游戏设计艺术：理解与构建

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《计算机游戏设计的艺术》是克里斯·克劳福德于1982年撰写的一部经典作品，作者作为一位资深的游戏设计师，旨在深入探讨游戏的本质、人们玩游戏的原因以及计算机游戏的独特类别。本书共分为八章，对游戏的定义、游戏与叙事的关系、计算机游戏的分类、游戏技术在游戏中的应用、游戏设计流程、设计技巧与理念、计算机游戏的未来趋势以及以《Excalibur》为例的游戏开发过程进行了详尽阐述。第一章"什么是游戏？"开启讨论，强调了游戏在人类生活中的普遍存在，指出游戏概念已经渗透到我们日常语言中，超越了传统意义上的娱乐活动。书中指出理解游戏面临的主要挑战包括游戏概念的广泛适用性和如何明确界定游戏的边界。第二章"为什么人们玩游戏？"探讨了游戏背后的动机，可能涉及情感满足、社交互动、认知刺激和自我表达等层面。通过对人类行为的深入剖析，揭示了游戏如何满足个体的心理需求。第三章"计算机游戏的分类"为读者提供了关于不同类型计算机游戏的概述，包括策略游戏、角色扮演游戏、动作冒险游戏等，帮助读者理解不同游戏类型的特征和设计要素。第四章"计算机作为游戏技术"着重分析了计算机如何成为游戏设计的重要工具，包括图形处理、人工智能、网络技术等方面的技术进步如何塑造了现代游戏体验。第五章"游戏设计序列"介绍了游戏设计的基本步骤，包括构思、原型制作、测试和迭代，强调了设计过程中的创新和用户中心设计原则。第六章"设计技巧和理念"深入探讨游戏设计的各种方法和技术，涵盖了游戏平衡、叙事结构、用户体验等核心主题。第七章"计算机游戏的未来"预测了游戏行业的演变趋势，包括虚拟现实、增强现实、云游戏等新兴技术对游戏设计的影响。第八章"《Excalibur》的开发过程"以一个实际项目为例，展示了游戏设计师如何将理论知识应用到实践中，通过这个案例研究，读者可以更好地理解游戏开发的实际运作。书的末尾部分包含"Reflections"采访，以及与克里斯·克劳福德的其他访谈和作品推荐，供读者进一步了解他的观点和最新动态。这本书不仅是游戏设计领域的入门指南，也是一部对于游戏艺术和理论深度探讨的重要著作。

Why Do People Play Games ?

Chapter Two

Fantasy/Exploration

Proving Oneself

Social Lubrication

Exercise

Need for Acknowledgement

Summary

MOTIVATION VERSUS SELECTION

Game Play

Sensory Gratification

INDIVIDUAL TASTES

ame-playing requires two components: a game and a player. The game designer works to produce a

game, and so her immediate preoccupation is with the game itself. Yet, her final goal is to educate,

entertain, or edify the game-player; hence, the human player is the proper primary concern of the game

designer. Why do people play games? What motivates them? What makes games fun? The answers to

these questions are crucial to good game design.

One way to address the question of the purpose of games is to inquire into their

history. Games now are too varied, too intricate, too involved, to indicate a single

clear function. Perhaps their fundamental nature would be more evident in their

earliest incarnations. How far back must we go? To MONOPOLY, created during

the Depression? No, card games were played long before that. Indeed, the

discoverers of King Tutankhamen’s tomb found among the wealth there a wooden

surface with regular divisions that appears to be some sort of boardgame. But even

archaeology does not take us far enough back. If we wish to get back to the beginnings of games, we

must go beyond the realm of the archaeologist and into the realm of the paleontologist. We must reach

not thousands but millions of years into the past to find the earliest games, for games predate not just

history but all of mankind. They are not a human invention.

Fortunately, direct recourse to paleontology is unnecessary. A trip to the zoo will suffice. There we find

two lion cubs wrestling near their mother. They growl and claw at each other. They bite and kick. One

cub wanders off and notices a butterfly. It crouches in the grass, creeps ever so slowly toward its insect

prey, then raises its haunches, wiggles them, and pounces. We laugh at the comedy; we say that the

cubs are playing a game, that they are having fun, and that they are such fun-loving, carefree creatures.

We are right on the first count: these cubs do indeed appear to be playing a kind of game. We can

certainly see in their behavior all four of the fundamental game attributes described in Chapter 1:

representation, interaction, conflict, and safety. We may be right on the second count; who knows if

lions can have fun? But we are dead wrong on the last count. These cubs are not carefree. They do not

indulge in games to while away the years of their cubhood. These games are deadly serious business.

They are studying the skills of hunting, the skills of survival. They are learning how to approach their

prey without being seen, how to pounce, and how to grapple with and dispatch prey without being

injured. They are learning by doing, but in a safe way. Better to make mistakes with butterfly and

sibling than with the horns of the wildebeest.

