Modern Game Design Philosophy

Well we have talked a lot about philosophy but not a lot about how it is incorporated into gaming. In many ways the way we look at the world is reflected almost directly into how we interupt a specific subject and ergo turn it into a game.

Many game designers tend to look at designing as a way to express a period or an idea. The modern idea is simplicity; and efficiency (check the below post on evil and efficiency.) In some ways this can be linked to the idea of Utilitarianism. Some thing which I personally reject; but apply in some of my own games. The idea can be summed up in a path in which people gain happiness from objects or from other people; and how you can maximize 'utils' (though that is kind of Archaic; Economics classes still teach about marginal utils which are actually very useful in thought.)

This said how does it actually apply to games? How do we gain happiness out of a game? Well from the basic start we are happy TO BE PLAYING a game. Most people are begrudged to play the majority of board games. But some will always enjoy the occasional game of Risk or Monopoly or something simple such as that. Board gaming sadly is kind of a lost art going away in favor of computer and console gaming. This is not bad but there is a uniqueness that is not replicated with a console.

However people also gain happiness by the selection of their units and what their units do. People will enjoy a lvl 5 paladin more then a weak lvl 1 ogre. Or a strong US Marine regiment to a weak insurgent force in regular combat. This brings us some happiness. It seems that even to the aspect of Role playing games we are always attempting to gain that higher statistic to get us more and more. This mirrors life; and even those who say you roleplay for that aspect will admit that in the end you end up finding a use for statistics or money you gain on the way!

Thus we have a foundation for the modern design. The most unique thing that one can do is challenge this in some way; which I hope to do! Otherwise this will continue to go on.

It kind of makes it a little gruesome to think of people gaining happiness from conflict. But it happens, and I think a deeper understanding is needed for people looking from the outside in on this sort of subject. That said there are still individuals who GAIN pleasure from real world conflict and want to make wars just for the sheer joy of it; unfourtantly that also proves the above subject correct also.

So how does one go about building a game through this subject? It helps by viewing the world as how many points one gains from a unit. Look at a game design such as Mage Knight where people can build their armies based on POINTS. The better units cost more points, thus they gain more happiness from using better units.