Fun – 2h
The opposite of love is not hate, it
is indifference.
Fun in Games
• It is important for a game to work, but it is
not sufficient.
• Some say that a game must be fun in
order to succeed – this is WRONG.
• In order to succeed a game must engage
the emotions in some way.
• One facet of engagement is the presence
of dramatic elements
Quote:
<< I always know how my husband feels
about a game. If he screams, “I hate it! I
hate it! I hate it!” Then I know two things:
a) He’s going to finish it
b) He’s going to buy version two.
If he doesn’t say these things, he’ll put it
down after a couple of hours >>
Dramatic Elements
• Give context to the game, making a
meaningful experience.
• All games have Challenge and Play.
• Some (good ones) have:
• Premise
• Character
• Story
Premise
• Premise is the context of the game world
• Eg: in Monopoly, you are a landlord,
buying and selling property
• Eg: in Doom, you are a commando, trying
to retake a moon which has fallen into
alien hands
Exercise - Premise
• What are the premises for Risk, Cluedo,
Pitstop and Guitar Hero?
• Write down the context of the game world
• If you are not familiar with one or more, do
at least one
• If you are really stuck, guess.
• (5 minutes + plenary)
Character
• “Character” describes the roles that you
and other players take on
• In Tomb Raider, you are Lara Croft.
• We EMPATHISE and experience life in the
game world – triumph and disappointment
• If the damn character won’t do what I want
we switch from first person to third person
in our minds (I can’t -> It won’t!)
Story
• A premise need not go anywhere, but a
story unfolds with time
• How much story is too much/too little?
• Should game-play change the story?
• Should the story dictate the game?
• Stories create powerful engagement.
Exercise - Story
• Write down and games with stories that
you can remember
• Did any appeal to you or even grip you?
• Did any spark your imagination?
• If so, why (...do you think). If not, why not.
• (5 mins + plenary)
An experiment in pronunciation
• I was at a party the other day. This chick
sent me high.
• Repeat after me:
“This chick sent me high.”
Challenge
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Satisfying to complete
Sense of accomplishment
Enjoyment
Individualised to particular player
Dynamic – as player learns, a task
becomes easier, so challenge reduces
Flow
• Mihaly Csikszentmihályi did research
• Set out to identify the elements of
enjoyment:
Regardless of age or class...
Regardless of type of activity...
Everybody described enjoyable activities
in the same way.
Conditions for Flow
1. Clear goals (expectations and rules are
discernible and goals are attainable and
align appropriately with one's skill set and
abilities).
2. Concentrating and focusing, a high degree
of concentration on a limited field of
attention (a person engaged in the activity
will have the opportunity to focus and to
delve deeply into it).
3. A loss of the feeling of self-consciousness,
the merging of action and awareness.
Conditions for Flow
4. Distorted sense of time, one's subjective
experience of time is altered.
5. Direct and immediate feedback
(successes and failures in the course of
the activity are apparent, so that
behavior can be adjusted as needed).
6. Balance between ability level and
challenge (the activity is neither too easy
nor too difficult).
Conditions for Flow
7. A sense of personal control over the
situation or activity.
8. The activity is intrinsically rewarding, so
there is an effortlessness of action.
9. People become absorbed in their activity,
and focus of awareness is narrowed down
to the activity itself, action awareness
merging.
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Not all are needed for flow to be
experienced.
Flow
Flow
Challenge
Frustration
Boredom
Ability
Flow – “A challenging activity that
requires skill”
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Goal directed
Bound by rules
Skills: Mental, Physical, Social
If a player hasn’t got the skill, the game is
frustrating and meaningless
• If a player has some skill, but is not
completely confident, the game is
challenging
Exercise: Flow - Skills
• List a few games you enjoy (not
necessarily computer games)
• List the skills that players would need to
play them
• (5 mins + plenary)
Exercise: Flow - Skills
• You are designing/have designed a game
of your own.
• What skills that people enjoy could you, if
you chose, incorporate into this game/
• (5 mins + plenary)
The Merging of Action and
Awareness
• “When all of a person’s relevant skills are
needed to cope with the challenges of a
situation, that person’s attention is
completely absorbed by the activity”
• “People become so absorbed in what they’re
doing that the activity becomes
spontaneous, almost automatic; they stop
being aware of themselves as separate from
the actions they are performing.”
- Mihaly Csikszentmihályi
Clear Goals and Feedback
• The players know what has to be done to
win and they receive direct feedback for
their actions toward these goals.
• E.g. musicians know what note to play
next and they can hear their mistakes.
• In real life we face contradictory demands.
Goals are not clearly defined. Feedback is
delayed and confusing.
Exercise: Goals and Feedback
• Pick any three games (not necessarily on
the computer)
• List the types of feedback generated in
each
• Describe how the feedback contributes to
the ultimate goal of the game.
• (5 mins + plenary)
Concentration on the Task in Hand
• Players are only aware of what is relevant
here and now.
• Players are focused solely on the
challenges of the game.
• If a musician thinks of his health or tax
problems, he will hit a wrong note
Concentration on the Task in Hand
• A mountaineer:
“You’re not aware of other problematic life
situations. It becomes a world unto its
own, significant only to itself. It’s a
concentration thing. Once you’re in the
situation, it’s incredibly real, and you’re
very much in charge of it. It becomes your
total world.”
The Paradox of Control
• “Only when a doubtful outcome is at stake,
and one is able to influence that outcome,
can a person really know she is in control”
- M.C.
• Outcome must be unsure.
• Person is not in complete control
• Otherwise no experience of control
The Loss of Self Consciousness
• Normally we constantly monitor our image
and status
• However, the Flow experience is engrossing
• We forget our self-consciousness
• Clear goals, stable rules and challenges
matched to skills – so the Self is not
threatened.
