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What It Makes A Video Game Popular

Video games are big business to the financial world. It is important for video games developers to constantly improve upon their existing games and to develop new ones. Companies hire Hollywood calibre graphic artists to provide Oscar winning quality graphics. Focus groups try to spot trends and preferences to target what features should be added to traditional games or incorporated into new ones. Children are often “hired” as consultants to test games and report on their appeal and flaws. They are paid with newly developed games and game related items, such as a Nintendo player or Game boy instruments.

But what features are crucial in the development of a popular Video game that will be successful financially? Of all the elements that comprise a popular video game, interactivity is the most important. This feature enables the player to explore virtual environments that range from realistic depictions of the normal world to highly stylised, artistic virtual environments, and sometimes alternate between them. Interactivity allows the flow of the game to change with the player’s movements and decisions, thereby creating an individual scenario or experience for each player and every game. Interactivity has given rise to the phenomenon of emergent narrative, which occurs within the context of the game and represents the player’s reactions to elements of the game and even his own reactions to them. It is this emergent narrative concept that makes playing the game and experience that is unique to the players and to each and every game played.

A sense of danger, or at least drama, is important to a successful video game. To the extent that a player is drawn into the game and feels involved is proportional to the success and popularity of a video game. Graphic presentation of the game is integral to this and most games require eye popping, three-dimensional artwork. The graphics must present and create a virtual environment that is alluring, navigable and ever changing in response to the player’s actions. Most video games rely nearly equally, ironically enough, both on repetition and the element of surprise to create a hypnotic world that remains both challenging and interesting. Most video games must tell a story and the level of manual dexterity required to play the game increases as the complexity of the story line gets more involved.

Finally, music plays a fundamental role in popular video games. Music adds to the mood, the element of surprise and the general tone of the video game. Video game players no longer choose games on the basis of graphics and character appeal alone. Now the type of music that is incorporated into the game is equally important in the selection process. And the overwhelmingly most desired form of music in video games is hip-hop. This form of music provides an intensity that draws the player in, and the rhythmic beat makes for a hypnotic quality. Hip-hop is the type of music that the player can coordinate his movements to and achieve a movement flow with. Hip Hop gives energy of its own to the game and is rapidly becoming a key element in the development of a popular video game.

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The Evolution Of Video Game Characters

In the early days, and I mean the really early days of home video games, you had Pong: two bars, one square ball and that’s it. It was a very simple concept that anyone could literally figure out within seconds. Even more elementary than that was the fact that there were no characters, no plot, no storyline, no real purpose of the game, except to bump and bash that cubed ball back and forth. While Pong was a nice recreational distraction and diversion from the boredom of everyday life – and back then, Pong was a big deal – there was no real vested interest in the game once the video game system was shut off. That is to say, Pong was just a game. Nothing more, nothing less.

Fast forward to today, and video games are much more than simply something to play. They are now worlds with people and experiences that gamers get involved in and have serious personal stake in as well. Video game characters, especially, have evolved and grown over the years. While the erstwhile plumber was cute, he wasn’t really endearing. He didn’t say much, his emotions were limited and his experiences were fairly mundane. Heck, in his original solo adventure, he couldn’t even go too far backwards! He was simply the vehicle for which the video game player used to traverse the game.

Now, video game characters are people, with expressions and emotions. They have a history and a purpose. They have a back story, and they are vengeful. They have facial expressions that video game players can relate to. They aren’t just video game characters: they’re tragic heroes and misunderstood villains. They live and work in worlds that are at once foreign to us but recognizable too. Today’s video game characters speak to us, and for us. We want to hear what they say, and see how they act and react. They aren’t just computer generated characters by designers, they are actors, with a script to follow and a mystery to unravel.

The advancement and evolution of video game characters is to be expected, since video games themselves have advanced and evolved. In the old days, video games usually took place in a finite world – that is to say that a video game player could sort of make out and define where and how the game would and should end. Because of that simplicity, it was easy to figure out what the character should do and be. Today’s video games, like the ones featured on the Xbox 360 or the Sony PSP, take place in immense worlds where a lot of random possibilities can occur. That requires the character in the video game to act and react in ways that we can’t really predict.

Also, today’s modern video game characters can be so likeable and interesting as well. With personalities, emotions and phrasing that can really make people laugh and take interest in the character. And, with cross-media branding being at the forefront of just about everything these days, you can bet that a popular video game with an exceptionally popular main character will be made into a movie, a comic-book or a TV show. While that’s great for media companies looking to make more than just a few extra dollars, it presents a real opportunity to flesh out and give the main character some more depth. Because while today’s video games are impressive in size and scope, they are still video games and they are still limited by its programming and design. But a movie or a TV program can really give new emotions to a character whom in some ways, already seems to be more than human.

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