What Games Are

Noble Failures [Double Fine and Notch]

Not only has Double Fine raised $1.8m from its Kickstarter campaign, Markus ‘Notch’ Persson of Minecraft has suggested that he would pay the $13m required to develop Psychonauts 2. But why?

Psychonauts is the archetypal example of a noble failure, a game that fans believe failed due to publisher incompetence, but which if it had had its fair shake would have done much better. This interpretation is almost always wrong, and leads me to think that a Psychonauts 2 is a mistake.

The Other Way [Industry Issues]

Many developers want game making to be treated as a skilled profession. They want it to be serious, have stable working hours, to acknowledge their contribution and to be paid accordingly. They want to see themselves as craftsmen bringing decades of experience to bear on projects.

This desire reminds me of a scene in The Wire where Marlo steals lollipops in plain view of a security guard, and when the guard challenges him Marlo sizes him up and says:

‘You want it be one way. But it’s the other way.’

The Law of Fascination [Game Design]

It don’t mean a thing if it aint got that swing.

Duke Ellington’s point was simple: Across all genres and eras, music needs to swing. It’s a creative constant. I make a similar point about fun, arguing that it too is a creative constant and a game is not a game if it lacks the joy of winning while mastering fair game dynamics.

But some kinds of fun are more appealing than others. Some are innately fascinating and inspire the play brain to play, where others just don’t. I call it the law of fascination.

Adventure Games Deserved To Die [Narrativism]

Perhaps the greatest lament of all is the one about why the adventure game died. Once hugely popular, adventure games started to fall out of favour in the mid 90s and by the turn of the millennium were essentially dead. However they did not die because of a grand conspiracy on the part of publishers to kill them (as is often asserted).

Adventure games contributed hugely to the development of the video game as an art form, but there’s a basic reason why they went away: They were bad games.

Keeping Players At Bay [Diablo 3]

Reddit is not happy. Nor Wired. Nor Rock Paper Shotgun. Nor indeed much of the internet this morning. Why? Primarily because of the news about Diablo 3.

In short: the game will insist on using always-online authentication, forbid modding (allowing access to the engine or tools), and include a market for the buying and selling of items. The first means you won’t be able to play the game on a plane. The second means that fans will not be allowed to fully express themselves. And the third means that those with more money may progress faster.

Of the three ideas, only the third is smart. Most players really don’t mind if others have used a shortcut to their success as long as it doesn’t affect them directly. But the other two are terrible. They are indicative of a growing trend in publishing to try and keep players at bay. They may work in the short term, but as long term strategies they are fraught with danger.

The Enclosure Problem [Gamification]

Aside from an ugly name, thinness of gameplay, sameness of ideas (rewards, levels, badges and points) and a lack of any strong examples of what it is supposed to be, what’s the most fundamental issue that gamification faces?

The basic idea of gamification is that a game can become integrated in life. Gamification proposes to embellish the real world with a layer of game-like things to do and earn, and in so doing enhance lives. So in a sense, gamification’s big idea is to regard life as some sort of infinite game.

The problem? Games are no fun unless they are finite.

Simulacra or Simulation [What Games Are Not]

Because they create a world into which a player can project, video games often incorporate some level of simulation. Constraints such as gravity or real time regularly play a part in games, as do attempts to use procedural algorithms for a variety of things from rag doll physics and enemy behaviour to terrain generation.

However simulation is not actually the point of games. The reason that we use simulation in games is not to create a real world, but instead a deliberately simplified impression of one. In games it is generally better to fake it rather than make it.

Gamification: Avoiding The Fate of ARGs [Meta-games]

Supposedly, there's much that can be done with gamification to build deep engagement with users. Games can enhance lives. Everything can become a game, from work to social causes, education and art.

Sure, but actually these ideas are not new. From virtual worlds and alternate reality games (ARGs) to World of Darkness live action roleplaying (LARP) and Killer, the idea of melding persistent play and real life is one that has taken on many forms for as long as the games industry has existed.

As a general grouping I would call them meta-games. They are a lot of fun to create and run as a designer (In fact I got my start in game-making through LARPs), and they have the quality of seeming to change the player’s world. But they also have a critical failing.

Meta-games don’t scale.

 

Tetris Is Not The Answer [Tetrism]

A very long-running debate about games has gone something like this:

A: Games are the next evolution of storytelling.
B: Games are just games. If I want a story, I’ll read a book.
A: Games are storytelling because of the branches of possibility they offer.
B: No, games are all about gameplay.
A: My game story experience is unique. I build my own narrative.
B: Tetris does not need a story, you are talking nonsense.

I call them narrativism and tetrism. Is either right?

Beware the No-Brainers, Final Part [Morons]

This is the final part of the series about no-brainer games and the inner moron. In the first part I talked about what moronism is, and in the second part I talked about Four-Elephant ideas, hidden factors and our old friend Techthulhu. This part is about the delusions of spreadsheets, overly strategic thinking, and just plain old boredom.

And an argument for taking risks.