Week 2.1 review: Dramatic Elements

The Dramatic Elements of a Game:

Multimedia Elements: Visual elements like images, animations, sounds. Concept elements like premise, story, characters, written dialogue.

As with careful adjustment of a game's rules, procedures, etc, choosing the multimedia elements of the game will alter the player's experience.


"Fun", or the concept of Challenge: The state of mind where a person is truly engaged and invested in the activity that he is currently doing.

Achieved in a person through a balance between the person's skill level and the difficulty of his current task. (the so-called FLOW theory. google "Csikszentmihalyi" for more info)
  high difficulty and low skill = frustration (failure is guaranteed), and the person gives up on the task.
  low difficulty and high skill = boredom (success is guaranteed), and the person loses interest in the task.
  a skill level that matches the difficulty of the task at hand = no true guarantee of the results (50% chance to succeed, 50% chance to fail, and subject to change due to plenty of factors, most important of which is the person himself). A much better motivation for a person to see the task through to the end.

Other parts that help produce the "challenge" and "fun" mindset:
-A person's skills are put to the test (things like calculation, spatial awareness, sense of rhythm, perception, strength, agility and flexibility, etc.)
-There is a clear goal to accomplish using the skills, and there is immediate feedback concerning the person's progress towards that goal. The consequences of any mistakes are obvious, as are the benefits of any correctly-performed task.
-The so-called Paradox of Control: a person has a sense of control over himself and his actions/skills only when the success or failure of the task at hand is clearly NOT under his control. (If all it takes for me to open a door is press a button, then it is not me who opened the door. If the door will not open unless I push it open myself, then it is I who opened the door)

The psychology of the above notes being: there is a certain pleasure to be had for a person in confirming once and for all that his skills are genuine, and the only way to do this is to pit them against something that will prove them false.

(recall all the kung-fu bad guy characters in the movies and animes, that actually LIKE it when the protagonist has a chance of winning against them)

Some signs that prove that a person has indeed achieved the FLOW state, and is indeed having "fun":
-Absolute Concentration. Nothing else on their minds, just the activity in question.
-No sense of self. Nothing else on their minds, especially not the worry of humiliation from others around them.
-Merging Action and Awareness. No need to stop and think about what to do next or how to do an action; the moment you think of it, it's done!
-No sense of time. Seems like only a few minutes have passed, when it turns out hours have already gone by. Or the reverse, a split-second action feels like it's moving forward in super-slow motion.
-The activity becomes an end in and of itself. No need to find reasons why you're still engaged in the activity or what you'll get out of it when it's finished; you are doing this Just Because.

Plug the "CHALLENGE ACCEPTED!" mindset into your game's players by choosing its formal elements and multimedia elements carefully!


Play: A state of mind where, in the desire or need to conform to the rules of a system (a tool, an activity, a law of nature or physics, a social setting, a game), a person nevertheless will do everything that he can do within that system, in an effort to "see just what he can get away with". Has the desirable side-effect of allowing a person to practice his own skills (by pitting them against the rules) and creating all sorts of oddball effects that, while still conforming to the rules, are completely unexpected and unpredictable.

Comes in 4 broad categories (google "Brian Sutton-Smith" for more details on this, his take on how Play works, or just observe what children do when they're playing, they be experts on the subject):
Competition: If a person can do something, he will find ways to prove that he can do it better than everyone else.
1-on-1 battles, high score tables, all sorts of contests.
Chance: If the rules dictate that the probability of an event successfully happening is very small, a person will find ways to make that event happen anyway, either by repeating the event over and over until it succeeds, or by manipulating the circumstances around the event to make it more likely to happen successfully (or more likely to fail, even). Or just placing bets on which outcome will actually happen.
Making dice roll a specific number. Using proper strategies to ensure the small army can defeat the much larger one. Shooting a pingpong ball into a paper cup. That carnival game where you catch goldfish with a paper net.
Make-believe and mimicry: If something exists, a person will find ways to duplicate it, using whatever he has on hand. If something is theoretically possible but doesn't exist, a person will find ways to make it exist, using whatever he has on hand. If something just plain CANNOT exist, a person will find ways to make it exist, again using whatever he has on hand.
Using pencil and paper to make Dragons. Using old clothes, paper plates, and acting to reenact World War 2. Charades. Pictionary. The character creator in a role-playing game. A mod that turns the badass biker player character into a badass pink octopus. Using engineering concepts to make Iron Man, and science concepts to make Captain America.
"Vertigo", aka to make oneself dizzy: If the rules say that a particular event is very disorienting, very dangerous, flat out will kill you, is completely unknown, or carries any number of negative effects, a person will find ways to bring himself as close as possible to duplicating the event (and any physical or mental effects it may bring) without doing any permanent damage to himself. That there will be no lasting damage suddenly makes a person brave enough to participate in the event; That there may be no lasting damage or that there will be no lasting damage only if the person's skills are very good is an even better motivator for some people!
Skateboarding. Hang-Gliding. Bungee Jumping. Mountain Climbing. Any of the extreme sports. That stab-a-knife-between-your-fingers-on-the-table game. Walking into a haunted house. Roller coasters. Travelling to unknown destinations. Poking an angry dog on the other side of the fence. Walking up to a lv50 monster as a lv2 character. Provoking all the cops in the city. Russian Roulette.

Any single activity can be covered by any number of the above categories.

Plug the potential for all sorts of play into your game by choosing your formal elements and multimedia elements carefully!