

Game Design Insights: John Romero and Brenda Brathwaite - d-lectable
http://blog.betable.com/game-design-insights-from-john-romero-brenda

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erickhill
"Ultimately, games are trying to deal with the human desire to clean things
up." That's a fascinating way of looking at things.

In games like Quake, the "cleaning up" is eliminating opponents. But even in
educational trivia, one could say the "cleaning up" is getting as many correct
answers as possible. Our instinctual desires to organize, i.e. "clean".

~~~
DanHulton
I prefer Raph Koster's way of putting it, that good games are really just
"satisfying work".

~~~
mmatants
True, in fact, having played World of Warcraft and having observed other
players, I think the satisfaction "pay-off moments" can be interleaved with
huge stretches of monotonous activity (essentially waiting) - people show
surprising reserves of patience for some games. In other words, the happiness
of playing that kind of game comes from optimistic waiting, not the "pay-off"
itself.

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jheriko
Has Romero done anything worthwhile since touching Quake? and who is Brenda
Braithwaite? Maybe I am out of date...

I'd take it all with a pinch of salt - but then I am a game programmer talking
about game designers - so take me with a pinch as well. :)

I think Valve have the right idea on game design from what they have shared.
For one thing they actually ship consistently good games - for another they
take a very scientific and reproducable approach. No confusing,
unsubstantiated theories floating around, or guesses based on vague
psychology... just iteration based on experiment.

Its a shame more developers don't share more with their crazy NDA happy
approaches. I think it would be good if game design was considered more
seriously as a field, but its not going to happen when academia and industry
are far apart and the industry is keeping all of its knowledge of the field
locked away behind NDAs.

[http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/3408/the_cabal_valves_...](http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/3408/the_cabal_valves_design_process_.php)

[http://www.valvesoftware.com/publications/2006/GDC2006_HL2De...](http://www.valvesoftware.com/publications/2006/GDC2006_HL2DesignProcess.pdf)

[http://www.computerandvideogames.com/147512/interviewslookin...](http://www.computerandvideogames.com/147512/interviewslooking-
back-half-life-2-episode-one/)

~~~
ciroduran
Brenda Brathwaite is the responsible for the Wizardry videogame series, if
you're old enough to have played them. She also has done extensive work in
teaching game design, you might like Challenges for Game Designers, which she
co-authored with Ian Schreiber. More info:
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brenda_Brathwaite>

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vga15
"the human desire to clean things up."

I'm not sure I like where popular game-design seems to be headed. Core game
mechanics driven by completing tasks, leveling up, reducing entropy, and
competing with friends certainly have their place, and you probably couldn't
dissect 'mafia wars' any other way. But it irks me that this is a trend, and
that they're trying to hack through the average gamer's mental framework.

I've played at least 20 games that've mesmerized me and gotten me addicted
purely through their graphics, characters, soundtrack, ambience and game
world. My experience with the Final Fantasy series early on, was memorable
despite the core gameplay mechanics. I was mostly drawn in by the vivid,
dreamy environments and the interesting/quirky characters.

