The Benefits of a Power Fantasy
Especially first-person shooters like Destiny do a lot to avoid such moments, they are deliberately quiet regarding all the numbers and mechanics. They want to keep players in the game as much as possible, not let them crunch numbers.
If a game stays as close to its power fantasy as possible, it has interesting effects on player flow, on the financial well-being of the game. Because we are constantly conditioned in pop culture: movies, series, and books awaken in us the longing to live out this power fantasy. In feature films, the characters have superhuman powers.
Novels depict atmospheric, exciting parallel worlds. It awakens a desire for adventure and danger in us, especially when our actual life (terror aside) is so sheltered and orderly.
And in computer games, we can have these experiences, these power fantasies. This is why games like Star Wars Battlefront with a “strong power fantasy” will sell twice as much when the next Star Wars film drives us all to the cinema.
If a game does not make fulfilling a power fantasy as easy as the greyed-out “Lord of the Rings Online, then films about hobbits benefit more a “Shadow of Mordor” than the MMORPG itself.
And even the “top-down hack’n’slay” Marvel Heroes 2015 cannot benefit from the huge Marvel boom as much as a game focused more on power fantasy, which is released at just the right time. While many praise the gameplay depth of Marvel Heroes and say how much it has improved, for casual players seeking their kick, that’s not as important as the better graphics and the more immediate feeling.
How Powerful Should It Be?
An important factor, often summed up as “Feels Good”, encompasses not just the visual appeal, but also the “power factor” of the hero. Do the blows I deal have weight? Is the recoil of my weapon such that I feel its impact? Do I struggle to defeat my enemies or do I unleash great powers, wreak havoc, feel my rising “power” in a game?
With the ever-spectacular visuals from the cinema and the rising standards of games, our thirst for power in games also rises, becoming harder to satisfy.
But can it also be fun to play against such power fantasies? Of course!
