{"id":429,"date":"2014-09-08T18:56:43","date_gmt":"2014-09-08T18:56:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mycours.es\/gamedesign2014\/?page_id=429"},"modified":"2014-10-21T15:10:19","modified_gmt":"2014-10-21T15:10:19","slug":"game-design-terms","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"http:\/\/mycours.es\/gamedesign2014\/game-design-terms\/","title":{"rendered":"Game Design Vocabulary I"},"content":{"rendered":"

Some terms to discuss in class in relationship to the games we played…<\/p>\n

Skill vs chance<\/h1>\n

\"\"<\/a>
\nLibro de los juegos
\n<\/a>
\nThe text is a treatise that addresses the playing of three games: a game of skill, or chess; a game of chance, or dice; and a third game, backgammon, which combines elements of both skill and chance<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Mancala games 6900 BC, Jordan.
This is when the homo sapiens started to become sedentary and developed agriculture. In these games the tokens are seeds and they are based on sowing and reaping. We can easily infer that they were used to support the conceptual development of the agrarian mentality.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"\"<\/a>
Senet circa 3500 BC. Egyptian. It\u2019s a 2 player game but there are depiction of people playing in solitary mode too, like they are playing with an invisible opponent, possibly god. It\u2019s a game of chance, and since the Egyptians believed in determinism it meant that if you are lucky in the game the gods are with you.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"\"<\/a>
Victorian era boardgames often had moral themes to prevent any association with gambling. Some would even use alternative dice called teetotum.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"\"<\/a>
Mansion of happiness 1843. Linear path based on chance. You have to reach happiness (eternal happiness) without landing on \u201cvices\u201d zone that will take you back as punishment. Like \u201cidleness\u201d takes you to \u201cpoverty\u201d. Similar to the game of Goose from the 15th century.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"\"<\/a>
Early and proto-pinball manufacturers often put a “game of skill” notice on the machines to avoid being framed as gambling<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

4 elements of play by Roger Callois<\/h1>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Man, Play and Games was written by french sociologist Roger Callois in 1961. The book introduced important terminology in game studies. He describes four “play forms” that are the basis for the enjoyment of cames and that can be present in different degrees in each game:<\/p>\n

Agon, or competition.<\/strong> Present in skill based, competitive game like sports or chess.
\nAlea, or chance. <\/strong> Present in gambling games like slot machines or roulette.
\nMimicry, or mimesis<\/strong> Present in role playing games or pretend games.
\nIlinx, or vertigo<\/strong> Present in perception alterning play, like merry go round and visually intensive videogames.<\/p>\n

He also notably defined a a continuum in which games can be places ranging from:
\nLudus<\/strong> – structured activities with explicit rules (games)
\nto
\nPaidia<\/strong>, unstructured and spontaneous activities (child play)<\/p>\n

Theme and gameplay<\/h1>\n
\"\"<\/a>
Carcassonne hunters and gatherers<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Ludonarrative dissonance<\/a> by Clint Hocking
\nOther examples? Is storytelling in Gloom theme or mechanic?
\nWhat about theme in LOTR: the confrontation?<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Flavor text in collectible card games<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"\"<\/a>
Freedom: the Underground Railroad – cards from the board game<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"\"<\/a>
The first activist game was designe more than 100 years ago by a. Quaker woman called Lizzie Magie (it was the first game that obtained a US patent).\u00a0
She believed that the main cause of poverty was land monopoly and the way to solve it was to impose a single uniform tax that would discourage speculation. So she created a game to represent this conflict. Thirty years later a man called Charles Darrow patented a modification of the landlord\u2019s game and turned into a “pro landlord” game. It would later become Monopoly.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Flavor change<\/strong>
\nIn an economy where 3 players try to accumulate resources:<\/span><\/strong>
\n3 Players<\/span><\/strong> start with 5 resources<\/span><\/strong> + 3 resources<\/span><\/strong> in the pool<\/span><\/strong> (center of the table)
\nEach turn players<\/span><\/strong> take a decision in Rock Paper Scissors style. Players<\/span><\/strong> can choose Action A<\/span><\/strong> (fist) or Action B<\/span><\/strong> (open hand).
\nThere are 4 possible outcomes:
\nOutcome 1<\/span><\/strong> – one player chooses Action A<\/span><\/strong>: this player takes 1 resource<\/span><\/strong> from each other player.
\nOutcome 2<\/span><\/strong> – two players choose Action A<\/span><\/strong>: these players both give 1 resource<\/span><\/strong> to the third player.
\nOutcome 3<\/span><\/strong> – three players choose Action A<\/span><\/strong>: all players put 1 resource<\/span><\/strong> in the pool<\/span><\/strong>
\nOutcome 4 <\/span><\/strong>– three players choose Action B<\/span><\/strong>: the player with most resources<\/span><\/strong> proposes once, without discussion nor barter, how to divide the pool<\/span><\/strong>. If at least one player agrees the decision becomes effective. Otherwise, nobody takes anything.
\nThe game ends<\/span><\/strong> when the first player is out of resources<\/span><\/strong> the player with the most resources wins.<\/p>\n

