Party Poker Player Notes
Fri, 27 Nov 2009 08:44:49 +0000
Steve Egan in the comments yesterday brought up such a good, common point that it deserved it’s own post:
I don’t see how replayability could even be considered part of the definition of a game. I say this as somebody who has to wait years before rereading a book, or games that rely on the static elements for a significant part of the experience, as I remember what’s about to happen as I’m experiencing the media.
Recently I took a look at what a game is and from my definition at least, Train is most definitely a game. That’s because my definition is, “A game is an activity with an agreed upon set of rules, that participating individuals act in accordance to, while in a state of play.”
This definition is pretty broad – activities in a “state of play” is hard to defined, and some would say cyclical. Going for a walk, listening to a teacher in a classroom, perusing a forum, or attending a slumber party could all fit this definition. Reading this post probably fits the definition! If the number of participating individuals were 1, all that’s require here is the individual act within rules (they could have created) while in this nebulous state of “play”.
Defining a game is hard, and ultimately, it’s just language. It only matters in how it helps us design.
The best definition I’ve seen is Chris Crawford’s: an interactive, goal-oriented activity, active agents to play against, in which active agents can interfere with each other. Or, in a series of dichotomies:
1. Creative expression is art if made for its own beauty, and entertainment if made for money. (This is the least rigid of his definitions. Crawford acknowledges that he often chooses a creative path over conventional business wisdom, which is why only one of his 13 games is a sequel.)
2. A piece of entertainment is a plaything if it is interactive. Movies and books are cited as examples of non-interactive entertainment.
3. If no goals are associated with a plaything, it is a toy. (Crawford notes that by his definition, (a) a toy can become a game element if the player makes up rules, and (b) The Sims and SimCity are toys, not games.) If it has goals, a plaything is a challenge.
4. If a challenge has no “active agent against whom you compete,” it is a puzzle; if there is one, it is a conflict. (Crawford admits that this is a subjective test. Video games with noticeably algorithmic artificial intelligence can be played as puzzles; these include the patterns used to evade ghosts in Pac-Man.)
5. Finally, if the player can only outperform the opponent, but not attack them to interfere with their performance, the conflict is a competition. (Competitions include racing and figure skating.) However, if attacks are allowed, then the conflict qualifies as a game.
But this doesn’t mention replayability!
I was actually surprised. Why do Sirlin and I consider replayability a core part of a game? I can think of 2 reasons off the top of my head. First, all the prominent games of history are replayable. Sports, chess, board games, children’s games, are all at their core replayable concepts. Second, rulesets that create interesting choices (another frequent game definition) seems to require replayability.
This is an interesting point. Replayability is the fallout of interesting choices. If the choices aren’t replayable, then they, by definition, weren’t interesting enough to explore. If you can predict the outcome of all possible rule permutations, then you aren’t playing a game. The rules are trivial.
Without replayability, your game is boring.
Consider Tic-tac-toe. Most would say it’s a boring game, but it’s still a game because it barely crosses the threshold of interesting choices. You aren’t 100% sure the opponent isn’t going to make a mistake. Most people can’t immediately see all permutations. It’s the minimal threshold of competitive activity.
And yet it’s still replayable.
Steve, in his comment here, puts forward he doesn’t replay because he “has to wait years before rereading a book, or games that rely on the static elements for a significant part of the experience, as I remember what’s about to happen as I’m experiencing the media.” He’s focusing on the experience – but as the quote itself suggests, the experience is medium-agnostic. The experience could be a book, a movie, or a game. In fact, the parts of the games he is interested in are the “static elements”, the things that by definition wouldn’t fall under the interactive ruleset activity at the heart of a game. You wouldn’t say this sort of thing about Chess or Poker, for example.
If you aren’t interested in replaying the game, it’s likely you’ve completely mastered the key elements through repeated, skilled play. Or, in the case of something like Train, the (still undescribed) game is serving to give you the experience the designer wanted, and is not as something to be mastered.
Put another way, Train, as a game, is replayable. It’s just designed so no one would want to.
So, if the experience is the common criteria, why does this matter? Because, unlike Train, the vast majority of games derive their experience from reinforcement of their choices. From a design point of view, finding ways to make your game more interesting to replay means the player’s interactions with these choices are deeper, and thus more interesting. If so, Sirlin and so many systems designers find replayability so important because it is a basic reflection of the quality of their designs.
Duality: Price: $0.99
“The goal of Duality is simple: Navigate the blue orb through the maze and onto the blue target. However, the blue orb is bound to the red orb, so the two always move in unison. As a result, if either orb is blocked in a given direction, it’s not possible to move in that direction. To unblock areas of the board, navigate the orbs against force fields, which change the distance between the two orbs and open up new paths through the maze.”
