Fun

Robin Burke

GAM 224

Outline

Fun / PleasureTypes of PleasureFlowManaging Difficulty

MeaningSystems of meaning

Fun

Important, but vague conceptWhat makes the player want to play?What makes the player want to keep

playing? Not always the same thing for a given

game

Experience vs Pleasure

Experiencewhat players do (most) to play

Funthe pleasurable quality of those

experiences

Example

Soccer Perception

• trajectory of ball• trajectory of players

Analysis• negative space

Decision• points of attack / defense

Execution• positioning, dribbling, passing, shooting, blocking,

tackling

Where is the fun?

Being right (cognitive) correctly identifying a weakness and

exploiting it Being skillful (sensation)

correct physical execution Being competitive (contest)

winning individual confrontations winning the game

Being collaborative (social) communicating well with team members

Typologies of pleasure

Fun is a vague conceptwe want to talk about the

pyschological rewards of playing"pleasure"

Various ways to analyze these rewards

LeBlanc

Sensation the game engages the senses

Fantasy the game lets us play make-believe

Narrative the game has interesting characters and compelling drama

Challenge we can confront and overcome challenges

Fellowship we can build relationships with other people

Discovery we discover new things and places

Expression we express ourselves

Submission we follow blindly

Caillois

Agoncompetitive struggle

Aleachance

Mimicrymake-believe

Ilinxphysical sensation

Soccer, revisited

Sensation the feel of the field, the sounds and sights of the players in action

Fantasy imagining yourself as Pele, David Beckham or Freddie Adu

Narrative the story of the game dramatic moments – the highlight reel

Challenge meeting the physical demands of running, blocking and kicking meeting the cognitive demands of offensive and defensive play

Fellowship the comradeship of the team

Discovery learning new techniques

Expression developing a personal style of play

Submission the rituals of the game

• the kickoff, the corner kick, etc.

Asteroids

Sensation black and white vector drawings

Fantasy imagining yourself commanding a space ship

Narrative individual dramatic moments

Challenge the demands of maneuvering and clearing asteroids the increasing challenge of higher game levels

Fellowship not much

Discovery not much

Expression not much

Submission not much

Wind Waker

Sensation cartoony, but beautiful and fantastic imagery realistic natural sounds

Fantasy imagining yourself as a young warrior

Narrative the unfolding of plot elements leading to the defeat of Gannon

Challenge figuring out puzzles defeating enemies

Fellowship not much

Discovery finding and exploring new locations acquisition of new items and new powers

Expression not much

Submission the stylized forms of combat limitation of action

Thunderstorm

Sensation simple drawings throwing the dice

Fantasy not much

Narrative increased tension with fewer dice the destruction of houses

Challenge not much

Fellowship sharing the game activity

Discovery not much

Expression not much

Submission the acceptance of random outcome

Sources of pleasure

Games differ in where the pleasure arises

Video games emphasize particular types of challenge

• cognitive• hand-eye coordination

emphasize fantasy emphasize narrative

Because these capitalize on the advantages of the

computer

The cost of fun

Pleasure is not cheap high-quality graphics and sound creative stories and vivid dialog thoroughly tested and balanced gameplay mechanics lots of territory to discover all expensive

Top game titles are expensive to produce because they try to provide pleasure of all types

Focused titles emphasize a subset are criticized for the things they leave out cheaper to make require perfect execution

Classic engineering trade-off put development effort where the biggest pleasure pay-off lies

Challenge

Most important source of pleasure in video gamesin the post-arcade era

Reasonssuits the computer's strengths

• easy to make things faster• more intense

suits the aesthetics of the audience• adolescent males

Level of Challenge

"hide and seek"