• People usually emerge from the Flow
experience with a stronger self-concept.
• The Self expands through acts of selfforgetfulness (!?!)
The Transformation of Time
• People lose track of time
• Sometimes hours seem to pass by in
minutes
• Conversely, a difficult manoeuvre can
seem to take longer than it really does
• A digital game can suck a player in for
hours at a time
• In extreme cases players lose whole days
The Experience becomes an End
in Itself
• Most experiences in life are exotelic – we
do them (shopping, working, studying) to
achieve a goal.
• Flow experiences are autotelic – they are
ends in themselves
• Art, music, sports and games can be
autotelic: we often do them because we
enjoy the experience, and for no other
reason
Applying Flow to Games
• What skills do your target audience have –
how can you balance the game for their
skills?
• How can you give them focused goals,
meaningful experiences and discernable
feedback?
• How can you create a safe environment
where players can focus only on the tasks
at hand?
Applying Flow to Games
• How can you make the game activity
enjoyable as a game in itself?
• Can you merge the player’s actions with
the goals of the game?
Levels of Engagement
• Spectator Play
– Enjoys watching others play. How can you make
a game attractive to spectators?
• Participant Play
– Active and involved. Most directly rewarding
• Transformational Play
– Deep level that shapes and transforms the
player’s life. Children and adults learn skills
through transformational play. (My in-class
exercises are transformational play)
PLAY
• We’re going to talk about play for a while
(and not just in the context of computer
games)
• Let’s start with a rather challenging task:
Write down a few phrases that describe
what play is. (3 mins? + plenary)
PLAY
• Play is another key element that causes
players to engage emotionally
• Play is freedom of movement within a
more rigid structure
• The constraints and the rules are the rigid
structure
• Play is the opportunity for emergent
experience and personal expression
Play:
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Helps us learn skills and acquire knowledge
Lets us socialise
Helps us in problem solving
Allows us to relax
Lets us see things differently
Is not serious – gives us laughter and fun
Can be very serious – pushing boundaries
and trying new things
Play:
• Play is a style of approach rather than a
single activity
• Play is a state of mind rather than an
action
• A way of achieving innovation and
creativity
• Helps us see things differently and
achieve unexpected results
Play – Roger Callois
• Roger Callois in Man, Play and Games
(1958) described four types of play
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Competitive play
Chance based play
Make-believe play
Vertigo play
Play – Roger Callois
• There is also a second dimension:
• Rule-based play
• Free-form play
• Using these two dimensions allows us to
discuss the SORT of pleasure that a game
brings. We now have a vocabulary!
Play – Roger Callois
Free-Form
Rule-Based
Competitive
Unregulated
athletics (Racing,
wrestling)
Boxing, billiards,
fencing, draughts,
chess, football
Chance-based
Counting-out
rhymes
Betting, roulette,
lotteries
Make-believe
Role play, masks,
disguises
Theatre, grand
ceremonies
Vertigo
Children whirling,
horseback riding,
waltzing
Skiing, mountain
climbing, tightrope
walking
Play – Types of players
(Richard Bartle)
• The Competitor: Plays to best other
players, regardless of the game
• The Explorer: Curious about the world,
loves to go adventuring; seeks outside
boundaries—physical or mental
• The Collector: Acquires items, trophies, or
knowledge; likes to create sets, organize
history, etc.
Play – Types of players
• The Achiever: Plays for varying levels of
achievement; ladders and levels motivate
the achiever
• The Joker: Doesn't take the game
seriously-plays for the fun of playing;
there's a potential for jokers to annoy
serious players, but on the other hand,
jokers can make the game more social
than competitive
Play – Types of players
• The Artist: Driven by creativity, creation,
design
• The Director: Loves to be in charge, direct
the play
• The Storyteller: Loves to create or live in
worlds of fantasy and imagination
• The Performer: Loves to put on a show for
others
Play – Types of players
• The Craftsman: Wants to build, craft,
engineer, or puzzle things out
Play – Types of players
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The Competitor
The Explorer
The Collector
The Achiever
The Joker
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The Artist
The Director
The Storyteller
The Performer
The Craftsman
Exercise – Types of players
• I’m going to roll the presentation back to
the previous slide.
• For each type of player, try to jot down a
game that would appeal to them especially
• Having done that – what type of player are
YOU?
Fun Killers
These are “dont’s” – pitfalls which can
undermine your game and kill the fun:
• Micromanagement:
– The player has too many small
decisions to make when she really
wants to get on with the game.
– Set default values. If an enthusiast
really wants to alter these, you might
offer the opportunity
Fun Killers
• Stagnation:
– Nothing new happens for a long period of
time
– Choices stay at the same level of
importance and impact
– There may be no clear goal
– Repetition without variation
– Balance of power traps players
– Try and organise a disaster or other major
event which shakes things up a bit
Fun Killers
• Insurmountable obstacles:
– Through lack of information, a missed
opportunity, lack of experience
– Players hit a major obstacle and get
stuck... then shortly afterwards abandon
the game
– Detect getting-stuck if you can
– Provide clues
– Watch the game testers for sticking points
Fun Killers
• Arbitrary events:
– Small random events can spice up a
game
– Large random events (e.g.
catastrophes) remove the feeling of
being-in-control needed for Flow.
– Caution the player at least three times
before hitting them with something
catastrophic
Fun Killers
• Predictable paths:
– Games with only one path to victory
won’t be played many times
– Try offering a number of paths to victory
– Think about an object-oriented approach
where there is NO path, just a world of
objects which can allow you to
accumulate points
Fun Killers
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Micromanagement
Stagnation
Insurmountable obstacles
Arbitrary events
Predictable paths
Lecture Summary
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Dramatic elements
Flow
Play
Types of play
Types of player
Fun killers