A more theoretical book review today!

Written by game designer Raph Koster and published in 2005, A Theory of Fun For Game Design explores the meaning of fun and the potential of games. It comes at the issue from a design perspective rather than a theoretical one, and its informal, personal tone combined with useful but comical illustrations make it a very accessible read.

You need to remember that the book is now 17 years old and has some concepts which are now not valid. One area which I totally disagree is the value of the narrative of a game.

The narrative of the game has now increasing importance, and the link between creative writing and game design has become far more important. The recent collaboration between Edge Hill University Creative writing students and Karl Perroton’s “Crooked dice” has ended in the development of the Pulp version of their 7-TV game.

This is the major change in Wargame design and for me the “narrative” is an importsant part of the game. Sorry Raph Koster on this we disagree!!! Which brings us to the books content.

Raph Koster

As the book shows, designing for fun is all about making interactive products like games highly entertaining, engaging, and addictive.

The book has twelve chapters that look at different aspects:

• 1 Chapter 1: Why Write This Book?
• 2 Chapter 2: How the Brain Works
• 3 Chapter 3: What Games Are
• 4 Chapter 4: What Games Teach Us
• 5 Chapter 5: What Games Aren’t
• 6 Chapter 6: Different Fun For Different Folks
• 7 Chapter 7: The Problem with Learning
• 8 Chapter 8: The Problem with People
• 9 Chapter 9: Games in Context
• 10 Chapter 10: The Ethics of Entertainment
• 11 Chapter 11: Where Games Should Go
• 12 Chapter 12: Taking Their Rightful Place (& Epilogue).

I will give you a quick outline of some of the chapters to give you a feel for the book.

Chapter 1: Why write the book?

Kids use games as learning tools and this lead Koster to “tackle the questions of what games are, and what fun is, and why games matter,” the three major themes of his book.

Chapter 2: How the brain works.

Chapter two begins with various definitions of what games are, Various writers are quoted but the conclusion is that no one fully agrees on a definition. Koster’s own definition is one that I like, ” Games are just exceptionally tasty patterns to eat up”!

He talks about the brain “chunking” pieces of information together in patterns. As the brain begins to more and more pieces these chunks together into recognizable patterns our understanding increases. You have seen our group do this as we have learnt the Lasalle2 set of rules during the games posted over the last few weeks. A we have “chunked” various components of the rules together into bite sized patterns our learning and enjoyment (fun) has increased. These patterns are important.

Chapter 3: What games are.

Koster delves into the meaning of games further explaining games are puzzles to be solved and provide lessons to be learned. “Fun from games arises out of mastery,” Koster writes, “It is the act of solving puzzles that makes games fun.

Chapter 6: Different Fun For Different Folks

Koster uses Garner’s Multiple Intelligence Theory to explain that because people have different learning styles different types of games will appeal to different people. While it is true that different people have different learning styles it is a massive leap to suggest that this is because “multiple intelligence’s”. The theory proposes the differentiation of human intelligence into specific modalities of intelligence, rather than defining intelligence as a single, general ability.

Readers should be a little wary as the theory has been widely criticized because there has been no empirical studies to prove the theory and because it relies on subjective judgements. Critics would also argue that psychometric supports the view that there is a high correlation between different aspects of intelligence rather than the low correlation that Gardner predicts supporting the theory of a general intelligence rather than multiple ones. Also it has been argued that Gardner has re-defined intelligence and uses it where others would used the terms traits, abilities or aptitudes.

Despite this I agree that people do learn differently and that different games appeal to different types of people.

In summary:

According to Raph Koster in his book A Theory of Fun for Game Design, a successful game has six successful elements:

• Preparation 

              Practicing in advance, gearing up for battle, building a poker hand

• A Sense of Space 

                ​Landscape, board, relationships between players

• A Solid Core Mechanic

              Interesting ruleset, movement, recurring puzzle

• A Range of Challenges

              Content; enemies, environmental obstacles

• A Range of Abilities Required to Solve

              Variety; multiple tools, special moves

• Skill Required to Use These Abilities 

               Not based on luck; based on timing, dexterity, etc.

In addition, three other features are required to make it a good learning experience:

• A Variable Feedback System
  • ​The outcome of any encounter should not be completely predictable​
• The Mastery Problem must be dealt with
  • ​High level players cannot get too much out of easy encounters
• Failure Must Have a Cost
  • ​There must be at least an opportunity cost, otherwise preparation would mean nothing

I picked up my copy from Book Depository but it is also available as a free download.