Ignite Portland 9: 5,000 Games of Solitaire

5000 Games of Solitaire

The Casual Gaming Revolution, Narrative, and Pleasure.

How Many?!

Pleasant Diversions

A Game of Patience, Meredith Frampton, 1937. http://www.artrenewal.org

“Solitaire is the only thing in life that demands absolute honesty.”

-Hugh Wheeler

Wasted Time?

“…playing a game is the voluntary attempt to overcome unnecessary obstacles.”

-Bernard Suits, The Grasshopper: Games, Life and Utopia

Step One: Delimit

= × (∞)

But What About Narrative?

“These fictions, however weak, thematically unify a level.” -Chaim Gingold, “What WarioWare Can Teach Us about Game Design,”

http://gamestudies.org vol. 5 no. 1

Heroic Narratives FTW

Step Two: Personalize

We Crave Stories

“The lightest dusting of narrative will cause adults to devote countless hours to ‘unworthy’ causes.”

-J-P Voillequé, Ignite Portland 9

Story Matters

I hate puzzles like this. I am bad at puzzles like this. Will I solve this puzzle to move forward? Yes. Yes I will.

Click Here to Win

Corian Slabb: • 170 Double Fanucci Cards • Level 50 (maxed) • 1.7M Zorkmids • 68 Coconuts (~$20 US) • Zero Skill Required

"In some ways, if a developer wants a player to gain an emotional attachment to something in their game, a location is a much safer bet than an NPC."

-Quintin Smith, “Azeroth is Burning”

Image  from  h+p://farmvillefreak.com/  

Step Three: Socialize

Safe Interactions

“More than one-third of the comments described how social game play enabled them to reconnect with [folks] while the remaining third focus on how social games enable them to [meet new folks].”

-Information Solutions Group “2010 PopCap Social Gaming Research”

Farmville Otaku

“Beyond the social interaction, social game players like the friendly competition including leader boards and achievements (59%), followed by the interactive game play (49%) and the opportunity to win prizes (35%).”

-Information Solutions Group “2010 PopCap Social Gaming Research”

The New Business Plan

1. ??? 2. Achievements and Badges

3. Profit

We are All of us Gamers

Hey guys, I owe you money. Call me!

“Casual” “Hardcore” Rock Band

Next Levels

1.  Multiplayer – historical/new “board games” 2.  Interface/mobility as central mechanic of play 3.  Collaborative modeling – Sims-esque 4.  Indie development within “casual” channels

Press Play to Continue

As always, comments, critiques and conversations welcome:

@lawduck jvoilleque@gmail.com http://voilleque.com