by Chris Billowsin Playstates Theory1 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 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 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: Playstates
In a previous blog post Playful Work & Serious Leisure I shared a matrix of Work-Leisure that outlined eight different states of being when it came to Work & Leisure. Being a theoretical person, I thought it would be enjoyable to combine that matrix with my concept of Playstates, particularly how it should be possible to find each of the five Playstates in the realm of Recreation. This would also further validate my Playstates theory, being able to find it in other concepts. Recreation is the socially sanctioned use of leisure time. It is those activities that society wants us to do when we are not working and tends to entail some kind of personal development or challenge. But as I do this thought experiment I saw that playful activities such as Puzzles, Playgrounds, and Games can be taken very seriously and can become high-stakes. Here is my Matrix with the emphasis being placed on Recreation. Recreation is a range of activities that combine Leisure and Seriousness. *Recreation* Leisure Fun | Serious —- + —- Playful | Grind Work Inspired It is conceptually easy to link up Seriousness […]
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 […]
by Chris Billowsin Playstates Theory, Republic of Bloggers0 commentstags: Change of Mind, Games Analysis, Playstates
An open letter to Chris Bateman responding to his blog-serial on Game Dissonance at Only A Game as part of the Republic of Bloggers. Feel welcome to provide your own input via the Comments. Dear Chris, First of all, thank you for your kind reference to me. It gives me joy to know that my enthusiasm for your work has helped you. Your work to me has been invaluable as it helped evolve my understand of philosophy and video games. We have been able to create a digital pen-pal relationship that honours the Republic of Bloggers. Thank you for doing what you do. Now onto my response. As you have consistently stated, stories exist in more than books and films and prove this by successfully operating a consultancy that offers narrative design showing how stories can be told via video games. These stories sometimes are not knitted well to game-play and your article explained how dissonance occurs in those situations. This made me think further on the ideas that I’ve been teasing through a few recent posts that video games do not need to be Art or Literature to be meaningful. Video games are their own medium and thus need […]
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