It's Christmas day, 2005. The tree is surrounded by wrapped gifts for my siblings and I to open, I don't even know this game exists. Among the gifts are 3 particularly large boxes with no tags on. "Those are for decoration", Mother says, urging me not to touch them for fear of ruining the display. This is the first year we've used fake gifts as decoration, strange.

The day goes on, many a gift is opened and smiles fill the room. But a young Jake can't help but feel a little disappointed that he received no video games for his beloved Nintendo Gamecube console. How much longer must he replay Sonic Adventure 2 Battle, Super Monkey Ball and The Incredibles before his horizon would expand...

But then. The impossible should occur. "Jake, aren't you going to open your last present?" My face becomes the definition of bewildered. "L-Last present? I got them all didn't I?" I ask, naively searching under the tree for the lost gift. "Oh really? Then I suppose you don't want what's in here."

I couldn't believe my eyes. There she was, my own mother, whom I'd learned to trust and rely on, gesturing to the so-called 'decorative' box from earlier. Denial filled my soul. "Ha! I'm not stupid, there's nothing in there" I shake the box to prove its lack of contents. But then, what's this? A rumble. Contact is being made between objects beneath the santa-covered paper.

I can hardly contain my excitement, and tear the paper away in an instant! Inside, a large cardboard box. I open that.. and inside...

... Another box, complete with wrapping paper. Another, another, at least 9 boxes, all individually wrapped and progressively decreasing in size. It was a hard fought battle, but at the end I saw him. It was a face I knew well.

Shadow the Hedgehog. And what's this? He has A GUN!? I threw myself upstairs to play it. And have since forgotten almost every single thing about it.

I cannot rate a game I don't remember, but I do remember how I received this game, so I'm giving it 2.5 stars out of respect.

Reggie Fils-Aimé famously said “if it’s not fun, why bother” during Nintendo’s E3 2017 showcase. For some, these have become words to die by. An easy phrase to parrot when the individual faces a system they can't come to terms with. Some see it as a harmless way of saying they don't enjoy what they're playing, but I have never appreciated its implications.

If your definition of “fun” equates to anything you like, this quote probably resonates with you. But I've rarely seen the word used that way, and instead, this obsession with fun’s necessity in games seems more damaging than anything.

“Fun” is fast, approachable, and easy to control. An immediate stoking of the attention span, constant engagement, or a light enjoyment lessened in friction. Some see Dark Souls as unfun due to its slow, heavy movement and methodical combat. Dark Souls 3 is “fun” because it's quicker and lighter; you can roll faster, further, and more often. Nothing is wrong with either approach, yet one is sometimes dismissed.

Not everyone defines the term this way, but I’ve seen it used to debase games with an unconventional design. Traditionally “unfun” foundations have a harder time finding their place in communities who won’t acknowledge its worth unless it’s immediately satisfying. I remember this phrase being used during Death Stranding. It was picked apart, labeled as “unfun” because it’s a package delivery walking simulator. Who wants to be a delivery man, right? Even “walking sim” has become dismissive, used to label things as lesser.

Regardless of Reggie’s intention in the full quote, which specifically emphasizes that games are also a journey, even inviting the player to “open their mind,” that snippet has shifted into a rallying cry for people to do anything but. If something must be “fun” to be worthwhile, and that definition of “fun” is remotely limited, it denies ideas that don't fit under a narrow bracket. It is a quote accompanied by frustrating ignorance.

Not everything needs to be fun. Other artforms aren't seen this way, so why are games different? Is it because they're interactive? Is interactivity meaningless without fun? Art is feeling, and there’s no single feeling a work has to evoke to be successful.

Playing Resident Evil reminded me of my stance on this.

It isn't fun. It's claustrophobic, stressful, and frustrating. No encounter, room, boss, or weapon is traditionally “fun.” It's an unforgiving, labyrinthian puzzle; a constant check of resources where memorizing rooms and locations is vital. Even saving the game is limited to a resource, one I often found myself without and had to make huge stretches of progress knowing one mistake could send me back an hour.

Bosses are a cold, calculated check of your mindfulness towards collecting and preserving as much ammo as possible. You enter a boss room, move only a little, and fire everything you have. They die and you move on. You wasted ammo, and that made progressing more difficult. No part of this balance between figuring out the path forward while wasting as few resources as possible was fun, alongside trying to figure out at what point the player should save.

Yet Resident Evil is enormously good and I’m enamored. I've reversed my tune on the Ink Ribbon system after years of avoiding it in other titles in the franchise. The fear that arises from knowing one mistake can ripple; your decision to not save means you're risking everything, or being too frugal by going nearly an hour without a save, brings rise to an unmatched tension.

Games don’t have to be fun to be worthwhile, successful, or good. Art is too complex, and limiting any medium in this way sucks. It’s not something to be afraid of, either. Fun absolutely rules, but I’m tired of people treating it as a necessity. I’m tired of being seen as lesser when expressing love for old, unconventional, or mechanically complex experiences. I’m tired of new things being inherently better because they’re faster, more fluid, and easier to control. No feeling is worthless and games can accomplish anything. Just keep an open mind, experience it, and vibe. Fun isn’t everything.

If you support that quote and think “that's not what fun is, it's just whether or not you like something,” then that's fine. We can disagree. But I’ve seen people use the requirement of “fun” to shit on non-traditional systems before. People shouldn’t be afraid to say something isn’t fun yet still love it. There's so much more to feel :)