The idea of scaling or increasing difficulty as a player gets better – either over the course of a game or adaptively based on a player’s level – seems obvious. We know from the now popular concept of flow (and common sense) that boredom occurs when someone’s skill exceeds the challenge, frustration occurs when challenge… Read more »
Archive for Advanced
Replay Value in Emergent Moments and Uses of Score
Aug 31, 2011For Ian Bogost‘s seminar, Philosophy of Sport, I’m reading and discussing an academic or historical book about sports each week. Our first reading, Hans Ulrich Gumbrecht’s In Praise of Athletic Beauty, semi-indirectly got me thinking about my behavior and enjoyment when playing team capture the flag videogames (WarHawk PS3, Team Fortress, Unreal Tournament 2k4). I… Read more »
Pinball and Rules: Rough Divisions of Real-Time Gameplay
Aug 11, 2011It almost sounds a bit silly at first to suggest that there are specific “moves” and techniques to practice for playing pinball – after all, pinball is just two flipper buttons and a steel ball, right? It’s not as though we need to learn to throw a Hadouken, perform a spinning pile driver, or pull… Read more »