Joystick Generation

Part 3 of the series Games Britannia, presented by Benjamin Woolley, is called "Joystick Generation" and follows on through the series' journey through British gaming history by moving into a time of great cultural upheaval: the 70's.

In this post I'm creating for the final episode in the series, I shall not go into specific details of each of the games featured in the show as I don't feel there is enough information on each that I find particularly interesting or new.

Starting from a basis of Dungeons & Dragons which, Woolley says, laid the foundation for British gaming going into the future; the program moves on to talk about the arrival of the ZX Spectrum. A revolutionary machine that could be owned by individuals and was loved for the ability to play video games such as the important Elite.

The next important milestone game shown on the program is actually Black & White. This game, along with its predecessor Populous, was one of the first "god games" released; wherein players could exist in a realistic world as a deity. As a speaker on the show, Margaret Robertson makes a very interesting point that although a god game should theoretically make a player feel in complete control; instead they tend to have the player ironically "operate as a slave", in that the people in the world have needs that need to be filled and are incapable of taking care of themselves.

As the program shows, when the technology of computers truly explode and gaming becomes far more mainstream than ever before, the famous Lara Croft was invented. The main difference between this game and its predecessor was the main character herself, bringing personality into video gaming. This section was continued by moving into Heavenly Sword, a game that focussed in particular on immersive visuals and character storytelling.

Carmageddon was a game that began to test the political limits of video gaming, earning controversy and a lot of attention. Continuing this trend is Grand Theft Auto, a game that is very well known - and incredibly successful. The episode moves towards another end of gaming where games empower people to create their own content, specifically with Little Big Planet. This particular section is quite interesting to me, as a Designer of games, since any interesting tools and environments that can be used to create a gaming experience are important to me.

I think in this episode, the main thing I took away is that most of the milestone games that were brought up and commented on as being particularly successful in this abstract concept of 'Games Britannia', were the more original and revolutionary titles that were well produced and executed.

Pervasive Games

The description of something that is 'pervasive' is something that spreads widely throughout an area, or group of people. However, according to Jaakko Stenros and Markus Montola, the definition of a pervasive game is quite different; and they go on to show what they believe to be the two groups of pervasive games:

Established Genres

• Treasure Hunts
• Assassination Games
• Pervasive LARPs
• ARGs

Emerging Genres

• Smart Street Sports
• Playful Public Performances
• Urban Adventure Games
• Reality Games

The definitions of these genres are self-explanatory, however I don't find these style of games as interesting as many other types of games. Most of these pervasive games are not particularly competitive, this is likely because such a style of game play common in these genres is not as conducive to competition as more convention forms of games.

One of the main attractions to this form of gaming is the notion of becoming immersed in a game that becomes part of one's life and begins blurring the lines between reality and game in order for this sense of a 'real' game to become as close to true as possible. This is particularly shown by assassination style games. This attraction is far more common in the 'established genres', and is possibly why these games were created before these newer emerging genres. The main problem I have with enjoying these sorts of games is that they appeal to those who want to be immersed, and are generally not particularly competitive. I personally hugely prefer competitive games, and although treasure hunts could be a competition between teams; and assassination games are very clearly player against player; they are still far more casual than the E-Sports games I have such interest in.

However, regardless of my personal tastes with such games, they are still popular. Pervasive games have been utilised a lot by many people and are continually enjoyed, perhaps being somewhat caused by movies such as La Decima Vitimma (a movie that features a world wherein a lethal Assassination pervasive game is commonplace and celebrated). So it is important that one understands their use and attraction so that one could put together and create a pervasive game for many people to enjoy.

Ancient Games

Throughout this academic year of the course, I have been shown several very interesting board games from ancient history. I wanted to spend a bit of time to talk about some of these games and to give my thoughts on them each individually.

The Royal Game of Ur

Also known as the "Game of twenty squares", the Game of Ur was found in Iraq; which was was part of ancient Mesopotamia. I shall not here go through the exact rule set of the game, but one can see Irving Finkel's book Ancient Board Games to get a full description of how exactly it is played. After having played the game, I can say that I did enjoy it more than I was expecting; as a very competitive man my focus is almost always on winning whatever I'm playing, and the game certainly felt like it had a variety of ways to play - it didn't feel as if my decisions were meaningless or too obvious. The goal is incredibly simple, get all your pieces to the end before your opponent, but as there is a mechanic for players to take each other's pieces there can be a focus on aggressively taking enemy pieces to reset them to the start; or to defend all of one's own pieces over anything else.

Senet

Senet is an Ancient Egyptian game that shows some symbolic significance of the process of passing into the afterlife; a topic which I know from experience with my studies of ancient history is commonly explored by older cultures.It's one of the oldest known board games, and its rules can also be found in Finkel's book. I found it to be far less well constructed than Ur, it felt somewhat unrefined as a game. There are some enjoyable dynamics a player can use to block the opposition and attempt to gain the upper hand in a game that way, but certainly this game felt far less competitive than Ur - which in itself is not a bad thing, but it is something I personally look for a lot.

