The Digital Gaming Handbook

Roberto Dillon

• Publisher: CRC Press
• Year: 2020
• eBook ISBN: 9781000093544
• Topic: Art
• Subtopic: Computer Graphics

The Digital Gaming Handbook covers the state-of-the-art in video and digital game research and development, from traditional to emerging elements of gaming across multiple disciplines. Chapters are presented with applicability across all gaming platforms over a broad range of topics, from game content creation through gameplay at a level accessible for the professional game developer while being deep enough to provide a valuable reference of the state-of-the-art research in this field.

Key Features:

• International experts share their research and experience in game development and design
• Provides readers with inside perspectives on the cross-disciplinary aspects of the industry
• Includes retrospective and forward-looking examinations of gaming

Editor:

Dr. Roberto Dillon is a leading game studies educator with more than 15 years of experience in the field of game design and development.

I
Game Analysis, Player Experience, and Accessibility

CHAPTER 1

Analyzing Games with the AGE and 6-11 Frameworks

Roberto Dillon

Contents

1.1 Introduction

1.2 The AGE Framework

1.3 The 6-11 Framework

1.4 How to Analyze Games

1.4.1 Game Analysis: Frogger (Konami, 1981, Arcade)

1.4.2 Game Analysis: Loading Human (Untold Games, 2016, PC/PSVR)

1.4.2.1 Color Appreciation

1.4.2.2 Self-Identification

1.4.2.3 Curiosity

1.4.2.4 Gameplay: Storytelling and Puzzle Solving

1.4.2.5 Actions: Movement and Object manipulation

1.5 Conclusions

References

1.1 Introduction

Among the different models conceptualized to help game designers analyzing the inner workings of games, the AGE (Actions, Gameplay, Experience) and 6-11 Frameworks (Dillon, 2010) have been adopted by both industry and academia thanks to their simplicity and ability to synthesize in an easy to understand diagram^* how players’ engagement can develop around a specific set of emotions and instinctive behaviors thanks to actual gameplay features. See, for example, Marins et al. (2011), Kerlow et al. (2012) and Göbel (2016).

* The diagrams summarizing the analysis are often referred to as “on the way to fun” diagrams, as first presented in Dillon (2010)

1.2 The AGE Framework

Inspired by the original MDA model (Mechanics, Dynamics, Aesthetics) proposed in Hunicke et al. (2004), the AGE framework was gradually formalized following the original work in Dillon (2010) and ultimately finalized in Dillon (2016). Like the original MDA, it breaks down a game into three different conceptual layers. At the most basic level we have the Actions, which represent the atomic actions a player can perform in a game. These are usually described in terms of verbs like moving, jumping, kicking a ball, punching, shooting, taking cover, shifting tiles, etc. By combining the possible actions according to the game rules, we move to the next layer, i.e. the Gameplay. This can also be described either in term of more general verbs or higher-level concepts like fighting, race to an end, avoidance, territorial acquisition and so on. Through the gameplay, players aim at overcoming some form of challenge or achieving a certain goal as requested by the game and, in doing so, the typical sequence of failures, successes and rewards will manage to engage them emotionally in what the model describes as the third, highest level: the Experience, i.e. the emotional experience that engages players during the game.

It is important to understand how the concepts outlined in the model do not work in isolation but are inherently related to each other: players apply the predefined rules to give a purpose to the available actions, producing the resulting gameplay. This then is used to overcome the specific challenges the game is all about and these provide players with a reason to immerse themselves in the gaming world and get emotionally engaged in what they are doing, as summarized in Figure 1.1.

FIGURE 1.1 A game seen under the schematic representation of the AGE model: players perform a specific action that, in accordance with the game’s own rules, allows for the emergence of one or more types of gameplay. Through gameplay, players aim at overcoming a series of challenges or reaching a goal and, in doing so, they can get emotionally engaged and immersed in the virtual world.

1.3 The 6-11 Framework

Analyzing Actions and Gameplay should be relatively straightforward, but the Experience involves emotions and can be, henceforth, subjective. How shall we describe it then? And, even more importantly, how to actually connect it to the actual gameplay that is happening on the screen? The original MDA tried to solve this problem by means of the “8 Kinds of Fun” taxonomy while the AGE framework here adopts another model, the 6-11 framework.

The idea behind the latter is that games can be so engaging at a subconscious level because, in general, they successfully rely on a subset of a few basic emotions and instinctive behaviors, which are well known in psychology and deeply rooted in all of us. In particular, the six emotions originally included in the model, involving both positive and negative emotions, are:

1. 1.Fear: one of the most common emotions in games nowadays. Think of survival horror games or dungeon explorations in RPGs for plenty of examples.
2. 2.Anger: a powerful emotion that is often used as a motivational factor to play again or to advance the story to correct any wrongs that some evil character has committed.
3. 3.Pride: rewarding players and making them feel good for their achievements and successes is an extremely important motivational factor. Players need to feel good about what they just did and aim at even higher successes.
4. 4.Joy/Happiness: arguably, one of the most relevant emotions for having a fun gaming experience.
5. 5.Sadness: despite being an emotion that doesn’t seem to match with the concept of “fun,” this negative emotion has always played an important role in games and designers have always been attracted by it as a way to reach new artistic heights and touch more complex and mature themes.
6. 6.Excitement: most games worth playing should achieve this and it should happen naturally as a consequence of successfully triggering other emotions and/or instincts.

