"Gameplay"

[=LD=Hethwill]

Accidentally tripped onto a nice text. In its majority it defines the what, how and why of a Game.
 

Gameplay

Gameplay is what distinguishes a game from a non-interactive medium (book, movie) through the player interaction. Many guidelines were developed:

Goal and ways to achieve it

• Provide clear goals. Present overriding goal early, as well as short-term goals throughout the play (Clanton 1998, Malone 1982, Desurvire 2004)
• Design for multiple paths through the game (Federoff 2002)
• Game play should be balanced so that there is no definite way to win (Crawford, 1982; Malone, 1982)
• There must not be any single optimal winning strategy (Shelley 2001, Desurvire 2004)
• The game must maintain an illusion of attainability (Crawford, 1982)
• The game should have an unexpected outcome (Malone, 1982)

Learning and mastering

• There should be variable difficulty levels (Malone 1980, Norman 1990, Shneiderman 1997)
• “A good game should be easy to learn and hard to master” (Nolan Bushnell)
• The game should give hints, but not too many (Clanton, 1998)
• Teach skills early that you expect the players to use later, or right before the new skill is needed (Desurvire 2004)
• Pace the game to apply pressure to, but not frustrate the player (Clanton 1998, Shelley 2001)
• Vary the difficulty level so that players become more challenged as they develop mastery (Desurvire 2004)
• Challenges are positive rather than negative game experiences, resulting in players wanting to play more rather than quitting (Desurvire 2004)
• The game should use orthogonal unit differentiation, i.e., use objects with different strengths and weaknesses (Laitinen 2008)

Arouse and maintain interest

• Create an interesting and absorbing tutorial that mimics game play (Desurvire 2004)
• Get the player involved quickly and easily (Bickford, 1997)
• The game is fun for the player first, the designer second and the computer third. That is, if the non-expert player’s experience isn't put first, excellent game mechanics and graphics programming triumphs are meaningless (Desurvire 2004)
• Games should use visual and audio effects to arouse interest (Bickford 1997, Malone 1982, Shelley 2001)
• The game transports the player into a level of personal involvement emotionally (e.g., scare, threat, thrill, reward, punishment) and viscerally (e.g., sounds of environment) (Desurvire 2004)
•  Player’s fatigue is minimized by varying activities and pacing during game play (Desurvire 2004). Use about 5-minute intervals (Schaffer 2008).
• Allow users to skip non-playable and frequently repeated content. Include a lot of interactive props for the player to interact with (Desurvire 2004)
• Play should be fair (Clanton, 1998)
• Player should not be penalized repetitively for the same failure (Desurvire 2004)
• The game is enjoyable to replay (Shelley 2001, Desurvire 2004)

Rewards

• The game should give rewards that immerse the player more deeply in the game by increasing their capabilities (Desurvire 2004),
• and expanding their ability to customize (Bickford 1997, Clanton 1998, Shelley 2001, Shneiderman 1992, Desurvier 2004)
• The first player action [...] should result in immediate positive feedback (Desurvier 2004)
• Focus on rewarding players for success (within reason), and less on punishing them for failure (Fortugno 2008)
• One reward of playing should be the acquisition of skill (Federoff 2002)

Control and impact

• Player’s should perceive a sense of control and impact onto the game world. The game world reacts to the player, and changes the player makes are persistent and noticeable if they back-track to where they’ve been before (Desurvier 2004)
• Allow players to build content (Shelley, 2001)
• The player has a sense of control over their character and is able to use tactics and strategies (Desurvier 2004)
• The player feels as though the world is going on whether their character is there or not (Desurvier 2004)
• Artificial intelligence actors should be unpredictable, yet consistent with the player’s reasonable expectations of AI actors (Bickford 1997, Crawford 1982, Desurvire 2004)

 

 

 

Given the multiple ways of playing a game, on the stadium, on the pitch, cardboard with pieces, tabletop with figures, pen and paper, and ultimately using computer and internet, it is quite daunting to gather all these aspects into a product especially if one dealing with History events.

 

What are important factor in your everyday choice of entertainment ? Obviously putting aside the social aspect of it - how many times we jump on comms just to check on folks

[Bearcat]

Good read... Very often we get on comms and don't even fly... I have known most of the guys in my squad for 12 years ... and I have met several face to face. I consider them all friends.

[Foobar]

Thanks for sharing. Interesting read.

[=LD=Hethwill]

Playing a word game Raid ? Game by Life, good fun 

[Sokol1]

The "gameplay" attempting in il-2 Wings of Pray SP dont make much success...

 

Sokol1

[79_vRAF_Friendly_flyer]

Accidentally tripped onto a nice text. In its majority it defines the what, how and why of a Game.

 

Where did you find it? I would not mind looking up some of those references.

[Uufflakke]

Where did you find it? I would not mind looking up some of those references.

 

After a brief search on the net the quoted text above are notes on the course 'Human-Computer Interaction' (2004?)  by professor Alfred Kobsa of the University of California.

 

http://www.ics.uci.edu/~kobsa/courses/ICS104/course-notes/game-play.htm

http://www.ics.uci.edu/~kobsa/

[=LD=Hethwill]

After a brief search on the net the quoted text above are notes on the course 'Human-Computer Interaction' (2004?)  by professor Alfred Kobsa of the University of California.

 

http://www.ics.uci.edu/~kobsa/courses/ICS104/course-notes/game-play.htm

http://www.ics.uci.edu/~kobsa/

 

That's it. Followed a player's sig link on Steam.