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Loading... Theory of Fun for Game Design (original 2004; edition 2010)by Raph Koster (Author), Will Wright (Other Contributor) matija2019 | Jan 8, 2019 |   Even if simple this book is valuable: the main point that games have a specific game shelf life is an important one that is often missed by game designers. (  ) yates9 | Feb 28, 2024 | Still, I think that's what the book is largely about. The central thesis is that a game is fun because it provides a task/set of tasks and the right tools/techniques for a player to master these tasks. I think it's super-interesting as a musing and theory, but I feel like it leaves out a whole gigantic genre of entertainment and niches that games occupy. Take something like a fidget spinner. It's pretty trivial to 'master', but still provides some utility and fun. There are games that are the equivalent of a fidget spinner... simple, silly games that people enjoy anyways. This might not be the kind of deep-level fun a career game designer would focus on, but if you're looking to 'gamify' interactions (like filling out compliance forms, or checklists, or even chores) then those are a pretty huge part of the considerations. Slight disclaimer: I'm not a game designer but read this book wanting to know how to make non-game interactions more fun without necessarily adding points/a score or those traditional 'gamification' elements. I don't know if I got that out of it, but I got some things to think about. (  ) nimishg | Apr 12, 2023 |  ) skrabut | Sep 2, 2020 | To me, this is a collection of sometimes barely coherent stream-of-thought ramblings of a video-game executive, apparently about what makes games fun, though you'd barely know to read it. They don't really seem to have much purpose to it, except to draw attention to how educated and cultured the author is (he frequently makes comparisons to classical music and other "classical" forms of art, as if to say, hey look at me, I'm a man of the world). Also, the chapter titles often don't match the contents, like the one on ethics. If there's a central theme to it, it's that fun means learning and then "grokking" (as in deeply internalizing) something new, though I'm not sure that revelation was worth the six bucks. It looks like the author called up a couple of his contacts (all well known industry figures) and asked them to write a glowing cover blurb (or a foreword) to his book. Him being an important industry executive, they naturally obliged, though the generic tone of their recommendations should have been a giveaway. There's a lesson to be learned here about celebrity endorsements, kids. (  ) matija2019 | Jan 8, 2019 | ) questbird | Sep 26, 2018 | ) chasing | Jan 18, 2016 | (*) Of course, Koster's definition of "fun" isn't well accepted, but that's because he's identifying one particular flavor (out of four or eight or more) of game-related fun and referring to that as fun for the entire book. Since he doesn't do this immediately, even doubters who have looked at the beginning of the book find it easy to dismiss. ( ) tomhudson | Mar 27, 2015 | ) morbusiff | May 9, 2013 | The only thing I didn't like was that a lot of the little cartoons were of the "I'm afraid of my wife" variety, which I just think is so puerile and lame. Jeez, guy, don't have a wife then, if you think she's so controlling and incomprehensible. ( ) JenneB | Apr 2, 2013 |  ) GeertHa | Jun 4, 2012 | ) techszewski | Jan 10, 2010 | )1  irishkitsune | Feb 1, 2008 | “Today we are seeing a new form of it, (Play) but in order to really understand it properly, we need to begin with this really deep evolutionary hold that games have on us. Koster looks at games as something that’s about learning above all, and they are in his phrase ‘chewy’ environments for our brains, where we are performing a task again and again to get better at beating the particular properties of a particular environment.” The full interview is available here: http://five-books.com/interviews/tom-chatfield ( )  FiveBooks | Mar 17, 2010 | |
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To me, this is a collection of sometimes barely coherent stream-of-thought ramblings of a video-game executive, apparently about what makes games fun, though you'd barely know to read it. They don't really seem to have much purpose to it, except to draw attention to how educated and cultured the author is (he frequently makes comparisons to classical music and other "classical" forms of art, as if to say, hey look at me, I'm a man of the world). Also, the chapter titles often don't match the contents, like the one on ethics.
If there's a central theme to it, it's that fun means learning and then "grokking" (as in deeply internalizing) something new, though I'm not sure that revelation was worth the six bucks.
It looks like the author called up a couple of his contacts (all well known industry figures) and asked them to write a glowing cover blurb (or a foreword) to his book. Him being an important industry executive, they naturally obliged, though the generic tone of their recommendations should have been a giveaway. There's a lesson to be learned here about celebrity endorsements, kids. (