Theory of Fun for Game Design

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Summary: A fun book that reflects it's own ideals
Review: What is fun? This is a question that comes up constantly for game designers, but is something that everyone wonders from time to time. Unfortunately, fun is mysterious, intangible thing, something that would seem to vary wildly from person to person and from circumstance to circumstance. What possible universals of fun could exist that would allow us to understand and better utilize it? Raph Koster has a theory.

Who is Raph Koster and on what grounds does he think he can write the book on fun? Currently, he is the chief creative officer of Sony Online Entertainment, makers of Everquest and Star Wars Galaxies. He was part of the original Ultima Online development team and is credited for work both on that and The Second Age expansion. He maintains a series of writings at www.legendmud.org/raph and is a common speaker at several game development conventions. With such a background, little wonder then that the title of the book is A Theory of Fun for Game Design.

Yet the book itself is not limited in scope of game design itself, and within Raph Koster attempts to better define the universals of what fun is to humankind as he works his way to the medium of games. It is here that he explains, in easy to follow logic, how fun is a part of the learning process, a reward mechanism attached to the method of encapsulating the world around us into useful ideas for use in our everyday lives.

Once we get to the games, which happens at about chapter 3, the real fun begins. In the remaining ten chapters (including the epilogue) Raph Koster revisits the core concept of fun as he explains what games are, what they teach us, and what they're not. He explains how different games hold different appeal for different people. How too much emphasis on learning can be obstructive and how too little learning can be dull, and the necessary elements to get an ideal balance. Why people are resistant to change even if the brain is wired for them to learn, and why designers are resistant to bring new ideas to games. How games can be classified, even as art. There's much more here than I have time to elaborate on. The book closes on an ethical note, along with some visionary ideas about where games can go.

The book weighs in at 244 pages, and the content is deep, but the book itself is quite easy reading. It is formatted to have no more than 29 lines a page, and every other page is a helpful and often humorous black and white comic. This approach helps the content flow much easier while simultaneously demonstrating that fun and learning can indeed be related.

Has Raph Koster really defined what fun is? Well, it's certainly a good theory. In the end, you learn not only a bit about fun and game design but (like many good books) also a bit about life.

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Summary: Fun in the Sun - Raph Koster sheds new light on games!
Review: A Theory of Fun is a title long awaited. Raph Koster takes an incredibly complicated and seemingly arcane subject and demystifies the magic with lucid insight and laser sharp deconstruction...and it's all done in a wonderfully playful way! I found myself both laughing and saying "aha!" simultaneously at both the insight and humor.

Koster's creative talents are clearly demonstrated in the book's unique format - a design mirroring a Left Brain / Right Brain construct, where the left side of each page is packed full of information on games, how we learn, and cognitive functions, while the right side contains fun drawings with a light and moving theme that enhances the left, while striking out on its own, almost like a counter point melody to the book's grand symphony. It really is almost two books in one! Yet even the light and funny elements carry wonderfully heavy insight into what games teach us and why.

A Theory of Fun is highly recommended for anyone working in entertainment today - from game designers, to producers, to the film industry, to people working in any creative endeavor, and people who think they don't have a creative bone in their bodies. (They'll soon discover they have a whole skeleton of fun in their proverbial closet after reading this book!)

Koster's book clearly demonstrates that `Fun Is As Fun Does' while exposing the method to the madness in gaming. A Theory of Fun is a must read for anyone who wants to understand why games are so pervasive today, as it sheds new light into why fun matters in this world, and how `play' makes us truly human.


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Summary: A must read for aspiring game designers
Review: Anyone familiar with Raph's long relationship with the gaming community should have an immediate affinity with this book. It's a summation of not only recent research, but his long term love for his chosen medium as both an artist and as an developer, as well as the players who partake in his experiences.

This book is not Raph's first vocalization of his opinions, ideas, and experiences. It is the most complete on a specific topic, but Raph has been expressing his views in both professional and player settings for longer than I've been a gamer.

He has, quite literally, been there, done that, and gotten the T-shirt on both sides of the equation. Few game developers interface so often with their players in such an open dialog.

You will learn from this book, even if it is a new way of thinking about something you may already have had experience with. The book itself is a very easy read. Any thoughts of high-thinking abstract Socratic philosophy should be set aside. This is a book for "the rest of us", the dissemination of complex ideas delivered in a very readable and enjoyable way.

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Summary: You should apply your 'fun' theroy to Star Wars Galaxies.
Review: Great book, Unfortunately, The 15 dollars a month I have been paying for the last year and a half now for your Star Wars Galaxies is anything but fun. I honestly don't know how Ralph can write a great book on the mechanics of games, and then not apply any of them to the actual games he works on. Many other games out (the newest World of Warcraft) actually rewards the player for playing, and investing time into the game. Now if he would follow the advice he gives about how a game should be fun, SWG would be a spectacular game. People play games to play, not to work! I really wish he would read his own writing and apply it to his games. And please, please, please, please stop dragging Star Wars, through the gutter to make a buck.

