As a school teacher, the distinction between intrinsic motivation and extrinsic motivation is something I face on a day to day basis. You cannot teach a student to be intrinsically motivated, but you can force them to be extrinsically motivated. Grades, parental pressure, peer to peer comparisons, even compliments from the authority figure. These methods do not get students to suddenly become invested in learning about math, science, literature, etc. They do, however, get them to put effort into learning regardless of what little joy they find in it.
Such is the way of public education. A constant push and pull between individualized education for the diverse group of students in the world as well as ensuring their skills and knowledge is apt for the future of our society. The best thing a teacher can do then within said system is create an environment for the students to find a love of learning regardless of the exams, grades, and other negatives. If you think back to your favorite teachers in school there is likely something they did to instill a level of passion or joy for just coming into the classroom each day. If they matched really well with you perhaps they got you invested in a new topic or career path.

In many ways I find that the AAA game landscape is similar to public education in how its goal is to appeal to the masses. Public education serves everyone who does not have the opportunity to choose a private school or homeschooled education. Those situations end up being highly specialized areas where the expectations and results can be controlled due to the individual interests of the stakeholders being more considered. AAA games try to make experiences that are broadly appealing and interesting, niche appeals and interests can’t be catered to as to get the most people involved as possible. So like in public education they overcorrect the expectations for the player and try to implement rigid and clear methods of both punishment and reward with the ultimate goal of getting to the end.

Nintendo, the video game industry’s local House of Mouse, is a notable producer due to their seemingly massive amounts of Quality Control put into their top titles. They are a system built to get people from all backgrounds interested in games, as Disney is the same with animation. Though realistically most games they make are still reliant on very cheap extrinsic design. One does not have to look much further than this same year’s Super Mario Odyssey as a game whose core loop is based on an empty, extrinsic “grab all the moons” open world style. A game whose mechanics bore much discussion but there isn’t really much to say about the middling open world design of the game.

Breath of the Wild of course stands as a sharp difference to most AAA games on the market, even those created by the Japanese Michael Mouse itself. It is a game when discussed is about free flowing decision making as opposed to an accomplishment of objectives. For this review I will simply point to the current third most liked review of the game on the site by @JimTheSchoolGirl which will be my cheap short hand to show why many people love this game. The game itself is less focused on you, the player, beating it but instead giving you different opportunities to interact with systems and create your own creative solution to multiple problem solving situations. Jimminy was never told to do the things he listed here as a goal or a scripted sequence, this was meaningful because he decided to do this himself.
This is Intrinsic Motivation at work. This is something most game designers (and teachers) find nearly impossible to discover naturally but not only did this work for Jimminy, it has worked for hundreds of thousands of other people who salivate at the mere idea of this game. How in the world did they do it?

That’s not any easy question to dissect and give a short answer. It begins with things like the art style and music along with other aesthetic elements having that draw that appeals to many people. That part is the Disney effect so to speak. The game simply looks appealing and accessible without any fluff. That isn’t something to be said about most games especially for Immersive Sims which BOTW is often compared to.
That’s step one. Give people the invitation into the game. If we continue with the Public School Analogy this is the mandatory attendance, the part that gets butts in seats. Except for the fact that games are profit driven and not really meant to raise the next generation (oh dear god hopefully).

The next step is expressed easiest in the intro. You cannot begin a free form adventure in chaos. Most games that do not give you much advice in the beginning are doomed to not appeal to the masses. The developers solution to this was to have a restrictive tutorial with clear objectives before putting the foot on the gas. Much ado has been said about the tutorial island so I won’t dive too deeply into how it was designed, but I will say there are two pulling factors here that cause it to pull in everyone who has begun playing it.
One: A clear problem to solve. 4 shrines, 4 items, one area.
Two: Multifaceted solutions along with many smaller problems existing in the same area (temperature, guardians, weapon durability, etc.)
These combine together to form something similar to what is referred to as Problem Based Learning (PBL) in education. I am not an expert in this subject to be honest, but I will do my best to point out how these function in terms of building Intrinsic Motivation.

