Costikyan says:-
"A game is an interactive structure of endogenous meaning that requires players to struggle towards goals"(2004:24)
This statement is made up of several key words:
Game: A puzzle is static and requires the player to find the solution, with their input having no effect on the outcome of the puzzle. A game, however, is not static, and changes depending on the actions of the player.
Interactive Structure: To be interactive, the player's decisions need to have an effect on the game state/outcome of the game. All games must have interaction to be defined as a game, but not all interaction is a game. For example, if you turn a tap, the water will either start or stop flowing out of the tap - this is interaction, but it is not a game.
Endogenous: This term is used to describe things in a game which have no value in the outside world. For example, currency in games has no value outside of that game - you can't pay for your shopping with Monopoly money. Likewise, the armour/weapons/vanity items that are found in games are only valuable in the that game itself. It can be argued that certain items which can be sold to people for real world money (i.e. trading cards that reward in-game items for games such as World of Warcraft) cannot be classed as endogenous to the game. However, the items only have any real value so long as the game remains active, so if World of Warcraft shut down, then the trading card items would no longer have any value.
Struggle: A game without a challenge of some kind is not fun. For example, if a game lead you to making a decision between - A) Giving up and stopping the game, or B) Fighting the final boss of the game and winning instantly, then it would be a very unsatisfying victory. Struggle is also needed to improve the player's skills that are required in the game.
Goals: To be meaningful, a game needs to have goals for the players to strive towards. If the player has no goals to work towards, then they will quickly tire of the game. In RPG games there are often many goals, of which the player can choose to complete freely. For example, the Final Fantasy series has the main story-driven goal, but you can often choose to deviate from the main story and level up, collect cards, obtain secret items or complete small quests that have no effect on the main game.
this is a good summary of Costikyan, it is a useful thing to sometimes write a paragraph or two on what the article made you think about in relation to your own experience of games. That way you can take more ownership of the work.
ReplyDeletenevertheless good stuff
rob