[Prisoner’s dilemma, minority game, ultimatum game, framing…]<\/p>\n

Meaningful play \/ meaningful choices<\/h1>\n
\"\"<\/a>
Candyland: worst game ever or tool for game literacy?<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In Rules of Play, Katie Salen and Eric Zimmerman provide two definitions of meaningful play (the goal of game design):<\/p>\n

Meaningful play in a game emerges from the relationship between player action and system outcome; it is the process by which a player takes action within the designed system of a game and the system responds to the action. The meaning of an action in a game resides in the relationship between action and outcome<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Meaningful play is what occurs when the relationships between actions and outcomes in a game are both discernible<\/em> and integrated<\/em> into the larger context of the game<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Candyland, battleship, bingo lack actual choices. Tic-tac-toe stops being meaningful to an “expert” player.
\nWhen choices are not discernible and integrated the game may break or stop making sense to the player. Did my choice had an effect? Was that event random or was it my fault?
\nAny video game examples?<\/p>\n

But also: did I have several interesting choices or there was always a no-brainer choice? Lost Cities (discarding), Zooloretto (pushing the luck, affecting the players).<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
What about choices that have no real effect but the player doesn’t know it? See also my Unmanned.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"\"
Twitch plays Pokemon – what makes these choices not meaningful anymore?<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Perfect information \/ imperfect information<\/h1>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

A game possesses perfect information<\/em> if each player, when making any decision, is perfectly informed of all the events that have previously occurred.<\/p>\n

Imperfect information introduces uncertainty but it’s not the same as chance. Some games can have randomness with perfect information and others can have imperfect information without chance. Can you make some examples? From the boardgames we played?<\/p>\n

Private\/hidden information can become public and vice-versa. Can the rules of a game be information as well?
\nWhat about videogames?<\/p>\n

Playtime<\/strong>
\nMafia\/werewolf, the resistance, 2 rooms and a boom.<\/p>\n

Targeted interaction<\/h1>\n
\"\"<\/a>
Is Munchkin fun to people who don’t get college dorm humor?<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

5 fingers<\/strong> – Eric Zimmerman (Chip-taking game)
\nRule 1: Get a group of three or more people.
\nRule 2: Put up five fingers.
\nRule 3: Take turns eliminating each others\u2019 fingers.
\nRule 4: Last person with fingers wins.<\/p>\n

What are the dynamics and the winning strategies (see also Mafia\/werewolf)?<\/p>\n

Politics\/metagaming, “electing” a winner, kingmaking (3rd player problem A & B are contending and C has no chance).
\nIssues with player elimination or effective elimination (player knows has no chance but has to keep playing), griefing. What are some of the solutions to address problematic interaction in games like Carcassonne, Zooloretto, Guts of glory, Pandemic or others?<\/p>\n

Cooperative games<\/h1>\n
\"\"<\/a>
The Lap Game, iconic example from the New Games Movement<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Knots<\/strong> by Bernie DeKoven
\n1. Players form a circle and face the center.
\n2. Extend a hand toward the center a select somebody else’s hand to hold on, the person must not be adjacent.
\n3. Extend the other hand toward the center and do the same, making sure that the hang you clasp is not by the same person.
\n4. Without letting the hands go try to disentangle and form a circle similar to the beginning.<\/p>\n

Triangles<\/strong>
\n1. Players form a circle and face the center.
\n2. Silently and secretly choose 2 other players, remember them.
\n3. Start walking randomly
\n4. At the signal try to position yourself equidistant from the players your selected
\nThe game ends when the group reaches an equilibrium<\/p>\n

