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Games Decisions




Games Decisions

Hi again, welcome back to my blog. Today I will be writing about readings to do with decision-making and flow theory. Unfortunately I was unable to get the readings "Theory of Fun for Game Design" and "Challenges for Game Designers" off Amazon for this week. Instead I read an article from Lost Garden by Daniel Crook. 

In this article, Crook talked about making a Massively Multiplayer Online game (MMO). An MMO is is an online game with large numbers of players, typically from hundreds to thousands, on the same server.  I had never heard of this term before. Creating a game with more players costs more money and takes more time.

A lot of people think the more players able to play, the better the game. Crook gives examples of games such as; Multi-User Dungeons and Fortnite, to counter this statement. I personally I enjoy video games that involve loads of players but after reading this article, I have now learned that this may not always be the best approach.

Friendships are a huge factor for creating multiplayer games. Proximity, similarity, reciprocity and disclosure are required when forming friendships. I completely understand why without these ingredients, the players would be very unlikely to become friends. It's just like in real life, if you have nothing in common with someone you probably won't be friends.

Reading about Dunbar's Layers was very interesting. This is a suggested cognitive limit to the number of people with whom one can maintain stable social relationships. The average person can have up to 150 relationships but once you look into all the layers, it can drop down to just 5 intimate friends. Dunbars layers are egocentric bonds which can be explained using the following diagrams:
                                
Image 1: Dyad and Triad bonds (https://lostgarden.home.blog/)

Emotion is a huge factor for creating social games. Friendship is the basis of so many games. Crook explained this really well and I learned so much from his article. 

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Comments

  1. BLC Blogging10 November 2019 at 12:59

    Hi Lauren,

    I enjoyed reading your notes on this week's readings. They state all of the main points very well and It's clear which ones are relevant. There isn't too much detail, so it keeps the notes simple and easy to look over and revise if needs be. I also like how you give a personal response to the notes as you write them, it's really interesting.

    BLC Blogging.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Katie Persson22 November 2019 at 03:28

    Hi Lauren, I enjoyed this reading as it goes through all of the main components of a game and you laid our your notes really well for that reading.
    I also found the Dunbars layer to be really interesting and it simplifies a game down a lot.
    I hope it all goes well for you with your game. Your blog looks really good so keep it up!

    ReplyDelete

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