It has been posited that “Binary Winstates” sounds far better than “Boolean Winstates.” I agree with this. However, editing a video is hard. So whenever the word “boolean” comes up, just think “binary” instead. K?
I think this is why so many free-roaming “sandbox” type games feel the need to have some sort of tacked on, overarching goal. A lot of players might pick up something like Skyrim already knowing what they want to do or how they want to play, but by adding in the main quest they can hope to bring in some more of the “blank slate” demographic who feel absolutely no motivation or investment. If they keep saying “You have to save the world!” then they might be able to keep players saying “Meh, okay.” long enough that they find something fun.
It seems like these "overarching goal" add-ons are also meant to lead the player on a tour of the well-designed interaction systems available in the game world. If a player can't think of anything to do in games without a goal, It points to a failure of imagination on the player's part.
To me, it feels that categorizing both Skyrim’s main quest and getting money in The Sims as implicit (or informal) makes the category a little too broad. I suggest using both the distinction of explicit/implicit and formal/informal:
Beating a level in Super Mear Boy: Formal and explicit
Beating the main questline in Skyrim: Informal and explicit
Gaining money in The Sims: Informal and implicit
Where formal refers to “winning the game” while explicit refers to the win state set apart or above the informal win states somehow.
What then woula formal implicit win state be? I don’t know. Does it even exist?
Sure, formal implicit win states (in your terms) are fairly common. Any time the game has a definitive "win" condition, but doesn't tell the players about it. For example, the first Mario Brothers (at least the first level). There's no flashing arrow, there's no description of what you're supposed to do. It's all implicit, and yet quite formal (get to the right of the flagpole).
Campster
6 Comments
HBOrrgg
Sep 9, 2012
I think this is why so many free-roaming “sandbox” type games feel the need to have some sort of tacked on, overarching goal. A lot of players might pick up something like Skyrim already knowing what they want to do or how they want to play, but by adding in the main quest they can hope to bring in some more of the “blank slate” demographic who feel absolutely no motivation or investment. If they keep saying “You have to save the world!” then they might be able to keep players saying “Meh, okay.” long enough that they find something fun.
Paul Spooner
Oct 10, 2012
It seems like these "overarching goal" add-ons are also meant to lead the player on a tour of the well-designed interaction systems available in the game world. If a player can't think of anything to do in games without a goal, It points to a failure of imagination on the player's part.
Hugh O’Brien
Sep 9, 2012
Bouncing left on DTTHW never occurred to me.
Zukhramm
Sep 9, 2012
To me, it feels that categorizing both Skyrim’s main quest and getting money in The Sims as implicit (or informal) makes the category a little too broad. I suggest using both the distinction of explicit/implicit and formal/informal:
Beating a level in Super Mear Boy: Formal and explicit
Beating the main questline in Skyrim: Informal and explicit
Gaining money in The Sims: Informal and implicit
Where formal refers to “winning the game” while explicit refers to the win state set apart or above the informal win states somehow.
What then woula formal implicit win state be? I don’t know. Does it even exist?
Paul Spooner
Oct 10, 2012
Sure, formal implicit win states (in your terms) are fairly common. Any time the game has a definitive "win" condition, but doesn't tell the players about it. For example, the first Mario Brothers (at least the first level). There's no flashing arrow, there's no description of what you're supposed to do. It's all implicit, and yet quite formal (get to the right of the flagpole).
BeAuMaN
Nov 11, 2012
Suppose I’ll toss this out here (Been a while since I’ve come back to the site, due to infrequent content, so I may have missed something):
Are Achievements then the formalization of the “Implicit Win States”?
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