Lecture 6: Gameplay

# Creación de Videojuegos

### Gameplay

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# Player Types

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# Bartle's taxonomy of player types

* Killers 
  
  * Achievers
  
  * Explorers
  
  * Socializers
  
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# Killers

* Want power 
  
  * Want to exert control over others
  
  * Create chaos
  
  * Sometimes problematic griefing behavior
  
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# Achievers

* Want to collect wealth
  
  * Care about points, leaderboards, in-game currency
  
  * Leveling up is important
  
  * Are more willing to "grind" to gain advantages than other player types
  
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# Explorers

* Want to find patterns 
  
  * Geography: Patterns in landscape 
  
  * Strategy: Patterns in the rules
  
  * Seek knowledge
  
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# Socializers

* Care about people (virtual or real)
  
  * Want to interact with other players/non-players in meaningful ways
  
  * Enjoy roleplaying
  
  * Are often active in guilds, clans, etc.
  
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# What player type am I?

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# What player type are you?

<a href="http://matthewbarr.co.uk/bartle">http://matthewbarr.co.uk/bartle</a>

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# Notes

* Aren't these four types just the four Hogwarts houses?
     
     - Killer: Slytherin
     - Achiever: Gryffindor
     - Explorer: Ravenclaw
     - Socializer: Hufflepuff
  
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# Notes
  
  * They are definitely related to Myers-Briggs personality types (via David Keirsey):
  
     - Killer: Artisan (Sensing, Perceiving)
     - Achiever: Guardian (Sensing, Judging)
     - Explorer: Rational (Intuition, Thinking)
     - Socializer: Idealist (Intuition, Feeling)

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# Filling in the gaps: DGD1 (by Christopher Bateman)

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# Why do we care?
  
  * Ultimately, games are for players 
  
  * Different players want different things 
  
  * Understanding what players want helps us design better games for them
  
  * Understanding that there is a difference between players allows us to cater content to specific types
  
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# Example: WildStar

<img src="/CI-2700/assets/img/wildstar.jpg" width="100%"/> 
  
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# Mechanics

* Killer
      - Fighting
      - Competition
      - Interference
   * Achiever
      - Scores
      - Ranking
      - Challenges
      - Vanity objects
   * Explorer
      - Expansive geography
      - Hidden mechanics
      - Hidden interactions
   * Socializer
      - Clans/guilds
      - Rich characters
 
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# What does Skyrim have to offer?

(Skyrim)

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# Flow

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# Flow

* Experimentally validated by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi in the 70s
  
  * For any task
  
     - If it's too hard: people get anxious
     
     - If it's too easy: people get bored
     
  * What is easy/hard changes with skill
  
  * Skill improves over time!
  
  * While in the "flow", people are focused purely on the task

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# Flow

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# Flow

To stay in the "flow", players need

* Concrete goals, and consistent rules
  
  * Actions to achieve these goals that they can accomplish
  
  * Clear and timely feedback
  
  * No distractions
  
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# Flow - In Games

What this means for games:

* Provide the player with something to do 
  
  * Don't change the rules drastically
  
  * Increase difficulty incrementally, as players get better
  
  * Tell the player how they are doing on their goals
  
  * Don't overwhelm the player with information
  
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# How games keep you in the flow

* Give you a better weapon when killing monsters gets too hard
  
  * Introduce new mechanics gradually, then mix and match
  
  * Split missions up into smaller sub-tasks of increasing complexity
  
  * Progress feedback

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# Tutorials

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# Tutorials

Good tutorials:

* Can be skipped (and aborted)
  
  * Have little text 
  
  * Describe things clearly
  
  * Are complete
  
  * Excuse small mistakes
  
  * Are not condescending
  
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# Tutorials

(World of Warcraft)

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# Tutorials

(World of Warcraft)

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# Tutorials

## Good and bad tutorials?

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# Super Mario

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# Educational games?

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# Educational games

* Learn concepts using games 
  
  * For example, math puzzles, physics concepts 
  
  * Conveyed through mechanics and/or story
  
  * Effectiveness still under investigation

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# An educational game

(Genomics Digital Lab)

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# Or the reverse?

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# Resources

* <a href="http://matthewbarr.co.uk/bartle">Online Player Type Survey</a>
  
  * <a href="https://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/134842/personality_and_play_styles_a_.php">Personality And Play Styles: A Unified Model</a>

* <a href="http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/166972/cognitive_flow_the_psychology_of_.php">Cognitive Flow</a>
  
  * <a href="https://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/134774/the_designers_notebook_eight_.php">How not to make a tutorial</a>