Games for training, research and consulting
Signature games
  • Home
  • Training & education
    • TeamUp HCD, Shanghai, august 2014 (English)
  • Research & consulting
  • Keynotes & workshops
  • Blog & publications
    • Publications
  • About
    • Past performance
    • Contact
  • China chapter

Principles of play

What does it mean ‘to play’ and why is it that 'playing' can generate utility for the real world, through things like education, training, research?

We have recently started to define the principles of play, that can explain it. We distinguish them into: 1. constituting principles, 2. principles sine - qua non; 3. principles of effect.

In this blog, I will regularly list and discuss them.

principles of play

Principle 2 Game as complex system

8/14/2014

0 Comments

 

A game is the simplest playable representation of complexity

FotoGomoku - simple, complex game
Complexity is not the same as 'complicated'. The best entertainment and serious games are essentially very simple. Adding more elements to a game does not necessarily make it more engaging. With more information, actions and rules, a serious game is not necessarily better for learning or decision-making. As in art and writing, 'less' can be 'more'. Dennis Meadows called it 'learning to be simple'. Some of his games, like Harvest or the Hoop, demonstrate persuasively that complex behavior can be experienced with just a few players, trivial objects and rules. Of course, there can be many reasons why a serious game needs a larger number of game-elements and rules. Players often want to see in the game the many variables from their professional life. However, when complex behavior turns into complicated behavior, the point of the matter gets lost.

0 Comments

Principle 1 Game as complex system

8/14/2014

0 Comments

 

A game is a complex system that derives its distinct features, like challenge and surprise, from emergence. 

FotoDutch windmills in SimCity
Games capture the player because they are full of surprises ! We do X in the game and something 'unexpected' happens. It would be very difficult, even impossible, to predict this behavior in advance even if we would know all the elements in the game. This is called emergence {1 + 1 > 2}. Since Aristotle, emergence is the distinguishing feature of complexity. Take the example of SimCity - it is impossible for two players to create exactly the same city, even if the players take the same decisions. The smallest difference in the decisions of the two players - one being a fraction of a second later, a millimeter further to the right  - may be the cause of a completely different city after hours of game-play. This is the Butterfly effect (Chaos theory) one of the branches of complex systems. Understanding and managing complexity is key to all grand challenges in modern society - climate change, migration, international relations, financial stability, virus control, terrorism, cyber security and so on. They are full of emergent behavior, which makes them difficult to understand, let alone to communicate about them and find the effective strategies to manage them. Because games themselves are complex systems, the aforementioned grand challenges can be modeled, explored as games, and management strategies can be tested within the game environment.

0 Comments

War games on the loose

6/27/2014

0 Comments

 
The june edition of the Magazine Nationale Veiligheid features an article that I have written about the war games played at the NSS, the Hague. Download the article in Dutch. or read the translation in English below.

Read More
0 Comments

    Author

    Follow my passionate stories about games for impact

    Archives

    August 2014
    June 2014

    Categories

    All
    In The News
    Principles Of Play

    RSS Feed

2014 Signature Games