Part of the problem comes from our language when discussing games. What comes to mind from the word "mechanics?" Mechanical. Machines. Appliances. Things with an on/off switch. It either works or doesn't. The word "mechanics" evokes a very binary view, suggesting something that can be objectively measured. However, when we are talking about game mechanics, that is not how the word is typically used."Mechanics" in reference to games is meant to evoke a machine metaphor, but a very different one. It's meant to suggest that a game is made of many element and, like cogs in a machine, those elements act on each other and in concert with one another to form how you play the game. The key is the "working in concert with each other" part, with the review serving the purpose of analyzing the cog arrangement. Sure, there could be an arrangement of cogs that allows a machine to work, but maybe there are cogs left unnecessarily rotating in place without really helping the overall machine. Or maybe the cogs are arranged in a very inefficient way that doesn't make good use of the limited space within the machine's chassis even though the machine still technically works. Or maybe the cog arrangement is so beautifully elegant that the reviewer just sits back in awe at the whole contraption.Hopefully you were able to follow my extended machine metaphor, but the gist is that there is more to reviewing a machine than simply whether or not it works. For a reviewer, whether or not it works is secondary to figuring out and analyzing the process that allows it to work or not. And that can be extremely subjective. What might seem unnecessarily convoluted to one reviewer might make perfect sense to another. Now ditching the metaphor, what might be fun to play for one reviewer might be miserably dull for another. It's why some people prefer Smash Bros Brawl over Melee. It's why some people prefer Tekken over Street Fighter. It's why some people prefer Battlefield over Call of Duty. And vice versa in all of those cases. There are subjective tastes in game mechanics just as there are subjective tastes in narrative content.Perhaps, like "gameplay" before it, it is time to retire use of "mechanics" if it is the cause of this confusion. Though perhaps I'm just scratching the surface of the problem since there were still people demanding objective reviews based purely on mechanics before the word mechanics was in such common usage.

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