Lecture for the Videogame Design and Programming course for the MSc Engineering of Computing Systems (Laurea Magistrale in Ingegneria Informatica) - Politecnico di Milano.
Prof. Pier Luca Lanzi
Dipartimento di Elettronica, Informazione, e Bioingegneria
Course Webpage:
http://www.polimigamecollective.org
Course Facebook Page:
https://www.facebook.com/polimigamecollective
5. Similarities and Differences
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Players
Both descriptions describe experiences designed for players
In contrast, music is a form of entertainment that does not
require an active participation by the consumers
To become a player, one must voluntarily accept the rules
and constraints of a game (the lusory attitude)
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Objectives
Both descriptions lay out specific goals for the players
Watching a movie is a form of entertainment with no goal
In games, objectives are a key element without which the
experience loses its structure
Our need to work toward the objective is a measure of
our involvement
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Prof. Pier Luca Lanzi
6. Similarities and Differences
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Procedures
Both descriptions give detailed instructions on what the player can do to
achieve the objectives
They guide player behavior and creating interactions that would never take
place outside the authority of the game
Rules
Both descriptions spend a great deal of time explaining exactly what
objectives the game consists and what the player can and cannot do
Clarify what happens in various situations that might arise
Define game objects and concepts, limit the player behavior
Imply authority and yet there is no person named in either description
with whom to associate that authority
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Prof. Pier Luca Lanzi
7. Similarities and Differences
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Resources
Certain objects hold a rather high value for the players in reaching their
objectives
Finding and managing resources is a key part of many games
They are valuable for the scarcity and their utility
Conflict
Procedures and rules tend to deter players from accomplish goals directly
(think about golf)
The relationship between the objectives, the rules, the procedures limiting/
guiding behavior create conflict
Players work to resolve conflict in their own favor
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Prof. Pier Luca Lanzi
10. Similarities and Differences
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Boundaries
Rules and goals apply only within the game, not in “real life”
Playing experience is somehow set apart from other experiences by
boundaries, and this is another distinctive element of the structure of
games
Outcome
In both games, the outcome needs to be uncertain
The uncertainty of the outcome is important for the players, if they can
anticipate the outcome, they won’t play
Movies, concerts, books can remain entertaining even when the outcome
is already known
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Prof. Pier Luca Lanzi
12. Colleen Lachowicz is a social worker, foster parent and passionate democrat who’s
running for State Senate in Maine. She’s also an orc assassin rogue named Santiaga within
the massive multiplayer online role playing game World of Warcraft (WoW) – a fact that
her Republican opponents say makes her unfit to be in office.
In a recent mailer sent out by Maine GOP communications director David Sorensen,
Lachowicz is condemned for “living a time-consuming double life as a member of the
World of Warcraft community.”
“Her character’s impressive Level 85 distinction – the highest that can be achieved in the
massive online role playing game,” he wrote. “Studies have found that the average World of
Warcraft gamer is 28 and spends 22.7 hours per week playing.”
“In Colleen’s online fantasy world, she gets away with crude, vicious and violent comments
like the ones below,” reads the website’s header. “Maine needs a State Senator that lives in
the real world, not in Colleen’s fantasy world.”
Dozens of screencapped messages from forums and website comments populate the
website’s blog. These messages were written by Lachowiz in discussion of the game over a
span of at least seven years.
Prof. Pier Luca Lanzi
14. Formal Elements
the elements that all games share,
that make up the essence of games
the developers goal is to go beyond the basic elements
of games, by exploring new forms of interactivity, etc.
yet, it is important to understand the role of formal
elements in traditional game systems
Prof. Pier Luca Lanzi
15. Engaging the Player
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• The formal elements provide structure to the experience of
games, but what gives these elements meaning for the players?
• What makes one game capture the imagination of players and
another one fall flat?
• What allows players to emotionally connect with a game?
• The sense of engagement comes from different things for
different players, and not all the games require elaborate means
to creat it
Prof. Pier Luca Lanzi
19. Engaging the Player
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Challenge
The conflict challenges the player and create tension as well as creates
varying level of achievement or frustration
Increasing the challenge as the game goes on increase the tension, but too
much challenge causes frustration
Premise
Overarching premise gives context to the formal elements and creates
engagement (monopoly)
The premise of World of Warcraft is that players are characters in a rich
fantasy world with archetypical quests
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Prof. Pier Luca Lanzi
20. Engaging the Player
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Character
Agents through which stories are told
with whom players can empathize
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Story
Some games engage players emotionally
by using the power of the story within
or surrounding their formal elements
How story can be integrated into
gameplay is an ongoing debate
How much story is too much?
Or too little?
Should the gameplay change the story?
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Prof. Pier Luca Lanzi
24. Games are systems and systems, by definition,
are groups of interrelated elements
These elements work together
to form a complex whole
“whole is greater than the sum of its part”
Game designers have to look at a game system not only
as separate elements but also as a whole in play
Prof. Pier Luca Lanzi
25. “Game: a system in which players engage in
an artificial conflict, defined by rules,
that results in a quantifiable outcome”
Rules of Play
Prof. Pier Luca Lanzi