Masahiro Sakurai Defines What Is “Play” In The Video Game World

What does it truly mean to “play a video game?” That might seem like a basic question, and many might reply, “You turn the game on and use your controller or keyboard to play it!” But it’s a bit more philosophical than that. What does it mean to truly “play?” That’s a question that Masahiro Sakurai decided to answer in his latest YouTube video, and he actually didn’t reference himself or his experience when defining it. Or, at least, not at first. Instead, he gave an answer from a book called, “Man, Play and Games.” In it, the author defined four different metrics that define “play” in its many forms.

Despite the book coming out in 1958, its core elements truly define the video game genre. The author noted that play can be defined by four different elements, “Competition,” “Chance,” “Mimicry,” and “Vertigo.”

When you take a look at them separately, as Masahiro Sakurai did, you’ll see all sorts of genres that have at least one of these elements, if not more. For example, with “Competition,” you can look at legions of games built upon the idea of players near and far battling it out to see who is the best of the best in that title. Some of the biggest moneymakers in the gaming world today are based on competition alone.

When you get into “Chance,” you will see lots of titles in genres like “gacha” games, which is why the mobile market is so popular. Or you could look at RPGs, which use percentage chances to try and help invoke a certain feeling of randomness and that not everything is “static and unchanging.”

“Mimicry” is interesting because you likely don’t think of video games “mimicking” anything, but that’s not true. Simulator games are very popular because they let you do things that you can’t always do in the real world or would rather do in the fictional world than the real one. Just saying.

As for “Vertigo,” that’s the “feeling” you get when you’re doing certain elements of a video game, like diving through the air, flying a ship in space, and so on.

After Sakurai detailed these elements, he noted how he uses these in his games in ways you might not expect, including trying to have a certain fighting game “look real” with the stages or have “realistic motions” that will give you vertigo because of how characters are launched.

Learn more via the video below!