Games Decisions

I read the article on "Social Design Practices for Human-Scale Online Games" by Daniel Cook. I found it fascinating to find out that having a high player base for a game isn't necessarily a good thing as the development cost goes up drastically. I was always under the illusion that the more people you had playing a game would mean the more money you would make but it seems like you have to use that money you're making to invest in the game so it is playable for everyone.

I also found it interesting how important it is to have the so called "friendship ingredients" in a game which is made up Proximity, Similarity, Reciprocity and Disclosure. I realised by not having these ingredients that you will seriously be decreasing the opportunity for people to make friends within your game. This will more than likely lead to a unsuccessful game as no one will want to play it as they won't be able to connect with other players and make new friends.

I also found it educational to know that it's not always best to jump straight into making a big world when trying to make a massive multiplayer online type game. I would definitely fall into the trap of imagining a big world and then try and figure out how to fill it. This has sometimes left me stuck in a rut in order areas of design as well so it was good to be made aware that this isn't the best way to approach a task like that. I will know for future to work on a smaller scale and build up rather than going straight into big scale approach.

I also read an article called "How to Prototype a Game in Under 7 Days" by Raph Koster. I found a quote from the article very inspiring. The quote said "Embrace the possibility of failure as it encourages creative risk taking". I sometimes find myself becoming intimated by the possibility of failure and occasionally don't embrace it. I feel when I don't embrace it, I often lose interest and give up on the project. I do forget that facing and embracing that failure can encourage creative risk taking which in turn can lead to some great new features or elements that may not have been discovered if the failure wasn't embraced in the first place. I am going to try embrace failure in the future because this reading has made me conscious of the benefits of doing so.

"Making new friends while gaming"
Created by: THQ Insider
Source: creativecommons.org
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