Week 2 - I have no words I must design

A game is an interactive structure of endogenous meaning that requires players to struggle towards goals


Game
- Costikyan explains that games aren't just limited to the platform they are on, games are everywhere and every game is different from each other.
- Games are a plastic medium between the process of doing something and having fun.
- To make sense of games in general, you need to understand what a "game" is and why you play it.


Interactive Structure
- Puzzles/Games -- Puzzles are static with the user figuring out the solution with the use of clues, "Games are not static but change with the players actions."
- Every game needs to define its interaction as it could be many things from moving the character to playing a video.
- If the game reacts to the user's interactivity then it is a game, otherwise it is a puzzle.
- If it isn't a puzzle it's something to do with media as the outcome is not a varied result of the players action, it is a single end result eg. video file/music.


Endogenous
- An endogenous meaning is "caused by factors inside the organism or system"
- Costikyan explains that the games being made create their own meaning. The players figure out what they want to do and how they want to do it, giving it a new meaning every time it is played.
- There are parts in games that are extremely addictive to players, aspects of the game that force the user to want to collect the new item or complete the new quest to get that feeling of achievement that is symbolised throughout the game, giving the game a meaning.


Struggle
- Like Goals/Interactivity, a game without a struggle is a bad game.
- There are many ways to make struggle in a game, one of which is adding competition. The player struggles against another player to win. An example of competition in games is chess. Without the opposition being there, there would be no struggle. Both players aim to create a strategy to beat the opponent and that is where the struggle is created, trying to out-smart the opponent.
- Another example of struggle is role-playing games. If you aren't competing against someone else, you are struggling to reach the next level or struggling to complete a quest to reach the next level.
- Making a game difficult for the player creates struggle, but as Costikyan explains, making something difficult doesn't necessarily mean it will be fun. Creating a game that is fun with struggle is the sign of a good game.


Goals
- Goals in a game link in with interactivity:
- If the game doesn't have a goal but has interactivity then it isn't a game as there is no varied result to the players actions. The audience has nothing to work towards, there is no success.
- If interactivity doesn't have a goal at the end of it then it isn't a game. A goal in a game is something that can be achieved by choosing a varied option with different outcomes.
- At every point in the game the user thinks about the current game state, makes a choice about where he/she stands at the moment in the game and chooses an option to take to reach the necessary goal.