Duodecim Scripta

As an early forerunner to backgammon, this game spikes my interest by merit of being Roman. I have a particular fondness for Roman history as one of the more intriguing points of humanity's past. The name of this game effectively means "Game of twelve markings", which is incredibly descriptive of the game itself. To me this likely means that the game is played mainly for the game play itself, as opposed to some spiritual utility as some other ancient games are purported to be.

Hnefatafl

A medieval Scandinavian game, this game is quite clearly a 'tafl' variant. All games of this style are direct conflicts between two players with asymmetrical forces and goals, this is something that I find very engaging. These games allow for a variety of different strategies and ways to play, and are clearly competitive in the struggle to outwit and outmanoeuvre your opponent. I enjoyed playing this game immensely.

Bibliographies: Revised

In keeping with my attempts to perfect my understanding of the Harvard format for referencing and compiling bibliographies, I have herein put together a refined version of my previous effort.
     
Bateman, C., 2006. 100 Principles of Game Design. Charles River Media.
Jeffries, K.K., 2011. Skills for creativity in games design. Design Studies 32, 60–85.
Knizia, R., 2004. Commissioned Essay, in: Rules of Play: Game Design Fundamentals. MIT, pp. 22–27.
Parsons, S., 2010. Critical Play: Radical Game Design. The Knowledge Engineering Review 25,353–354.
Schell, J., 2008. The Art of Games Design:A Book of Lenses. Morgan Kaufmann.
Wright, W., 2005. Foreword by Will Wright, in: A Theory of Fun for Game Design. Paraglyph Press.
        
        

Monopolies and Mergers

Following on from the previous episode of Games Britannia, "Monopolies and Mergers" continues the series by exploring the evolution of board games particularly surrounding the nuclear family common to Britain.

Mansion of Bliss
In 1810, when in Britain schooling had become legally obligatory, this board game was created to have a focus on conveying political messages and promoting 'good' behaviour; even though it was a very simple game of chance. It spawned a large amount of imitators, many of which focussed on similar principles of guiding morals.

Pank a Squith
A game that follows the story of Emily Pankhurst, this game continues the running theme of this episode of games that commentate or make statements on the political situation of the region they were invented in.

Brer Fox an' Brer Rabbit
This early forerunner to Monopoly was released in Britain during a time of immense conflict over the financial state of the country, the redistribution of wealth, and particularly the notion of land tax. For the most part, the game plays the same as Monopoly, but had a specific goal of displaying and conveying the inequities of land ownership and what possible solutions there could be.

Cluedo and Scrabble
I have included these games in my notes as they were very successful and popular games, however I don't feel the need to elaborate on them, as they are fittingly so popular that everyone today still knows them exceptionally well.

Kensington
Invented in 1979, this game launched its inventors into the spotlight for a time. However, it is something that quickly disappeared as was indicative of games at the time.

Generally speaking, although I enjoyed this episode, I found it far less interesting than the first; and my notes reflect this. I believe that is simply because I have a particular interest in more ancient history, and the periods that this episode covers are less engaging to me. Moreover many of the games that are spoken about in this episode are in common knowledge and nothing particularly new to me is explored where those games are concerned.

However I found the games shown in the earlier parts of the episode to be of more interest. I was surprised, as an example, to find out that there was a game so similar to Monopoly, but based on political and economic argumentation.

Tools for Creating Dramatic Game Dynamics

Within Salen and Zimmerman's The Game Design Reader: a rules of play anthology (2006), there is a section written by Marc LeBlanc entitled 'Tools for Creating Dramatic Game Dynamics'. I find this article to be particularly intriguing, as it seeks to provide readers with the tools and knowledge they might need to create drama in games. Here I have included the notes I took on the matter.

Introduction

• Games can tell stories
• Games can become stories
• Drama is desired in games
• It can be difficult to create:
• No direct control over a game
• Designers can only create circumstances for drama to emerge from

Mechanics, Dynamics, and Aesthetics

• Framework for viewing games
• Mechanics - Things required to play the game
• Dynamics - 'Behaviour' in the game
• Aesthetics - Emotional content
• Three questions:
• How does drama function as an aesthetic? 
• What kinds of dynamics evoke drama?
• From what mechanics do these dynamics emerge? 

The Dramatic Arc

• Drama is one kind of aesthetic
• Dramatic tension - Level of emotional investment in a story
• Drama isn't scripted, it emerges
• Conflict is required for drama
• Conflict comes from contest.
• Tension is the product of: 
• Uncertainty - The sense that the outcome of the contest is unknown
• Inevitability - The sense that the contest is moving forwards towards resolution
• Tension requires both.
• Over the course of the game, the inevitability increases and the uncertainty decreases.
• The climax is where there is realiszation, and no more uncertainty.

