George D. Phillies
2006-05-19 19:22:08 UTC
Discussion Problem The late Glenn Blacow proposed that rolegame players
and gamesmasters have four motivations, namely Roleplaying, Storytelling,
Powergaming, and Wargaming, while others have proposed a fifth, namely
Sightseeing. A roleplayer focuses on the internal consistency and
personality of each of his characters, so that they choose to do what
would have made sense to them. A Storyteller is participating in a
plotted event, in which the broad course of events has script immunity,
and will happen regardless of what the players do. A wargamer is
interested in choosing excellent strategy in tactics, whether on the field
of battle or in a cooking competition. A powergamer pursues enhancing his
character's strengths, as by acquiring armies, magic amulets, and better
armor, simply in order to have a more powerful character: the archetype is
the well known LA rolegamer of 30 years ago and his 250,000th level
magician. A sightseer is there to admire the world and enjoy events, the
way Casanova presented himself in his autobiography (though Casanova did
invent the modern government lottery and briefly make himself rich).
Overlooked in this mix are Social Gamers, people who are playing the game
but who are there to socialize, compare chocolate brownie recipes, or
enjoy the company of their significant other. These six motivations are
not exclusive. Most players and gamesmasters have several at once. The
motivations may be inconsistent, in that the player whose character is a
Chess International Grandpatzer is supposed to play chess incompetently,
interfering with her wargaming motivation that she wants to win chess
games.
Contrast these motivations with Greg Costikyan's ideas on desirable and
deprecated features of games, as represented in "I Have No Words and I
Must Design" http://www.costik.com/nowords.html
Suppose we have players who are archetypes for each of these motivations.
How would they interact with each of the factors that Costikyan identifies
as being important (or deprecated) in a game?
And for the curious, your humble correspondent is now teaching in part in
the WPI Proram in Interactive Media and Game Development, and is working
on several books to be completed this summer on game design, mostly
tabletop strategy games.
And for the very curious, I actually played in a Blacow Champions
campaign.
and gamesmasters have four motivations, namely Roleplaying, Storytelling,
Powergaming, and Wargaming, while others have proposed a fifth, namely
Sightseeing. A roleplayer focuses on the internal consistency and
personality of each of his characters, so that they choose to do what
would have made sense to them. A Storyteller is participating in a
plotted event, in which the broad course of events has script immunity,
and will happen regardless of what the players do. A wargamer is
interested in choosing excellent strategy in tactics, whether on the field
of battle or in a cooking competition. A powergamer pursues enhancing his
character's strengths, as by acquiring armies, magic amulets, and better
armor, simply in order to have a more powerful character: the archetype is
the well known LA rolegamer of 30 years ago and his 250,000th level
magician. A sightseer is there to admire the world and enjoy events, the
way Casanova presented himself in his autobiography (though Casanova did
invent the modern government lottery and briefly make himself rich).
Overlooked in this mix are Social Gamers, people who are playing the game
but who are there to socialize, compare chocolate brownie recipes, or
enjoy the company of their significant other. These six motivations are
not exclusive. Most players and gamesmasters have several at once. The
motivations may be inconsistent, in that the player whose character is a
Chess International Grandpatzer is supposed to play chess incompetently,
interfering with her wargaming motivation that she wants to win chess
games.
Contrast these motivations with Greg Costikyan's ideas on desirable and
deprecated features of games, as represented in "I Have No Words and I
Must Design" http://www.costik.com/nowords.html
Suppose we have players who are archetypes for each of these motivations.
How would they interact with each of the factors that Costikyan identifies
as being important (or deprecated) in a game?
And for the curious, your humble correspondent is now teaching in part in
the WPI Proram in Interactive Media and Game Development, and is working
on several books to be completed this summer on game design, mostly
tabletop strategy games.
And for the very curious, I actually played in a Blacow Champions
campaign.