Games are thus the most ancient and time-honored vehicle for education. They are the original

educational technology, the natural one, having received the seal of approval of natural selection. We

don’t see mother lions lecturing cubs at the chalkboard; we don’t see senior lions writing their memoirs

for posterity. In light of this, the question, "Can games have educational value?" becomes absurd. It is

not games but schools that are the newfangled notion, the untested fad, the violator of tradition. Game-

playing is a vital educational function for any creature capable of learning.

The incidence of game-playing in animals is itself instructive. Game-playing has been observed only in

mammals and birds. The phylogenetically earlier orders (fish, insects, amphibians, and reptiles) have

not been shown to engage in game-playing. (See Animal Play Behavior, by Robert Fagen, Oxford

University Press.) Game play seems to be associated with that quality which we have clumsily

attempted to measure with brain size, intelligence, and ability to learn. This correspondence cannot be

attributed to accident; clearly game play is an important component in the development of many

creatures.

We commonly associate the playing of games with children. Indeed, "play" as an activity is considered

to be the almost exclusive preserve of children, and the term is applied to adults either disparagingly or

jocularly. Children are expected to play games because we recognize (perhaps unconsciously) the

fundamental utility of games as an educational tool. As children grow up, cultural pressures change and

they are encouraged to devote less time to the playing of games so that they can devote themselves to

more serious activities.

I claim that the fundamental motivation for all game-playing is to learn. This is the original motivation

for game-playing, and surely retains much of its importance. This claim does not conflict with my other

primary assertion that computer games constitute a new art form. Consider, for example, humans and

food. The fundamental motivation to eat food is the base desire for nourishment, yet this has not

prevented us from embellishing this fundamental activity with all manner of elaborate and non-

nourishing customs, rituals, seasonings, and garnishes. I do not mean to imply that food is an art form;

only that we humans can take an activity far beyond its prime cause without denying that prime cause.

I must qualify my claim that the fundamental motivation for all game-play is to learn. First, the

educational motivation may not be conscious. Indeed, it may well take the form of a vague predilection

to play games. The fact that this motivation may be unconscious does not lessen its import; indeed, the

fact would lend credence to the assertion that learning is a truly fundamental motivation.

Second, there are many other motivations to play games that have little to do with learning, and in

some cases these secondary motivations may assume greater local importance than the ancestral

motivation to learn. These other motivations include: fantasy/exploration, nose-thumbing, proving

oneself, social lubrication, exercise, and need for acknowledgment. I shall examine each in turn.

Top

Fantasy/Exploration

A very important motivation to play games is fantasy fulfillment. Like a movie, a book, or music, a

game can transport the player away from the tawdry world that oppresses him and create a fantasy

world in which he can forget his problems. Games are potentially superior to the traditional means of

escape (movies, books, music) because they are participatory. Instead of merely watching a movie,

reading a book, or listening to music, the player is actively involved in the game. Indeed, the player

drives the game, controls it in a way that is quite impossible with the passive fantasies. This need to

escape, to fantasize is certainly an important motivation.

Fantasy fulfillment frequently takes the form of symbolic exploration. There’s a big world out there,

full of exciting things, people, and places, yet most of us are confined to a world ,of asphalt, plastic,

and paper. Many art forms attempt to transport the audience into a different world, to present

experiences or feelings not often known in the everyday world.

Consider, for example, the success of Disneyland. This place is undoubtedly the most successful of its

genre. Such parks are often called "amusement parks" or "theme parks." These terms are misleading,

for the success of Disneyland cannot be attributed solely to its amusements and diversions. These

elements are technically excellent, but other amusement parks sport technically excellent rides. The

success of Disneyland can be summed up in one word: fantasy. Disneyland creates and supports an

aura of fantasy, a context of make-believe that permeates all of the activities within the park. Within

moments of entering the park, the visitor feels that s/he is in a different world. Fanatic attention to

detail in signposts, walls, windows, even railings has created an environment that encourages

suspension of disbelief.

Fantasy is an important component of human play. It is critical to our recreation, our art and our games.

Nose-Thumbing

A common function of games is to provide a means of overcoming social restrictions, at least in

fantasy. Many games place the player in a role that would not be socially acceptable in real life, such as

a pirate or a thief. An excellent (albeit extreme) example of this is the game CRUSH, CRUMBLE,

AND CHOMP by Automated Simulations. In this game the player is cast as a 1950’s-vintage monster

going on a rampage through his favorite city. He stomps on police cars, crushes buildings, swats

helicopters, and creates general mayhem. The box art shows a monster about to attack an IRS building

as terrified citizens flee. This represents an extreme case of anti-social behavior made acceptable by the

safety of the game.

