In the past I’ve taken to examining games and game mechanics in a manner that is open to criticism for being piecemeal. I’ve examined specific elements of a game in isolation, ignoring important mechanics and interactions in order to aid clarity. The obvious problem with this approach is that a game is a complex system of rules interacting over time, and it’s impossibly to present an entirely accurate analysis of any individual mechanic without looking at all the ways that mechanic affects and is affected by all other mechanics. That is a valid criticism, and I think it’s important to understand and appreciate that no mechanic exists in isolation and everything in a game is in some way, either directly or indirectly, connected to every other.
However there is a reason why I have often chosen to approach specific mechanics in isolation, or to otherwise present a limited view of the dynamics of a game. As I have previously discussed games do not exist in any measurable way, the rules defining the constraints of the game are not the game itself. It is only during the act of play that those rules take on a contextual significance, that they are able to enthrall, thrill and otherwise emotionally affect us. Games exist to be played. The experience of play is different for each game and each player.
Though it is important to consider games in their entirety as a system of interconnected rules that is often not how they are perceived when played. Consider any game you have just started playing. After ten minutes how many of the mechanics are you aware of? How many of the myriad relationships between different mechanics do you have an understanding of? How about after two hours, or five hours, or fifty hours? Depending on the game, and how much attention you have been playing, the answers to these questions can differ significantly. Often it is not until the very end of the game that a complete conceptual model of the mechanics and their relationships can be formed.
Play, by its very nature is a process of exploration and discovery.
Consider BioShock, I feel confident that by this point most people who have played the game are aware that the mechanical rewards, in terms of Adam, are essentially the same regardless of whether you choose to Harvest or Rescue the Little Sisters. When analysing the game itself it is important to consider this fact, however when examining the play experience it might be useful to ignore it entirely. During play, assuming you don’t run two parallel games in order to examine the consequences of each choice, there is no information provided on the reward you would have received if you had chosen the opposite option. If you decide to Rescue the Little Sisters you will be rewarded with one quantity of Adam, and if you had Harvested you’ll be rewarded with another. It is implied that there may be an additional reward for Rescuing a certain number of Little Sisters, but unless and until you do so there’s no way to know whether that additional reward exists and what it might be. Even if you choose to alternate between Harvesting and Rescuing in order to gauge the difference in reward there is no way to know that the reward for consistently Harvesting doesn’t increase over time, or if the additional delayed rewards for Rescuing balance out the immediate rewards for Harvesting.
When playing a game what you do not know is just as important as what you do. If a particular mechanic or relationship is not known it’s impossible for that mechanic to influence your actions. When examining games and the manner in which they attempt to convey meaning it is important to understand the manner in which this subjectively understanding of the game mechanics influences player actions and reactions.
Tags: BioShock, Game Design