Christmas Solitaire: Price: $0.99
“lassic Solitaire (sometimes known as Klondike or Patience) with 21 different festive Christmas themes and music!”
Card
NOTHING
Casino
Virtual Horse Racing 3D Lite
“Virtual Horse Racing 3D is the most realistic 3D horse racing game on iPhone and iPod Touch. It’s easy, exciting, fun, and highly addictive. Challenge yourself and see how much you can win! This game is for everyone. Even if you’ve never placed a bet before in your life!”
Poker Dash: Price: $0.99
“Pokerdash is combined with the strategy and fun of Poker with the simplicity of solitaire along with elements of classic puzzle games. The idea is to build the best poker hands possible by placing cards in any one of three hands. If your points for each round match or beat the target you will advance to the next round. The better the poker hands the more points you will be awarded. Sound simple? Pokerdash is a highly addictive challenging game of skill that will provide many hours of fun! How high can you get? Will you become the World Champion on the Timed leaderboard? Poker’s a day to learn and a lifetime to master.”
Dice
Nextwave Multimedia’s Snakes and Ladders: Price: $0.99
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Educational
OrderUp
“This game has five levels. The cards will be generated randomly each time. Cards should be arranged in an ascending order of number or fractions shown.”
Vertex: Price: $0.99
“In this puzzle game for all ages you have to color each point of the web so that no two points of the same color are connected by a line. Sounds simple? With 700 difficulty levels to choose from it can be as simple or as challenging as you like.”
Geometry Tree: Price: $1.99
“This educational game helps 4 year old kids or older to distinguish geometric shapes in an easy and happy way. While playing with figures your kid will develop a solving problem ability, distinguishing behavior pattern and improving the observation and concentration ability. On the second level you need to press the correct figure of the tree in the same sequence they appear, producing a very nice melody. The use of colors makes it easier for kids to identify the figures and follow the correct order. You and your kid will learn short melodies that can be practiced in real instruments due to the fact that the game uses real musical notes which makes it fun for all ages.”
Extraterrestrial Civilization : Price: $0.99
“Now the secrets of the Drake equation and get your own conclusions. The history behind it, the initial estimations and the famous estimations. You can also get your own estimation by using the parameters, one by one. All this accompanied by cool graphics and music that will make you dive into deep space.”
Family
Bubble Factory: Price: $2.99
Welcome to the factory! Bubble Factory is a fast action and puzzle game where your goal is to collect the bubbles while keeping them safe from bubble traps. Use gravity and your fingers to move and blow the bubbles into the collectors while keeping them safe by destroying the traps. Listen to a full set of sound effects and music or mute the in-game music and play along to your own collection. There are 25 levels of bubble collecting fun and 5 challenges to test your bubble collecting abilities for hours of play! Compare your best scores with your friends using the local score storage.”
Soccer Heading: Price: $0.99
“Wii Fit Balance Game. Did you ever want to play the Soccer Heading game on the GO. Now you can on your iphone or itouch. Balance Games: Get into the action with fun, balanced-based games like SOCCER HEADING.”
Harry Potter: Spells: Price: $4.99
“You are officially invited to attend Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Once enrolled, receive the wand destined for you before being Sorted into one of the four houses by the Sorting Hat. Then using specific hand gestures for each of the 14 spells, practice, practice, practice before experiencing the ultimate contest - DUELLING! Compete against the computer or challenge a fellow classmate to a real-time duel – player versus player, casting spells from one device to the other. Earn valuable house points for your house while learning, practicing and duelling. Visit the house points section to see your official stats and global ranking - in your specific house or in all of Hogwarts. Finally, share it with the rest of the world by posting it to your Facebook page via Facebook Connect.”
Brain Party: Price: $0.99
“Looking for a great way to keep your brain in shape? Brain Party is a puzzle-solving, brain-stretching game that comes with over 30 minigames designed to push your brain to its limits, testing memory, logic, mathematics, reactions and more. Brain Party is split into two main modes: test mode gives you five random games to measure your general brain power, whereas practise mode lets you play your favourite games as often as you want. As you play, more minigames are unlocked and Brain Party automatically tracks your test results so you can monitor your progress over time. If you do really well, you can unlock secret games and a whole new game mode designed to keep you playing and enjoying your favourite games even longer.”
Pocket Farm Lite
“Pocket Farm is the farming game you have all been waiting for on the iPhone! You’ve probably heard about the farming phenomenon on Facebook and wished you could play it anywhere. Now you can build your farms wherever you go! Pocket Farm is a casual sandbox game that let’s you build farms at your own pace and sell your harvest in a fun mini-game.”