Difference between revisions of "Power Fantasy"

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Power fantasy is the thing we do best in games.  We excel at giving the player a feeling of power over their surroundings, at letting them feel the satisfaction of starting out weak and becoming invincible<ref>Nicole Lazzaro writes about [http://xeodesign.com/xeodesign_whyweplaygames.pdf this stuff] a lot.  She uses the term Fiero in this context.</ref>, until they are the king of the world, the ruler the universe, they have vanquished evil, saved the girl, and finally gotten to that really high ledge by exploding a rocket at their feet.
Power fantasy is the thing we do best in games.  We excel at giving players a feeling of power over their surroundings, at letting them feel the satisfaction of starting out weak and becoming invincible<ref>Nicole Lazzaro writes about [http://xeodesign.com/xeodesign_whyweplaygames.pdf this stuff] a lot.  She uses the term Fiero in this context.</ref>, until they are the kings of the world, the rulers the universe, they have vanquished evil, saved the girl, and finally gotten to that really high ledge by exploding a rocket at their feet.


However, I think power fantasy is pretty cheap, and we need to eschew it and find better, deeper, more meaningful ways to entertain and compel players.
However, I think power fantasy is pretty cheap, and we need to eschew it and find better, deeper, more meaningful ways to entertain and compel players.

Revision as of 01:02, 2 June 2007

Power fantasy is the thing we do best in games. We excel at giving players a feeling of power over their surroundings, at letting them feel the satisfaction of starting out weak and becoming invincible[1], until they are the kings of the world, the rulers the universe, they have vanquished evil, saved the girl, and finally gotten to that really high ledge by exploding a rocket at their feet.

However, I think power fantasy is pretty cheap, and we need to eschew it and find better, deeper, more meaningful ways to entertain and compel players.

The New Yorker[2] had a David Denby review of the film, Seabiscuit. As usual, Denby writes a pretty good review. But one sentence stuck with me:

When a director exploits our hard-wired responses to pathos, he fails, so to speak, a test of honor.

I think he's totally right about pathos, and it's also exactly how I feel about power fantasy in games. Every time we use it, we fail a test of honor and miss a chance to explore new emotional territory.

  1. ↑ Nicole Lazzaro writes about this stuff a lot. She uses the term Fiero in this context.
  2. ↑ I think it was the October, 2003 issue.
This page was last edited on 2 June 2007, at 01:02.