The definition of fun according to Bryo

As defined by www.dictionary.com:
“Fun
–noun
1. something that provides mirth or amusement: A picnic would be fun.

2. enjoyment or playfulness: She's full of fun.

–verb (used without object), verb (used with object)
3. Informal. joke; kid.

–adjective
4. Informal. of or pertaining to fun, esp. to social fun: a fun thing to do; really a fun person.
5. Informal. whimsical: flamboyant: The fashions this year are definitely on the fun side.

—Idioms
6. for or in fun, as a joke; not seriously; playfully: His insults were only in fun.
7. like fun, Informal. certainly not; of doubtful truth: He told us that he finished the exam in an hour. Like fun he did!
8. make fun of, to make the object of ridicule; deride: The youngsters made fun of their teacher.”

Hello y’all, and welcome to yet another informative post from your friendly neighbourhood game-designer-to-be. Today, I’m going to try and define fun. Hopefully, my attempt won’t be as futile as I believe it will be.

Fun… this word in general is extremely vague. In my honest opinion, I would believe that any activity that brings joy to an individual is the very definition of fun. For example, if you enjoy beating people up and other random acts of violence, playing a game like: Grand Theft Auto would be fun in your opinion.

Fun is also based on opinions. I doubt there can be a medium that brings enjoyment to everybody; therefore, my theory is that there is no such thing as universal fun. Fun is really based on the individual’s preferences. Everyone is unique, therefore what may seem fun to one person, might be boring to another. Take for instance, a game of chess, to some people, chess is a game that involves strategy and wits, to others it’s simply a waste of time. The same can be said for various games, like World of Warcraft and Grand Theft Auto. However there are some games that actually come close to universal fun. Such games are considered fun to the general public and are generally playable by all peoples of all ages. These games have been coined with the term “Casual Games”. One example of a casual game would be the strange and challenging action game Katamari Darmacy.

I also believe that the essence of being a game designer is to pursue the ever-lasting quest of finding universal fun. Because essentially if a video game was universally fun, everyone would want to play it. After all, who can resist something that brings them enjoyment? At any rate, the video game industry has a long way to go before it finds universal fun. One of the problems in finding universal fun is that it has to cater to all peoples, and games that are universally fun tend to be casual and not catered specially for a certain type of people. Although some might argue that being casual is the way to go, I disagree. Somehow making brilliant titles like Gears of War into casual games isn’t really my idea of fun. What I propose however is a massive change in media, and changing the mindsets of the world, rather than the games we make. Ultimately if everybody had a unified sense of what was fun and what isn’t, wouldn’t that solve the problem of universal fun?

As impossible as my proposal of fun sounds, it just might work, given time and patience. For all we know, the future league of gamers will be greatly diversified. With that I’d like to end my report on fun, thank you for reading it and have a fun weekend!