Game Decisions

The reading this week 'Decision - making and Flow Theory' covered decision making and flow theory in games, it is the interactivity between players and systems that sets games apart from most other traditional media. "Decisions are the core of what a game is", when giving feedback on someones game you have to pay attention to what the decisions are in the game for the player, what effects these decisions create and why they're there. You're more likely to be a better game designer if you can properly understand the effectiveness of the different decisions in a game. Without decisions you don't have a game, they are the main essence of the game itself. The only exceptions are the rare gambling games as the core of these games is to win money, without the thrill of getting lucky and winning money the game becomes extremely unappealing. There are a number of games that despite having a number of decisions to make they can still be rather boring e.g battleship, so how do you make sure that you're games decisions are compelling to a player?

Things to avoid when creating your decisions in your game:

1. Meaningless decisions - Decisions that have no purpose and don't contribute to the experience of the game.
2. Obvious decisions - Decisions where the choice that the player should make is extremely clear, there is no challenge at all, defeats the purpose of the decision existing.
3. Blind decisions - Decisions where the player doesn't really know what the decisions are or what effect they'll have on the games. Players end up having to make random choices defeating the purpose of the decision.

Things that make a good decision:

1. Resource trades - give up an asset you have for a different asset. Both are valuable. Player must make a judgement on which asset they think is more beneficial to they're game experience.
2. Risk Vs Rewards - One of the choices is safe, the other choice gives a reward if successfully completed but has a much higher risk of failure than the first choice.
3. Choice of actions - There is a number of choices the player can make but they can only make the decision to complete one of these actions, player must determine which choice is most beneficial to them.
4. Short term Vs Long term - Player can have something right now or something even better later on it's up to them if they want to wait or not.
5. Dilemmas - Player has to give up one of there assets, they have to determine what they can play without.
6. Social information - Players can choose between player honestly or dishonestly for example playing dishonestly may get you want you want at the time but could have later consequences.

Decision making factors

As a player learning a new skill by completing a challenge or making the right decision is extremely rewarding and leaves a player in a flow state.

"Flow states are an intensely pleasurable state for the brain to be in" a large part of the fun that players experience playing a game comes from being in a flow state. A psychologist called Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi talks about a flow state and describes it as being in a state of extreme focus of attention where you tune out of everything except the task your concentrating on. You become highly productive and your brain gives you a shot of neurochemicals thatbis pleasurable. Being in a Flow state gives you a natural high. He also identified 3 requirements for a flow state to exist:

1. Creating challenging activity that requires skill.
2. The activity has to provide clear goals and feedback.
3. The outcome is uncertain but can be influenced by your actions.

Additional Readings:
http://www.lostgarden.com/