Should Games Be More Boring?

An anonymous reader writes "At Gamasutra, serious games creator Ian Bogost is making the case that video games should be more mundane, particularly discussing of Nintendo' Brain Age: 'It's certainly a very different kind of game from Halo or even Miyamoto's own Zelda series, games that allow the player to inhabit complex fantasy worlds. Instead, much of Brain Age's success seems to come precisely from the ordinariness of its demands.' Would games become more accessible if they tapped into everyday things a little bit more, as opposed to spiralling off into fictional realities?"

Comments

Gosh what a great idea:

[CaptainPatent]

Just to get the imaginative juices flowing for developers here are some great ideas:

Virtual paint drying
Virtual grass growing
Virtual lawn mowing
Virtual gutter cleaning
Virtual root canal
Virtual hoop-pushing down a virtual dirt road with a virtual stick

I'm sure developers could take these a long way and I'm sure we can all agree we greatly anticipate the results

Re:Gosh what a great idea:

[rkanodia]

I'm looking forward to 3D Stuck In A Meeting.

Re:Gosh what a great idea:

[Jesus_666]

Actually, my company Awesome Power Games is creating some very exciting (because they're unexciting) games.

Computer Linguistics Marathon Lecture is a breakthruogh game offering no less than ten hours of uninterrupted computer linguistics. Can you spot the mistake the lecturer made when descibing finite automata? Will your bladder hold? Can you sneak out to pee and possibly buy something to drink without the lecturer noticing? And while you decide whether you want cola or mineral water, will you miss something important?
Stay tuned for the sleep-inducing expansion pack Computer Linguistics Tutorium, where the tutor discusses the exercise sheet you didn't work on.

Another big hit will be Dintmeister*, a WWII war game where you play a British POW who is forced by the Nazis to remove dints from their cars. Witness the thrilling conclusion in March of 1944 when you notice that a tank can't be undinted without ordering in a spare armor plate. (Note: You can not heroically sabotage the German war effort by adding more dints because your character is kind of a coward.)

We're also planning on a MMO game called Waiting in Line, but we don't want to tell you too much yet.


* That reference is the most entertaining part of our entire lineup, we promise! We had to put it in or our lead programmer would have committed suicide our of sheer boredom. That's how good we are!

Zonk:

[Richard McBeef]

If by games, you mean Slashdots Games category, I really do not see how it could be any more boring.

Gah

[toolie]

This article reinforces my belief that most people are complete and total idiots and don't have anything better to do than show everybody else how much they just don't get it.

Yeah, yeah, I know... kind of like this post.

Make Money Slowly by Gold Farming!

[Animats]

If you want "boring", there's a place for you in Gold Farming.

Re:Make Money Slowly by Gold Farming!

[wrook]

Strangely enough, when I'm stressed out I enjoy fishing in WoW. I challenge you to find a game more boring than this.

But the problem is that I eventually level out and I have to go find the next book to keep getting better. But the book cost money. So I have to go find money. And then I need to up my real level to read the book... So off I go on a quest to level up.

Thereby destroying my tranquil, boring game.

I will address this question

[Timesprout]

When i wake up after my Halo induced nap.

Marketing challenge ... "We made it extra boring"

[ConfusedSelfHating]

Accounting: The Game

Paperwork IV: The Redemption

Diablo III: Excel spreadsheet edition

1080p Crossword Puzzles

Starcraft 2: Zerg Human Resources

Grand Theft Auto V: Insurance Adjuster

Half Life 3: You actually work out the half life of a given element

Re:Boring vs Diverse

[Anonymous Coward]

Could they make a spell-checking game?