Given what I’ve been talking about over the past few weeks with agency, you know I could let this latest post from our boys over at Penny Arcade go without a mention. For those of you that don’t want to read the whole things here’s a quick cut of the parts that caught my eye:
[Gabe] is philosophically opposed to what he perceives as the series' communist ideals: between the game's aggressively random nature and its deep-seated compulsion to reward mediocrity, he hardly feels like he's playing a "game" at all. Rather, he feels as though he is flipping a coin via some elaborate, unaccountable mechanism - a single coin that takes an hour to flip. It is his belief that there are other things he could be doing.
….
He and I play games for different reasons, as long-time readers are aware, and even when we like the same game we typically don't like the same things about it. At a very high level, he likes to win games and I like to play them. So I love the series, sometimes for the same reasons he detests them: the random elements keep the balloon in the air a little longer than a purely skill-based mechanism would.Mario Party represents a unique social proposition, one of the key virtues I endorse in the medium.
So, another interesting “confirmation” of what I refer to as agency theory, and further proof that agency theory falls apart when you start talking about games in the social space. What makes Mario Party awesome (I assume, I’ve yet to play the game) as a social game, the fact that the game tries to keep everyone on close footing so that there’s this constant tension (and lots of crazy yelling moments), makes it feel as if your actual skills are completely meaningless, hence the lack of a feeling of agency, which Gabe is against.
Just thought it was interesting and needed a mention. I’ve got lots more to write on this, but I’ve got a pretty hectic schedule with some major changes coming down the pipe very soon, so, unfortunately, you’ll just have to wait.
Also, I'm having problems with WordPress not emailing me when comments are made, so forgive me if I haven't gotten back to a recent comment. Does anyone know what might be causing this, and the possible solution?