Game fun

image:    uplayplus_hero.jpg

From this week's readings I have gathered a lot of information as there was a few readings to go through. 

From this article https://users.cs.northwestern.edu/~hunicke/MDA.pdf it spoke again about MDA(mechanics, dynamics and aesthetics) and it is basically a formal approach of understanding a game and what works behind a game to make it function. Games are designed and made by designers/developers and played and consumed by players. 

I found it interesting reading through the different articles as they were all fairly different and focused on a different part of games.

From this link: http://mud.co.uk/richard/hcds.htm   I learned a lot about the different kinds of players. The below graph is from the blog post 'Clubs, Diamonds, Hearts, Spades: Players who suit MUD'S"

                    ACTING
                  Killers            |                  Achievers
                                     |
                                     |
                                     |
                                     |
                                     |
          PLAYERS -------------------+------------------- WORLD
                                     |
                                     |
                                     |
                                     |
                                     |
                  Socialisers        |                  Explorers
                                INTERACTING

I found this particularly interesting and it put games into perspective for me a little bit. He said that the point of playing a game is to master the game and make it do what you want it to do. These kind of players are known as 'achievers' as they want to complete the game and do it as fast as they can.

The 'explorers' are those who are genuinely interested in the game and what to explore the world they are in.

It is cool to see how some people act differently in games, some want to win straight away, some like to explore the world their in and look around and some people like to interact with other players.

In this article: http://www.gamasutra.com/features/20041110/falstein_01.shtml I had a look around and went in and out from different articles just to give myself a bit of knowledge on different areas and get a feel for it. The main thing I have gathered is that you are making a game that you want people to explore, win, socialise and really get into the game.