Developing a New Major

their definition of gameplay – one or more causally linked series of challenges in a simulated environment

simulated enviornment – because we stop playing when we leave the game, the game is separate from life, from real life

challenges rather than choices – they thought choices too broad, couldinclude choosing to go to the movies, in games there’s some kind of challenge – a puzzle to solve, a monster to fight, come in different forms and difficulty levels, genre limits the types of challenges and genre players don’t want untypical challenges(ex: HalfLife FPS includes a level that’s basically a bad platformer

challenges can break the immersion, breaks our suspension of disbelief

most game challenges are mental, could be simple physical – hand-eye coordination, reflex tests – physical usually limited to hands and wrists (DDR? Wiimote?)

explicit & implicit challenge – explicit = intentional challenge designed by the designer, meant to be a chaenge, more imediate, intense; implicit challenge = something not specifically designed into the game. it’s just something that emerges from teh game play, more drawn out & less focused than explicit challenges

logic & inference challenges – test player’s ability to assimilate info, to use the info to pick a best course of action that yields max benefit tothe player at all times. logic works when you have perfect information (like chess – pieces all out in the open). Some pattern recognition games are perfect info – you have specific goal, known playing field, known pieces to put on that field. Hard to create compelling perfect info storiesImperfect info – not enough to be logical because ya have to fill in the gaps around what ya don’t know, gotta guess about what to do – like cards – you don’t knwo what cards the other person has or what’s still in the deck. Information gets better as you consider the hands being played/cards others are taking. “fog of war” is example of imperfect info – can see only the stuff  in your immediate vicinity; could show hte terrain in gray or black. Could make it part of  a mystery story – figure out stuff and more things are uncovered – play to human curiosity

lateral thinking challenges – extension of inference, makes hte player draw on previous experience and combo it in new nad unextected ways. Can also be instrinsic and extrinsic in terms of where info is gained (intrinsic = gained in game owrld and other knowledge isn’t useful – other than a walkthru or some other kind of cheat info) – says Half-Life uses extrinsic knowledge lateral thinking problems (figure out that monster has very acute hearing and can track you soy ou can use noise as a diversion)

memory challenges – player has to remmeber stuff from earlier int he game. Almost all intrinsic (dont have to rely on memory of real owrld events). Ex: Simon game, lots of kids games. have to remember layout of complex tunnels

intelligence-based challenges – player’s IQ, not found too often on their own – hybrid wilth others. more intelligent players will do better at these puzzles than others.

knowledge based challenges – not players intelligence, but their knowledge (intrinsic and extrinsic). Trivial Pursuits is big examples – extrinsic knowledge. don’t see very often inthe pure extrinsic knowledge form. Role play and adventure games use intrinsic knowledge challenges

pattern recognition challenge – humans are natural pattern seekers – sometimes seeing patterns when there is none (like seeing animals in clouds) – tetris – see patterns in the tiles so you can fillup the lines – could have the player search a room for a hidden door that looks just lsightly different from the wall around it. Platformers where you need to see the pattern to know when and where to jump

moral challenge – high level challenge – should you save your teammate even if it means going against hte captain’s wishes and it jeopardizes the mission, kill the little sisters or not. Powerful challenges but not many used – most games see stuff in black and white terms, playground morality. most people don’t suspend belief enough in a game to make hte moral choice seem real. Black& White – player is god and can be any kndof god – evil, helpful, controlling

spatial analysis challenges – almost always implicit. combo of memory and inference challenges. usually 3D games (tough doign 3d on 2d surface)

coordination challenge – time jumps for hte character across chasms iwht monsters, shooting games, timing is a big factor, fighting games – hard to balance games based solely on physical dexterity because palyers have uneven skills

reflex/reaction time challenges – timing abilities , usualy in combo wiht other kinds of challenges, tetris, centipede, platformers, fps, most action games – not in turn based games adventure games or rpgs

physical challenges -  – usually only with special hardare – like ddr or hte bongos or steering wheels

applied challenges – (above are hte pureplay challenges, applied are when you combo htem into real challenges inthe games)

races – be first to do something – reach a goal, build something, competition without conflict

puzzles – primarily mental challenges, s/t a lock that when opened gives access to another piece of hte game,usually untimed because people have different mental capacities. Bad game play = correct solution not made clear at the outset, ot clear how puzzle works or what you’re trying to achieve, should be some indication of what order things need to be done in

exploration – can be a challenge or people could just be sighseers (but sightseers don’t see the entertainment value ofthe game for very long. could have obstacles – like locked doors/puzzles you have to solve, have to get hte key somewhere int hegame. Another obstacle = trap – might ckill the avatar or reduce their health points – actually poses a threat t hte player (lock doesn’t pose threat) – good to have some traps tha tthey can deactivate (players think it’s cool to outfox the game)

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