Category Archives: Game Design

Posts pertaining to game design.

Narratology “versus” Ludology

Posted by Matthew Jones on

This essay was written for my MCC 232 (Video Game Studies) unit. As usual, I’m not 100% happy with how it came out, but given the 1500-2000 word limit on the essay for a topic that deserves much more, I think it’s passable. It was a good learning experience for me as well – any time this “debate” comes up I’d previously held up roguelikes as an example of strict Ludological principles (that aren’t your obvious choices like Tetris), but there’s enough narrative structure in most of them to deserve a look from that perspective at the very least.

A .pdf copy of this essay is available here.

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“Divergence from a story’s path is likely to make for a less satisfying story; restricting a player’s freedom of action is likely to make for a less satisfying game.”
- Greg Costikyan (Costikyan 2000, par. 1)

“Every medium has been used to tell stories. That’s true of books and theatre and radio drama and movies. It’s true of games as well.”
- Eric Goldberg (Costikyan 2000, par. 1)

Videogame studies are in their infancy when compared to other, more established fields of academic study. This has led to extensive debate within the academic community on how best to approach the study of videogames – from a purely “game” driven perspective (Ludology), or utilising the existing base of narrative studies (Narratology). The above quotes from Costikyan and Goldberg demonstrate the often “polar” nature of these debates – but I believe this is a false dichotomy. An understanding of both narratology and ludology is desirable to develop a truly critical understanding of games and game-play.

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Crosspost – Beta Review – Fate Of The World

Posted by Matthew Jones on

Crossposted from the iiNet Blog.

It’s pretty difficult to go online these days and not see articles (or people talking) about the challenges the human race faces over the next five to ten years. Dwindling resources, an ever-growing population and finite living space are all issues that will need to be tackled by everyone – from the world’s leaders down to individuals.

Fate Of The World is one of the first video games I’ve seen that places players in a position of near absolute authority to enact change. When I’d first heard of the title I admit scoffing and rolling my eyes. “Great, I bet this is going to be one of those games where you just plonk a whole bunch of sustainable electricity sources down, penalise polluting businesses, switch everyone over to electric cars and you win.” Twenty minutes (and several catastrophes later) into the beta release, I found myself stumped.

The game’s interface is deceptively simple. You’re given a certain budget to operate within (impacted by the wealth generated by each of the world’s 12 regions) and can use that wealth to deploy agents to each of the regions or to enact policies in the form of cards that cover a myriad of different outcomes – from political change (such as instigating welfare or health programs), development of crisis management utilities (coastal walls to battle rising sea levels, soil erosion protection), research facilities, military aid or even underhanded “black ops” style extreme measures like engineered viruses.

The amount of choice you’re given (but limited in the amount of measures you can enact each year by the number of agents you have and your budget) is where the game really shines. Do you encourage the use of biofuels in the West? Better remember that a huge proportion of that grain is coming from developing nations with rapidly growing populations. Every action (even the “good” choices) has consequences that you’re going to have to manage in future.

Those consequences are often significant. Civil wars break out over resources. Decrease a population’s standard of living and pretty soon they’ll be up in arms. Encourage too much economic development without the technology to reduce the impact and you’ll be dealing with any of over 1,000 different impacts. Long story short? This game is hard. Throw your mouse across the room hard. I’m yet to win a campaign after more than eight different attempts – which really delivers an appreciation of how difficult decision making is when you’re placed in charge. Winning is possible,  however – it just takes a great deal of advance planning.

The preorder beta launches with only one campaign – the global warming / resource crisis. The full version includes a variety of different “end of the world” scenarios, complete with a “Doctor Doomsday” style scenario where you play the bad guy in an otherwise utopian planet. The game launches on March 2nd on Steam at a bargain basement price of $9.99 USD. It’s not for everyone – but if you’re the kind of person who enjoys a hardcore strategy title with a learning curve that resembles a cliff, this will be right up your alley.

Steam Page: http://store.steampowered.com/app/80200

Developer’s Website: http://www.fateoftheworld.net/

Game Recommendations

Posted by Matthew Jones on

Uni’s over for 2010 – fairly routine subjects this semester, but I’d like to publish my Artificial Intelligence project once my marks are returned and I get clearance to do so from those involved.

