Posted September 07, 2023 by andyjeans
While I was reading the three chapters for this week, I was reflecting of the game we created last week and also the two games we played on Tuesdays class. I cannot remember for the life of me what that group named their game, something something Murder Mystery? Regardless, when Macklin and Sharp in chapter three, when they discuss cooperative play, they say “when it goes well (the game) its one of the best kinds of fun you can have.” This passage makes me think of when we all as players agreed on what the ground rules were and what will be the tell the killer will have, we all were having a great time just messing around shaking everyone’s hand. Then more fun when our detectives were essentially falsely accusing people they suspected of being the killer, the fun really amped up. Especially when the detectives tried to explain what they THOUGHT were the killers tells!
When we moved on to the next game of Human Battleship we really explored the world of restraints in our games. In chapter two, the text talks about constraints essentially being placed to put limits with the intention of creating a player experience. We saw that in action when Martin was having a hard time trying to place direct his torpedos. Through the trial and error of dealing with the constraint of not having a screen for Martin to map out where possible ships were, we came to the conclusion that he could have a space to chart. Which through working through those constraints we were able to improve our player Martins experience in the game.
To build off this, in Chapter Four, in the Interaction Layer section of the reading, it describes players working with a mental model as they play the game. Martin was figuring out the game, trying to understand the rules and what to do. The more we played and feedback he received, by the end he was playing more comfortably because his understanding of the game increased. Once he understood his role and had that chart of his hits and misses of ships, he understanding turned to engaging, which made the game more fun for him and the sea of human battle ships!