Any first-person-shooter is technically a point and click game.
this post was submitted on 23 Jun 2024
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I'm going to provide a counter-example to disprove. A slot machine is a video game that is not a puzzle since there is no solution.
I agree with "Most video games are puzzle games" though. There are exceptions like Rail Shooter. Button mash only game. Bullet hell games don't really have a puzzle element since solution is already shown by areas having no bullets in them.
I feel like this statement also hinges on "all video game strategy is a puzzle" people might disagree with.
This reminds me of an exhibiton I once saw called "No Pain, No Game". The idea being that any sort of game has some failure state, some obstacle to overcome, that's what makes it a game. So of course I started thinking of counter-examples. Your slot machine idea is a good one, what I eventually came up with is Cookie Clicker. That game is nothing but positive reinforcement. There's no way to lose progress or mess anything up, any action you take makes you "win more". Not taking an action also makes you "win more", just more slowly.
This showerthought is an idea adjacent to that all. Interesting stuff, even though it's not too deep.
The cookie clicker could still be a puzzle as long as you make it impossible to win without using some power-ups because you'll die sooner of old age. That's assuming there is a win condition in it. Other clickers are genuinely not puzzles since they're infinite and not winnable. Not winnable makes them not solvable so they can't be a puzzle.
I'm pretty sure cookie clicker has no victory condition, it just goes on and on. At least it was that way last time I played it. Things might have changed since.
There's some kind of stock market mini game in there now, so you can play and lose at something in the game, but no overall win conditions im aware of.
Also, technically all video games are just really long tech demos.
If you define "puzzle" as a problem that you must work out with hard mental effort, then no; not at all games are puzzles. Rail shooters and other mindless games that rely more on reaction speed would not constitute a puzzle since you don't really need to even think.
Online shooter, sure. You have to think about what the other guy is gonna do. Virtua Cop? You just need to aim and shoot fast when the bad dudes appear. I mean, you could play Counter-Strike like Virtua Cop but you probably aren't gonna be good unless you're posted up with an AWP all the time.
I actually love Metal Gear Solid because its design is much like that of a puzzle game, where the puzzle is "how the fuck do I kill everyone without being seen?" Hitman is the same way, but it always felt less curated than MGS because there isn't just 1 solution to the problem, where as MGS does. And a lot of it is only conveyed through their respective scoring systems.
On the flip side, I tend to dislike leaderboards in most games because there is only 1 possible way to get the maximum possible score for any given level or minigame that once it's worked out, everyone can be at the top and the only way to truly rise above everyone is to cheat.
I like this answer too!
Doesn't that just apply to life in general?
Almost all video games are puzzle games because you have to figure out how tf to play them. I had to study for a while before understanding Stellaris.
You managed to understand Stellaris?
I used to understand Stellaris before they added so, so many things to it. It's practically a different game now than when I first bought it and I have literally none of the DLC lol
I got far enough to figure out that the game takes forever because of the 10 year peace treaty period (which they added for balance).
It's not reductive, it's misrepresentative. A puzzle game is only a puzzle game as long as coming up with the solution is the main task. There are more than enough games where coming up with the right solution is not difficult, but performing it is.
Also the name puzzle game implies that there are designed puzzles. Any game where you have to make decisions in generated situations aren't puzzle games. For example if you take a specific chess situation and ask which move would lead to check mate in x moves then that's a chess puzzle. That doesn't make the game of chess itself a puzzle.
Speaking of chess, you might be able to argue that some old RTS games are puzzle games when playing campaign, such as the first Command & Conquer. You often have very limited resources, the AI will do specific things at specific times or with specific triggers, and you're often given specific constraints, like a time limit or keeping a specific thing alive. In this case, though, it's mostly because the AI is so primitive that almost every action is scripted in advance for that specific map.
By your definition, Tetris is not a puzzle game.
Its generated and execution difficulty is a major factor.
According to his interpretation of the genre it would be an action-strategy game which arguably fits tetris better. Your underlying point implies that all strategy games are puzzle games which this guy doesn't agree with I think.
FPS are an adventure/puzzle game where the only solution is "USE GUN ON MAN"
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Putting the pieces in a puzzle is an action, sliding blocks is an action, moving in maze is an action, every game is action.
We wouldn't play a game that wasn't exciting or interesting to us so they're all adventures too. If there's more than one player or a time limit of any kind it's a race, we by definition are controlling a character and playing its role so everything is an RPG...
Following this logic whole human life is a puzzle game.
Beauracracy is one big puzzle of locks and keys where applications are keys and passports are keys to border control locks etc.
That's not wrong.
Okay, but pop-tarts are raviolis, not sandwiches. That doesn't even make sense. What kind of sandwich is enclosed on all sides?
Pop-tarts are dumplings for sure. They're cooked dough wrapped around a filling.
A calzone
A Snackmaster sandwich.
A pop-tart
Listen here you little turd
I mean, technically, I guess (insert Futurama technical correct meme), but with that defintion everything is a puzzle.
I just breathed in, what do I do next? I can't inhale more air. I have to think fast! Maybe if I breath out, I can then breath in again... It worked! Amazing!
A very simple puzzle which our brains and bodies usually perform automatically, yet there are quite a number of situations and conditions that make breathing significantly more difficult, or where precise breathing or certain ways of breathing are skills that require mastery.
Swimming, diving, circular breathing for wind instruments, controlling your breathing while shooting, trying to calm yourself down from a panic attack, etc etc.
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