Game Dynamics that produce Dramatic Tension

• Uncertainty and inevitability are usually created by separate systems
• This gives more fine control
• Create uncertainty with:
• Force - Manipulating the state of the contest
• Illusion - Manipulating player perception
• Tools to create uncertainty:
• Feedback (Real/pseudo)
• Escalation
• Hidden Energy
• Fog of War
• Deceleration
• Cashing out
• Tools to create inevitability:
• Ticking clocks:
• Literal clock
• Non renewable resources
• Non reversible processes

I think this is all very useful information for creating drama, but in particular the notes on uncertainty and inevitability are of interest to me. With regards to articles I read around the subject of games design, I find the ones that hit me the hardest are ones who's content I can see echoed in games I see or play; and this is certainly one of those.

MDA: A formal approach to Game Design

MDA: A formal approach to game design and game research is an article written in 2004 by Robin Hunichke, Marc LeBlanc, and Robert Zubek. Within it they discuss an approach to thinking about game design which they describe as the 'MDA framework', standing for Mechanics, Dynamics, and Aesthetics. Below are my notes for this interesting piece.

Framework

• Consumption of games is unpredictable
• Rules     -->      System    -->    Fun
• Mechanics --> Dynamics --> Aesthetics
• Mechanics: Components of the game. Art, data, and algorithms
• Dynamics: Run-time behaviour of mechanics with player input
• Aesthetics: Emotional responses evoked

Purpose

• Designers and players have different perspectives

Designer --------------------------------------------------------------->
                  Mechanics  --   Dynamics  --  Aesthetics
          <--------------------------------------------------------------------Player

• Experience-driven design over feature-driven

Details

• Aesthetics
• Experience, emotions evoked from game
• LeBlanc's Taxonomy is a good referral
• Some games will favour certain types of aesthetic goals over others
• Aesthetics let one describe and find flaws
• Dynamics
• Dynamics create aesthetics
• E.G. Challenge can be created by time pressure
• It's important to understand models such as probability of dice rolls and how feedback loops function
• Dynamics let one see where problems come from
• Mechanics
• Mechanics define Dynamics
• Through actions, behaviours, and control mechanics given to players
• The area designers have complete control over
• Mechanics allow for slightly changes to fix issues

I find this approach to be particularly helpful when thinking about how to iteratively improve a game. The most striking takeaway from this for me is the emphasis on the differing perspective of designer and player; although it seems like something that should be obvious, I had not fully considered it before reading this article. 

GDC 2013: The Observer Friendly Game

I recently watched a talk given by Sean Plott at the Game Developers Conference in 2013. The main point Plott made was that developers need to keep in mind how easily community contributors could make video content with their game, and the magnitude of the effects this could have on the marketing of a game. Here I would like to share some of the more interesting notes I took away from the talk.

Importance of video content for marketing

• Twitch.TV - 45 million unique views a month
• Average viewing time over 90 minutes
• Video showing gameplay, conveys the actual game well
• On YouTube, 50% of views for a game are on brand-released content
• Other 50% is community made
• Community created content is 'free marketing'
• Particularly useful for free-to-play games not after lots of day one sales

The community

• Two types of content producers:
• Influencers - Can bring the most people in to see a game
• Amateurs - Can become influencers over time and with support
• Two types of content watchers:
• Community members - Are devoted to the game and consume the most media surrounding it
• Outsiders - Important to try to bring in to the community

Shaping the game to allow for this

• Technology - The technology used by the community to stream or record content should be compatible with a game
• Most streaming software focusses on the use of core 1 on processors
• Most streaming is done in windowed mode games.
• Vertical Sync works well with encoders
• User Interface Art
• Clear space to set webcams on a stream
• Clear space to place overlays on a stream
• Easy to customize UI shown on a stream
• On screen summary information
• When a new viewer tunes in to a stream of a game, will they know the important information they need to understand what is going on? 
• Game Mechanics that make people watch
• Skill Based games - watch to admire others play, or to see the style they play differently from the viewer
• Linear Games - Everyone has the same experience for the most part, less reasons to watch someone else play it.
• "Mind Mechanics" - A large amount of the experience a player has playing card games is mentally considering options, viewers can also do this when watching a card game; as if they were playing.
• Clear Break Points & Language
• Games being broken into chapters
• Building Conversations
• Giving a clear language so that people can discuss the game easily
• Being broken into discrete parts allows this
• Discrete is better than continuous
• Observer Angles
• Can be more interesting to have a separate view from players
• Information Asymmetry
• Creates narrative tension

Now, of course, these are notions that I shall not likely be playing with myself in any games I make for quite a while, but as an avid eSports enthusiast and participator, I find this discussion of making a game more easily streamable and viewable to be particularly interesting.

-http://www.gdcvault.com/play/1019701/The-Observer-Friendly