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Definitions of Games and PlayMagic CircleGame Rules

Foundations of Interactive Game DesignProf. Jim Whitehead

January 14, 2008

Upcoming Assignments• Due today (Jan. 14): first Gamelog assignment‣ Game of your choice‣ Details on web site (Analysis > Game session logging)‣ Be sure to follow template

❖ Put section titles “SUMMARY”, “GAMEPLAY”, “DESIGN” into your entry❖ 2-5 paragraphs for each GAMEPLAY section, and for DESIGN section

‣ Due at midnight, still plenty of time to complete assignment• Course web site:‣ http://www.soe.ucsc.edu/classes/cmps080k/Winter08/‣ Bookmark it today!

• This Friday (Jan. 18): team selection‣ Find your partner for your game project‣ You are responsible for finding a partner

❖ Yes, this means you might need to actually talk to someone in this class!

‣ Pick team name, know contact info

Announcements• Porter Video Games Tournament‣ Fifth Annual Video Game Tourney‣ Saturday, Jan. 26, 2008, 6pm-6am, Porter Dining Hall‣ Register/details: portervgt5.0@gmail.com‣ Facebook group: “PorterVGT 5.0”

• CMPS 20, Game Design Experience‣ Class session Tuesday, 8:30am, PSB 110‣ If you are enrolled in CS 20, you should attend

• Katherine Isbister talk‣ Games and HCI: A social psychological and

communication-based approach‣ Friday, Jan. 18, 11am, E2 599

Play• Let’s shift our focus to play.• Johann Huizinga’s 1938 book Homo Ludens defines

play as:‣[Play is] a free activity standing quite consciously outside “ordinary” lifeas being “not serious,” but at the same time absorbing the playerintensely and utterly. It is an activity connected with no material interest,and no profit can be gained by it. It proceeds within its own properboundaries of time and space according to fixed rules and in an orderlymanner. It promotes the formation of social groupings, which tend tosurround themselves with secrecy and to stress their difference from thecommon world by disguise or other means.

• Does good job capturing essence of play‣“absorbing the player intensely and utterly”

• Does not well distinguish games and play‣Children’s play is not strongly rule based, but is definitely play

• Do games always create social groupings?

Roger Caillois Definition of Play• From Man, Play, and Games, play is:• Free‣ Playing is not obligatory; if it were, it would

at once lose its attractive and joyous qualityas diversion

• Separate‣ Circumscribed within limits of space and time, defined and fixed in

advance• Uncertain‣ The course of which cannot be determined, nor the result attained

beforehand, and some latitude for innovations being left to the player’sinitiative

• Unproductive‣ Creating neither goods, nor wealth, nor new elements of any kind, and,

except for the exchange of property among the players, ending in asituation identical to that prevailing at the beginning of the game.

Roger Caillois Definition (cont’d)• Governed by Rules‣ Under conventions that suspend ordinary laws, and for the moment

establish new legislation, which alone counts

• Make-believe‣ Accompanied by a special awareness of a second reality or of a free

unreality, as against real life

• Good points‣ Identifies play as being voluntary

‣ Captures importance of fictional element of play

• Bad points‣ Easy to think of counter-examples

❖ Professional sports players are not voluntarily playing (have signed a contract)

❖ Some games are purely abstract, with no fictional aspect (Tic-Tac-Toe)

❖ Children’s play is not strongly rule based

The Magic Circle

• When children play games andcall “time out!” what does this mean?‣ Gameplay time stops‣ Players go out of the game space

• Michael Apter writes:‣ In the play-state you experience a protective frame which

stands between you and the “real” world and its problems,creating an enchanted zone in which, in the end, you areconfident that no harm can come.

• Game Studies researchers call this enchanted zone themagic circle‣ Term originally comes from Huizinga’s Homo Ludens‣ Elegantly captures the notion of the boundaries of a game

Salen and Zimmerman on Magic Circle•The fact that the magic circle is justthat—a circle—is an important featureof this concept. As a closed circle, thespace it circumscribes is enclosed andseparate from the real world. As amarker of time, the magic circle is like aclock: it simultaneously represents apath with a beginning and end, but onewithout beginning and end. The magiccircle inscribes a space that is repeatable,a space both limited and limitless. Inshort, a finite space with infinitepossibility.‣p. 95, Rules of Play

Magic Circle (1886)John William Waterhouse

Qualities of Rules• From Half-real, Jesper Juul, MIT Press, 2005, pp. 55-56• Rules are designed to be above discussion‣ Rules should be unambiguous, and able to be implemented

without ingenuity‣ In computer games, the requirement to place rules into code

ensures this• Rules of a game create a state machine‣ A machine that responds to player action

❖ Does not necessarily require a computer• Chutes and Ladders is a state machine game

• State machine of a game can be visualized as alandscape of possibilities‣ A branching “game tree” of possibilities from moment to moment

Qualities of Rules (2)• A player must expand effort trying to reach as positive

an outcome as possible‣ This creates a challenge‣ The source of many limitations.

