Reminder: Choose Game for Design
Analysis Project
• Games Chosen so far:
– Super Mario
– FIFA
– Dark Souls
– Super Mario
– Borderlands 2
– Mass Effect 3
– Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas
– Final Fantasy IX
• Game on any digital medium is fine: mobile device,
gaming console, PC etc
• Deadline to select a game: September 30th
Meaningful Play and Game Design
Assigned readings:
Chapters 3 & 4 (Rules of Play Book)
Disclaimer: I use these notes as a guide rather than a comprehensive coverage of the topic. They are neither a
substitute for attending the lectures nor for reading the assigned material
Dr. Héctor Muñoz-Avila
How important is it to play?
• Yes, we play to have “fun”, but
• By playing games we learn a number of skills:
–Social
–Mechanical skills
–Communication skills
–Follow (or break) rules
–We learn that there is something at play
•Direct: winning a game
•Direct/indirect: reward or impress someone
Meaning and Play
• Key goal of successful game design:
Create gaming experience of the player that have a
meaning and are meaningful (“meaningful play”)
• Examples of meaningful play:
•Chess: intellectual dueling
•Basketball: Improvisational, team-based tactics
•MMOs: dynamic shifting of individual and
community identities
What makes a game meaningful are not the rules of the
game alone but the experiences of players playing the game
(this is why iterative design is so crucial in designing a game)
Descriptive Definition of Meaningful Play
• Descriptive:
– meaningful play emerges from the relation between
player action and system outcome
– Player: action  System: responds
• Meaning of an action is the relation between action
and outcome
• Is there meaningful play in a game like this?
Of course, player execute moves/combos
with an intended outcome
This definition reflects an operational level
Evaluative Definition of Meaningful Play
• Evaluative:
– Meaningful play occurs when relation between
actions and outcomes are discernable and
integrated into the larger context of the game
• This definition relates to the experience of the player
• Therefore the evaluative definition is the one we use in
our analysis
Discernable
• The outcome of an action is communicated in a
perceivable way.
• Good examples?
– Where the outcome was communicated
– Other two examples: one and two
• Bad examples?
– Where the outcome was not communicated
• Designers learn hard lessons from early games
(Stonkers)
Integrated
• Actions taken by player have not only immediate
significance but affects player experience later on.
• Good examples?
– Where the outcome has significance later on
– How about chess?
– Here is a typical example (consequences 1 and 2)
• What about games with linear storylines, are they
integrated?
• Bad examples?
– Where the outcome has significance no later on
– What about minigames?
Side Track: Massive Multiplayer Online
RPGs (MMOs)
• Persistent world
• RPG: players take role
– Priest: heal other players
– Warrior: draws attention of the MOB towards him/her
– Mage: deal damage
• “dude wuts ur DPS?”
– … (as many as 20 other roles in modern games)
• Character advances “levels” and gains new skills that
facilitates its role. Example
• Fundamental that each player master their avatar’s role to
defeat some encounters
– 10+ avatars following a plan
So What is Discernable and Integrated in
MMOs?
• Discernable
• Integrated
Design
• As with “game” there are multiple definitions of what this
means
– Design is making sense of things
– Devising courses of action aimed at changing
existing situations (Herbert Simon)
– The conception of visual form
–…
• So there are multiple elements: understanding, action,
visual appearance, …
Design: A Definition (the “official”)
• Design is a process by which a designer creates a
context to be encountered by a participant from which
meaning emerges
–
–
–
–
Designer: person who creates the game
Context: rules, spaces, objects, narratives (lore)
Participants: players
Meaning: meaningful play
• Crucial point of this definition: connect design and
meaningful play
• When creating games we are crafting experiences
• Classical example: RPG games
Meaningful Play and Design (1)
• Carefully crafted difficulty levels so game becomes more
challenging as player skill increase
From here to there
Source: http://austega.com/gifted/16-gifted/articles/24-flow-and-mihaly-csikszentmihalyi.html
(Flow Theory by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi)
Meaningful Play and Design (2)
• Forms of improvement:
– Player skill improves over time:
• Linear quest storyline: RTS games
• Increasing challenge on racing games
– Avatar skill improves over time
• RPG games
– Player and Avatar skill
• FPS games (improve loot + improved skill)
Non Meaningful Play by Design
Examples?
In a linear game, player might get back to early zones. But
then it will be too easy
• RPG game designer disincentive players by not
awarding experience
• no XP  player action kill monsters is not integrated!
Controversy: Morrowind
Design decision:
• Monsters level as you level
 A monster encountered later in the
game is tougher than same monster
encountered early in the game
 In fact you can beat the game at very
low level!
 Paradox: can beat at level 20 but not
at level 40
Is the outcome of actions integrated?
A “funny” note: http://www.sacredwiki.org/index.php/Sacred_2:Combat_and_Game_Basics
Design and Meaning
• Meaning in context of game design: assess the value or
significance of play
people
object
meaning
context
• Meaning is crucial because the design results in a
system of interactions