Chapter 7
Play and Game Culture
Objectives
• Outline the three driving factors that lead to game
design.
• Describe what is meant by the purpose and soul
of a game.
• Define the term play.
• Explain the ways in which play is important for
people.
• Describe how play provides balance to life.
• List the primary player types.
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Objectives (Continued)
• Describe online economies and community
building offered by video games.
• Define video game addiction.
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Driving Design
• There are three driving factors that lead to game
design
– Market
– Designer
– Technology
• In a market-driven design, the game is designed
to meet the needs of the target customers
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Driving Design (Continued)
• A player-centric design is built to focus on what
the player experiences in the game
• Market research is done by surveys, focus
groups, and sight studies
• Designer-driven games are made to show off
artistic and programming skill
• It is important to design games with improved
graphics, realistic physics engines, and new user
interfaces
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Permission granted to reproduce for educational use only.
Driving Design (Continued)
• Technology-driven games implement new
technology
– Hardware
– User interfaces
– Game platforms
• Often, a new technology entices designers to
build games that test the new technology just to
see how it works
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Purpose and Soul
• Many games have stood the test of time because
of the purpose of play
• The central component that makes a game come
alive and become important to the player is called
the soul of the game
• A game with soul has
– Importance of play
– Emotional, thought-provoking connection with the game
choices
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Permission granted to reproduce for educational use only.
Purpose and Soul (Continued)
• Many social networking or social interactive
games use the idea of soul to keep players
coming back and playing more
• An example of a game with soul is a car-racing
game in which the racer is an ambulance driver
• With the development of strategic and thoughtprovoking games with soul comes the dilemma of
how to define play
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Play
• At the heart of play is the concept of fun or
fantasy
• Play is a break from reality that can take shape as
any number of different activities
• To engage in recreation is play
• Play is a term that can be used to define
participation
• Play can take the form of a fantasy
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Play (Continued)
• As you get older, you think of play as a structured
activity with a goal or purpose
• Play can mean to act foolish or to pretend
• The most literal meaning of the word play comes
from the world of theater
• In this use, play means a dramatic performance
or show
• Still another version of play implies the role or part
someone undertakes
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Various Forms of Play
www.freeonlinegames.com
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Importance of Play
• To balance the amount of stress from work and
everyday environments with entertainment,
people use play activities
• In a video game, a player faces obstacles and
challenges
• But these challenges do not carry the same kind
of stress as found in the real world
• Dealing with the challenges in a game may
actually cause a calming effect over time
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Game Addiction
• There must be a balance of work and play to have
a fulfilling life
• Game addicts are people who cannot stop playing
games
• A video game addiction is a psychological
disorder in which a person feels he or she must
play all the time
• One of the greatest contributors to the video
game addiction phenomenon is the massively
multiplayer online (MMO) games
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Game Addiction (Continued)
• There are four categories of MMO games
– Role-playing games
– Real-time strategy games
– First-person shooter games
• When selecting an MMO class, players consider
which type of character fits them best
–
–
–
–
–
Killer
Talker
Explorer
Achiever
Social games
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Examples of Avatars
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Player Types
• Core gamers are players that frequently play
video games and actively devote time to playing
games
• This player type will primarily play games that
involve action and skill
• Casual gamers infrequently play video games
• They are usually not dedicated to a specific game
or genre of games
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Online Community
• A community is considered to be any social
structure in which people exchange ideas
• Members are the people who contribute to the
conversation
• The end user license agreement (EULA) is a set
of rules that every member must agree to
• Abusive players can be removed and not allowed
back into the community
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Online Economy
• The provider economy describes how the game
manufacturer obtains money for games and
services
• When a company advertises on a site, it pays for
each time the advertisement is shown
• Many sites call these advertisers sponsors
• Some online communities accept an online
account service
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Online Economy (Continued)
• In the player economy, players can trade for
game weapons, skills, land, or other items
• Players can buy or sell with money from an online
account service
• In some games, players receive game credits
from other players, which can later be exchanged
for actual cash
• With actual money involved, online communities
face some interesting legal issues
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Review Your Knowledge
• Most game characters are a combination of four
primary character elements (killer, talker, explorer,
and achiever). What percentage of each of the
elements would make a game avatar that appeals
to you?
• Do you think a video game that involves the use
of actual money would be more or less effective at
relieving stress than other games? Why?
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