GDCA: Games Are Math slides posted

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Sep 222009
 
Using isomorphic graphs to analyze MMORPG combat

Using isomorphic graphs to analyze MMORPG combat

I have posted up the slide deck (PPT) and a page of images of slides for my GDC Austin talk, “Games Are Math: 10 Core Mechanics That Drive Compelling Gameplay.”

This talk starts out with some game grammar stuff that may be familiar, then moves into looking at a definition of NP-complete problems, then provides ten examples of how they can be used to look at games, then finishes by examining cognitive bugs in the brain that many games exploit. Please note, I am not a mathematician nor even claim to be very good at math. 🙂

As usual, this along with all my other talks can be found on the Gaming Presentations page, reached by clicking “Games” on the top bar of the site, then choosing Presentations from the sidebar. For those of you who never click the top bar and think all that is here is the blog — there’s a wealth of stuff available there. 🙂 I’ve recently updated it to include a few presentations that were buried and hard to find, such as the audio for my Games For Change closing address, the videos for Living Game Worlds IV and Siggraph Sandbox, and more.

AGDC: Games Are Math writeup

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Sep 182009
 

Xemu’s Long-Winded Game Industry Ramblings :: AGDC ’09: Raph Koster on Games and Math is a liveblog of the talk I gave a couple of hours ago here at GDCAustin.

The talk was first a very brief intro to game grammar approaches, followed by digging into the math behind very common game mechanics that have stood the test of time, and then lastly a look at some of the “bugs” in human cognition that games tend to exploit. It was supposed to be an intermediate talk, not superadvanced, so I hope I hit the right levelof complexity for everyone!

The room was pretty packed — 300 people, I am told! There’s also commentary on Twitter if you go looking.

I will try to get the slides up soon.

Let the Children Play on NYT.com

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Sep 092009
 

There’s an editorial by Stuart Brown in the NYT advocating for more play time — physical, unstructured play time — during the school year for kids. Much of the argument is right in line with “theory of fun” principles…

For most American children in the not-so-distant past, “going out to play” was the norm. Today, according to a University of Michigan study, children spend 50 percent less time outside than they did just 20 years ago — and the 6.5 hours a day they spend with electronic media means that sitting in front of a screen has replaced going out.

Let the Children Play (Some More) – Happy Days Blog – NYTimes.com

Tossed in amidst the article is the quote

Physically engaging play is actually more fun than the virtual sort, and the enlivenment one gets from it can transcend the allure of sedentary life in a two-dimensional, electronic world.

which I don’t think is really clear from the science — our brains seem to regularly get fooled into thinking that the screen is a real world. That said, assertion or not, I think it is fair to say that the many other benefits of physical play outweigh the quibble.

The real entertainment, however, comes in the 9 pages (!) of comments, full of childhood reminiscences from people from all walks of life describing their playtime — stickball, bikes, splashing in creeks, roleplay, swings — and debate on “stranger danger.”

Creative Place-Making

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Aug 182009
 

Via Bernie DeKoven comes this:

What constitutes ‘a ground of play’? What are the universal conditions of a place of play?

From the consilience of these sciences, let me suggest three rules for a healthy ground of play:

1 It must have loose but robust governance

2 It must ensure a surplus of time, space and stuff

3 It must treat failure, risk and mess as necessary for development

via The Play Ethic: The Play Ethic and Creative Place-Making: Doing What Comes Naturally?

Sounds rather “magic circley” but it is a good prescription nonetheless. The article goes on to discuss this as a way of making more playful spaces in general — including workspaces:

But I think a case can be made (which I hope I’ve begun to make tonight) that cultural managers could base their policies on the legitimacy of a play ethic, as the main characterisation of a productive, value-creating life in the 21st century, than a work ethic.

The post author has a book, too.

Learning triggers the brain’s reward loop

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Jul 172009
 

Just yesterday my new editor at OReilly asked me “is there anything that has made the content of A Theory of Fun in need of updating?” And my response was “no, not really…”

That’s because articles like this one keep coming out:

Further experiments on their brains revealed that that the same neurons were signaling the expectation of both water and knowledge, and they were linked to the release of dopamine–a neurotransmitter chemical that’s connected to making you feel rewarded when you achieve a goal.

And that’s incredibly revealing. Because it implies that the primal urge mechanisms that drive us to eat when hungry and drink when thirsty are also directly allied with seeking out new knowledge–it seems we’re actually programmed to gather information.

— Reading Fast Company as Rewarding as Sex, Study Suggests | Technomix | Fast Company.

Digging deeper to the source article shows that the key quote is this one:

…information about a reward is rewarding in itself.

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