Video Games and the Human Condition

September 27, 2010

“Speaking to the Human Condition”

Pac-Man (1982)

Impossible Mission (1984)

• Story: What is going to happen next? Natural curiosity about humans.

• Justifies what you are doing, rather than red/green/blue cardkeys.

• Eye Candy / Ear Candy

• Next Goal that is clear, within-reach ("Just One More")

• Feeling of Constant Improvement• Collection / Hoarding (via Skinner Box)

Game Design Best Practices

Skinner Box

Operant conditioning withvariable-ratio reward scheduling.

Skinner Boxes

Skinner Boxes

• Story: What is going to happen next? Natural curiosity about humans.

• Justifies what you are doing, rather than red/green/blue cardkeys.

• Eye Candy / Ear Candy

• Next Goal that is clear, within-reach ("Just One More")

• Feeling of Constant Improvement• Collection / Hoarding (via Skinner Box)

Game Design Best Practices

How did we arrive at these best practices?

1. Natural process of evolving inspiration

2. More-“professional” monitoring of players

Difficulty, as time passes

The End

The End

?

What is Boredom?

What is Boredom?

A healthy responseto unproductive situations.

Like simulated annealing…

A Spectrum of Games

“Many of today's console games exert a time crush. They demand tens or even hundreds of hours of attention to complete, some or most of which often feels empty. In that respect, one could argue that many games seem to destroy time….

“But social games do something even more violent: they also destroy the time we spend away from them... through obligation, worry, and dread over missed opportunities.”

Ian Bogost

A/B Split Testingto Maximize Profit

Designer’s Defense:

“We’re just giving people what they want… They’re having fun.”

$9.99

800 Microsoft Points

These really are“good game design”

How to respect the player?

They are also extremely manipulative.

an intensely personal game

a game on a subject that interests me very much,

right now

the game that will impact players' lives in the way that I want, while still making a

reasonable amount of money

With respectcomes the possibility for

open and honest communciation

Science

Science,

yet also the subjectiveis precious.

“Games should just be fun. What is the big deal? I am

having fun.”

“Writers and people who had command of words were respected and feared as people who manipulated magic.

In latter times I think that artists and writers have allowed themselves to be sold down the river. They have accepted the prevailing belief that art and writing are merely forms of entertainment. They're not seen as transformative forces that can change a human being, that can change a society. They are seen as simple entertainment -- things with which we can fill twenty minutes, half an hour, while we're waiting to die.

“It is not the job of artists to give the audience what the audience want. If the audience knew what they needed, then they wouldn't be the audience; they would be the artists. It is the job of artists to give the audience what they need.”

Alan MooreThe Mindscape of Alan Moore