Journal: What did you learn?

As your final journal entry, I want you to look back to what you wrote in week 1 for the “Why are you here?” question and reflect on what you have learnt and how you have changed. Did you discover something that you didn’t expect? Do you have a new perspective on games or game development? Where do you think you’ll go with this in the future?

I would also value any feedback you have on the course and constructive criticism for how it might be improved.

Finally, we will be checking all your journals in the week of Oct 24-30, so you should have finished writing by then. As I said in lectures, I am not expecting you to have written for every single entry. Rather, I am looking for an ongoing engagement with ideas about game design outside of the lectures.

Journal: Are games art?

Are videogames art? Read/watch the following opinions and then formulate your own:

• Kellee Santiago – Are Video games Art?
• Roger Ebert – Video games can never be art
• Brian Moriarty – Apology For Roger Ebert
• Michael Samyn – Almost Art

Journal: Gamification

Given that it has come up this week, I invite you to form your own opinions about gamification. Is it the next big thing, or just a fad? Will it change the world? For the better or for the worse?

Journal: The Bartle Test

What kind of player are you? Take the Bartle Test of Gamer Psychology and find out.

Read more about it in Bartle’s essay “Hearts, Clubs, Diamonds, Spades: Players who suit MUDs“.

For a rigorously analysed critique of whether the categories really exist, check out Nick Yee’s Motivations of Play in MMORPGs, part of the massive Daedalus Project. You can take the motivation test here.

Discuss your readings against your own experience in MMOs or other social games.

journal

Rather than give you a journal topic this week, I am going to suggest you try out some of the design ideas instead. I haven’t seen as many idea postings as I’d like so far, so I encourage you to give more of them a go.

reflection – fairness

Consider the question of fairness in games.

• What makes a game unfair?
• Can a single-player game be unfair? How?
• How does unfairness make the player(s) feel?
• Should we strive to always make our games fair? Or are there any cases where deliberate unfairness is a good thing?

reflection – go for a walk

Go for a walk around your neighbourhood. Look around you and try to see the systems at play in everyday life. What is causing the leaves to swirl like that? Why do birds flock like they do? What forces are at play in creating these dynamics?

Go to a place where there are many people moving about. Observe how they move and look for patterns. What forces are influencing their behaviour? Are they social? architectural? psychological? What kind of experience does this provide?

At this point I’d direct you the Pattern Language website only they’ve gone for the (IMHO) foolish idea of making it subscription based, which seems like a pretty limiting move to me.

Instead I’ll suggest you read Tom Turner’s Essays on Cities and Landscapes.

PS: The first 4 weeks of journals will be marked this weekend.

journal – emergence

Wikipedia defines emergence as “the way complex systems and patterns arise out of a multiplicity of relatively simple interactions”. For an interactive introduction, check out the MIT Media Labs Exploring Emergence site.

What does this have to do with games? Well, in a sense all game dynamics are emergent, but are some kinds of gameplay “more emergent” than others?

Read Penny Sweetser‘s paper on the topic.

Read Brian Moriarty’s talk on Contellation.

What do you make of this? Can we design for emergence? What examples of emergence can you recognise from games you’ve played?

journal 2 – Digital vs Non-Digital

A lot of what we will cover in this course will pertain to all kinds of games — computer games, card games, board games, even sports — but it is worth considering how these different media for games affect the kind of play experiences that are possible. So your question for this week is: what are the differences between table-top board/card/roleplaying games, computer games and sports/live action games? What possibilities and constraints does each kind offer you as a player or as a designer? How might the same game change from one medium to another?

Game 1 – Dominion

The first game I want you to play is Dominion. It is a card game from Rio Grande Games but there is also an version you can play online.

Play a couple of rounds with different decks. If you don’t have much experience, try playing with game with someone who has played for a while and watch what they do. Consider:

• What kind of experience does the game provide?
• What kinds of patterns of play emerge?
• How does the game differ when you change the selection of cards to buy?

Dominion is a great game for game designers to play as it is really a million games in one. The cards you select at the beginning of play can dramatically affect the feel of the game. Try setting a particular design goal (eg: to create a strongly adversarial game or a big-money game) and choosing a set of cards to achieve it.

Write about your experience in your journal. We will talk more about this game in next week’s class.