The first part is the clear meaningful problem to the participant. Oftentimes a PBL uses some local phenomena (forgive me if I use too many education terms lmao) to anchor itself in the minds of the student, similar to how the island creates a clear and immediate issue in the mind of the player. Secondly there’s many smaller issues in the way that the individual must consider in completing their final task. The game splits up the task into four shrines, each with their own smaller problems surrounding them, however often in Education it requires the students to go through an engineering process of design and redesign. The loop is similar enough to compare them since the player must constantly rebuild their knowledge base with each issue that comes up along the way from dealing with various enemies, climbing, dealing with cold weather, and interacting with natural objects like trees.
The goal of a PBL is that the student is self-sufficient. It stands in stark contrast to the sort of null hypothesis of Teacher Centered learning. Things like lectures and rote memorization as opposed to giving the students agency to investigate solutions on their own end and learn what they need to know at their own pace. This, as you can probably guess, is the line between Extrinsic and Intrinsic Motivation. Being able to give an individual their own agency to solve a given, relevant issue makes it far easier for someone to get invested in something. In education that is what is called Student Centered Learning, and in Breath of the Wild that is the interaction with many systems that is exemplified in the Tutorial Island.

The benefit of the player learning this other than a sense of pride, is that the designers are able to give them different complex problems within the same system and it is up to the player to engage and figure out solutions. This knowledge base can grow for new problems and new experiences, from riding horses, dealing with more complex enemies, the glider, and the dungeons in the game. A PBL exists to get students invested for the duration of the topic before the class starts again with something new to move on to. However the skills gained in the process are invaluable as the topics become more complex.

Of course on the other hand, many people fall off of Breath of the Wild. I know I stopped playing once I hit about 20 hours in and I have no intention to return. It isn’t really hard to see why either in this case. While it manages to draw in a massive amount of people to be naturally entranced to explore the world it creates that won’t ever work for everyone. In fact, to say that most gamers are intrinsically motivated to play games is foolish bait. I have many a person in my Twitter circle that will claim x game/genre is better because of what the player can invest themselves into, but that’s ultimately a very narrow view of the appeal of Video Games. Much of the appeal of gaming can be the rigidity of systems based in extrinsic motivation, hence why the mobile market is the most popular and successful. It is nice to have a simple goal with clear success and failure states (the discourse around Vampire Survivors has made this much more apparent lately).

One of the main issues of Breath of the Wild is that the developers and the game itself do not trust themselves. The core hook, while wonderful, will not keep everyone engaged to the very end. There is never much growth in how the game builds it’s problem solving. The comparison of a PBL often becomes tenuous particularly when it comes to time. A given PBL lesson will last typically around 4-7 hours spread throughout a week or so, this game lasts 30+ hours. There is no growth in these systems as they are introduced early on. There are very few new systems that are introduced as well, and often the ones that are introduced often only take a few moments to solve. There are many extrinsic rewards and objectives littering the game, however you do not do the shrines or divine beasts because they appeal to the feeling of beauty and exploration the game holds within. You do them because there are rewards or because the sensation of checking off an objective on a list is appealing. In so the game does not create objectives to enhance its core experience, but instead to attempt to distract from the flaws of its lack of dynamism.
After 20 hours you may not have seen everything the game has to offer but you certainly can feel like you have. That mileage depends on the person too. Some people will drop Twitter clips in the year of our lord 2022 showing crazy interactions in the game, others like myself will drop it to never pick it up again part way through. The truth is that the game does not build upon its core. It takes a very big “if it ain’t broke don’t fix it” approach which, while respectable, did not entrance me in the way it did for many other players. Once I hit that 20 hour mark I said to myself “This game’s sequel will be straight up bussin’.” Jury’s out to see if that’s really true, but I would imagine the designers are more aware of what I discussed here than I am fr fr.

Breath of the Wild is a fascinating game that causes many regular people to fall in love with its world through Intrinsic Motivation. It fails often because outside of the core systems it does not provide any quality content for the players to engage in, things such as shrines and dungeons exist to fill time rather than improve the experience. I would certainly go so far as to call Breath of the Wild a classic, but it fails in so many ways I won’t gas it up like everyone else on the planet.
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Hey what's up gamers. I don’t really vibe with the author’s note but I will say this is the start of a “series” of sorts where I compare game design and Pedagogy since I think there’s more overlap than people readily consider. Really though this is my Copium of focusing on my career at the moment rather than trying to actually make a game haha. Eventually I will make that sweet game though and hopefully it’ll be good. Ideally it involves punching Dracula but we’ll see what happens.

