So what makes video games different from other mediums like a linear story is things can be influenced by your interaction. This makes it to where you can have a connection to things through interactivity and your moments of enjoyment are created by you. A good genre that shows this is the virtual pet/monster raising genre.
I find genre fascinating and wish there was more being done for it. The two keys to make something strong in these games are, spending time with the virtual animals and seeing your hard earned result and the little surprises you get that are it’s own reward.
For example, in the Pokemon series a good deal of it is about training your monsters to a certain level. If you want a pokemon to fight better you have to train him. This inevitably leads to you spending a long time fighting trainers and wild pokemon out in nature so you can get beat a gym leader.
All this extra effort leads you spending “time” with the pokemon in your group. Also, because it’s a video game, it’s a lot of effort without as much risk. In short, you train them well, then you get rewarded for it when they do good. This process exists in every virtual pet game whether it’s keeping them well fed, or teaching them a trick.
The other interesting things is unlike many stories, this doesn’t have to revolve around strife or conflict. For example, in Sonic Adventure, The Chao and the Chao Garden pets, the developers made it because they wanted to give some fun to people who weren’t necessarily good at action games to have incentive to get better and to do something else when they were stuck. It was a peaceful part of the game which you could return to whenever you wanted to escape the hustle and bustle of level frustration and life. Honestly the cool little surprises of raising a Chao were some of the best parts of the game.
Which leads me to the other thing that makes these games great. The little surprises and having moments with your critters. A good example with the Chao from Sonic adventure. So alittle moment Joal and I had was we were raising his chao Hein and he was going through his Metamorphosis. (Chao’s will spin a cocoon and then emerged transformed). We had treid to give him a more sinister appearance, since he had sinister grin by genetics. To our surprise, He came out surprisingly cooler after emerging from the Cocoon. In pokemon it’s the same thing. When they surprise me with a new ability or something I didn’t realize they could do, not only does it make the labours seem well worth it but it creates a moment that you’ll remember.
In short, Virtual pets give you reward for your efforts and labours with less risk as real animals. Unlike other games or even some stories, they let you do things at your own pace yet still give you little surprises that keep you interested.
Nerd Wisdom 