❖ It is easy to get to the top of a mountain if you use a helicopter, so formountain climbing challenges, this isn’t allowed.

• The way a game is actually played while the player triesto overcome its challenges is its gameplay.

• Gameplay is the interaction between rules, and playerstrying to win the game.‣ Wikipedia is a bit broader, stating that gameplay is “all player

experiences during the interaction with game systems.”

Qualities of Rules (3)• Games are learning experiences‣ Players improve their skills at playing the game over multiple

playings‣ At any given time, a player will have a repertoire of skills and

methods for overcoming the challenges of the game‣ A good game continually challenges and makes new demands

on the skills of the player• Any specific game can be more or less challenging,

emphasize specific kinds of challenges, or serve as thepretext for a social event‣ Different games can create different player experiences.‣ Rules can be designed to give players either enjoyable or

negative experiences❖ Challenge contests in the TV game show Survivor can go both ways

• Eating bugs, yuck!

• Solving some physical + mental puzzle in a competitive context: can be fun

Rules on Three Levels• Salen and Zimmerman in Rules of Play describe three

different kinds of rules for a game• Operational‣ The “rules of play” of a game. Surface visible rules‣ Same as the written out rules for a game

• Constituative‣ Underlying formal structures that exist “below the surface” of the

rules presented to players‣ Logical and mathematical

• Implicit Rules‣ Unwritten, implied, rules for a game‣ Etiquette, good sportsmanship, access to play space, etc.

Chutes and Ladders• Children’s game Chutes and Ladders is a

good example of the three types of rules

• Operational rules‣ Play proceeds by turns.‣ On your turn, spin spinner

(chooses number from 1-6),move pawn many squaresforward.

‣ Pawns may share squares.‣ If pawn ends on picture square

at bottom of ladder, go up it tofinal square.

‣ If pawn ends on picture squareat top of a chute, go down it tofinal square.

‣ First player to reach BlueRibbon square #100 wins thegame❖ Must land by exact count, or

❖ Go up ladder from square #80

Constituative Rules for Chutes and Ladders• Chutes and Ladders can be viewed as a finite state

machine• A finite state machine has:‣ A series of states

❖ One of these is the initial state❖ One or more of these is the final (or accepting state)❖ One of these is the current state❖ The current state represents the status of the machine

‣ A finite set of possible input events‣ A set of state transition arcs

❖ State what happens when you are in a given state, and receive a specificinput

❖ Also known as the transition function

Chutes and Ladders as State Machine• States:‣ Squares on the board, and space immediately off the board

❖ Starting point, square “#0”

‣ Total of 101 states❖ That is, each player’s pawn must be in 1 of only 101 locations

• Initial state:‣ Square #0

• Final state:‣ Square #100

• Set of input events:‣ Numbers from 1 to 6, generated randomly (from spinner)

• State transition arcs‣ Usually 6 arcs per square, one for each number on the spinner‣ Advances number from spinner, except chutes and ladders‣ These go to arbitrary states

State Transitions for Square #0

Uniqueness of Constituative Rules?• One interesting quality of constitutative rules is the

possibility of creating multiple games from them‣ Could imagine “re-skinning” Chutes and Ladders, creating

different game with same underlying rules❖ Could even change surface qualities

• Die roll instead of spinner

• Book gives another view of constituative rules forChutes and Ladders‣ Adding/subtracting numbers, first one to 100 wins‣ Raises question of uniqueness of constitutative rules

• Broader view might be that for any given set of rules,there are multiple possible representations of thoserules, at varying levels of abstraction‣ State machines are more abstract view than surface rules

Implicit Game Rules• Sportsmanship‣ A socially shared construct about how to play games‣ Varies by sport, but with some general themes

❖ Preventing bodily harm❖ Fairness in the face of unforeseen events

• Injury, inclement weather, etc.

• External events severe enough to impingeon the magic circle

❖ Keeping the game interesting• “Camping” in first-person-shooters

❖ Acceptable levels of trash talk• Golf vs football

• Gravity/physics‣ Major part of most sports, but not

explicitly called out❖ Game must be played with g=9.8m/s2

Other Implicit Game Rules• Proximity to the game board‣ Implied, but not stated, that all players in Chutes and Ladders

can see the game board, and can reach and move the pieces

• Timing assumptions‣ In Tic-tac-toe, one way to avoid losing the game is to just not

take your turn‣ Considered to be poor form, “childish”‣ Exposes unwritten assumption about how gameplay progresses

Reading• Read: Chapter 11 (Defining Rules, pp. 119-125),

Chapter 12 (Rules on Three Levels, pp. 127-139) ofRules of Play.

• Read: Chapter 3, pages 55-61 of Half-Real‣ Link to reading in syllabus

• I just love using material from these chapters in exams.