Game Culture 9: Emergent Play & Control

Today's topic looks at rules in and around games. In Rules of play by Salen and Zimmerman, rules has been divided into three categories that we will use when discussing today's topic:

1. Constitutive rules are the core rules (logical, mathematical rules) of a game.
2. Operative rules are the rules a player should know in order to play
3. Implicit rules are the unwritten rules made by players such as social rules about how one should behave when playing a game.

Steinkuehler
There are formal rules and social rules, and in order to understand a game, you must understand both layers of rules. Steinkuehler uses the term mangle of play to cover how a lot of different actors contributes to both the operative and social rules of a game. These actors are not restricted to the players and the designers, but also includes broader social issues and other issues such as the materiality, access etc. of a game. The different actors are pushing their own agenda, making the rules of the game a construction and production of the actors' intentions. These actors interactively stabilize a game, by player-policing  and creation of rules and events that stabilizes the game.
The interesting question in this context is when does manglability start? Is it when a game is multiplayer, unbalanced or...?

Case Study
Three videos were shown depicting players taking advantage of faults and glitches in different games. I find it particularly interesting that players actually took their time to find these glitches, either by accident or by trying again and again. I find it even more interesting that these players continue to exploit the glitches to bend the rules of the game, and thus change the game experience.

But emergent play is not just about players exploiting that a line of code has not been executed correctly. I remember when I started playing the first Sims game that players would invest hours in setting up a scene, take pictures with the picture tool and publish their pictures as little graphic novels online. This practice continued in Sims 2 with the video tool. Along the way, competitions were made where players tried to make compelling stories and music videos. And then, as EA apparently saw the huge alternative output of their games, the Sims 2 expansion “Seasons” were marketed by EA by reenacting popular music videos made in Sims 2.

Sims 2 version of Lilly Allens "Smile" music video

So why do players do this? Are they bored with the game as it is? Do they feel confined within the game and strive towards a more freeform game experience? It seems that as soon a game developer provide its players with a tool that lets them create or enact some sort of creativity and to publish this within the player community, some players will pour their souls into creating detailed masterpieces.

Maybe in the end it all comes down to why we play games. And this is not an easy question to answer, as the answer varies from one player to another. Richard Bartle looked into four approaches to playing MUDs, which also divided MUD players into four categories: achievers, explorers, socialisers and killers. Even though the paper is old, going as far back as to 1990, we might look at these types to find an explanation to emergent play.

Achievers

”Players give themselves game-related goals, and vigorously set out to achieve them”.

Some players set a goal, and achieves it no matter what. The achiever mindset is clearly seen in the hours players use to get the positioning of props and their player characters just right, before they rocket launch themselves onto a truck/into space/in a weird position etc.

Explorers

“Players try to find out as much as they can about the virtual world. Although initially this means mapping its topology (ie. exploring the MUD's breadth), later it advances to experimentation with its physics (ie. exploring the MUD's depth).”

The experimental nature of the explorers is spot on when it comes to finding the glitches of a game, whether they stumble upon them by accident or actively searches for them online through other gamers. On a personal note, I relate quite a bit to the explorer type, and must admit that I always try the "no clipping" cheat, if available, when playing a game. Finding hidden rooms and things that players never should've seen, is a goal in itself.


Today's readings

• Steinkuehler, “The Mangle of Play”
• Jakobsson, “Playing with the Rules”
• Chen, “Communication, Coordination, and Camaraderie in World of Warcraft”
• Montola, “The Invisible Rules of Role-Playing”