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Summary: DP Recommended.
Review: I started developing games over 20 years ago, in high school. Back then game design was based mostly on experimentation, mostly due to the limitations of the hardware that we had to work with. All we cared about was, "Is this fun?"

Today people expect completely immersive experiences, great stories, amazing graphics, fantastic sound, rich detail, but they also still need "Fun!"

So what is Fun?

Raph is a key and very experienced game designer in the video game business today that has (somehow) found the time to share his thoughts.

These thoughts and insights are focused on this most valuable game design topic, "Fun!"

Being creative, he couldn't even just do it the way every one else would have done, he has injected an incredible amount of passion and visual support to his ideas to make reading the book itself a FUN exercise too!

It's my favorite work on this subject to date and therefore I highly recommend it.

Thanks Raph!"

--David Perry, President, Shiny Entertainment Inc.

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Summary: Examines the foundation of designing a 'fun game'
Review: Plenty of books have been written about playing games or enjoying them - but what really makes a game fun? Leading interactive designer Ralph Koster provides a visual survey and discussion which examines the foundation of designing a 'fun game' in Theory Of Fun For Game Design, examining the different levels which work for game designers initially, how these ideas translate into games which teach and evolve, and how learning and playing are interconnected. Chapters aim at the rudiments of why some games are fun and others simply boring.


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Summary: Understanding Comics for gamers
Review: Raph Koster was creative lead and lead designer on Ultima Online and Ultima Online: The Second Age, and the creative director on Star Wars Galaxies -- today, he's the Chief Creative Officer for Sony Entertainment (the division that does the video games). His new book is called Theory of Fun for Game Design, and I was lucky enough to read a review copy last month.

Raph's intention here is to write a Understanding Comics for computer games: an accessible, lay-oriented text that explains, finally, what this medium means. Why are grownups playing games? What makes a game fun? What do games do to the way twe perceive the world? What do games do to the way we change the world?

Charlie Stross and I have been tossing around an idea for a novel set in a Massive Multiplayer Online game, revolving around the virtual-property-rights debate; Theory of Fun made me rethink big chunks of that book.

If you're a gamer, this should be your Xmas prezzie to your non-gamer friends; if you're not a gamer, this is the book for the gamer in your life.

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Summary: A Good Book For Both Gamers and Non-Gamers
Review: Raph Koster's _A Theory of Fun for Game Design_ is certainly a book worthy of a place on any game designer's shelf. For those who attended the original lecture that spawned the book, there isn't a whole lot that is new, but it's great to have it in book form. For those who did not, the book can be quite revealing, particularly for those who have struggled to adequately define just what games and game design is all about.

Perhaps more importantly, though, is that Raph has written a light, frequently humorous, and sometimes touching book that should make a great gift to those of us who have parents or spouses who DON'T understand why we're wasting all of our time with games. Rather than try to explain it to them, you can simply hand them this book, and they can come to appreciate the scope and depth of the subject without being overwhelmed.

And at times the book is quite poignant on a human level. You can see Raph's genuine pride and love for his children nearly pour off the page when he talks about them, and his mention of his grandfather passing away while he was at GDC is particularly touching to me since my own father died while I was at GDC in 2000.

The book can essentially be read in two ways. The first, simply by reading all the illustrations in sequence, is great fun all by itself. Nearly every drawing does its job in illustrating the point it tries to make, and quite a few have charming little extra details that a gamer will readily appreciate.

The second, and perhaps more proper way, is to read the text and the illustrations together. (I suppose one could also read the text by itself, but where's the fun in that?) To summarize very crudely, the book makes the following assertions:

1. The human mind enjoys processing information from the world around it into patterns, procedures, schema, etc. that it can later apply with less thought in identical or similar situations.

2. Games primarily feature a core pattern(s) and mechanic(s) which players learn via playing the game. This is fun for the mind.

3. If the pattern is too hard to discern, or the mechanic of learning the pattern too difficult, players get frustrated and stop playing. On the other hand, if players understand the pattern and master the mechanic too easily, they'll quickly become bored and stop playing. There are other issues as well (relevancy, matching expectations, presentation, etc.) that come into play.

4. Most games have traditionally taught very basic life skills. As children become adults, they've learned these skills, these patterns, and no longer play games since they are now out in the real world playing "for real".

5. Many of these skills, while useful when we were a primative people, are becoming less relevant, and even dangerous, in a modern society, where change is increasingly more and more rapid.

6. Game designers need to broaden their game designs, not only to encompass a larger range of patterns/skills/mechanics/lessons, but also ones which are relevant and helpful to modern society.

7. Game designers have an ETHICAL DUTY to do so.

(I've skipped over many other points of the book, which although unfair and regrettable, is necessary for the sake of length.)

Now, enough of the praise, on with a few (minor) criticisms.

I found the book paradoxically both too long and too short. The layout of the work is to fill (nearly) every right hand page with an illustration, with the text on the left hand page. This is great, because their are so many illustrations, but it means that the text on the left of many of the pages is often quite limited: 2 - 5 paragraphs, and usually short ones at that. However, I am not saying that there should have been more text; often it conveys just the right depth and meaning for the particular point it is trying to make on that page. But at times it does get a bit distracting; you get the feeling that these pages are only there because there are so many illustrations.

