this post was submitted on 22 Dec 2023
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I had a debate about Skyrim and how if you break it down (or any Bethesda game for that matter) the game is just "walk from point a to point b, talk to npc, get quest, go to cave, kill all trolls in cave, come back to npc, get reward". And then it dawned on me: gaming is just doing things and fulfilling progression requirements.
The trick is to make your experience dynamic enough that it never feels formulaic. The format of GTA hasn't changed since 2001, but the games are still fun. Why? Because each mission takes you somewhere detailed and new and the structure of the missions is generally always different. Plus the games are hilarious. Skyrim is great, but once you do all of the quests and are just grinding, you start to see just how limited the scope of gameplay mechanics actually is.
There are two or three things at the base : the story/narrative, the mechanic itself (gameplay loop), and the choices. What you describe is the gameplay loop. To make it interesting, it must renew itself, so be varied enough and have some depth.
In a single player game, the renewal relies on the encounter design. The depth is the mechanic for the gameplay loop (in skyrim that would be the various weapons and spells first). MP games have less problems for renewal because players invent new tactics and play differently. But game balance and dlc are still used to renew the gameplay anyway.