Exam 1 Flashcards

1
Q

What are the rules of Morris? (9-man’s Morris)

A
  1. start with a blank board
  2. first phase - take turns adding pieces on line intersections until all have been placed
  3. second phase - take turns moving pieces along the line segments to empty points
  4. in either phase, when a player forms a windmill, she may remove one of her opponent’s pices
  5. no jumps
  6. the game is over when a player is down to two pieces, or can’t move
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2
Q

How old is Morris?

A

Over 8000 years old

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3
Q

How were games purchased in 2002?

A

CD-R

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4
Q

Where were games available at 2002?

A

Big box stores: Target, Walmart

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5
Q

How many games available per year in 2002?

A

30 to 50 games per year

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6
Q

How much did the game industry make per year on average in 2002?

A

$5B a year!

There is $5B to be made from the 40 slots – if a slot doesn’t make $125M, it took the place of something that could have and thus makes it a failure.

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7
Q

How were games purchased in 2010?

A

Internet deliveries for all consoles

Room in the market for many more games

No physical merchandize > faster product cycles

Smaller games, smaller budgest

lower breakeven point for sales

freedom to experiment

more companies

more kinds of games

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8
Q

What happened to the game industry in 2012?

A

The money showed up because EA and a few others are established in the online stores.

They have marketing budgets and the game section of the App store now looks like the game section of Toys-R-Us.

People buy what they know: Monopoly, Scrabble.

People want to play with friends; they buy games their friends know.

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9
Q

A Different Kind of Statis

A

The “Top 25” or 40 or so games have been the same for 2-3 years.

Those companies have the money, so they can generate new content continuously, so they are popular.

New games are occasionally “discovered” out of the thousands available.

BUT FOR A MOMENT anyone who could make a game had a chance to get rich.

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10
Q

What is the primary demographic for facebook games?

A

mid 40’s women

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11
Q

What is a postmortem?

A

essay about a project

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12
Q

What is a feature creep?

A

things added to the program after the design is finalized

this is a ton more work

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13
Q

What are content updates?

A

new levels, monsters, downloaded after initial purchase

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14
Q

How long are most apps kept on devices?

A

3 weeks

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15
Q

Content updates

A

are good!

keep the game being played and on the device

if you deleted it, friends won’t see you play it

continuing employment for everyone

gives you plans for post-release bug fixes

are bad!

content update = feature creep

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16
Q

What is discourse?

A

Established vocabulary
• different from making definitions
–A framework for critique
• What do we talk about when we “serious game
design types” talk about games?
• What is not worth talking about?
• This is both helpful and political

17
Q

Why have a discourse?

A

• Helps games fit into academia
• Builds knowledge base: journals, books
• Infrastructure of college degrees
• publication, curriculum-building, tests
• It makes for good education
– If we agree on what the basics are, we can all
teach them more efficiently/faster.
• Building audience
• Buffer against criticism

18
Q

What are schemas?

A

Ways of framing and organizing
knowledge.
• Includes some kinds of issues, excludes
others.
• Your mental context.
• What you are doing at the moment.

EX:

Find my glasses in my car.
–You focus your mind on recognizing glasses.
–You look for glasses, find them, then forget
and leave your lunch.
• To remember your lunch, you have to
change schemas.
– That wrenching feeling you get when you try
to change your focus? Schema shift.

19
Q

What is Salen & Zimmerman’s definition of play?

A

“A game is a system in which players
engage in an artificial conflict, defined by
rules, that results in a quantifiable
outcome.”

20
Q

Why is “discernability” a good characteristic to build in to all player actions in a game?

A

Discernability in a game lets the players know what happened when they took an action. Without
discernability, the player might as well be randomly pressing buttons or throwing down cards. With
discernability, a game possesses the building blocks of meaningful play.

21
Q

How would you write about play?

A
  1. Describe the social situation or genre
  2. Describe how the players are arrayed in
    space and how they interact
  3. Describe any equipment
  4. Give definitions
  5. List the rules
  6. Describe some strategies for good play
  7. Critique: strengths and weaknesses
22
Q

What is the iteration process in game design?

A

– Create
– Critique
– Modify
– Critique
– Modify

23
Q

What are the rules of Assassin?

A

• Players agree to play, then wait for target
assignments
• The umpire gives assignment, and the
start time, in secret
• After the start time, players hunt each
other– and go about their daily business.
• When a player is killed, she gives the
name of his target her killer.
• The last unkilled player is the winner.

24
Q

Define the umpire in Assassin

A

The “umpire” monitors the game and
assigns targets

25
Q

Define the target in Assassin

A

• A player’s “target” is another player, who
must be “killed”

26
Q

Define the safe spots in Assassin

A

“Safe spots” are locations in which players
cannot be killed
– workplace, lecture halls, places of worship

27
Q

What kind of game is Assassin?

A

an augemented reality game

28
Q

What does meaningful play mean?

A

it means there is drama in the game, you are attached to what you are playing, meaningful means fun in this case

29
Q

What is the definition of meaningful play?

A

the process by which a player
takes action within the designed system of
the game and the system responds to the
action.

30
Q

Why were there very few games prior to 600 C.E.?

A

– Games are for children. Children were
“women’s work.” Only serious manly man-stuff
got written down.
– The Catholic Church destroyed most preChristian texts.
– Most people could not write very well.
– Toys that are fun get played with and destroyed.

31
Q

How do you play Morra?

A

• A game like rock-paper-scissors for 3-5
players, playing near each other.
• Players say, “one, two, three, shoot!”
• On “shoot,” they throw out a hand with
some number of fingers up
• But don’t say “shoot!” Say a number.
• Add up the fingers; if someone said the
sum, they get a point.
• Play to 3.

32
Q

Why do we– semiotics?

A

semiotics example: spoon in assassin.

how things get meaning

33
Q

4 Semiotic concepts

A

A sign represents something other than
itself
• Signs are interpreted
• When a sign is interpreted, meaning is
conveyed
• Context shapes interpretation
• For instance: language. Words are signs!

34
Q
A