Difficulty

Too hardgame can't be enjoyed

Too easygame is boringnothing to learn

Quantifying difficulty

Analytical# of choicescomplexity of decision

• branching factor

complexity of execution Empirical

Playtesting

Adjusting difficulty

change probabilities more accuracy required

change opposing force more opponents smarter opponents

new option decision-making more complex

• as long as dominance avoided new opponent / environment

more to learn new constraint

routine patterns can't be applied

Pacing

"Pace" of the gamespeed at which new challenges are

introduced= speed at which player must master

each in order to succeed

Arcade games

primary challenge speed and accuracy of response

• "button mashing"

difficulty adjustments number of targets response speed required cost of error

usually continuous increase of difficulty until impossible

Example

WarioWare

Match skills and opportunities

More opportunities than skillsplayer will floundergame becomes overwhelming

More skills than opportunitiesgame is limitingplayer feels confined

Mastery

When the choices and perceptions become "automatic"non-deliberative

Can only happen whenskills are fully learnedperceptions correctly trained

Path to mastery = repetition

Basic psychologyrepetition of skill increases

performance But

how to manage repetition?major concern in game design

Repetition

Invariant starting level all over Drawback

• level involves many skills• failure in one means need to repeat all

Decomposition emphasize new skills as acquired Problem

• must generate more levels Practice Mode

allow player to practice outside of main game

Flow

"The state in which people are so involved in an activity that nothing else seems to matter; the experience itself is so enjoyable that people will do it even at great cost, for the sheer sake of doing it."Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

Flow state

Loss of sense of time Intense focus Responses are fast, continuous and

(almost) unconscious Many examples

athletes, musicians, surgeons, pilots, soldiers

gamers

Flow games

Any well-designed game can induce flowchess

Some games are designed specifically to require continuous, not-too-deliberative actionracing gameswarioware

Example

What builds flow?

Attention invested in realistic goals Skills match opportunities for action Skills can be mastered Learning

acquisition of skillsincreased ability to participateshared community / developed

commitment

Flow as a design goal

Present the player with realistic goals Match skills and affordances Teach skills Have those skills increase level of

participation Develop the player's commitment

Realistic goals

Goal is realistic if it can be accomplished by the playermight require acquisition of new skills

Player has to adopt the goal and understand that it is possible

Level of challenge

Conditioning

Basic learning systemPavlov's dog

People will be more likely to do Xif doing X has been rewarded in the

past People will be less likely to do X

if doing X has been punished in the past

Reinforcement in games

Reward positive reinforcement

• a power-up• a cool animation• a new move

negative reinforcement• removal of an obstacle• destruction of an enemy

Punishment starting over loss of life / health / power-up

Schedules

There must be enough regular rewards to keep player playinglong-term big rewards are theoretically

the same• but practically a player wants goodies

The rewards must be substantial enough and regular enoughto make enduring the punishments

worthwhile

Reward types

Glory not game-play related

• finishing the game• cool cut-scene

Sustenance give the player needed resources

• health packs• ammo

Access give player access to new spaces / levels

• keys• maps

Facility give avatar new abilities

• new weapon• ability to fly

Meaning

Meaning review

Meaning is created by the interpretation of signifiers in context

A game designercreates a new contextwith new meaningsusing particular signifiers

Systems of meaning

Individual signifiers"hand with red circle" means

"disabled" System of signifiers

whole set of icons for different status conditions

When a new icon appearsplayers has to try to understand what

it might mean

Play of meaning

The way in which the game invites the player to use its system of signs

Activitiesinterpreting signslearning new signslooking for signssometimes inventing signs

Assassin

The clown nose means "an 'assassin' is out to get

somebody" means "I'm metaphorically disguised" means "I'm playing the game"

People fleeing means "I'm playing the game" means "I'm escaping an in-game threat"

Play with meaning

Sometimes games invite play with meaning Signs with conventional meaning are

subverted dissonance between the conventional

meaning and the game's meaning Examples

Spin the Bottle• a kiss signifies?

Grand Theft Auto• carjacking signifies?

Game Metacommunication

Meta (beyond or behind)

The communication about the game as opposed to the communication required in order to

play How do we know that we are playing

constant stream of communicative acts required to keep play going

to signal involvement focus of attention readiness of participation game-appropriate demeanor

World of Warcraft MMORPG The game has in it a wide variety of signs

with in-game meanings Signs

types of characters, monsters, NPCs artifacts of all kinds the look of towns, buildings, countryside

These have a coherence to them that makes the game comprehensible

Players play with these signs they pick names, races, occupations they might choose armor that looks cool

• regardless of its powers they adopt a certain style of play

• that has a personal character

WoW, cont'd

Meta-communicationPlayers communicate a lot

• through various channels

They are trying to send signals about play

• whether they can be trusted members of a party, for example

Monday

Game Design activity Bring your playing cards