Dissecting Fun

You want to look at books on ''psychology of play''. Here''s a nice list I came up with a year or two ago, maybe we can add to it.

1. satisfy the mimetic/narrative instinct (Aristotle)
2. achieve catharsis of emotions (Aristotle)
3. fulfill desires no more than partly satisfied by life (Lesser, Simon O.)
4. experience an imaginary world more lifelike than life itself, more directly and honestly concerned with essential problems, more supple in its expression of every aspect of man''s nature, less burdened by distracting irrelevancies (Lesser, Simon O.)
5. gather ideas that we can use to define our place in the world (various theorists of personal mythology)
6. satisfy need for socialization
7. allay anxieties and guilt feelings (Freud)
8. reassure self that you are competitive/useful so your Thanatos instinct is not triggered. (Freud)

Fun is in the eye of the beholder. That''s why there are so many forms of entertainment. Heck, some people have fun doing absolutely nothing, and some people having perfected that fine art (meditation in its purest form is based on doing and thinking absolutely nothing).

What type of fun you need for a certain game is completely based on that particular game. The more choice you give the player, the more different forms of ''fun'' your design achieves, the more different types of players will enjoy your game. You can try to define the different types of fun a gamer can have, and you can even try to give the different types of gamers a label (explorer, powergamer, griefer, etc), but I think that will just limit your design. Ddefining groups, in my opinion, is a negative activity, as you''ll always end up excluding more than you include.

On the other hand, if your design really focuses on one particular fun element, you''ll actually want to define your target player type and nail down exactly what the fun element is, so that you can create an ultimate gaming experience.

And then, of course, there''s everything in between (having a design that focuses on only one fun element on the one hand and having a design the tries to incorporate all or as many fun elements as possible).

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What do I consider fun? Being able to redefine the game every single moment. I want a constant sense of amazement. "Wow, I didn''t know I could do that! COOL!" I want a game world that changes every day. "Hey, this wasn''t here before. I wonder what it''ll do..." What I absolutely do not want is repetitive gameplay. The new trend of creating linear games that are relatively short (Max Payne compared to Morrowind) attempts to do just that (prevent repetitive gameplay), but still falls short, in my opinion, as it still doesn''t allow for changing gameplay, having opted instead to just reduce the playing time. Nevertheless, I liked Max Payne, and more recently Lord Of The Rings (PS2), much better than the endlessly long games I used to play. There''s something satisfying about being able to finish a game, feeling like you''ve seen all that the game had to offer. That''s a good start. But now, let''s expand the gameplay by simply offering more. Not more of the same though. We''ve been there, and it didn''t work (for me).

Game design that allows for varied gameplay. That''s all I need to enable me to find my own way of having fun in a game.

How hard did you say you tried to search???
From the GameDev.net Articles & Resources section: Fun factor for game developers

I know I''ve said it before, but ''fun'' to me is when I get drawn into something to the exclusion of the outside world. When I''m reading a book, and time flies by so fast because I''ve been absorbed into the world it presents, I am happy, I want to read more. When I forget for a moment that I am *not* a marine fearfully fighting through alien-infested-outposts, I enjoy myself.
When I leave a game to go back to real life, and I can''t stop thinking about the next level, the next scene, the next thing to do. I know that game has gotten a hold of me, and I won''t put it down until I win.


-Run_The_Shadows@excite.com

quote:

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Original post by GameCreator
How hard did you say you tried to search???
From the GameDev.net Articles & Resources section: Fun factor for game developers

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Doh! Been looking in the wrong places. I guess the list on that site and sunshadow''s list together cover a pretty comprehensive list.

I can''t really think of games that exist to fulfill #5 and #7 on sunshadow''s list though. And #5 I can''t imagine as really being a component of fun in games really. Is that only because electronic games haven''t progressed to that state?

That gamedev article raises some good points but it doesn''t go into depth about any of them. How do you promote creativity in your game? How do you create rules that limit the player''s power without frustrating them? He says "ego" is a component of addictiveness but what does that mean and how do you create it?

fun..hmmm. thats a really good question..

here are 4 things that i can think off for making a fun game

1) inovation.. provide something new

2) challenge.. gives the player a reason to improve, a goal of sorts... very common in multiplayer games, to be better then other people.

3) mental stimulation.. through story telling or such

4) very important- invoke feelings or emotions.. if a game can make u laught or cry, then it has done its job well.



[edited by - mentalstatement on December 22, 2002 1:02:22 AM]

Just thought of a new one. The brain inherently wants order and structure, as opposed to randomness. I guess another factor of fun is part of that. Games which allow and encourage the player to create order in the game''s world. This can be seen in terms of storylines, puzzle game mechanics, and in general, the way games work. At first, the brain''s perception of a game mechanics system is pretty cluttered and unordered. As he figures out how the game mechanics work, this perception becomes a less cluttered and orderly. Stories have this natural progression from a conflicted state to the state of resolution in the end. Puzzle games, like Tetris, are creating orderly lines from random shapes.

Maybe this can be applied on a much larger scope? The brain doesn''t like things to be random and cluttered, but it doesn''t like everything being ordered and known either. The enjoyment of any entertainment is experienced in the process of getting from the former state to the latter.