In the meantime, I’ve been taking advantage of gaming sites jumping on to the Social Media / Web 2.0 bandwagon and created some recommendation lists on gog.com (Good Old Games) and Steam:

If you’re looking for some reasonably priced entertainment over the summer break (or gifts for others for Christmas) you can’t go wrong with a lot of the titles I’ve listed there.

Will Wright – Person, Product, Process and Press.

Posted by Matthew Jones on

It’s that time of semester. The below is my submission for my FDN101 – Creativity and Innovation unit. This paper was required to draw on the four P’s of creativity […] and analyse a significant creative and innovative thinker in terms of their individual characteristics, products, inventions and their processes and environment.

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Mention the name Will Wright and you’re not likely to notice an immediate impact on anyone who doesn’t have an inherent interest in game design, or sound knowledge of the history of video games in general. However, mention the names of his creative works (such as The Sims or SimCity) and it’s highly likely that the person you’re speaking to has either played them, seen them or heard of them. In analysing a creative thinker, the question “What is creativity?” needs to be asked. Mel Rhodes states in An Analysis of Creativity (1961, 305)  that:

“The word creativity is a noun naming the phenomenon in which a person communicates a new concept (which is the product). Mental activity (or mental process) is implicit in the definition, and of course no one could conceive of a person living or operating in a vacuum, so the term press is also implicit.”

This definition forms the core of Rhodes’ “Four P’s” model of creativity – consisting of Person, Product, Process, and Press. I assert that Will Wright’s upbringing and educational opportunities, personality traits, products and way of thinking conforms with Rhodes’ model of creative thinkers, qualifying Wright as significant creative and innovative thinker.

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Let’s see where this goes…

Posted by Matthew Jones on

The text below is a support ticket I’ve lodged this morning with Steam, Valve’s online digital delivery service for PC video games. This is a make or break moment for them with me – I’ve not had any problems with product purchased through them to date.

I’ve always believed that a company is truly measured by how it reacts when someone is unhappy, or when things go wrong. Let’s see if they live up to my expectations.


Hi,

Since purchasing Settlers 7 yesterday, I have been unable to connect and play the game at all. Google searches show that this is a widespread problem – I’ve tried every single solution offered by Ubisoft without success.

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Digital Delivery & The Future of Advertising

Posted by Matthew Jones on

Those who know me personally know that I’m a huge supporter of online delivery for entertainment services. This has mostly extended to games at this point in time, because the benefits of purchasing online far outweigh the potential negatives.

I can:

  • Walk/drive/public transport to my closest retailer.
    OR
    Not have to leave the house at all.
  • Pay AUD99 for the latest release PC game.
    OR
    Pay USD49 (or less!) for the latest release PC game.
  • Have no option to retrieve my purchased game if I lose the CD.
    OR
    Be able to re-download the game again even if I lose the CD. Better yet, I can back up my downloaded game to CD straight from the PC.

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Jane McGonigal: Gaming Can Make A Better World

Posted by Matthew Jones on

Jane McGonigal: Gaming Can Make A Better World

(Text below taken from my response to the question “Find one talk on TED.com that interests you and explain why”. This had to be roughly 200 words – there’s so much more I want to say on the subject.)

McGonigal states that by the age of 21, this generation will have spent over 10,000 hours each playing online games – the same number that Gladwell references being critical to achieving mastery in a given field. What this means is that we’re going to have a generation of master gamers.

McGonigal believes that master gamers share four key skills or traits that they have developed:

Firstly, she states that gamers have a sense of “urgent optimism” – anything is possible, no problem is insurmountable. Next, gamers are able to create a unique “social fabric” – that these problems are often best solved through collaborative effort. They also tend to be more trusting – inviting someone to play a game with you involves huge amounts of trust, in that they will stick to the rules of the game and work toward the objective at hand.

Thirdly, gamers participate in “blissful productivity” – the idea that working (in playing a game) is actually more enjoyable than relaxing. People with full time jobs will still spend upwards of 20 hours a week playing online games – making use of their recreational time to essentially work toward a goal.

Finally, gamers develop a sense of “epic meaning” – the final goal is always magnificent and ambitious in scale. When we take all of these traits and put them together, McGonigal believes we wind up with “super empowered hopeful individuals” – in the virtual world. The challenge as she sees it is transferring these skills and traits into real world application through games – or alternatively, making the real world more like virtual ones.

As someone studying Games Technology, the application of gaming and simulation toward resolving real world problems is a tremendous motivator, and one of the main reasons I started studying again in the first place.