After returning from work this afternoon I decided to relax by playing a couple of Wii Play games. I planned to play for around 10 to 15 minutes although I now seem to judge Wii time in terms of the number of games/rounds that I play rather than minutes spent playing. This is probably a way in which I allow myself a longer period of play whilst still considering it in some formal form of time. So in Wii time I was looking at playing around five to seven game rounds in total. Of course, I ended up playing more as the highly addictive Wii Play games enticed me to keep beating my previous game score as I will discuss later in this post.

I started with a little Fishing but didn’t find this too stimulating – maybe this was more fun when played with other people, there didn’t seem to be much skill required of a single player. I made a conscious decision to remain seated whilst playing the Fishing game as I didn’t really think that I needed to stand up – but I was wrong; reeling in the fish was tricky to do whilst seated and I reverted to the standing position. After a couple of games I sat down again to browse through the Wii Play menu. I decided to go for the Duck Hunt type game and began to systematically shoot the targets that appeared on the screen. I suddenly realised that I was playing the shooting game, fairly successfully, whilst sitting on the sofa – the first Wii game that I had not played standing up. I had previously started playing games standing up and then trying to play sitting down, but as this didn’t seem to be successful in the majority of cases I would just stand up again. The Duck Hunt style game didn’t require much movement from the Wiimote, or at least not large scale movement. The way in which the Wiimote was used during this game was similar to the way it is used to navigate the Internet using the Opera browser.

// Thinking about it this may explain my ability to beat Becky at the Duck Hunt style game when we first played it together – I had been using the Internet browser a lot and was therefore used to the precise movements required to succeed in the game. //

To return to my initial discussion of player position, once conscious of the fact that I was sitting down and succeeding in the game I had no intention of getting up – other games would have required me to maintain the standard standing position central to the television screen/Wii sensor. I am sure that there are many other Wii games that can be played in the seated position but I feel that this incident is worth mentioning as it was the first game (of a collection of games that I assumed required the standing position) that I played seated – and successfully too.

The Duck Hunt style game brings me onto my second point of analysis – repetition and self competition. After playing one fairly successful round of the Duck Hunt style game I achieved a bronze medal. I achieved this medal without really trying to achieve a high score, I felt that I was just playing the game again, for a second time to familiarise myself with its content. On achieving a high score (and a bronze medal) I instantly and almost instinctively started playing a second game with one intention – to beat my high score. Play instantly shifted from being passive to active, I sat on the edge of the sofa and began to pay more attention to hitting every target possible. I proceeded to win a silver and then platinum medal in a very short space of time. This loop of play, with the single intention of beating my own score, continued for several game rounds until my conscience got the better of me and I forced myself to power down the console and go and get on with some work (something that I find myself doing quite a lot recently). I had recently been considering to what extent a solitary individual could engage in play, particularly playing a competitive game. A discussion in the MA session a few weeks ago highlighted a few games that could be played by a solitary individual such as solitaire and I had struggled, for some reason, to think of any more single player games – although I am sure there are many (that are not computer based). I remember thinking that there was not much fun in playing yourself, there was no competition and achievement or completion didn’t seem to be as appealing to me (again, here I refer to non-computer based games). But is the computer console itself, being played by a solitary individual playing, a player? The computer makes the play possible and in some instances acts as a player providing a virtual competitor for certain games. In RPG games the computer may act as a direct competitor, or many competitors as it determines and controls the virtual environment with its enemies, opponents and hazards. So can the game that I was playing be termed as ‘single player’ when the computer console has an active part in the play taking place.

There is a difference between playing against a virtual player, in a virtual golf game for example, and playing against yourself – as in the Duck Hunt style game. The aim of the game, for me as well as was intended by the game creators, was to beat my own score and as I have previously mentioned, I got caught in a loop of play. Can the computer be considered to be a player in this sense or is it some kind of games master – it still controls the environment of play and your ability to either win (achieve a high score in this case) or lose (achieve a pitiful score). I was effectively playing the same game over and over again with few variables that would cause the game to appear differently each time that I played it.

The consequence of this was that I began to ‘know’ the game; there were specific areas of the game that I could predict: I knew roughly when the bonus ducks were going to fly-by, I knew where the first set of balloons appeared, I knew that the clays would appear from each side in turn and then from both sides together, I knew that level four (the tin cans) was where I was losing the most points, I knew at any particular point whether I was going to be in with a chance of beating my top score, I knew that that it was essential that I didn’t miss any targets or I would lose my bonus, I knew that the faster I hit targets the more would appear. I think that as well as playing against myself I was playing against the computer – whilst knowing certain levels or areas of the game environment provided me the opportunity to beat my own score it also allowed me to outwit the computer. In this sense the computer could be considered to be a player, or some kind of games master.

// I have started to remember many other instances where I have begun to ‘know’ the game. In the original GTA, after attempting specific missions over and over again I began to know the route that I needed to take as well as the positions that I could take up in order to evade capture. I seem to remember blocking an alleyway with a car, shooting it until it blew up and then proceeding to eliminate all of the police that were following me. There was one particular place within the city that this could be achieved and I am sure even the game creators were not aware of it. I also remember ‘knowing’ specific areas of Doom in which I could maintain a position where my shots reached the enemy but the enemy shots did not reach me. I was only able to take advantage of these strategies after discovering them through continuous and repetitive play. Writing this I am beginning to recall more and more instances of knowing the game, forming strategies and sort of cheating in a way – taking advantages of bugs in the game. I remember a boss level of Rise of the Triad that I played over and over again until finding a position in which I could unleash clip upon clip of machine gun fire without being touched by the attacks of the boss. //

But to return to Wii play…

I began to form a set of ‘tactics’ that would assist me in achieving a high score and an interesting spin-off from these tactics was that I started to restart games if I felt that I wasn’t doing very well. I was, by this point, focussed on the aim of the game to an even greater extent than before. If I had collected less than 90 as my no-miss bonus within the first two levels of the game I would hit the ‘+’ button on the Wiimote and select ‘Start Over’ to restart the game. I was, for a few rounds, completely engrossed in play and feeling increasingly competitive – my single aim was to score a perfect round. I am still not sure if it is actually possible to score a perfect round but the feeling from the game that it is will fuel many more attempts. I wonder if there is a real chance of scoring a perfect round, is that ultimately the aim of the game – is that what drives an individual to play the game and is the purpose of the game ultimately unachievable? I was not deterred by the fact that I was the holder of the top score and both gold and platinum medals – I was intent on beating myself in this one player competition.

I had initially considered the success and fun of the Wii to rely on its ability to allow up to four players to engage in play at any one time. The way in which the Wii is played, the necessity to engage in physical and ‘fun’ actions, seemed to me to lend itself to group play and I was not sure if solitary play would occur frequently. I have begun to realise that solitary play is appealing and it is possible to get enjoyment out of playing the Wii console without other people participating. My experience to-date leads me to believe that the most fun is still achieved when there is more than one person playing, although this is a different kind of fun where power has to be shared – joint decisions have to be made as to what route or form the play will take as well as the duration of play itself.

On a technical note I am now in the process of digitising my backlog of Wii output as I managed to get the DV bridge to work. Unfortunately I realised that the DV camera that I have borrowed didn’t come with a Firewire lead so I am waiting for one to arrive in the post. I anticipate that the two recordings will come together by the weekend and that I will be able to clear my backlog of footage, as well as posting visual examples to support my discussion.