Understanding the Funativity: The Evolutionary Roots and Categories of Fun

1. Chapter 2.1Understanding Fun

2. What is Fun? • Dictionary: Enjoyment, a source of amusement – but that doesn’t help • Important to consider underlying reasons • “Funativity” – thinking about fun in terms of measurable cause and effect

3. Evolutionary Roots • We must look to our distant past • Young mammals play to learn basic survival skills • Games are organized play • Human entertainment is also at its heart about learning how to survive • Mating and social rules also critical to us

4. Education == Entertainment • Life is all either work, rest, or fun • Fun is about practicing or learning new survival skills in a relatively safe setting • People who didn’t enjoy that practice were less likely to survive to become our ancestors

5. Hunting and Gathering • For most of our species’ history we were tribal hunter/gatherers • Current popular games reflect this • Shooters, wargames = hunting • Powerups, resources = gathering • Sims, MMO = social, tribal interaction

6. Natural Funativity Theory • Basic concept is that all fun derives from practicing survival and social skills • Key skills relate to early human context, but often in modern guise • Three overlapping categories • Physical, Social, and Mental

7. Physical Fun • Sports generally enhance our strength, stamina, coordination skills • Exploration is fun • Both of local area and knowledge of exotic places • Hand/eye coordination and tool use are often parts of fun activities – crafts • Physical aspect to gathering “stuff”

8. Social Fun • Storytelling is a social activity • A way to learn important survival and social lessons from others • Gossip, sharing info w/friends popular • Flirting, showing off, finding mates is a key interest in social fun • Language has become paramount

9. Mental Fun • Our large brains make humans unique • Pure abstract reasoning practice is fun • Pattern matching and generation • Music, Art, and Puzzles all pattern based • Gathering also has mental aspect, categorizing and identifying patterns

10. Multipurpose Fun • Many fun activities have physical, social and mental aspects in combination • Games that mix these aspects tend to be very popular • Incorporate ways to practice these skills to increase the popularity of games

11. Definition of a Great Game • A great game is a series of interesting and meaningful choices made by the player in pursuit of a clear and compelling goal

12. A Series of … Choices in Pursuit of a … Goal • Must have choice, or it is not interactive • Must be a series of choices or it is too simple to be a game • Must have a goal or it is a software toy • With Sim City and The Sims players may bring their own goals

13. Interesting and Meaningful Choices • Choices may be dull and uninteresting because it was easy to code that way • Or it may be the reflection of a lazy designer • Meaningful choices are perceived by the player as having significant consequences • May not have actual consequences…

14. Clear and Compelling Goal • Clear goals • Because it is not fun to flounder aimlessly • Avoid the “protagonist with amnesia” cliché • Compelling goals are goals that follow the concepts in Natural Funativity • Survival is always a compelling goal

15. A Series of Choices • No choice

16. A Series of Choices • Meaningless choices • Obviously fold back into same path • Players discover this quickly

17. A Series of Choices • Infinite choices • Quickly become unmanageable

18. A Series of Choices • Choose wisely • Kill off player with any wrong choice • Better but frustrating (Dragon’s Lair)

19. Classic Game Structure • A convexity • Starts with a single choice, widens to many choices, returns to a single choice

20. Convexity Qualities • Go from one to many to one • Can be a level, an act, an episode • Can be any kind of choice • Geography, weapons, tools, skills, technologies, quests • Examples • Exploring an island • Technology build tree

21. Fractal Structure • Large scale structure repeated on medium, smaller scales, like a coastline • In the case of convexities, each circle is not a single choice, but a convexity • Age of Empires example • Take a defensive stance, create squad to defend left flank, collect resources to build a legionnaire, etc.

22. A Series of Convexities • Many games are chains of convexities • Points of limited choice (A) alternate with points of many choices (B)

23. A Series of Convexities • Many overlapping convexities in great games • Examples include Halo, Zelda games, Civilization, Diablo II, many others • Player can be starting one task or area, in the middle of another, and at the end of a third, all simultaneously

24. Why Is This Structure So Good? • Give the player choice but not an infinitely expanding set of choices • Mix of some “any order” choices (B) and some in fixed order (A), blending freedom with linear storytelling • Can be structured so players see most of the game, minimizing waste • Can have difficulty go up in new levels

25. Psychological Advantagesof Classic Structure • Alternating intense learning (A) with time to practice (B) is the best way to master new skills • Gradual learning and introduction of new skills at the heart of fun game play • “Easy to learn, difficult to master” • “Simple, Hot, and Deep”

26. The Concept of Flow • U of C professor Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi • One of his books is “Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience” • Flow is a state of exhilaration, deep sense of enjoyment • Usually when a person’s body or mind is stretched to its limits to accomplish something difficult and worthwhile

27. The Flow Channel • Start with relatively low level of challenge to match starting skill levels • Gradually increase challenge • Fast enough to prevent boredom • Not so fast as to induce frustration

28. The Flow Channel

29. The Flow Channel • Flow state is common while developing same Physical, Social, and Mental skills noted in Natural Funativity • Best to introduce skills one at a time, let player master them, move on to new • This results in staggered increase in difficulty (wavy difficulty line)

30. Difficulty Increase Varies

31. Typical Game Mechanisms • High difficulty increase: Boss monsters, climactic battles, quest resolutions • Low difficulty increase: Bonus levels, new resource- and treasure-rich areas, series of easy “minion” enemies • Overlap introduction of new skills, areas to explore, tools, enemies

32. Story and Character • Back to “interesting choices” and “compelling goals” – how to achieve? • Story and character can add emotional association, strengthen reaction • Storytelling has long history, but interactive storytelling can differ critically from traditional linear modes

33. Interactive Storytelling • Blend storytelling with design early • Use experienced interactive writers • “Do, don’t show” – let players experience story through interaction • Make it personal by having players make key choices, events affect them

34. It’s All About Interactivity • Don’t make choices for the player • Story should add emotional context to the choices • Keep any cut scenes brutally short • Break up non-interactive sequences by adding interactivity, even if very simple

35. Characters • Characters can make the game world seem more real and exciting • Bold stereotypes may seem crude but are better than colorless characters, and can help avoid boring exposition • Bring out character through action, not description or exposition

36. Gameplay Trumps Story • If you have a conflict between gameplay or story, first look for a compromise that favors both • Failing that, make sure that the gameplay is good at expense of story • Always signal player clearly in narrative to interactive transitions with visuals, audio