Important thing to note is I’m a Master’s student in Education and have only taught for one year so far. I’m not really an expert, but I do have a lot of observations so please feel free to critique me and ask pedagogical questions. I’m always happy to tell people about how Teaching works haha.

Also shout outs to my homie @SimonDedalus for his review of Resident Evil 4 which certainly influenced my writing here in more ways than one.

A story that is at odds with itself. The game is truly at its best when its analyzing the malaise of the time period that the story takes place in. Sumina is a wonderful city with rich history but the rapid industrialization post WWII has left it polluted, both in a physical and metaphysical sense. There's a moment where two main characters stand on a bridge discussing the nature of the Sumina river. The Sumina River in this case is treated as the gateway between life and the afterlife, though it has been polluted through decades of industrialization. The city is littered with poverty. One of the main locations is a high school of impoverished students who have no consistency in teachers since they can only hire people on a temporary basis. Students with no prospects become ruffians, and are treated as unteachable animals that exist simply to be isolated from society. Members of the community try to treat them with care such as the policeman Hajime who treats his job much more like a social worker than an ACAB. The tapestry here is vivid.

Often the biggest sign towards this pollution is the powerlessness of women in this society, from Sumeo not given the option to pay the ransom for her child or Michyo forced into awful circumstances stemming purely from the death of her father. Women cannot not choose their circumstances and are only finally given some amount of power once given the powers of the curse echos. @Cadensia did a wonderful job adding a historical context to the story itself and how it fits into the sociocultural frameworks of gender, socioeconomics, etc. It's much better than what I could put together discussing the gender elements at play here so go give it a read!

The problem here is while the atmosphere of Sumina and certain plotlines are impeccable the story ultimately falls flat in terms of both theming and the mystery. Did you know that the only way you can learn the motivations of the true villain is through a File in the menu? Those motivations in themselves are also pretty whack. The story is best when looked through the lense of Sumue, a woman who is both trying to gain power that she's lost in society as well stubborn in her desire to ressurect her child. Often depicted as obsessed and morally questionable, she ultimately gets that ethos dissected into three different endings for her, all of which feel complete and conclusive. On the other hand, the villain? Abjectly evil. Decidedly feminine. Depicted with an obsession on pride which while being a fine villanous crutch is ironic when at one moment in the end a main male character does a "noble sacrifice" of sorts based entirely in his pride. While the themes identify gender and the power that men have in society as a root of so many issues, it in itself does not treat the male and female characters equally in its final moments.
As soon as the story tosses away the morally complex main characters to focus on the morally one sided villanous opposition it falls flat on its face. The mystery becomes unengaging, the plot threads begin to unravel, and ultimately the themes of the story lack consistency. Sumue cannot exist in the same story as Ashino, unless the thought process is that motherhood justified her pride or added some extra layer that makes it more morally complex than Ashinos desire to stay beautiful.

Ultimately the story leaves me frustrated. It is beautiful in so many small moments. It frames its historical context so well and the themes are so rich at first, but its fixation on morality is its downfall. The story does not treat its characters equally, which is unfortunate since all the problems in Sumina stem from its inequity.

I don't wanna defend this too hard but it's certainly overhated. The sound design is an abomination for sure, every time I closed a menu it played a screeching noise that made me pray to God for salvation, but it's really just a stylish yet average ds rpg. The writing and plot are certainly all fluff but the game gives you dialougue options to role play sonic as. I always picked the smug asshole option.

When you transition between worlds the game plays this animation of sonic running through the hills as you're speeding through the map on the bottom screen. Each character has distinct play styles and special moves that appeal to their personalities. There's a minor Chao garden mode for Pete's sake!
These are the types of touches that keep the game from feeling soulless. I've played many a ds game in the past year and while the game is fairly flat and gimmicky it has enough charm to where I'd say this is not really a contender for WOAT as people make it out to be.

While the style is palpable and piercing, it's the type of existentially nihilistic experience that makes me go "whats the point Yeo?" I think most reviews on this site have captured the duality of the gameplay, it is both a game about stylishly killing dozens of goons as well meaninglessly killing time. There's never really a time in the game where excitement or even engagement comes into the Killers life. The piles of bodies only grow as the levels go on yet nothing changes in the characters life. Killing adds nothing, yet neither does art, sex, drugs, shopping or even sleep. Everything is a delay for the end. The killer is given the chance to leave, go on vacation, do anything outside of his life but he's long since given up. The only reason he kills is because of this small notion that he's good at it.