Sometimes the player’s role is itself socially acceptable, but the actions taken are discouraged in real

life. MONOPOLY encourages players to engage in what the Federal Trade Commission delicately calls

"predatory trade practices." Wargames encourage players to start and win wars. Some games address

sexual matters, allowing players to indulge in make-believe behavior that they could never exhibit in

the real world.

The most telling example of this nose-thumbing phenomenon lies in the arcade games. These games

emphasize violence, and lots of it. The theme is almost universal in arcades: destroy somebody. The

coup de grace is not delivered discreetly or elegantly. On the contrary, the victim is dispatched with the

most colorful animated explosion possible. Like a Sam Peckinpah movie, the violence is the whole

point and purpose of the enterprise. Yet, even as we pander to these distasteful emotions, we delicately

mask them in less offensive garb. We never, never obliterate human beings; instead, we vaporize ugly

space monsters. The monsters have perpetrated some odious interstellar crime, so the player is cast as

the defender, the protector, or the avenger. The case is often presented that the game represents a time

of extreme crisis ("THE FATE OF HUMANITY IS AT STAKE!!!"). This heightens the player’s sense

of urgency; it also conveniently justifies the use of extreme violence, thereby allowing the player to

have violence without guilt. The player can thumb his nose at social strictures and engage in violence

and mass murder without risking censure. The game provides a safe way to thumb one’s nose.

Top

Proving Oneself

Another function of games is as a means of demonstrating prowess. All games support this motivation

to a greater or lesser degree. Many game-playing communities sponsor tournaments or player ratings.

Arcade games support this function by recording and displaying the initials of the top-scoring players.

There are also players who carry this to extremes. Their prime goal is not merely to win, but to beat

somebody, preferably somebody worth beating. Chess has an unusually high concentration of such

sharks; so do wargames. A common question asked during a wargame is "Are you playing for blood or

for fun?" Such players normally prefer games that allow their skill to be properly brought to bear, so

they tend towards games in which chance plays a minimal role.

Despite this concentration of such players in deductive logic games, almost all games have sharks

preying on the playful players. When a shark plays for serious rewards (e.g., social dominance) and

-takes serious risks of failure, the crucial element of safety is eliminated from the game, and the game

ceases to be a game; it becomes a conflict.

Inasmuch as all games have the potential for being played in an overly competitive way, some people

who are especially sensitive to the social risks of game-as-conflict refuse to play games, for they do not

perceive the games to be safe. If they do play, they prefer to play games of pure chance, not so much to

disable or discourage the shark as to create a situation in which winning is patently unrelated to

prowess. If winning is arbitrary, social risk is eliminated and safety is restored.

It is impossible to design a game that is unalterably safe (i.e., invulnerable to sharks) without resorting

to pure chance as the sole determinant of victory. If the game in any way allows individual prowess to

affect the outcome, then the outcome is perceivable as a reflection of individual prowess. In most

games, safety from social risk is conferred onto the game by the attitudes of the players, the willingness

to say, "It’s only a game."

Top

Social Lubrication

Games are frequently used (especially by adults) as social lubricants. The game itself is of minor

importance to the players; its real significance is its function as a focus around which an evening of

socializing will be built. Card games and some light board games serve this function. An excellent

example of such a social lubricant game is a game utilizing a large plastic gameboard about four feet

square that is marked with colored spots. On each player’s turn, a random process is used to determine

which of four appendages (arms or legs) is to be placed on which spot on the board. As the players

contort to fulfill the game requirements, they inevitably make physical contact with each other in

innocent and foolishly humorous ways. Social interaction is thereby fostered.

Top

Exercise

Exercise is another common motivation to play games. The exercise can be mental or physical or some

combination of both; in either event, the game is an entertaining way to stay in shape. Some players

like to exercise their cognitive skills, while others prefer the use of intuition. Some players prefer to

exercise their athletic skills. Furthermore, players need to exercise their skills at an appropriate level. A

chess player will get very little exercise out of a game of tic-tac-toe. Similarly, a person who finds tic-

tac-toe challenging will get little useful exercise out of chess. These preferences sort players out and

route them to the different games available.

Top

Need for Acknowledgment

We all need to be acknowledged, to be recognized by other people. The acknowledgment we crave is

not merely an acknowledgment of our existence, but of our personalities. For example, when we meet a

casual acquaintance, we usually get a perfunctory acknowledgment ("Hello there, Jones.") We are more

gratified when the greeting in some way acknowledges us as individuals with special personalities and

problems ("Hello there, Jones; is that knee still bothering you?")

The popularity of pets provide another example of the need for acknowledgment. Why on earth do we

keep in our homes animals that require food, veterinary attention, and sanitary maintenance? Because

they acknowledge us. We can interact with pets; we talk to them, play with them, and emote with them.

A dog is an especially responsive creature; it can read our facial expressions and interpret our tone of

voice. A smile will trigger tall-wagging; a kind word will precipitate jumping, licking, barking, or some

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