Gamification what has fun got to do with it?
Fun is a goal of game design although it is not a building block of a game as people experience fun in various different ways.
Fun is defined as "enjoyment" or "amusement", it can be described as lighthearted pleasure.
But in the context of gamification, fun can be defined as pleasurable engagement.
Marc LeBlanc’s 8 Kinds of Fun -
Sensation - Games which play on the players feelings
Fantasy - Games which are based in make believe scenarios
Narrative - Games which follow story based path
Challenge - Games which make players up-skill through game-play
Fellowship - Games which have numerous players interacting with each other
Discovery - Games which encourage exploration
Expression - Games which encourage players to be themselves
Submission - Games which are easy to play for long periods of time
The 4 Keys to Fun: the game mechanics that drive play
Easy fun comes from exploration, role playing and creativity in games
Hard fun comes from challenge in games, fun comes from the achievement after beating something difficult
People fun comes from cooperation and competition
Serious fun comes from games having depth, meaning and/or lore
Putting the “Fun Factor” Into Gaming: The Influence of Social Contexts on Experiences of Playing Videogames
Flow states can occur more freely in activities designed with deeper levels of interaction and concentration.
To create flow there must be a skill-challenge balance for players, where as the players skill level increases through gameplay the challenge of the game increases at the same or a slightly accelerated rate. This is because enjoyment is found from overcoming a challenge. To overcome a challenge players must up-skill to beat what they will perceive as a difficult challenge.
Group flow is the idea of players having shared interactions in games, usually working as a team or in competition with one another, which enhances their sense of enjoyment and also makes it easier for all participants to achieve a flow state.
Group flow can can be dependent on:
How players interact with one another
Perceive and receive feedback
Each players competency with the game
A Theory of Fun for Game Design | Raph Koster and The Art of Designing Fun Games
Humans are a "pattern species", meaning we look for patterns in games and it becomes quite easy for us to think of different solutions to the same problems and we can store an array of patterns in our heads.
Games can be broken into 2 types
Type 1 games are games based around a players cognitive skills, requiring thinking much more carefully before a player acts.
Type 2 games are games based on a players reaction skills, requiring players to think quickly and figure out what they must do to achieve their goals with split second decisions.
Fun can be created in games by giving players perceivable feedback for their actions, giving players a goal and giving players freedom and control over what happens in the game world.
People fun - the type of fun created from playing games with others, usually in a more relaxed setting, e.g. co-op games
Easy fun - the type of fun created through players exploring game worlds with little resistance while still learning, e.g. story based games
Fun can be broken down in a basic sense into, Learning, Feedback, Feel and Flow
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