Now if we're being real this is an incredibly well crafted game with some premium animation and music leading to top tier vibes, but I don't really care for anything in this. What's the takeaway I'm supposed to get from this... that I don't wanna live like that? This reflects a piece of the human condition that the french have been trying to capture for centuries at this point but this game doesn't feel additive. A certainly refined example, but if this was a film I'd turn it off halfway and switch over to In Bruges or something.

I think Yeo is a unique and inspired creator in the medium, and there's nothing broken with the game as it certainly accomplishes everything it sets out to do. Thematically though its kinda in one ear and out the other.

If the reasoning behind the cinematic of crashing was to showcase new technology and add a unique level of tension, then why is it so frustrating when it happens? Like when the game works its fun. Deftly dodging cars while playing as risky as possible to build boost is such a strong design choice for an arcade racer its no surprise how good this series became. Still each bump in the road kills the energy and excitement, it does not make the game more dynamic. It instead creates a frequent obnoxious fail state that honestly deincentives the good work the core danger/boost design loop is putting in. All the tension and excitement drops immediately and all that youre left with is the sting of starting from scratch.

I often come back to… uh… Backloggds Resident Coke Whore's review on Persona 3 (their bio has changed less than their username so that’s what ima go with lmao) and reflect on how incredibly formative that game’s narrative was to me as a burgeoning 14 year old. When asked what media have had the biggest impact on me I often become lost. Only over time have I realized that Persona 3s themes of mortality, loss, and maturation resonated with me to the point where I feel like I understood myself and the world better at a time when I needed it. When I played it 10 years ago it changed me and my understanding of the world for how I would handle my highschool lifestyle, and even further for what types of media I became to seek out. Eventually though it faded to the background as something that was important but no longer so when I hit my late teens.
The line "no other game I would readily recommend to a high schooler than this" from the above review made me understand how much it meant to me more deeply than I knew possible. What I found in Persona 3 was understanding, a gamification of social interaction that aided me in combating my massive Social Anxiety, and a better understanding of what I wanted and needed in my social relationships. Flaws and all there are aspects that lie at the heart of Persona 3 that I needed and changed my life for the better, even if I don’t feel like it applies to me now.

I find that the context of phases in our life affecting our perception on media is a thought process we often discard in favor of hot takes about “good and bad taste” with some abstract idea of objectivity to which we assign value. The subjective element, and furthermore the context of consumption, is often disregarded in this sort of discussion. My taste in media is different from what it was 10 years ago, and it’s different from what it will be 10 years from, I don’t think there will be a truly objective cornerstone of my taste to carry between these eras. Twilight is an absolute banger especially for a young tweenage American girl trying to understand why she doesn’t feel like she fits in while exploring her new found romantic desires. Often though most people will become to reject as it is merely “for tweenage girls”, and dismiss it as invalid. Really though it’s a banger for me as a 24 year old straight cis man. Of course my love of the twilight series is a discussion for another day.

Of course if you're still somehow reading this review you should recognize that this emphatic endorsement of both Persona 3 and Twilight is very out of place on a Fallout New Vegas review. What comes as no surprise, however, is that I played Fallout New Vegas first about 10 years ago during my early teens. My relationship with New Vegas began to grow and transform over those next 10 years. Oftentimes since I began facing the “favorite game of all time” question from my peers I have used New Vegas as an uninvested “yeah probably that one”. It was very formative for me in a very diverse way. Still I lack a strong emotional connection to it though. While many of the themes of Persona 3 made me feel empathized with, New Vegas never really tries for that. The core narrative is a political litmus test to decide who gets control of New Vegas, built upon famously strong worldbuilding and writing. The game doesn’t try to grip you with character drama. It doesn’t shoot for romance or complex relationships between your character and npcs. It never tries to directly empathize with the player, though it does give the player tools to express themself in a wide and complex world.

