Elements of a System
Formal
system
Experiential
system
Cultural
system
Objects
Pieces, board,
cards
The players
The whole
game
Attributes
(properties)
Rules: moving
pieces, win,
draw, capture
Pieces player
controls; state
of game
Designed
elements
(Tolkien’s
books)
Internal
relationships
Actual
Strategic
positions in the interaction,
board, location psychological
of sauron,
Heroes
(hobbits),
mages, bad
guys (sauron)
Environment
Actual game
play
Book, movies,
games
Context of
play: I rather
see u loose!
Play, Game, System
• Play: jumping
• System: highway system (no artificial conflict)
• Game:
– Rules are the most common element
– Least mentioned characteristics:
• “Art”
• Conflict or contest
Digital Games, non Digital games
• Automated complex systems: capability to maintain and
execute sophisticated processes (e.g., maintaining the state
of the world in Civilization)
• Semi-automated non-digital complex systems: Dungeons
and Dragons. Board, cards are used in a clever way to
maintain lots of information
• Anatomy of choice:
– What happened before the player was given a choice?
– How is the possibility of a choice conveyed to the player?
– How did a player make a choice?
– What is the result of choice? How affects future choices?
– How are the results of choice conveyed?
Meaningful Play
• Meaningful play: player’s actions have a
discernable and integrated outcome
• Example of meaningful play: Tekken
– Discernable: When Nina lands a hit you see it
– Integrated: Opponent looses hps; when hp
reach 0 Nina wins
• Example of non meaningful play:
– Squashing rodents in Diablo, Word of Warcraft
• Relation between Lusory Attitude and Meaningful
play
– If there is no meaningful play, player will not be
willing to overcome artificial obstacles in the
game. Therefore, looses the Lusory Attitude
Game as Open and Closed Systems
• As a closed system (no interaction with outside environment), rules
are the formal schema of the system
• Playing is an experiential schema.
– Play can be both closed (following the rules of the game) and
open (social experience)
• Culture is the contextual schema of the game
– (word: “zerging”. From here)
• Magic circle is the time and space where game occurs
– Separates the game from the “real” world
– Contains everything relate dot the game as a closed system
– And the experiential part of the game as an open system
Final Words
• Average: 79/100
• This time I took a ‘lusory attitude” correcting the test
• For Test # 2 and Final exam, I’ll be looking for clarity and
precision in your answers