The Experience Rises Out of a Game
For game designers, it is stressed that the game is the object that creates the experience - but then, there is the question of "what is a game?"
The author rants about definitions for a moment - that they are often more limiting than enlightening, but it remains an necessary task fro discourse.
Games are differentiated from toys. A toy is an object that is played with. It is often a prop. When children are given a toy telephone, they play with the object, but their play itself becomes a sort of game.
Surprise is an essential element of game design. "Fun" is described as "pleasure with a surprise" - it involves unexpected outcomes - a sense of curiosity, then of adventure, then of discovery, then of satisfaction.
Freedom is another essential element. The ability to choose is what differentiates play from work. Fundamentally, play comprises the ability to choose to be involved at all, but then the ability to choose what you do during the course play. A game that is tightly constrained loses its entertainment value quickly.
A working definition:
A game is an exercise of voluntary control systems in which there is a contest between powers, confined by rules, in order to produce a disequilibrial outcome.
The author breaks this down: a game is played voluntarily, there is an inherent conflict and a desired outcome, and there are parameters that govern the way the player acts.
This goes back to "game versus toy" - in that a toy does not have rules, nor is there an appreciable outcome that the player is trying to achieve. He's interacting with it out of curiosity.
Another definition focuses on game as an "interactive" experience - in that the player doesn't merely passively observe.
Conflict and desired outcomes are another essential element of game. You must identify what the player wants (values), discover how to enhance and sustain his desire for it. But the player also wants conflict: if he can achieve what he desires easily, the game is not compelling.
In the end, he arrives at ten basic qualities that define a "game":
- Games are entered willfully.
- Games have goals.
- Games have conflict.
- Games have rules.
- Games can be won and lost.
- Games are interactive.
- Games have challenge.
- Games can create their own internal value.
- Games engage players.
- Games are closed, formal systems.
He elaborates on each of these a bit, but they are largely axiomatic.
Another perspective is that a game is a problem-solving activity: the player is presented with a problem to solve, and derives satisfaction from the act of solving it. There is the obvious problem that defines the game, additional problems may reveal themselves during game play, and the player's own actions may generate new problems. The more complex and varied the problems involved in a game, and the wider the possible range of solutions, the more engaging the game will be.