Perform or Else! Why (and how) to include extroverted play design in your game

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Perform or Else!Why (and how) to include
extroverted play design in your game

• Katherine Isbister, Ph.D.
• Rensselaer (RPI)

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Who I am

• GDC 2004 10 Tricks from Psychology for Better
  Game Character Design(best of show dvd, now a
  book) http//www.katherineinterface.com/isbister_g
  dc_2004.htm
• Today, turning away from the screen toward the
  players, with the social psychological approach.

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Who I am

• Was at Stanford University(teaching game
  character design in the HCI program)
• now at Rensselaer (RPI)founded Games Research
  Lab (social, emotional, and physical gaming,
  new evaluation techniques)Game Studies Minor
  (Major coming)http//www.rpi.edu/isbisk/

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No (wo)man is an island

• Lots of contributors to this talk
• Conceptual
• Practical/Tactical

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No (wo)man is an island

• Conceptual contributors
• Henry Lowood, Stanford University
• Jane McGonigal, UC Berkeley and 42 Entertainment
• Jon McKenzies book (by way of Jane)Perform or
  Else From Discipline to Performance

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No (wo)man is an island

• Tactical contributors
• Georgina Corzine and company (Supergroop studios)
• Rensselaer Games Research Group and DDR Club
• Henry Lowood

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The next 50 minutes

• Defining terms What is extroverted play?
• Motivations Why should I care?
• Tactics How to design for extroverted play
• Q and A

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Defining terms Whats extroverted play?
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Whats extroverted play?

• (EK-struh-vurt) A term introduced by the
  psychologist Carl Jung to describe a person whose
  motives and actions are directed outward.
  Extroverts are more prone to action than
  contemplation, make friends readily, adjust
  easily to social situations, and generally show
  warm interest in their surroundings. (Compare
  introvert.) - from Bartleby online

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Whats extroverted play?

• (IN-truh-vurt) A term introduced by the
  psychologist Carl Jung to describe a person whose
  motives and actions are directed inward.
  Introverts tend to be preoccupied with their own
  thoughts and feelings and minimize their contact
  with other people. (Compare extrovert.) -
  from Bartleby online
•   

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Whats extroverted play?

• What do games evoke in players?

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Whats extroverted play?

• Jung believed we all have both sides.
• Games can bring out extroverted aspects of
  players, and this can be good for your game.

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Whats extroverted play?

• Symptoms
• Groups gathering around game play, egging a
  player on or giving them tips
• Visible emotion and physical engagement
• Players showing off for others
• Storytelling around the game play, about
  legendary personalities or moments
• A culture of fan sites and game play stories and
  movies

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Motivations Why should I care?
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Why should I care?

• Extroverted play can extend game reach and shelf
  life, without necessarily costing more.
• Extroverted play can be the seed of new genres of
  play (e.g. Pervasive games)

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How does this work?

• Beginners are more likely to jump in.
• Players have more fun and play longer.
• More people will see your game and decide to play
  themselves.
• (Essentially, youre using peoples extroversion
  to propagate your game)

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Tactics How to Design for Extroverted Play
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Tactics How to Design for Extroverted Play

• Helps to think like a social psychologist
  leveraging peoples social tendencies.

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Tactics How to Design for Extroverted Play

• Five principles Ill share today
• Monkey see, monkey do.
• Shake your _at_ and your mind will follow.
• Contact high fun is contagious.
• Watch one, do one, teach one.
• Remember when?

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1. Monkey see, Monkey do.

• Social Learning Albert Bandura

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1. Monkey see, Monkey do.

• Physical games with simple interfaces
• Donkey Konga
• DDR
• Party games with simple control structures and
  quick feedback loops
• Katamari Damacy
• Super Smash Brothers Melee
• Multi-player FPS play
• Quake, Halo, and the like.
• Replays and sites for complex games
• Warcraft 3

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1. Monkey see, Monkey do.

• ltFootagegt http//www.supergroop.com/START.html

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1.Monkey see, Monkey do.

