I’ve been working on coming up with a definition of “deep play” as I use it to refer to video games. I went back over the games that I’ve played so far this year, and looked at how many experiences I had that really grabbed me, and what different games sunk their teeth into me.
I was really into Destiny 2, going into the end of the year. But shortly after The Dawning event, I lost interest due to issues with the end game. I started playing when it launched at the end of August, and played all fall, well into December. At the start of the year, though, I went back into GTAO, and was having a good time messing around in it, but really couldn’t find a reason to keep grinding.
I played around with a couple of the games that I got for Christmas: Horizon Zero Dawn, and Nier: Automata. Both games grabbed me for a bit, but ultimately couldn’t hold me. With Nier, I hit a shelf point with some sort of minor boss fight where I just got tired of the hack-n-slash bullet storm nature of the game. I can’t remember why I put Horizon down. The last time I noted I played it, I mentioned that I got killed by a couple of Sawtooths, got frustrated and quit for the night.
Then I got into LEGO Worlds, so I guess I didn’t really quit Horizon so much as go on to another thing. I played LEGO Worlds pretty intensely for about a week. Part of it was a fun nostalgic ride, especially the old Space sets, but there wasn’t much reason to keep playing after a certain point. I got my 100 gold bricks, became a Master Builder, and basically won the game.
Then I got back into The Division. I had gotten The Division when it came out in 2016, had played it into the end game, and then went back to Destiny. It was a fun ride, but there wasn’t much to do once you got to the end. There had been several updates since, and a lot of gameplay changes, and I was pleasantly surprised to find there was a decent end game. I did The Division grind for several weeks, really getting into it, and then there was a Global Event that wasn’t really my style, and I put it down and didn’t pick it back up.
I got into Cities: Skylines for a little bit. Cities is a SimCity clone, almost to the point where I wonder how they got away with it. I’ve always had a soft spot in my heart for SimCity, and it definitely qualifies as a “deep play” game, where you need to play it a lot to gain mastery and be able to work towards a goal. So I had fun learning Cities, but once I pretty well got it down, I lost interest.
I picked up Diablo III. I played the original Diablo, but didn’t play any of Diablo II. But everyone raved about the grind of Diablo III, and then it was on sale, so I gave it a try. It is wonderfully grindy, and has a pretty deep end game, but what caused me to hesitate about it in the first place ended up being its downfall. I got tired of the overhead perspective, and I got tired of the button mashing frantic gameplay.
Then I went back into Destiny 1 for a while, because Destiny 2 wasn’t satisfying me, but that ended up seeming silly. So then it was on to Monster Hunter World. MHW is a beautiful game, with a fun arcade-y combat system and lots of different areas to explore and creatures to encounter. The multiplayer is all cooperative. It was really cool, and I had a lot of fun playing it for a while. But I never made it to the end game. The fights were just a little too grueling, and different systems were just a little too opaque for me to get a handle on what I was working towards.
I briefly dabbled in Destiny 2 again, and then tried on Warframe. Warframe is a lot of fun, especially for a free title. It was more fast paced than Destiny 2 (at the time, at least. I haven’t played it recently to see how it compares with the changes made for Forsaken), with a lot of ninja-like parkour moves. Getting new equipment was an enjoyable grind, and there was definitely a sense of mastery in learning how to go where to get the things you needed. In the end though, the fighting style wore me out. There ended up being a handful of missions that I felt comfortable doing, and the rest I felt like I was over my head and glitching.
I got back into GTAO for a while. Instead of trying to grind out the maximum cash that I could, I started just playing out in the desert, running a weed farm and selling it quickly in small amounts, which were easier deliveries to run as a solo player. And then a while later, I tried out the new Nightclub expansion, but it failed to grab me.
Then No Man’s Sky NEXT dropped, and it occupied my attention for a long time. It really fit the bill for what I was looking for, but in the end there wasn’t much of an end game to work towards. Once I had mastered things, and gotten the trophies, then there wan’t much reason to keep playing.
And then there was, I mean is, Forsaken, the best update for Destiny yet. I’ve gone over previously what was so great about it, but in the end, it is still a little intense, not nearly as chill. I got bogged down with allergies and allergy medication, and it got harder to react to things well.
So then I started playing Civilization VI on my iPad. I haven’t played it on an actual computer yet, ironically because I don’t think my computers can run it very well, but it runs great on the iPad, and the interface actually works really well. For me, Civilization may be the original “deep play” game, and I really sank into learning Civ VI systems and figuring out a strategy to get to the end of the game. I think that was when I really started to feel that I had gone deep with it, when I started thinking about how I wanted to win starting with my opening moves.
So far, I’ve had a great year playing games. There were a couple that really grabbed me. I’ve managed to have several “deep play” experiences so far this year: The Division; Monster Hunter World; Destiny; No Man’s Sky; and now Civization VI. I think looking back on the year like this will help me figure out what sort of games I like, and help me solve the problem of figuring out what game to play when I feel like playing but “nothing sounds good.”
I prefer something that’s open, where I can pick and choose where to go, what to do, as opposed to something that’s closed, where you’re on a fixed track, moving from scripted point to scripted point. I like games with depth, where there are several systems to work out, things to figure out. Games with depth allow you to acquire mastery, and that’s something I really enjoy in a game— not understanding how something is working, and then gaining mastery over it.
And finally, I want a game with a near infinite end game, where you can just keep playing and keep working towards something. So far, this has proved to be the most elusive component. A lot of games have taken different stabs at the end game, and right now Forsaken has really raised the bar. There are a couple of games on the horizon that look like they can fit this bill, and I’ll be interested to see what they bring to the end game.