I found an interesting article berating and insulting the use of the word/phrase of "gameplay/game play". It brings up many points one of which shows how silly the word is in the first place. If it is a game you already know what you will do with it, you will play it. If you aren't playing a game you would have stated it as "I watched someone play a game". The equivalent words to gameplay would be bookread, moviewatch, recordlisten as described within the article itself. When that is pointed out you can see how silly the word gameplay is.
Though it isn't entirely about how silly the word sounds, but how it can be used to be lazy with describing a game, if it was someone you were talking to or a video game reviewer. A reviewer could say "The games graphics are not up to par with muddy looking textures, but the gameplay is stellar". From that the only thing you know is that the graphics aren't good but something about the gameplay is good. But what is good about it? This becomes an issue that is pointed out within the article when aspects of the game that wouldn't be the game mechanics like the controls, the flow of the game, so on and so forth are now being labeled as "gameplay" like how certain explosions aren't good enough.
I believe it is a great read and holds many truths about people who play video games and those that work in the industry.
I don't use the word much either. It's very vague and can refer to any number of things. I talk about performance, difficulty, controls, or something like that.
"I also think the style of the game falls under the term, as the survival horror style 'gameplay' is totally different from an RPG 'gameplay,' yet they both can be good or bad styles of gaming when done properly (or improperly). "
To be more accurate if it would be said that RPG's would be different than survival horror games. I still conveyed that they are different games, and what do you do with games? You play games thus there wasn't a reason for me to add in play for the fact it in inherent with games just as with movies it is inherent that I watch them thus I don't need to say moviewatch since you already know movies are to be watched.
Though what would separate RPG's from survival horror? Is it just the mechanics of the game or is it something also unrelated to the games mechanics like the setting and enemies that are in the games? Could it ever be possible that mechanics from RPG's can heavily over lap with survival horror? An example would be a RPG that deals with the player using a limited amount of supplies they have on them and only able to carry a certain amount thus they have to go through the dungeon's, world, or what have you with those limited tools they are allowed to have and also that the game centers more around non-combat rather than combat for that the battle mechanics and the way damage, defense, and accuracy is calculated to be more against the player than for the player. With that you can see a lot of the mechanics would actually over lap with survival horror games and the only thing that sets survival horror apart from it aren't about game mechanics but the setting.
Does such a game exist right now? I highly doubt it. Though as you can see it is highly possible to create such a game.
between the word gameplay and the word "balence"...
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"When the government fears the people you have Liberty,
when the people fear the government yo have tyranny,
when injustice becomes law, Rebellion becomes Duty!"
~ Thomas Jefferson.
