Chapter 2.1 Understanding Fun

1
Chapter 2.1Understanding Fun
2
What is Fun?

• Dictionary Enjoyment, a source of amusement
  but that doesnt help
• Important to consider underlying reasons
• Funativity thinking about fun in terms of
  measurable cause and effect

3
Evolutionary Roots

• We must look to our distant past
• Young mammals play to learn basic survival skills
• Games are organized play
• Human entertainment is also at its heart about
  learning how to survive
• Mating and social rules also critical to us

4
Education Entertainment

• Life is all either work, rest, or fun
• Fun is about practicing or learning new survival
  skills in a relatively safe setting
• People who didnt enjoy that practice were less
  likely to survive to become our ancestors

5
Hunting and Gathering

• For most of our species history we were tribal
  hunter/gatherers
• Current popular games reflect this
• Shooters, wargames hunting
• Powerups, resources gathering
• Sims, MMO social, tribal interaction

6
Natural Funativity Theory

• Basic concept is that all fun derives from
  practicing survival and social skills
• Key skills relate to early human context, but
  often in modern guise
• Three overlapping categories
• Physical, Social, and Mental

7
Physical Fun

• Sports generally enhance our strength, stamina,
  coordination skills
• Exploration is fun
• Both of local area and knowledge of exotic places
• Hand/eye coordination and tool use are often
  parts of fun activities crafts
• Physical aspect to gathering stuff

8
Social Fun

• Storytelling is a social activity
• A way to learn important survival and social
  lessons from others
• Gossip, sharing info w/friends popular
• Flirting, showing off, finding mates is a key
  interest in social fun
• Language has become paramount

9
Mental Fun

• Our large brains make humans unique
• Pure abstract reasoning practice is fun
• Pattern matching and generation
• Music, Art, and Puzzles all pattern based
• Gathering also has mental aspect, categorizing
  and identifying patterns

10
Multipurpose Fun

• Many fun activities have physical, social and
  mental aspects in combination
• Games that mix these aspects tend to be very
  popular
• Incorporate ways to practice these skills to
  increase the popularity of games

11
Definition of a Great Game

• A great game is a series of interesting and
  meaningful choices made by the player in pursuit
  of a clear and compelling goal

12
A Series of Choices in Pursuit of a Goal

• Must have choice, or it is not interactive
• Must be a series of choices or it is too simple
  to be a game
• Must have a goal or it is a software toy
• With Sim City and The Sims players may bring
  their own goals

13
Interesting and Meaningful Choices

• Choices may be dull and uninteresting because it
  was easy to code that way
• Or it may be the reflection of a lazy designer
• Meaningful choices are perceived by the player as
  having significant consequences
• May not have actual consequences

14
Clear and Compelling Goal

• Clear goals
• Because it is not fun to flounder aimlessly
• Avoid the protagonist with amnesia cliché
• Compelling goals are goals that follow the
  concepts in Natural Funativity
• Survival is always a compelling goal

15
A Series of Choices

• No choice

16
A Series of Choices

• Meaningless choices
• Obviously fold back into same path
• Players discover this quickly

17
A Series of Choices

• Infinite choices
• Quickly become unmanageable

18
A Series of Choices

• Choose wisely
• Kill off player with any wrong choice
• Better but frustrating (Dragons Lair)

19
Classic Game Structure

• A convexity
• Starts with a single choice, widens to many
  choices, returns to a single choice

20
Convexity Qualities

• Go from one to many to one
• Can be a level, an act, an episode
• Can be any kind of choice
• Geography, weapons, tools, skills, technologies,
  quests
• Examples
• Exploring an island
• Technology build tree

21
Fractal Structure

• Large scale structure repeated on medium, smaller
  scales, like a coastline
• In the case of convexities, each circle is not a
  single choice, but a convexity
• Age of Empires example
• Take a defensive stance, create squad to defend
  left flank, collect resources to build a
  legionnaire, etc.

22
A Series of Convexities

• Many games are chains of convexities
• Points of limited choice (A) alternate with
  points of many choices (B)

23
A Series of Convexities

• Many overlapping convexities in great games
• Examples include Halo, Zelda games, Civilization,
  Diablo II, many others
• Player can be starting one task or area, in the
  middle of another, and at the end of a third, all
  simultaneously

24
Why Is This Structure So Good?

• Give the player choice but not an infinitely
  expanding set of choices
• Mix of some any order choices (B) and some in
  fixed order (A), blending freedom with linear
  storytelling
• Can be structured so players see most of the
  game, minimizing waste
• Can have difficulty go up in new levels

25
Psychological Advantagesof Classic Structure

• Alternating intense learning (A) with time to
  practice (B) is the best way to master new skills
• Gradual learning and introduction of new skills
  at the heart of fun game play
• Easy to learn, difficult to master
• Simple, Hot, and Deep

26
The Concept of Flow

• U of C professor Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi
• One of his books is Flow The Psychology of
  Optimal Experience
• Flow is a state of exhilaration, deep sense of
  enjoyment
• Usually when a persons body or mind is stretched
  to its limits to accomplish something difficult
  and worthwhile

27
The Flow Channel

• Start with relatively low level of challenge to
  match starting skill levels
• Gradually increase challenge
• Fast enough to prevent boredom
• Not so fast as to induce frustration

28
The Flow Channel
29
The Flow Channel

• Flow state is common while developing same
  Physical, Social, and Mental skills noted in
  Natural Funativity
• Best to introduce skills one at a time, let
  player master them, move on to new
• This results in staggered increase in difficulty
  (wavy difficulty line)

30
Difficulty Increase Varies
31
Typical Game Mechanisms

• High difficulty increase Boss monsters,
  climactic battles, quest resolutions
• Low difficulty increase Bonus levels, new
  resource- and treasure-rich areas, series of easy
  minion enemies
• Overlap introduction of new skills, areas to
  explore, tools, enemies

32
Story and Character

• Back to interesting choices and compelling
  goals how to achieve?
• Story and character can add emotional
  association, strengthen reaction
• Storytelling has long history, but interactive
  storytelling can differ critically from
  traditional linear modes

33
Interactive Storytelling

• Blend storytelling with design early
• Use experienced interactive writers
• Do, dont show let players experience story
  through interaction
• Make it personal by having players make key
  choices, events affect them

34
Its All About Interactivity

• Dont make choices for the player
• Story should add emotional context to the choices
• Keep any cut scenes brutally short
• Break up non-interactive sequences by adding
  interactivity, even if very simple

35
Characters

• Characters can make the game world seem more real
  and exciting
• Bold stereotypes may seem crude but are better
  than colorless characters, and can help avoid
  boring exposition
• Bring out character through action, not
  description or exposition

36
Gameplay Trumps Story

• If you have a conflict between gameplay or story,
  first look for a compromise that favors both
• Failing that, make sure that the gameplay is good
  at expense of story
• Always signal player clearly in narrative to
  interactive transitions with visuals, audio