Noah’s ark game<\/strong> by me (just made it up this morning)
\n1. 6 players form a circle and play a rock paper scissors gesture at the same time
\n2. rock is turtle, paper is dog, scissors is bunny
\n3. the goal is to have 2 animals per kind<\/p>\n

What are the dynamics, how to make this game more interesting?<\/p>\n

Issues with Pandemic or other co-op games?
\nOther examples?
\nThe multiplayer solitaire problem and possible solutions: time constraint<\/a>, roles, sheer complexity…<\/p>\n

Snowballing<\/h1>\n
\"\"<\/a>
Victorian era Snakes and Ladders, based on an ancient Indian game (also moral) and basis for chutes and ladders. Illusory catch up<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Any game in which your score increases your power is likely to display snowballing aka reinforcing or positive feedback loop. In real world “the rich gets richer” etc.
\nExamples: monopoly, chess, starcraft.<\/p>\n

This may produce an undesirable game arc since in such kind of games players can be “effectively” eliminated early. There are a few ways to address this:<\/p>\n

– Separating scoring and resources.
\nExamples: most sports (can you imagine a snowballing soccer?), most eurostyle boargames (among the ones you played?).<\/p>\n

– Introducing catch-up mechanics or negative\/balancing loops.
\nExample: Super Mario Kart or organically emerging “target the leader”. Other examples?<\/p>\n

– Chance.
\nIs the snake in snakes and ladders really a catch-up mechanic? What about Flux?<\/p>\n

– Increasing stakes.
\nSnowballing is balanced by attributing more points toward the end thus increasing the possibility of a comeback.
\nExample: Modern Art.<\/p>\n

– Multiple paths to victory
\nThere are different ways to score points so a dominance in one aspect doesn’t determine dominance in another.
\nExample: Carcassonne.<\/p>\n

Downtime and busywork<\/h1>\n
\"\"<\/a>
Twilight Imperium, a complex “Ameritrash” board game<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Not all playtime is actually play. Time is spent performing actions that are not fun or meaningful at all: setting up the game, learning rules, doing math, shuffling cards, waiting for the game to load, waiting for other people’s turn, recovering a ball, mining gold in MMORPG, playing tutorial levels…<\/p>\n

Ideally designers don’t want to waste people’s time and try to minimize unfun\/ancillary parts (exception Farmville-likes, Football).<\/p>\n

In board games there is an economy of gestures, phases, computations that should be optimized and run smoothly and intuitively. Turns shouldn’t be too long and players waiting for their turn should have something to think and strategize about. Many actions don’t actually require turns.
\nThis is a huge part of how a non digital game “feels”.<\/p>\n

Materials<\/h1>\n
\"\"<\/a>
Fluxus artist Takako Saito created a series of art chess sets with unusual materials. In “spice chess” players tell the identical pieces apart by recognizing the smell of them.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Board games are made of objects whose visual and tactile qualities largely affect the experience of a game. Playing a game of GO with actual stones is not the same as playing it online with a friend. Certain bits need to be three-dimensional to facilitate manipulation.<\/p>\n

Among the games you played can you point at successful and unsuccessful choices?
\nGloom?<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Eddo Stern’s Money making workshop is a sculptural boardgame conveys a lot of meaning through the manipulation of its components.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"\"<\/a>
S\u00edoch\u00e1n Leat by Branda Romero. Rules are written in a mixture of equal parts English ink and Irish blood. The game features a burlap pillow simulating an earthen mound covered by 26 pieces of grass, each representing a county in Ireland the burlap was filled with mementos of her upbringing and her heritage, including photographs of her great grandfather, Paddy Donovan, and one of her mother’s rosaries. Too much?<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Some terms to discuss in class in relationship to the games we played… Skill vs chance Libro de los juegos The text is a treatise that addresses the playing of three games: a game of skill, or chess; a game of chance, or dice; and a third game, backgammon, which combines elements of both skill … Continue reading “Game Design Vocabulary I”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-429","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/mycours.es\/gamedesign2014\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/429","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/mycours.es\/gamedesign2014\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/mycours.es\/gamedesign2014\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/mycours.es\/gamedesign2014\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/mycours.es\/gamedesign2014\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=429"}],"version-history":[{"count":25,"href":"http:\/\/mycours.es\/gamedesign2014\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/429\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1229,"href":"http:\/\/mycours.es\/gamedesign2014\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/429\/revisions\/1229"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/mycours.es\/gamedesign2014\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=429"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}