Don't Be a Vidiot  

By Greg Costikyan

This article was actually a speech Costikyan gave in 1999. And in it he talks about what computer game designers can learn from non-electronic games. Judging by the introduction, its easy to see that Costikyan is displeases, to put it mildly, about the state of the computer games industry.

"When you look at our industry, it's easy to get worried about the enormous
number of dull, derivative titles, and the paucity of innovation in a field that
 was once known for originality and creativity. The best-seller lists are filled
 with licensed drivel--Barbie titles, games based on old mass-market boardgames."

And i see his point, to certain extent, though I believe he is over reacting slightly, there are still a large number of excellent games being released from big budget, indie and small scale developers. However, to find these games you do have to wade through a large amount of clones and rehashes. I'm not a fan of these types of games either, but if they sell in the large amounts that they do, they are obviously popular with a lot of people, so I find it difficult to criticize them too much, but that doesnt mean i want to play them either. For some people, these games are enough, even if they are paying more for better graphics, but essentially the same game.

He then goes on to say that games are a "plastic" medium and are a vague concept. By this he means that games can be moulded into whatever form you want. There are so many different genre's, types etc, and for this reason he is disappointed that game developers would rather go with the tried and tested formulas instead of thinking outside of the box and trying something new. He puts this down to the fact that the finacially safe option is more attractive to the developers.

He then talks about boardgames/card games points out various things that they have in there favour, and things that can be learnt from them:

· Social: You can play them with a group of people and even make a social event out of them

· Cheap: They are cheap to create for developers, and they can play around with various design ideas without spending a lot of money. This can result in a varied experiance for the consumer. Even though they are cheap to develop they can still be quite expensive for the consumer though, for example, buying Warhammer models can set you back quite alot, as can buying new cards for your Magic deck.

· Variety: There are many different types of boardgames

· Replayability: They can be played over and over again and your experiance will be different.

Although the boardgame market is quite small in most parts of the world, he claims that Germany has a far larger and more competetive market for board games and the most exciting products are currently being produced in there, as opposed to places like America where the demand is not as high as it once was.

MDA: A Formal Approach to Game Design and Game Research.

This paper takes a more formal view on game design and and lays out various frameworks and guidelines that game designers should keep in mind when creating a game. Probably the most important of which was the MDA framework. To understand this framework, you would first need to know what MDA means.

Mechanics: Game components
Dynamics: Behaviour of mechanics acting on player inputs
Aesthetics: Desired response from the consumer

 The framework shows you that the game designer and consumer view games from a completely different angle. I had never thought about it this way, but i can see how different their perspectives would be, as you can see from thge image below.

As you can see, the designer views the game from the Mechanics, Design, Asthetics angle, and the consumers experiance of the game will the viewed the other way.

Aesthetic components
All games have various elements to them that make them "fun". These elements have been defined in this article as being:

• Sensation: Game as sense of pleasure
• Fantasy: Game as make-believe
• Narrative: Game as Drama
• Challenge: Game as obstacle course
• Fellowship: Game as social Framework
• Discovery: Game as uncharted territory
• Expression: Game as self discovery
• Submission: Game as pastime

However, it is important to note that not all games will have every one of these elements, in fact, having all of the elements would probably make for an incredibly confusing game. Instead, games incorporate a combination of elements and try and make them work well together.

For example, and game like World of Warcraft would probably make use of Fantasy, Challenge, Fellowship, Discovery and Expression elements. And heres why:

• Fantasy: The world of of Azeroth (where World of Warcraft is set) is a fictional world, with otherworldly creatures and locations.
• Challenge: Many of the dungeons that you visit will likely pose a challenge, and will often require various tactics in order to defeat them.
• Fellowship: Again, dungeons will require you to work together as a team.
• Discovery: As you level your character there are new locations and new abilities to explore.
• Expression: As your charcter advances, you will obviously want to show of your fancy armour you've aquired.

This is probably the text i enjoyed reading the most, because as a gamer, its the kind of think you dont often think about, but is very interesting to read about nonetheless.