Tools For Creating Dramatic Game Dynamics

This weeks reading focuses on the idea of creating a dramatic game and how a designer will go about this. The main question and focus when reading this article involve the actual mechanics that are used and how they work.

This article mentions Mechanics, Dynamics and Aesthetics. These terms have already been covered in the previous reading which was focused on these tools and what they are used for. The article uses this framework and poses three questions:

How does drama function as an aesthetic of play?
What kinds of game dynamics can evoke drama?
From what kinds of mechanics do these dynamics emerge?

The article begins by focusing upon the aesthetics and, as stated before in the article, begins to work backwards from the aesthetics. This means that the writer, LeBlanc, decides that the aesthetics are the first part of games design. In relation to the aesthetics, LeBlanc, mentions creating an aesthetic model in order to give proportion to how the drama is going to be made in the game. Below is an example of this aesthetic model.


http://www.education.com/study-help/article/plot-conflict-resolution/

The idea behind the above diagram is that the drama will rise along with the Rising Action and then peak at the climax, before subsiding during the Falling Action. The idea behind the dramatic tension is that it is impossible to gauge how much tension there will be. The diagram shows where the general idea for tension will be located and so the game can be designed accordingly.

LeBlanc continues by displaying the importance of dramatic arcs and how they can influence the attention of an audience, giving them a moment that will capture their attention and be more remembered than other parts of the product.
LeBlanc mentions that there are two factors for dramatic tension:
Uncertainty: or the idea that the outcome is unknown
Inevitability: The idea that the outcome is being approached and will happen regardless of what is done.

LeBlanc discusses that these two points must work together in order to fashion the tension of a game because they co-exist and improve the aesthetic experience of the player.

Next, LeBlanc begins to discuss the dynamic aspect of creating tension and drama. He discusses how uncertainty and inevitability are independent of one another and are brought on by game dynamics. He begins discussing uncertainty, and how in a game the designer has the choice of using force or illusion to create uncertainty. Force is the idea that the designer manipulates the game state to always be close, or prevent the game from becoming inevitable. Illusion is to change the way that players perceive the game state so that the game appears closer than it is. These two methods have pure techniques and also techniques that mix the two together. LeBlanc continues to discuss methods of showing uncertainty and these include: Feedback, escalation, fog of war, hidden energy and many more.
The article relates uncertainty to feedback systems through the use of positive and negative feedback. Positive feedback is the idea of dispelling the uncertainty by moving the game forward. Negative feedback is a type of feedback that attempts to keep the game as close as possible, helping to re-create a balance.
Escalation is the idea that the score of the game will increase as the game goes on at faster speeds.
Hidden energy is the idea that each players have a set amount of hidden resources in the game, which allows each player to be uncertain about what the other players have.
Fog of war is a tool that gives the players a limited field of vision. This hides the other players and information in the game state, adding to the uncertainty of what is found in the game.


He continues to discuss the sources of inevitability and relates inevitability to asking the question 'when will it end' and relates it to a ticking clock. This analogy is made through the idea that as time runs out the urgency of the player will increase as they aim to get more done. This analogy of time can be adjusted depending on the game, such as information in Clue, or game space in SSX.  Creating inevitability in a game is to simply create the idea that the game will end soon, and the players are aware of this.

The above goes over the idea of using uncertainty and inevitability as a part of the MDA framework in order to create dramatic tension in games. The balance that is required from the two different types of methods is important because otherwise it can rob the players of their reasons to continue playing the game and cause them to become bored. As to my belief on the above, i believe that it is a good follow on from the MDA reading that I have previously done and will help me to better form my ability at creating games in the future.