Players and Why We Play Games

Callois’ Typology of Ludic Activities §

• Agon - competitive play. Combat is artificially created and adversaries confront each other.
• Alea - chance based play. All games that are based on a decision independent of the player.
• Mimicry - role playing and make-believe play. One becomes an illusory character. The play of representation
• Ilinx - playing with the physical sensation, with the goal of momentarily destroying the stability of perception.
• Paida - wild, free-form improvisational play.
• Ludus - rule bound, regulated formalized play.

Leblanc’s Typology of Fun §

• Sensation - games as sensory pleasure
• Fantasy - games as make-believe
• Narrative - games as drama
• Challenge - games as an obstacle course.
• Fellowship - games as a social framework for cooperation and community
• Discovery - games as exploring uncharted territory.
• Expression - games as self-discovery and as opportunities for creating things.
• Submission - games as masochism — the pleasure of submitting to the formal system of the magic circle.

Apter’s Typology of Fun §

• Exposure to Arousing Stimulation - intense and overwhelming sensation.
• Fiction and Narrative - emotional arousal from character identification
• Challenge - difficulties and frustrations arising from competition.
• Exploration - moving off into new territory.
• Negativism - deliberate rule-breaking.
• Cognitive Synergy - imaginative play.
• Facing Danger - risk within the protective framework of play.

Sutton-Smith’s Typology §

• Within the system of social relationships, players can assume a variety of roles. Players may be actors or counteractors
• Play emerges directly from the relationships between players.
• Sutton-Smith gives the following motives and what the actors / counter-actors perform:
  • Race - to overtake / stay ahead
  • Chase - to catch / elude
  • Attack - to overpower / defend
  • Capture - to take / avoid being taken
  • Harassment - to tease, taunt or lure / to see through, move suddenly, or bide time.
  • Search - to find / to hide
  • Rescue - to spring prisoner / to guard against escape
  • Seduction - to tempt another forbidden action / to resist.

Bartle’s Player Typology §

• Another typology from Bartle, applicable especially in MUDs. Some can be related to Leblanc’s Typology of Fun
• Achievers - have the goal of point-gathering and rising in levels. They want to achieve the goals of the game. Their primary pleasure is challenge
• Explorers - delight in having the game expose its internal machinations to them. Their primary pleasure is discovery.
• Socializers - to them, the game is a common backdrop that facilitates interaction with others. Their primary pleasure is fellowship.
• Killers - impose themselves on others. This includes destructive goals (i.e., griefing) but also helping others.

	Acting	Interacting
World	Achievers	Explorers
Players	Killers	Socializers

Typology by Age §

• All play activities are connected to childhood. Childhood is centered around play. To create games for a particular age, you must speak the language of their childhood.

| Label | Age bracket | Likes | Dislikes | | ----------- | ----------- | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ---------------------------------- | --- | --- | | Infant | 0 - 3 | Direct Interfaces and Toys | Abstract Interfaces. Complex Games | | Preschooler | 4 - 6 | Simple games played with parents | Games played with others | | Kids | 7 - 9 | Depends on preferences, but often involves more complex Problem Solving than the previous levels | Depends on Preferences | | Preteen | 10 - 13 | Depends on preferences. Often involves obsessively liking a game | Depends on preferences | | Teen | 13 - 18 | Experimentation | | | Young Adult | 18 - 24 | Games on existing preferences derived from experimentation during teenage years. | | | 20s and 30s | 25 - 35 | Typically either hardcore gamers (game = primary hobby) or casual gamers | | | 30s and 40s | 35 - 50 | Casual Games. Games the whole family can enjoy together | | | 50+ | 50s up | New game experiences. Games with a social component. | Games with Fine motor control | | |

Typology by Sex §

• While Stereotypical, there is some reality behind the stereotypes that may be useful to the designer.