Moving to the instinctive behaviors, the framework discusses games in terms of the 11 following behaviors:

1. 1.Survival (fight or flight): the most fundamental and primordial of all instincts, triggered when faced with a life threat. According to the situation, we will have to decide whether we should face the threat and fight for our life or try to avoid it by finding a possible way to escape. Relying on this instinct is very common among many modern videogames, especially first-person shooters (FPS) and survival horror games.
2. 2.Self-identification: people tend to admire successful individuals or smart fictional characters and naturally start to imagine of being like their models. This is common of all entertainment, especially those based on storytelling, and it is even more relevant in games where, thanks to their interactive nature, players actually have a chance of wearing the hero’s shoes.
3. 3.Collecting: a very strong instinct that motivates players to look for and form patters of objects by completing sets with a common theme. It also relates to our hunting instinct. While always present in many games since the early days of the medium, it has been extremely prominent in the last few years via the infamous “loot boxes,” pushing players to desperately look for rare items.
4. 4.Protection/Care/Nurture: arguably the “best” instinct of all: the one that pushes every parent to love their children and every person to feel the impulse for caring and helping those in need despite the possible dangers, including countless princesses in distress and kidnapped girlfriends.
5. 5.Aggressiveness: the other side of the coin, usually leading to violence when coupled with greed or anger. It is exploited in countless of games, too, especially in FPS and fighting games.
6. 6.Greed: this is another typical human behavior that is responsible for the addictive qualities of many games: hoarding resources, virtual money and so on is a common habit and motivational factor across many games.
7. 7.Revenge: another powerful instinct that can act as a motivational force and is often used in games to advance the storyline or justify why we need to annihilate an alien or an enemy.
8. 8.Competition: the need for measuring our skills against those of others is one of most important instinct in relation to gaming, whether the competition happens within the game itself or outside the game, by means of leaderboards. Without it, many games would lose much of their appeal.
9. 9.Communication: the need for expressing ideas, thoughts or just gossip, was one of the most influential for human evolution. It can be used to great effect in games too, while seeking information by talking to a non-playing character (NPC) or while sharing experiences with other players in chatrooms and forums.
10. 10.Exploration/Curiosity: all human discoveries, whether of a scientific or geographical nature, have been made thanks to these instincts that always pushed us towards the unknown. Many adventure games rely on curiosity alone to engage players and push them to progress.
11. 11.Color Appreciation: scenes and environments full of vibrant colors naturally attract us, whether it is an abstract or a photorealistic setting. This is often important to capture players’ attention and interest from the get-go. Note this is about the artistic use of colors and the palette used to make graphics attractive regardless of the technical specs, screen resolution or even the actual number of colors used.

1.4 How to Analyze Games

The AGE framework may be seen then as a canvas where we can use any of these elements to discuss how games successfully engage players emotionally and how emotions and instincts are then the driving forces that make players act in the game.

For example, we can imagine a horror game scaring the player with a sudden encounter with a monster in a dark room. This will likely trigger the player’s survival instinct, pushing him to find a way to answer the threat, for example. by escaping and avoiding the danger, which is made possible by the actions the game offers, like the ability of running or hiding somewhere. All these pieces of information can be assembled together in diagram form where Experience ultimately leads the player to “fun” and is linked to the Actions via the Gameplay as exemplified in Figure 1.2.

FIGURE 1.2 An example of a simple “On the Way to Fun” diagram outlining the Experience, Gameplay and Actions for a generic horror game: the survival instinct is what motivates the player to escape (Gameplay) by using the available abilities at his disposal (Actions). Fear and Survival also lead to Excitement, delivering a “fun” experience overall.

With the basics now discussed, let us try to use the framework step by step, starting with a very simple game at first and then progressing to a more articulated example to analyze in detail a modern game.

1.4.1 Game Analysis: Frogger (Konami, 1981, Arcade)

In Frogger (Figure 1.3), players control a small frog that, starting from the bottom of the screen, needs to find a safe haven by navigating a trafficked highway and a river.

FIGURE 1.3 Frogger (© 1981 Konami): was it an engaging and fun game? Why?

Our analysis ...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half-Title
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• Editor
• Contributors
• Introduction
• Part I Game Analysis, Player Experience, and Accessibility
• Part II Gamification and Serious Games
• Part III Game Design, Level Design, and Storytelling
• Part IV Game Development and Technology
• Part V Game History, Society, and Culture
• Index