Game Fun

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This weeks readings go back to the question of what makes a game fun and how someone can quantify that fun in order to develop a game that is fun.

It turns out that the idea of something being done for fun goes way back to our hunter-gatherer ancestors and how they would pass their time. Instead of immediately going back out to hunt again after successfully catching a deer one hunter-gatherer might instead balance a piece of wood on a rock and then throw stones at it. In doing this he is building survival skills as much as he would have had he gone back out to hunt again after coming back while also having fun. This honing of survival skills through fun and play has been dubbed Natural Funativity.

Many of the aspects of games that we enjoy can be linked back to or ancestors. Sports such as football are quite easy to link back because they are physical and are much like the hunting are ancestors would have done however non-physical games such as slot machines of even Pac-Man appeal to the gather part of our ancestory because we are collecting items.

This collecting of items can also me seen in many MMO's. The players of said MMO's also tend to like the game for four reasons, achievement within the game context, exploration of the game, socialising with others and imposition upon others. In other words achievers, explorers, socialisers and killers. An easy way to remember this is by using card suits: achievers are Diamonds (they're always seeking treasure); explorers are Spades (they dig around for information); socialisers are Hearts (they empathise with other players); killers are Clubs (they hit people with them). These people of course find different parts of the game the most fun depending on what category they fall into.

All of these categories tie into aspects of a hunter-gatherer society which leads to the conclusion that part of the appeal of many games out there is in part the learning of survival skills in a fun manner evolved over time into a less dangerous pass time. This can help in the future when it comes to conceptualising new games that are fun.