
Game mechanics for thinking users - ColinWright
http://pietro.open-lab.com/2010/11/09/game-mechanics-for-thinking-users
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mcantor
I think it's kinda funny how the "Did you consider a woman player's
perspective?" question at the end asks us to be mindful of women as a game-
playing demographic while simultaneously forgetting that women are also a
game-designing demographic who might be reading this very article.

Just sayin'!

The "Art of Game Design" book looks fascinating, too--I ordered a copy!

~~~
ppolsinelli
(I am the author of the article) Uh.. yes you are right, thanks for the
observation. AOGD is an amazing book.

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mcantor
:-> I hope I didn't come off as critical! I often hang out with a feminist-
leaning crowd, so that sort of thing tends to stand out to me. (The running
joke is "The hardest thing about being a straight white male is remembering
that not everyone is a straight white male.")

I'm actually just now working through "Rules of Play" by Salen & Zimmerman;
it's nice to see the field of game design slowly maturing and accruing
"serious" texts. It would be nice if we didn't need academia's help to
legitimize our pursuits, but ya can't win 'em all.

I liked the separation you drew here: " _The idea here is to use techniques of
game design in a way which is_ integrated in the functionality of an
application _not focused on gaming..._ " It's an interesting way to frame the
goal of a "gamified application": rather than the "game" being played for its
own sake, there is an overarching goal, and the path to that goal possesses
game-like qualities as an (apparently) organic side-effect. In the same way
that "real life" can distract you from a game, you don't want the "game" of
the app to distract you from the "real life" or "goal" of the app.

~~~
jlake
Criticism welcome. I too have "Rules of play", but it is still standing there
on my desk, unopened - no time now, writing a new game script :) On
"legitimize our pursuits" you could check this writing by Hecker (always
stimulating): <http://chrishecker.com/Going_Against_The_Grain>

