'A game is an interactive structure of endogenous meaning that requires players to struggle towards goals' (2004:24)
Below I have broken down the individual aspects of this quote and I've explained how I understood these terms.
Interactive structure - Not necessarily a digital game, it can be any form of game such as a board game like Monopoly. When something is 'interactive', it literally means the player can interact with it in some way. If it isn't interactive, it isn't a game, but the interaction must have game value. A good example would be a light switch, though it's interactive, it has no game value.
Endogenous - Something which creates value only inside the realms of a game, a games structure creates its own meaning. A good example used was Momopoly money. Monopoly money is endogenous to the game, as it would be worthless anywhere apart from the game Monopoly; you wouldn't be able to use it in a real life context.
Struggle - In order for a game to be fun, there must be complications to overcome. His example was a game based in Britain during WW2, in which your two choices are 'Give up' or 'Go against Hitler and win'. If doing that ends your game, it wasn't fun. There has to be a struggle between the start and finish in order to make the conclusion feel more satisfying for the player. The same thing goes for games such as dungeons and dragons, if the players are getting bored, it means the game master isn't setting a hard enough challenge for them. When a player struggles, they get better at the game, therefore they level up.
Goals - Goals are one of the most important aspect of games. The most important thing for a game designer making an RPG is to set lots of different goals, allowing the player to choose what they want to do and when they want to do it. If you don't give the player any choices, merely telling them to constantly go and kill monsters to level up, the game will lose it's playability very quickly.
Endogenous - Something which creates value only inside the realms of a game, a games structure creates its own meaning. A good example used was Momopoly money. Monopoly money is endogenous to the game, as it would be worthless anywhere apart from the game Monopoly; you wouldn't be able to use it in a real life context.
Struggle - In order for a game to be fun, there must be complications to overcome. His example was a game based in Britain during WW2, in which your two choices are 'Give up' or 'Go against Hitler and win'. If doing that ends your game, it wasn't fun. There has to be a struggle between the start and finish in order to make the conclusion feel more satisfying for the player. The same thing goes for games such as dungeons and dragons, if the players are getting bored, it means the game master isn't setting a hard enough challenge for them. When a player struggles, they get better at the game, therefore they level up.
Goals - Goals are one of the most important aspect of games. The most important thing for a game designer making an RPG is to set lots of different goals, allowing the player to choose what they want to do and when they want to do it. If you don't give the player any choices, merely telling them to constantly go and kill monsters to level up, the game will lose it's playability very quickly.
These are competent notes, it would be good at the end to add a paragraph with your own thoughts on the article, how has it made you think about the games you have played and what you might design?
ReplyDeleteIt's nice to see a wordle!
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