The discussion of Pokemon reminds me of the work of Thomas Malone in
XeroxPARC in the 1970’s on “What makes intrinsically motivating computer
games?”. In terms of computer games of curse these days were much simpler.
Malone identifies three important attributes: fantasy, challenge and
curiosity.
In fantasy Malone identifies a difference between intrinsic and extrinsic
fantasies. In some (educational(sic)) computer games the fantasy was
merely an added layer of frosting and had no bearing on the skill
involved. For instance in hangman, the ability to recognise the ways
recognisable phonemes are constructed from alphabetic characters has
little to do with one’s ability to avoid execution. Malone found a
stronger preference for games where the activity of the game and the
fantasy of the game matched. He also found a gender difference in fantasy
choice. Girls are said to prefer constructive fantasies ( building
beetles) whereas boy preferred destructive fantasies (knocking walls down)
as means of marking progress in a game, even though the skills needed for
progress may be the same.
Challenge: games should present a variable challenge. There should be
enough to interest the first time you play a game with little or no skill.
Everybody can kick a soccer ball around, and games amongst beginners
league provide as much pleasure for the participants as the world cup
final for champion players. Therefore the level of challenge must be
variable and increase as the players capability in the game increases.
Curiosity: Games should not have predictable outcomes, and to be really
compelling the outcome of each and every stage should provoke curiosity.
It is easy to see how the enduring games match these factors; games that
are played and replayed (chess) and those games that are played but less
frequently (Monopoly).
Pokemon has many of these characteristics.
It is also interesting to look at the biographies of game designers. Peter
Molyneux, the designer of many popular “god-games” including the dark but
witty “Dungeon Master” was brought up as the child of toy shop owners.
Rather than having the “best of everything”, Peter was left with the
broken and returned games: missing pieces and missing rules. His need to
construct games from what he had was his apprenticeship.
Martin
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Tue Jan 11 2000 - 14:04:05 PST