Even with that said, I felt understood by New Vegas. From the beginning of the game New Vegas said I could be whoever I chose to be. I felt so understood by it I felt like I needed to understand it in return. I played it 4 different times to completion (not counting the various times I did not play to completion) each time choosing a different method of play and ending. The playthroughs ended up Unarmed/NoGodNoMasters, Guns/NCR, Melee/Legion, and finally Energy Weapons/Mr. House. Each of these provided fascinatingly different experiences while also expanding my understanding and appreciation of the world that Obsidian crafted. What’s important is that all of these different styles I played (though mostly distinct through weapon of choice) felt completely valid. The world reacts differently to the political path you choose, but it’s nice how you can be successful and rewarded regardless of your build. All skills feel valid to invest into at pretty much every point of the game (except maybe big guns). I struggle to find games that just let me choose to punch people instead of the more common combat style. There’s something special about a world run through guns that you as the player reject and just punch people instead. New Vegas said that I am valid in my desire to make faces explode with pure force of fist, and I have yet to find a game that gives me quite the same acceptance and joy.

I could reminisce about all the good details and qualities that the world has much like many before me, but I don’t think there’s much for me to add to the discourse. I love so many jokes, characters, monsters, towns, quests, etc. All that really matters to me though was that this was a game that didn’t treat me like a child when I needed it. It was a game that taught me more about politics than I had ever conceptualized at that age. A primary belief I have about politics is that given communities and peoples should have a higher priority to regulate their day to day then any overarching government. I did not find this because the game told me it was correct, but when it asked me who I wanted to side with I chose the people who lived there, not those who coveted it. It's what I discovered then, and I still carry with me today (particularly in local politics). The piece never told me I was necessarily wrong, but it challenged me. There is a very wide breadth of opinions expressed in the game and a choice never feels confidently correct. Everyone likes and dislikes each group for the valid and complex reasons reflective of the messy old world groups trying to improve the new era. I understand now far more than I ever did when I first argued with my friend Max about which ending is the best at age 16.

With all this said, there’s only one other game I would more readily recommend to a teenager than Fallout New Vegas. Even if you just stick to the game as is, don’t experiment, specialize in guns and pick the NCR, I still think you will both be understood and challenged in a way that will only help you grow throughout your remaining years. It’s a dynamic text, ready to accept any odd playstyle quirks you wanna throw its way.

And that’s something special. Games have the unique element of interactivity, and it’s hard to find a piece of art that so readily gives a person open choice with rigid decision making that shows clearly how your actions have consequences. Once you have enough life experience I don’t think that’s as meaningful, but for a budding adolescent that could mean everything as they find themselves.

Fascinating for how systemless it is. Obviously there's leveling, statistics (like health and mana), and currency basics in here that work well as the constant measuring stick for your progress, but the experience is mostly flat.
What's even crazier is that this works completely for what they are going for here! The lack of complexity really coalesces with the Akira Toriyama art style for just a super chill and charming vibe. The game doesn't challenge you to think much harder than "oh I died, I probably shouldn't be in this area right now" or "oh fire spells work well on this enemy". Death is hardly a punishment, just a bump on the road that resets your position in the world. It's nice! It's also very flawed!

I wish I didn't have to go through junk mobs every time I explore through areas I've been through. I wish fights didn't just result in me, dead brained, pressing attack most of the time. I wish armor changes felt more significant than,
"oh my numbers are bigger".

The vibes here are prem-o, the content, less so. I definitely find myself bouncing off of it but appreciating it in the context of the larger series. The Chillitude has been there since day one 😤

Ah now we face the age old question. Is my taste in something defined by my early experiences with it, or did my early preferences draw me towards certain experiences that I would still enjoy in the future? The answer obviously lies somewhere in the middle, anybody who has ever decided to self reflect on nature vs nurture knows that all your mind makes up lays somewhere in both of those camps. Still my point being is that my ethos when it comes to 3D platformers has always been thematic consistency (typically asethetical/environmental), well shaped and thought out level design, and some chill vibes.

I had never played a sly cooper game before this past month. Having grown up a Nintendo baby most of my non-Mario experiences came from junk filler and my later exploration of the ps2 and indie catalogues.

My opinion in short on Sly Cooper numbero uno is that it has that sweet, sticky sauce that 3D Platformers do well with. The game feels unique, you really feel like you're sneaking even though it's an action platformer rather than a stealth game. The level design is off the charts, particularly in worlds 2 & 3 which are full of non stop bangers! The story here has enough movie hijinks as well as fun characters to make it a thoroughly enjoyable ride the whole way through.
It's honestly suprising how well polished much of the game is given that this was Sucker Punch's second project as a team, and they really nailed the asthetics all the way down to game feel.

