How glitches make a game special.

[Thomas]

I just saw some very strange videos from Red Dead Redemption where the game apprently bugs out, with some hillarious/strange/disturbing results.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jVVXyKP1FVk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rFoMvLmfFEY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7q7v4F8r9Og

What makes these so interesting is that these chance encounters makes the game feel kind of special. You notice how the player feel a special attachment to these characters. Also upon meeting them, there is a lot of engagement without any gameplay. Just exploring and interacting with these weird characters is enough to keep the experience interesting.

Seeing this, I am really tempted to create (and play!) some kinda of game that is built upon these kind of random encounters. Not sure how that would work out, but it seems like an interesting experiment.

Also worth considering how much the randomness plays a role in these encounters. Would it be as fun if the designer had added similar creatures by choice? (perhaps these are added by choice though, as the glitches all seem to work too well almost)

[God at play]

For a couple years now, I've presented to 4th and 6th graders trying to explain to them videogames and how they work, kind of like a career "show and tell" type of thing.

Without fail, almost every class that comes in will ask multiple questions about both game bugs and cheats.  There's definitely something there that people are fascinated by.  Interesting idea

[axcho]

Oh man... those three videos cracked me up more than anything I can remember in the last few months. I have no idea why. It's been a while since I've laughed like that. Thank you.