Tuesday, 16 July 2013

Defining Game Mechanics

In reading "Defining Game Mechanics" by Miguel Sicart I have developed a more deep understanding of game mechanics.

One of the main definitions/ quotes that aided my understanding was:
           "Game mechanics are often, but not necessarily, designed to overcome challenges, looking for specific transitions of the game state. Designers create the basic mechanics for the player correlating the central challenges of the game with the set of mechanics useful for overcoming them."

Other parts of the article that I found interesting, even if not directly relatable to the actual game mechanics that will be involved in the assignments were:

      - "Game mechanics are designed for gameplay, but they can be used for toyplay. For a player who is playing the game, a mechanic serves a specific set of purposes, while a player that is playing with or within the game, a game mechanic loses its formal game design origin and becomes an instrument for agency."
      - "Game mechanics are concerned with the actual interaction with the game state, while rules provide the possibility space where that interaction is possible, regulating as well the transition between states. In this sense, rules are modeled after agency, while mechanics are modeled for agency."

      - One mechanic can be engrained in us so much so from repetitive use that it moves from a series of inputs to one synonymous action, becoming the mechanic:

      - Side note on AI agents:
“since bots are agents that optimize their interaction by focusing on a core set of mechanics.”

       - "Another interesting approach from this formal perspective is the possibility of describing mechanics that are triggered depending on the context of the player presence in the game world, what I define as "context mechanics”."

       - "Thus, the concept of compound game mechanics can be of use: a compound game mechanic is a set of related game mechanics that function together within one delimited agent interaction mode. These modes are defined by the interaction of these different modalities."


         Overall I felt that it was an article which helped me understand the concept of core mechanics and secondary also. 

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