Yet at the same time, I felt the text sometimes got too repetitive, and should have gone deeper. But the problem is you couldn't really dwell on one thing too deeply, because it was on to the next page and on to the next point (and the next illustration). Really, the format constrains the book to a particular level, and I think part of this also comes from the fact that the book was largely original a presentation, where it is quite common for points to be made simply, and repeatedly, without a lot of additional exposition. And I think if you accept the book in that context, you won't be disappointed.

One point that I thought the book did not give enough attention to was the element of chance in games. Nearly every game features the element of random chance, yet the book explores this mechanic very little in relation to other core game mechanics. When it does -- all of 2 paragraphs on page 56 -- it's almost dismissive of it as little more than a way to teach people about odds.

I would contend there's a lot more to it than that. Introducing a random element into a game helps enhance the learning experience by prolonging the appeal of the game. Consider a game mechanic which, if mastered, allows a player to win 100% of the time. If the game is fairly deterministic, then once they've learned this mechanic, they'll quickly become bored with the game. Now, consider what happens when you add the element of chance. The player, even if they've mastered the mechanic, can still lose. This forces them to re-evaluate their mechanic -- do they REALLY have the best one, or were they mistaken? What additional patterns can they learn to help eliminate the effect of chance? Does this teach us that in life, even the best laid plans can fail due to unknown and unpredictable factors? And so on.

I would also add that the addition of chance helps ameliorate the problem of players playing the same game at different skill levels -- the inferior player still has a chance to win, even if it is by luck, but by winning is encouraged to keep playing the game and, perhaps, learning what the superior player already knows.

The other point of the book that I take issue with is at the end, where there is a rather sudden appeal to a variation Pascal's Wager. This forms the basis of an appeal to ethical game design. I find the whole insertion rather jarring, partly because I feel Pascal's Wager is thoroughly debunked (particular when you consider the wager fails to mention any costs relating to belief), and partly because it doesn't seem to make much of a difference. If game's don't matter, than it doesn't matter if a game explores a particular behavior that is "bad". On the other hand, if game's do matter, then surely it is important to have games that explore such mechanics as a way of learning about ourselves, just as more "ethical" games may explore other mechanics. As Sister Wendy admitted, Serrano's _Christ in Urine_ was still valid art; it just wasn't particularly good (in the non-moral sense) art.

I also think it is difficult to expect games to illuminate the human condition and teach lessons at the same level as other forms as art for precisely the reasons cited earlier in the book. Games are about a core mechanic/pattern that is learned, and the very nature of gaming compells one to look past the story and other contextual trappings to focus on the central gameplay. Consider the moral of _Moby Dick_, which is about the dangers of letting one's obsession overtake them, or the destructiveness of the desire for revenge to others around you, or perhaps, according to some interpretations, the futility and hubris of denying God and trying to confront evil itself on one's own. But a game _Moby Dick_, even if it contained such themes, would ultimately teach you instead about optimal strategies for hunting whales, or perhaps a formula for determing the true costs of obsession in lives lost. And neither of which may be models that realistically describe reality, which calls into question their ultimate utility beyond the scope of the game itself.

But despite these lengthy criticisms, I can certainly recommend this book. As I said before, I think it's particularly useful as a gift to non-gamers who want to know more about what we do and why we do it.

Bruce


Rating:
Summary: Craves respectability
Review: The cover is a cartoon. And inside, so too is every second page. Yet Koster is quite serious. He tries to describe why a computer game is enjoyable. Or at least what makes the successful ones so. En route, he gives an informal synopsis and taxonomy of the games that have appeared since the 1970s. The seminal Space Invaders, Pac Man, Defender, Tempest and others from your mis-spend youth. (Well, mine anyway.)

Ambitiously, he tries to put games into a broader context. Comparing them to other communications media, like music, books and movies. He craves intellectual respectability for games, on a par with those activities, for which academic analysis is now commonplace, Though it certainly was not so for movies, during their first decades. Koster suggests that with now over 20 years of gaming, it is likewise time for games to be regarded seriously.

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Summary: A Theory of Fun review
Review: Though not apparent at first -- the book flows quite nicely -- the book is divided into two parts. The first half details why we play games, which is ultimately "to learn," and this can be helpful to anyone designing any kind of game; video game, card game, table-top RPG, or board game. The second part seems a bit of a soap box at first, as Koster supports games as "art." But as the book continues, you see parallels between games and other media. You can understand why an artistic expression is more memorable than a fluff piece; it's the difference between the comics "Dark Knight Returns" and "Just Married Issue #4," or Mozart's "Requiem" versus Brittney Spears' "Toxic," or of course the PC game "Ultima IV" versus "E.T." for the Atari 2600.

This book not only is an entertaining read, but also presents a vocabulary of valuable tools for game developers across all media. So many books are written these days on the techniques of designing games. But without understanding *why* we play games, all that technique is meaningless.