• Design principles
• Make it easy to see what a player is doing and
  understand the connection between actions and
  game play effects.
• Allow players to make shareable replays to
  leverage one anothers knowledge easily.
• Build observational learning checks into
  play-testing cycles.

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2.Shake your _at_ and your mind will follow

• Facial feedback hypothesis
• The pencil test Strack, Martin Stepper, 1988
• Works for posture, too (why mom always told you
  to stand up straight)

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2.Shake your _at_ and your mind will follow

• Physical games
• DDR
• Donkey Konga
• EyeToy games
• Pervasive games
• Games with really physically fun avatars
• Original Devil May Cry
• Mortal Kombat, Tekken, and other fighters
• Tony Hawk, SSX, other extreme sports
• Link, Mario, and the like.

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2.Shake your _at_ and your mind will follow

• ltfootagegt http//www.supergroop.com/START.html
• Jak and Daxter, Super Monkey Ball 2

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2.Shake your _at_ and your mind will follow

• Design principles
• Make player characters physically bouncy and fun
  (physical feedback loop for player)
• Get a persons face and body moving as part of
  game play

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3. Contact high Fun is contagious

• Emotional Contagion Hatfield, E., Cacioppo,
  J.T., and Rapson, R.L.

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3. Contact high Fun is contagious

• Any game that allows for more than one player (or
  has over-the-shoulder appeal) in which people
  start to get really involved
• Donkey Konga
• Katamari Damacy
• Pervasive games
• Multi-player games that work to build player
  excitement and momentum and support fan sites.
• World of Warcraft
• Halo 2
• Games with NPCs that are clearly having fun
• Sports games (e.g. NBA Live)

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3. Contact high Fun is contagious

• ltfootagegt http//www.supergroop.com/START.html
• NBA Live 2004

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3. Contact high Fun is contagious

• Design principles
• Make it easy for people to see each other
  perform.
• Offer ways for players to perform when they are
  in the mood or on form.
• Make it easy to witness performance events and
  know when cool moments will happen.

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3. Contact high Fun is contagious

• Design principles
• Highlight playerss greatest hits and explose new
  players to these.
• Provide NPC performers to beat or to up the
  impression of energy and crowd.
• Test in groups to make affordances best possible.

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4. Watch one, do one, teach one

• J.P. Gee, What Video Games Have to Teach Us About
  Learning and Literacy communities of learners

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4. Watch one, do one, teach one

• Many games allow for teaching, few explicitly
  afford and reward player teaching.
• MMORPGs are the cutting edge in this area.

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4. Watch one, do one, teach one

• ltfootagegt http//www.supergroop.com/START.html

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4. Watch one, do one, teach one

• Design principles
• Make clear to players ways they can step up and
  perform to show others what to do.
• Offer incentives to do so.
• Think about making the teaching process easy and
  fun (coaching tools).

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5. Remember when?

• Heros Journey (J. Campbell)--myths and stories
  act as freeze-dried social interaction.

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5. Remember when?

• Game examples
• Quake and other FPS tribes
• Events and happenings in MMORPG games
• Pervasive game mementos on sites
• Events even in single player games (Animal
  Crossing seasons and parties)
• Sims Family Albums
• Machinima and other player story-making

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5. Remember when?

• ltfootagegt http//www.supergroop.com/START.html
• World of warcraft dance

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5. Remember when?

• Design principles
• Make it easy for players to share their
  performance stories online and in other
  venues--think about this kind of support for your
  game (replays, albums, movies).
• Let people personalize their avatars and create
  images and handles that can have a reputation
  that precedes them. Make it easy to move these
  personas around.
• Use a camera to record expressions and runs
  together (EyeToy, etc)?

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Recap the 5 principles

1. Monkey see, monkey do.
2. Shake your _at_ and your mind will follow.
3. Contact high fun is contagious.
4. Watch one, do one, teach one.
5. Remember when?

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Help your players find the extrovert within
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Thanks!

• For more info
• http//www.rpi.edu/isbisk/
• Isbisk_at_rpi.edu