(I am going to take every single word as sacred, especially regarding Avradez. Someone in the same category as /Kujen/ --!) There's nibling, and wiki tells me nephling also exists. I would definitely appreciate game design theory references, as I've played a total of...one single computer game, ever. The Shuos are irresistibly entertaining, until I have to consider existing near one of them - game based pedagogy is great when you're primed for it, but not for the poor Kel who just want a straightforward briefing and then to move on/escape with their life. -I think this Mikodez is likely to have take the Intro to Seduction with everyone else, if only to secure a front row seat to going-ons. -[encouraged to practice on each other] An admirably efficient way of instilling paranoia, gosh. (Zehun, less "power behind the throne" and "power behind the menu", sneaking vitamins into his candy from day one.) Thank you so much, this is amazing! I Did Not Expect the lack of musicality, but truly, Mikodez is a second Jedao.
I'm trying to think of short game design theory things that are either online or could hypothetically be found at a library and are not stupendously long.
If you're only going to read one thing, Greg Costikyan's I Have No Words and I Must Design [PDF, legal as far as I know] might be a good place to start. This is 25 pages long, which is long for a thing on the web, but hell and away shorter than a full-fledged game design textbook.
Salen & Zimmerman's Rules of Play is amazing, but it's also 600 freaking pages long. It is also analysis-focused--it will teach you a ton about theory but it won't teach you how to actually make a game. Ian Schreiber's web-based Game Design Conceptsdoes teaches game-making and has the beautiful virtue of being almost free if you can get the required text out of the library, but I wouldn't expect you to go through the whole thing for an RP! If you're curious about an example of card game design, there's David Sirlin's article on designing Yomi--don't sweat the details (some of which don't make a ton of sense unless you've played the game), you can just skim it.
For something you might be able to find in a library, and which is written (I think) pretty accessibly for a general audience rather than the hardcore game designer crowd, try Jane McGonigal's Reality Is Broken. McGonigal is a game designer with an interest in using games to make people's lives better. It's also less expensive than most game design textbooks, which tend to be pricey. (Ask me how I know.)
I would say that some main principles are:
- a game exists in an artificial "world" of its own (not necessarily in the sense of Middle-Earth, but in the sense that basketball or chess are not the "real world")
- a game's rules are arbitrary to a certain degree, and people willingly accept those arbitrary restrictions. Think about solitaire, for example. Solitaire is about sorting a deck of cards, but you're doing it with certain rules about how you can arrange and move cards, instead of just going through the deck and organizing it in the most efficient way possible, because the rules make it a challenge.
- the rules of a game determine what kinds of behaviors are rewarded and which are not. So if a computer game gives you lots of points for killing monsters, and doesn't reward you for diplomatic solutions to conflict, players are going to tend to kill things on sight rather than talking things out. (This can get meta, because obviously people cheat, modify the rules of games, etc.)
- In a sense, games are based around social contracts (players who agree to be bound by the rules of the game). Again, this can get meta real fast.
Yes, thank you! Much easier than me looking up game theory and running away. I’m still getting through I Have No Words, but I like the solvability one linked in the Yomi article for explaining optimal play/donkeyspace. I skimmed the online course a bit and came across the second principle [a “voluntary effort to overcome unnecessary obstacles.] The Kel may use stronger words, but that’s the Shuos, all right. (The last two principles I remember from the clear parallel Jedao drew to war, but funny how he doesn’t mention - what every Kel knows already.) With the first one [ a game exists in an artificial "world"], it almost sounds like the Shuos can create microcosms for people who play with them to reinforce the overarching calendrical effects (except there aren’t enough of them, not on Vidona levels, and I realise that Shuos individuals don’t do well with upholding the calendar game-wise. Cadet Jedao.) Actually that’s another cool layer!! Like I got that the backstabbing faction would backstab everything in sight, and that the trickster critters would manage to find a way out of the tyrannical regime, but it's nicely practical that the strongest attempts against the system would come from people who were trained to mess those up. (wait gotta relate this back to the shuos) Sorry, last question: Given the Scattered Needles denizens' willingness to play board games dropped by their enemies, it doesn’t seem like games are exclusive to the Shuos or bear a stigma for that connection like origami and the Vidona. Will interest in games (actual recreational ones, puzzles, etc.) betray a Shuos? (I guess the root of this question is about whether the Shuos have tried to modify the behavior of the populace to give them money, possibly by selling their well designed games on space Steam)
Nope, games are a general cultural activity. The Shuos are mainly known for their level of obsession with games and game design, but there are certainly non-Shuos of whom that's true. For example, jeng-zai card games/fortunetelling are pretty much played/done by most people in the h*archate.