Though again this is from an era of games I grew up on. I'm not sure I could stomach much of the game if I hadn't developed a tolerance for poor design trends at an early age. Most minigame levels are more frustrating than fun, and the bosses feel in no way like they were designed with the health system in mind.
To be honest though outside of the 5th world none of this bothered me. The highs of discovering this game I've skipped on for so long and truly loving how it followed my ethos to a T leaves a much more gracious impression than those who get frustrated with early PS2 design shenanigans.

Less than the sum of its parts? There's a lot of original stuff here that does well: the minamilist soundtrack, the tight controls, environmental designs that mix ancient technology with a more natural space, and the outstanding animation work to say a few. Still it doesn't really coalesce for me.

At times the dialogue feels like a kids show with a high budget but too many fingers in the pot. Jokes fly off constantly with no rhyme or reason (or humor honestly). The characters are unseasoned, and in particular the plot crux of trying to turn Daxter back to normal feels very unmotivated. Would you want to turn Kazooie into a bear in Banjo? What kind of set up is it where you say you want the furry mascot to stop being a furry mascot? Ridiculous!

The environments lack any kind of pizazz to them, there's never really any moment you see how it all comes together. They are moreso empty with long stretches to hide loading screens. The movement too doesn't feel beneficial in any case, just some extra fluff.

I say all this to say two things,
1. Naughty Dog and me may never get along
2. The animation where Jak does an alley oop to Daxter with the Precursor orb has lived in my head rent free for over a decade now. I'm afraid I will never be able to forget it, even in my dementia ridden future my grandkids will have to deal with me showing it to them several times a day. I'm both scared and hopeful for that day to come.

This one goes out to all my smug poindexters with fake Jordans 😤

Etrian Odyssey IV turns its gameplay from a marathon to a sprint, which in turn manages to completely change how you interact with the world there within. The first three EO games had a strong element of survival to them, when your guild begins they must first learn enough on how to survive before moving through the labyrinth and ultimately conquering the challenges placed before them. Much of it is about the conservation of resources, stretching your TP out across as many floors as you can while you explore and grow stronger.

EO IV is much more interested in you being an important adventurer than as a survivor turned hero. Labyrinths are short and much of your time is spent in small 1 floor caves with unique enemies and rewards to run through. The amount of TP you have doesn’t matter all that much, conservation is nice but unless you’re planning on challenging the boss then there’s no reason not to use your strongest attacks in every fight with how frequent shortcuts become.
To be clear, this is fun! Much of the time you spend developing your characters skills outside of combat allows you to really pull out consistently intricate strategies against even the most plain of monsters. The synergies between characters feel like they come out much more often than if those moves were only saved for the boss fights. The boss fights too were incredible (in the first half), really blending the understanding of navigation for each labyrinth along with very unique and difficult challenges. Still I do not prefer it to much of the rest of the series.

You see I'd love to write a soliloquy of the Twinkies' adventures but their job felt more destined than earned. It took less than a month for the guild to become the most prominent adventurers in the entire city of Tharsis. There was no pressure put on the guild, they just took their time and explored the uncharted lands piece by piece.
It was rigorous, but not challenging. Every victory was an inevitability, right down to defeating the Titan itself. There’s certainly satisfaction in these accomplishments, the Twinkies was certainly gassed up as the GOAT quick, but we more so completed tasks handed to us than really pushed to accomplish more than was expected.

The Twinkies came, they saw, they conquered. It was an enjoyable romp, though Kanada’s decisions feel built for a different series than Etrian Odyssey.

In the strangest and most unrelatable way imaginable this game feels reminiscent of the stuffy record shops I frequented with my dad in East Atlanta in the early 00s. Walls lined with grotesque album covers like Sum 41's "Does This Look Infected?". A strange world I could not fathom, yet it was covered, no bursting with a slice of the essence of human art and expression. Mixed with a musty scent of old carpeting and cigarettes.

Post Void's chaotic dada-esque rebellion against sense is still so clearly a creation and manifestation of the human consciousness. Ultraviolent as a means of catharsis and escapism. It ensnares you in itself, only ending with a small creation of life as a freedom from the insanity.