by Chris Billowsin Playstates Theory0 commentstags: Game Philosophy, Games Analysis, Playstates
I keep coming up with different interpretations of my play theory to analyze game design and development. It has evolved from GameStories to Playstates to Play Motifs to Video Game Elements. My Mechanics post on my Heropath blog inspired me to think further about what it takes to develop a player. So I’ve created the Axiom of Player Development, which is based on The Axiom of Maria, a precept in alchemy. I love the concept of alchemy being related to player development since what occurs is almost magical given the passion that players commit to learning to play video games. The Axiom of Maria is: “One becomes two, two becomes three, and out of the third comes the one as the fourth.” The fundamental concept is that by using alchemy, it is possible to transform elements into new states, which are different aspects of the original element. I see the process of player development being the same thing. Following that format I would write: THE AXIOM OF PLAYER DEVELOPMENT The player encounters the video game(The One)The video game reveals symmetrical and asymmetrical mechanics(The Two)These mechanics challenge and develop the player’s skills(The Three)The player’s skills span across breadth discovery and depth […]
by Chris Billowsin Business Beller, Playstates Theory0 commentstags: Business Development, Change of Mind, Games Analysis, Personal Resolve
Since I’ve gotten over my scarcity hurdle, I’ve found an increase in creativity for me. This new energy has lead me to refocus on new core interests by closing down projects and renaming others. Below is my announcement of changes: Billows Enterprise – My root website that acts as a starting point for my business offerings. Used to be called Promaginy (08/2004 to 12/2016) and then Billows Cyber Holdings (2017 to 2019). The recent name change reflects a shift to include coaching and consulting as an offering in the future. Billows Cyber Enterprises – My business offerings of web apps and web sites that will replace Cybersidline.com. Also to be closed down will be Fandomnaut.com and EpicStartPage as I refocus to take aspects of those sites for a new web app. Those web sites never worked as well as I wanted and its time to mothball them and move on. Chris Billows Video Games – It slowly dawned on me that that doing things I am passionate about even a little each day gives me increased energy and this applies to my game development offering. I also decided to not get ahead of myself by trying to create a studio. […]
by Chris Billowsin Playstates Theory0 commentstags: Game Philosophy, Games Analysis, Playstates
Play Motifs (used to be Playstates) has been a series of blog posts attempting to map play and video games but it never touched on the whole cycle of game development, release, and player adoption. So I have created a new concept called Play Accords to capture this. Play Accords got its genesis through two earlier blogs I wrote: Layered Dissonance and Immersion Accords. Those two blogs teased out some ideas that were interesting and as I thought about, could be combined to create a model that captured the game dev cycle. The Play Accords consists of five steps as follows: Inspiration – These are the genres, Play Motifs, mechanics, and more that capture the imagination of developers. Developers – These are the people who a drawn to respond to what inspires them. They take that inspiration and engineer it to fit into a brand new video game. This new video game in turn attracts players. Players – These are the people who play the developer’s video game. They are diverse and include fans, fandoms, critics, scholars, and theorists. Players represent the critical ingredient to the video game reaching its most complete state for when a video game is put in […]
by Chris Billowsin Playstates Theory0 commentstags: Games Analysis
Video Games have been around since 1962 and I got thinking about the myriad ways they’ve been delivered to players. The list below is a comprehensive collection based on my research and is shared as a repository that others may find interesting. There are three broad categories of delivery: location, format, and style. — Delivery via location (physical to digital): University Labs Coin up / Arcades Retail / Consumer purchase (computers and consoles) BBS / Dial-in Service Shareware/Freeware mail-order Online / Digital download — Delivery Format (physical to digital): Server repository (computers) Cabinet (arcade) Printed code that you input (computers) Cartridge (consoles) Diskettes/CD/DVD (consoles, computers) Digital download (consoles, computers, smart-phones) — Delivery Style (continuation & content): Session-limited Save games Save codes Save points Persistence / MMO Demo/Full version Episodic Downloaded Content In-App Purchase
by Chris Billowsin Playstates Theory1 commentstags: Game Philosophy, Games Analysis, Playstates
I am re-calibrating my definitions as I evolve in my understanding of Play and Video Games. I am introducing the definition of Play Motifs as a replacement for the Playstates term. For the past four plus years I’ve worked on elaborating on my Playstates theory and as it evolved out of Gamestories I have found the need to evolve out of Playstates. Because it is really a continuation and renaming, I am carrying on the Version Numbering to Version 3.0 from previous Versions 2.0 and 1.0. I was originally going to produce a number of free guides called Playstates and analyze the different aspects of making a video game. My plan is still do that but do it in a new project that I plan to launch next year. I will be writing down my thoughts in a diary-themed analysis that will look at Video Game graphics, animation, music, and alchemy (the changeable nature of video games). It was during this rethinking that I realized that Playstates is too narrow when it comes to discussing video games. So Playstates will be redefined to be all aspects about video game development while the five specific Playstates that I’ve identified will now […]
by Chris Billowsin Playstates Theory0 commentstags: Blog Response, Game History, Games Analysis, Playstates
I posted a response to The Digital Antiquarian blog post: Ludic Narrative née Storygame These kind of thought experiments can be allot of fun. Humans love to categorize things and there are a few of us that obsess over them (sheepishly raises own hand). I’ve spend the past few years working on a theory that points to a layer of play that cuts across genres, themes, and motifs. It is called Playstates and sees there being five distinct motifs of play found in Video Games and in all other aspects of play. They are more like an chemical compound than like a border. Some products will have more toy-play and some will have more narrative-play and some will have game/sports-play. We see these eventually congeal into the popular genres that have captured our imagination. We would see RPGs being x parts game-play, x parts playground-play, x parts narrative-play, and so on while IFs would be mostly narrative-play, puzzle-play, and some parts playground-play. One thing that old Adventure and IF video games used allot of is puzzle-play. The puzzles were there to delay the narrative reveals. This became frustrating for many who wanted to see the story mostly or wanted to […]
Recent Comments