Game Design Decathlon - Week Four

Don't worry, the significance will become clear.

I've almost figured out how to type decathlon without spellcheck kicking in!

After talking a tiny bit about Spore last week, I realised I've never really given myself the opportunity to talk about the kinds of games I enjoy most, which has got me thinking and I've realised that I don't think I like games, I like toys.

I'll stop there and let you ponder that for a moment, because that must sound odd. There's most certainly a difference. Scrabble is a game, a die-cast car is a toy. Games have rules and systems, and typically a well-defined end state. Toys have none of that, but both are fun. Additionally there's a level of malleability between the two, toys can be part of a game, and games can be reduced down to toys.

Here's two examples, (one anecdotal) of each transition:

Going from Toy to Game: The Sims

Surprise, I picked a Maxis game. Shocking, right? The Sims is pretty much the codifier for software-based-toys. I'm sure there's a standard term for them but it's not coming to mind. I don't think anyone will argue that The Sims has a predefined end goal, or at least not an overt one. One could make the argument that the mechanics lead the player towards the end goal of reaching the top of their Sims career, but even then that's an optional thing. The experience isn't lessened by not pursuing that goal. Instead, the lack of an overt, pre-defined end goal spurs most players to devise their own goals or themes. Setting rules and limitations and goals is what transforms the toy into a game.

Going from Game to Toy: Civilisation 5

From Sim, to Sid. As in Sid Meier's Civilisation. Sorry, I'll get to my point. Civilisation is an odd bag of things for me. It's equal parts grand strategy, simulator and storytelling device. The example I have of taking a game with rules and systems and an end goal, and twisting it into a toy is based around a single player game I played a few years ago. I was playing as Genghis Khan, fully enjoying tearing around the steppes with my masses of horse mounted lads. I started losing interest in playing the game as a game around the time my civilisation came into contact with Sweden. One thing led to another and Sweden attempted to get the UN to stop me from trading oranges. (which is a mechanic, apparently) I didn't like that. Ol' GengChris Khan had a massive surplus of oranges that were pulling in a lot of gold from trading with other, citrus-deficient countries. Fortunately I had a bit of a technological lead on the rest of the world by this point, and decided that Sweden needed to burn. So I started the Manhattan Project. In 1915. By 1930 the Swedish civilisation had been blasted back into the stone age. Somehow the rest of the world didn't approve of me engaging in a one-sided nuclear exchange over some satsumas, and one by one the rest of the world declared war on me. That didn't matter, the Mongol hordes retreated to their cities and stood their ground. Top Horseback scientists took their citrus fruits to their labs, and by 1955 the first Giant Death Robots (again, real unit in the game. Wild) trundled out into the world. The Mongols had total dominance over the world before the 90's were through.

Obviously all that was bound by the constraints the game has supplied, so it's not truly transformed into a toy, but I became lost in my own narrative. A narrative as petty as it is citrus-y. I'm sure other things will come to mind in time, so I may make a follow up to this.

Back to my original point, as I fear I've rambled too much. I like toys as they're more open ended, they allow to express creativity more freely. There's so many ways to categorise people in how they act, and for this nothing resonates better than the Bartle Test. The Bartle test and its resulting types are best described as Myers-Briggs for games (Incidentally, I've heard Myers-Briggs described as tarot for managers, which always elicits a cackle)

According to the Bartle test, I'm 100% an Explorer. I don't want to kill things, I don't want riches or fame. All I want is to go for a wander and find some stuff. Sounds about right, surely? It must be why I'm drawn to sandbox games, and simulators and the afore-mentioned Software Toys. If they're open ended and malleable, there's no limit to what can be discovered.

If you've made it this far, well done! I'd strongly suggest taking the Bartle test I linked, and come chat about your results, or if you disagree with anything I've said here.

Want an orange?