As Anna anthropy read the segment of her book that talked about what to base your game one she just started listing things. No guidelines, no specific thing to begin with but anything and everything is and could be interesting if done properly. You can basically create a game based upon anything in your life. Any experience you have had, you have heard of or of an experience you would want or not want. These are what games can be based upon, there is no set guidelines that determine if a game will be successful. There is no guide to games. What people may call a guide is not a guide to create games but a guide of what their game is about. I find it weird that big corporations wont allow their game designers not to be able to create games on the side. Sure I can see that it would be a conflict of interest. However without an outlet to release their frustration or to experiment on could lead them to become frustrated and not be able to perform at their peak performance. As Anna anthropy said games that don’t follow the norm are ostracized and considered weird and strange. I do agree with this point but at the same time all these games that we have now are weird ideas. The Mass Effect series is based upon companionship and exploring the galaxy trying to stop your enemy, Saren, as you go you gain companions to help you stop him and you can have a relationship with 2 possible people in the game. Mass effect is based upon a basic idea and that idea is to become the hero and gather allies to stop the bad guys. But it doesn’t end there. You learn about the people in your team and you start to connect with them on a more emotional level. Are you going to help Garrus find the Dr. that mistreated his patients? Or are you just going to ignore it? Are you going to be good or bad? One of the most interesting point in that game is when you are on a planet named Virmire and you must either kill your squad mate or talk him down. What do you do? Are you going to save him or kill him? This affects the entire game play of the next two games, Mass effect 2 & 3. Your decisions are carried over to the other games. This is a new idea that I haven’t seen before. In the 1990’s Rare Ware attempted to do the same concept but ultimately they couldn’t do it and the game they attempted to use it on? Banjo and Kazooie. The Mass Effect trilogy used a previously forgotten/ignored idea and created a new type of videogame aspect. However because of its unique game transfer feature I wouldn’t be surprised if other trilogy games used this mechanism to transfer the players’ character. They are that player. They have spent the time to mold this character that is in the player’s image