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timeasmymeasure
no subject
Date: 2017-07-03 06:40 am (UTC)There's nibling, and wiki tells me nephling also exists.
I would definitely appreciate game design theory references, as I've played a total of...one single computer game, ever. The Shuos are irresistibly entertaining, until I have to consider existing near one of them - game based pedagogy is great when you're primed for it, but not for the poor Kel who just want a straightforward briefing and then to move on/escape with their life.
-I think this Mikodez is likely to have take the Intro to Seduction with everyone else, if only to secure a front row seat to going-ons.
-[encouraged to practice on each other] An admirably efficient way of instilling paranoia, gosh.
(Zehun, less "power behind the throne" and "power behind the menu", sneaking vitamins into his candy from day one.)
Thank you so much, this is amazing! I Did Not Expect the lack of musicality, but truly, Mikodez is a second Jedao.
no subject
Date: 2017-07-03 07:54 pm (UTC)If you're only going to read one thing, Greg Costikyan's I Have No Words and I Must Design [PDF, legal as far as I know] might be a good place to start. This is 25 pages long, which is long for a thing on the web, but hell and away shorter than a full-fledged game design textbook.
Salen & Zimmerman's Rules of Play is amazing, but it's also 600 freaking pages long. It is also analysis-focused--it will teach you a ton about theory but it won't teach you how to actually make a game. Ian Schreiber's web-based Game Design Concepts does teaches game-making and has the beautiful virtue of being almost free if you can get the required text out of the library, but I wouldn't expect you to go through the whole thing for an RP! If you're curious about an example of card game design, there's David Sirlin's article on designing Yomi--don't sweat the details (some of which don't make a ton of sense unless you've played the game), you can just skim it.
For something you might be able to find in a library, and which is written (I think) pretty accessibly for a general audience rather than the hardcore game designer crowd, try Jane McGonigal's Reality Is Broken. McGonigal is a game designer with an interest in using games to make people's lives better. It's also less expensive than most game design textbooks, which tend to be pricey. (Ask me how I know.)
I would say that some main principles are:
- a game exists in an artificial "world" of its own (not necessarily in the sense of Middle-Earth, but in the sense that basketball or chess are not the "real world")
- a game's rules are arbitrary to a certain degree, and people willingly accept those arbitrary restrictions. Think about solitaire, for example. Solitaire is about sorting a deck of cards, but you're doing it with certain rules about how you can arrange and move cards, instead of just going through the deck and organizing it in the most efficient way possible, because the rules make it a challenge.
- the rules of a game determine what kinds of behaviors are rewarded and which are not. So if a computer game gives you lots of points for killing monsters, and doesn't reward you for diplomatic solutions to conflict, players are going to tend to kill things on sight rather than talking things out. (This can get meta, because obviously people cheat, modify the rules of games, etc.)
- In a sense, games are based around social contracts (players who agree to be bound by the rules of the game). Again, this can get meta real fast.
I hope some of this is helpful!
no subject
Date: 2017-07-04 04:33 am (UTC)(The last two principles I remember from the clear parallel Jedao drew to war, but funny how he doesn’t mention - what every Kel knows already.)
With the first one [ a game exists in an artificial "world"], it almost sounds like the Shuos can create microcosms for people who play with them to reinforce the overarching calendrical effects (except there aren’t enough of them, not on Vidona levels, and I realise that Shuos individuals don’t do well with upholding the calendar game-wise. Cadet Jedao.)
Actually that’s another cool layer!! Like I got that the backstabbing faction would backstab everything in sight, and that the trickster critters would manage to find a way out of the tyrannical regime, but it's nicely practical that the strongest attempts against the system would come from people who were trained to mess those up.
(wait gotta relate this back to the shuos) Sorry, last question: Given the Scattered Needles denizens' willingness to play board games dropped by their enemies, it doesn’t seem like games are exclusive to the Shuos or bear a stigma for that connection like origami and the Vidona. Will interest in games (actual recreational ones, puzzles, etc.) betray a Shuos?
(I guess the root of this question is about whether the Shuos have tried to modify the behavior of the populace to give them money, possibly by selling their well designed games on space Steam)
no subject
Date: 2017-07-04 03:44 pm (UTC)