Thesis Terms: Game Mechanics and MDA

January 13, 2019

Defining Terms for Thesis Research

Focus on MDA Terms

Game - “Type of play activity, conducted in the context of a pretended reality, in which the participants try to achieve at least one arbitrary, nontrivial goal by acting in accordance with the rules” [4] p.1 Mechanics - describes the particular components of the game, at the level of data representation and algorithms [1] - various actions, behaviors, and control mechanisms afforded to the player within a game context [1] - the rules and procedures of the game [2] p. 40 - elements of the game; “rules of the game” [2] p. 138 - methods invoked by agents for interacting with the game world [3] p.1 - “the rules, processes, and data at the heart of a game” [4] p. 1 Dynamics - describes the run-time behavior of the mechanics acting on the player inputs and each others’ outputs over time [1] - “runtime behavior(s) of the game; when players interact with the rules, what happens?” [2] p. 138 Aesthetics - describes the desirable emotional responses evoked in the player, when she interacts with the game system [1] - emotional results generated from the game [2] p.138

References - [1] R. Hunicke, M. LeBlanc, and R. Zubek, “MDA: A Formal Approach to Game Design and Game Research,” p. 5. - [2] Z. Hiwiller, Players making decisions: game design essentials and the art of understanding your players. New York? New Riders/NRG, 2016. - [3] M. Sicart, “Defining Game Mechanics”, The International Journal of Computer Game Research, vol. 8, no. 2, pp. 15, December 2008. - [4] E. Adams and J. Dormans, Game mechanics: advanced game design. Berkeley, CA: New Riders, 2012.