Male	Female
Mastery of something challenging	Mastery of something utilitarian
Competition	Cooperation. Based on Personal Experiences
Destruction	Nurturing and Creation
Spatial Puzzles	Dialogue and Verbal Puzzles
Trial and Error. Experimentation	Learning by Example
Emotions as a means to an end	Emotions as an end
Abstract or Fantasy games	Games grounded on the real world
Single tasking	Multitasking

Additional Pleasures to Consider §

• From Schell.
• Anticipation - when you know pleasure is coming, just waiting is a kind of pleasure
• Completion - the pleasure in finishing something
• Schadenfreude - delighting in another’s pleasure, particularly in competitive games.
• Gift giving - making others happy through gifts.
• Humor - Two unconnected things are suddenly united by a paradigm shift. It is hard to describe, but we all know it when it happens. Weirdly, it causes us to make a barking noise. ¹
• Possibility - the pleasure of having many choices.
• Pride - the pleasure that persists long after the achievement was made.
• Surprise - keep the audience surprised
• Thrill -the experience of terror juxtaposed with security.
• Triumph - the pleasure of accomplishing something that was difficult.
• Wonder - overwhelming feeling of awe and amazement leading to curiosity.

Rewards and Punishments §

• Games can judge us and give us rewards which players will find pleasing
• *Games can also judge us and give us punishment.
  • Endogenous value is created when rewards can be taken away from us.
  • Risks are exciting
  • The possibility of punishment invites challenge.

Rewards	Punishments
Praise	Shame
Points	Loss of Points
Prolonged Play (i.e., more time, more stamina, extra lives)	Shortened Play (losing time, stamina, or life)
Gateway for Exploration	Termination of Play
Spectacle
Expression within the Game
Additional Powers	Removal of Powers
More in—game resources	Resource depletion
Status in leaderboard rankings or achievements
Completion of all goals	Setbacks

The Social Reasons for Play §

• From Schell.

• Competition - It fill several kinds of needs

  • Allows for a balanced playing field
  • Provides a worthy opponent
  • Gives an interesting problem to solve
  • Fulfills a deep inner need to determine our skill relative to someone else in our social circle.
  • Allows for games involving complex strategy, choices, and psychology made possible by the intelligence of the opponent

• Collaboration

  • Allows partaking in game actions and strategies that are impossible with just one person.
  • Let us enjoy the deep pleasure that comes from group problem solving.

• Meeting Up

  • Gives a convenient reason for people to be together
  • Gives something to share
  • Gives focus on things that won’t make everyone uncomfortable.

• Exploring Our Friends - when we play a game, we get a glimpse of the depths of our friends.

• Exploring Ourselves - we also get to see how we would behave in a social situation under stress.

• Spectation - games provide good social connection simply by watching people playing.

Debus, Zagal, and Cardona-Rivera’s Typology §

• Taken from A Typology of Imperative Game Goals by Debus, Zagal, and Cardona-Rivera

• A game’s goals can get complicated when we consider that most games include a network of nested and inter-related goals

• Goals can be one of many imperatives which determine the nature of the mechanics of the game.

  • It is through a game’s imperatives that we can connect gameplay to a game’s ultimate goal. However, there is rarely a single imperative that accounts for the entirety of a game’s gameplay.
  • We generally see a multitude of imperatives that are inter-related and connected, often in a hierarchical structure to each other from abstract to concrete. Higher level goals dictate an approach that necessitates meeting lower level goals

• Choose - make a decision in a given task from limited options. Often, but not necessarily, one of the options is the “correct” one.

• Configure - manipulate game objects such that they are in an acceptable (winning) state or configuration.

• Create - bring something into existence which was not present before. This includes performing transactions, crafting, building, or even narrative.

• Find - identify or locate something in a game.

• Obtain - the need to gain control or ownership over something (territory or items.)

• Optimize - maximize or minimize a resource, score or amount. In this imperative, there is some notion of resource.

• Reach - the player must act such that the character reaches a certain spatial location in the game world, either through direct or indirect control.

• Remove - remove an object (items or players) from the game world.

• Solve - provide an answer, often implied to be the correct answer

• Synchronize - perform an action synchronous to an in-game event (i.e., press a button on time)

Links §

• Rules of Play — Game Design Fundamentals by Salen and Zimmerman
• Schell
• Faculties of the Mind. - our reason for playing is inherently tied to motive.

Footnotes §

1. Directly extracted from Schell. It is a very humorous description for humor. ↩