On the readings

Finally got some time to write down some thoughts for the readings.

I enjoyed reading the interview of Will Wright a lot and his philosophy for game design really inspired me. It also explains why the feeling I pay The Sims is so different from playing other games - it's more than play a game, it's about explore and discover the rules and mechanisms behind. This mental model building process makes the game so real. The games popular today on facebook lack this kind of element to attract me, I always get bored after playing with these games with less than a week. The rules are so simple and there's nothing to explore. But I still play with some of these games, sending and receiving virtual object with my friends. I think they are more of a social activity rather than a real game, at least for me.

Besides I think the mental model building process also explains why for some movies has sequel, people always feel that the first movie is the best. I guess it's because when a person view the first movie, he is building a mental model of each character and the background of the story in his mind, and this process makes him deeply involved in the story. When viewing the sequels after, people already familiar with the characters and the story setting, maybe even the certain description manner the director took, so there's no such a process for discovering every aspects of the world described in the movie.

And also, the concept of creating a game with a very large solution space for players to discover their own path might be a good solution to "create the dramatically compelling game" since it can fit different kinds of person, depending on the combination of choices that each one made in the game.