. [Internet] Available from
http://www.gamestudies.org/0301/kucklich/
[Accessed 15 November 2013.]
