I found this book very inspiring and deep, especially the parts where the author tries to connect games and arts and fun. Some parts of the book are aI found this book very inspiring and deep, especially the parts where the author tries to connect games and arts and fun. Some parts of the book are abstract and a little bit hard to grasp as the book includes many metaphors. Nevertheless, many paragraphs still give me goosebumps as they are so true and profound. The author has many strong arguments and also very has high ideals when it comes to game designing. A game is designed not only for entertainment, but also for educating and helping players overcome their weaknesses. He has inspired hopes in readers that one day, games will be no longer considered meaningless and trivial, but will join literature, music, dance and theatre as a form of "the arts".
My favourite quotes include: 1. Contrasting games and stories: "Games are good at objectification. Stories are good at empathy. Games are external 鈥 they are about people鈥檚 actions. Stories (good ones, anyway) are internal 鈥 they are about people鈥檚 emotions and thoughts."
2. How players prefer to wander in their comfort zone: "Look at the games that offer the absolute greatest freedom possible within the scope of a game setting. In role-playing games there are few rules. The emphasis is on collaborative storytelling. You can construct your character any way you want, use any background, and take on any challenge you like. And yet, people choose the same characters to play, over and over.* I鈥檝e got a friend who has played the big burly silent type in literally dozens of games over the decade I have known him. Never once has he been a vivacious small girl"- Players tend to choose the games they're already good at, will they one day go out of their zones to play the game concentrating on enhancing the skills they lack? If they do, they'll improve many skills and become a more rounded person.
3. People like to master and learn things in a safe and non-pressure environment, which is game: 鈥淭hat鈥檚 what games are, in the end. Teachers. Fun is just another word for learning.鈥
4. Brain needs stuffs (stories, information) to process all the time- notice how your mind never stops thinking and wandering from one place to another; however, it does not prefer challenging and complicated stuffs; it prefers familiar patterns: 鈥淏ased on my reading, the human brain is mostly a voracious consumer of patterns, a soft pudgy gray Pac-Man of concepts. Games are just exceptionally tasty patterns to eat up.鈥
5. And finally: "We often discuss the desire for games to be art- for them to be puzzles with more than one right answer, puzzles that lend themselves to interpretation." To become arts, a game must be thought-provoking, revelatory, forcing us to reexamine assumptions, forgiving and encouraging misinterpretation. What's left behind after you finish playing a game? Will the puzzle already stops bugging you once the boss's dead and the princess's in your arms?
I was asked to read this book to prepare for a module in school and I found it quite enjoyable and easy to understand. I've experienced long meetings I was asked to read this book to prepare for a module in school and I found it quite enjoyable and easy to understand. I've experienced long meetings and group brainstorming and I'm interested in learning how people can increase their productivity during group work. This book provides a very detailed guide to a super efficient and compact work week, which includes identifying a problem, then finding a solution and finally testing that solution with 5 target customers by building a prototype. I think it's amazing that a group of 7 or less people can accomplish a lot in only 5 days (10am to 5pm every day). I will have a chance to test this book with my group mates soon and I can't wait to see how it turns out. ...more
Loading...
