An ongoing discussion about what games are and what they could become. The book is a response to the underdeveloped and research of games as a creative domain versus a psychological exercise. He feels that games despite their advances these days are creativly stunted and don’t harness the endless possibilities.
Rules of Play is perhaps the first serious attempt to lay out an aesthetic approach to the design of interactive systems….Games are recreation, their purpose is to amuse us, and we shouldn't expected them to achieve profound levels of creative expression or relentlessly push creative boundaries. They are simply entertainment.
It is fun. Simple though it may seem, it is genuinely fun to interact with Pong. Players derive pleasure from the game for many different reasons, from the pleasure of competition andwinning to the satisfyingly tactile manipulation of the knob.
Why Pong is fun
It is simple to play. The one-line instructions and intuitive knob interface makes Pong approachable and easy to understand. There are no hidden features to unlock or special moves to learn.
Every game is unique. Because the ball can travel anywhere on the screen, Pong is an open-ended game with endless possibilities. Pong rewards dedicated play: it is easy to learn, but difficult to master.
It is an elegant representation. Pong is, after all, a depiction of another game: Table Tennis. The abstracted nature of Pong, where your avatar is reduced to a single white line, creates an immediately satisfying physical and perceptual relationship to the game.
It is social. It takes two to play Pong. Through playing the game, you interact with another human being. Pong's social circle also extends beyond two players: it makes a great spectator sport.
Every game is unique. Because the ball can travel anywhere on the screen, Pong is an open-ended game with endless possibilities. Pong rewards dedicated play: it is easy to learn, but difficult to master.
It is an elegant representation. Pong is, after all, a depiction of another game: Table Tennis. The abstracted nature of Pong, where your avatar is reduced to a single white line, creates an immediately satisfying physical and perceptual relationship to the game.
It is social. It takes two to play Pong. Through playing the game, you interact with another human being. Pong's social circle also extends beyond two players: it makes a great spectator sport.
It is cool. As a cultural artifact, Pong is a poster child for the hip, low-fi graphics of classic arcade gaming. It evokes nostalgia for afternoons spent in the living-room with friends, huddled around the TV playing video games, eating Cheetos and swigging Mountain Dew.
People love Pong for all of these reasons and more. The interactive, representational, social, and cultural aspects of Pong simultaneously contribute to the experience of play. Games are as complex as any other form of designed culture; fully to appreciate them means understanding them from multiple perspectives.
This is why we were compelled to write this book: not to define, once and for all, what game design is, but to provide critical tools for understanding games.People love Pong for all of these reasons and more. The interactive, representational, social, and cultural aspects of Pong simultaneously contribute to the experience of play. Games are as complex as any other form of designed culture; fully to appreciate them means understanding them from multiple perspectives.
Instead, Rules of Play provides something altogether different. Bridging the theoretical and practical aspects of making games, we look closely at games as designed systems, discovering patterns within their complexity that bring the challenges of game design into full view.
Tool for game designers outlining 4 main points/advice
The result is a deeper understanding of game design that can lead to genuine innovation in the practice of making games.
Tool for game designers outlining 4 main points/advice
Training: A common language facilitates the education of game designers, letting them explore their medium in more variety and depth.
Generational Transfer: Within the field, a disciplinary vocabulary lets game designers and developers pass on skills and knowledge, rather than solving the same problems over and over in isolation.
Audience-building: In finding a way to speak about them, games can be reviewed, critiqued, and advertised to the public in more sophisticated ways.
Buffer Against Criticism: There are many factions that would seek to censor and regu late the content and contexts for gaming, particularly computer and video games. A critical discourse gives us the vocabulary and understanding to defend against these attack
Generational Transfer: Within the field, a disciplinary vocabulary lets game designers and developers pass on skills and knowledge, rather than solving the same problems over and over in isolation.
Audience-building: In finding a way to speak about them, games can be reviewed, critiqued, and advertised to the public in more sophisticated ways.
Buffer Against Criticism: There are many factions that would seek to censor and regu late the content and contexts for gaming, particularly computer and video games. A critical discourse gives us the vocabulary and understanding to defend against these attack
