What is a game? Jesper Juul in The Game, the Player, the World: Looking for a Heart of Gamesness identifies six characteristics that that games have – what he calls ‘gamesness’: Choose three games and see if they fit into these characteristics. Try and find at least one game that doesn’t fit the criteria.  

  Temple  Run     Mario  Kart   Theme  Hospital  1. It must have rules   In  the  game  you  must  direct  the  man  

as  he  runs  along  the  path.  As  he  comes  across  different  obstacles  he  must  either  duck,  jump  or  turn  depending  on  what  comes  at  you.  If  you  struggle  to  do  this  you  will  either  hit  the  obstacle  or  fall  off  the  path  and  therefore  die.    

In  the  career  in  Mario  Cart  you  have  to  make  your  way  through  all  the  levels  trying  to  become  in  the  top  3  in  order  to  move  on  to  the  next  level.  Whist  doing  this  you  unlock  different  characters  and  cars  in  order  to  make  the  game  enjoyable.  

In  theme  hospital  the  rules  are  that  you  have  to  build  and  hospital  that  your  characters  than  be  treated  in.  You  cannot  build  anything  else  as  you  are  not  given  the  recourses.  In  other  aspects  of  the  game  you  can  borrow  money  from  the  bank  but  the  rules  are  that  you  must  play  it  back  otherwise  they  will  start  repossessing  your  hospital.    Other  than  that  there  are  no  definitive  rules  because  as  the  player  you’re  free  to  create  a  good  a  hospital,  as  you  like.      

2. There are variable and quantifiable outcomes  

The  variable  outcome  in  temple  run  is  the  obstacles  that  come  at  your  and  the  speed  that  the  man  runs  as  the  games  goes  on.  The  quantifiable  outcomes  are  the  coins,  which  you  can  collect  on  the  path  as  your  man  run,  another  quantifiable  outcome  is  the  distance  that  you  travel.  

The  variable  outcome  in  Mario  Kart,  is  the  different  tracks  and  that  they  get  harder,  longer  and  more  complicated  as  the  game  progresses  and  the  player  becomes  better.  The  quantifiable  outcomes  of  Mario  Kart  is  the  place  that  you  come  at  the  end  of  the  race  out  of  12.      

The  variable  outcome  would  be  the  design  and  look  of  your  hospital  at  the  end  and  throughout  the  game  play.  The  Quantifiable  outcome  in  Theme  Hospital  would  be  the  amount  of  money  that  the  hospital  makes  and  what  you  have  in  the  bank  and  the  size  of  the  hospital  when  you  finish  building.  

3. There will be positive/negative values assigned to the outcomes  

If  you  can’t  keep  up  and  end  up  running  into  obstacles  you  will  die  or  be  caught  by  the  mummy’s  chasing  after  you.    When  you  die  you  have  to  go  back  to  the  start  of  the  game.  

When  you  complete  the  all  the  tracks  for  all  the  cups  you  win  a  new  cup  and  new  tracks.  This  keeps  the  game  interesting  because  you  don’t  have  to  keep  repeating  the  same  levels  and  tracks.  If  you  don’t  complete  them  you  have  to  keep  redoing  the  same  tracks  and  this  would  become  boring  and  tiresome.  

If  you  do  not  keep  up  with  the  needs  of  your  patients  they  will  leave  and  find  another  hospital  and  then  you  will  loose  money  and  in  time  your  hospital  will  seize  to  exist.    However  if  you  keep  it  is  great  condition  you  will  get  loads  of  patients  and  lots  of  money  to  keep  expanding  and  getting  nicer.  

4. The desired outcome requires effort  

The  outcome  of  Temple  Run  is  to  collect  as  many  coins  as  possible  and  get  further  along  the  track  so  that  it  begins  to  get  faster  and  therefore  harder.  Once  you  have  a  large  collection  of  coins  you  are  able  to  buy  different  characters  for  the  game  or  boosts  such  as  head  starts  or  boosts  like  running  faster.    

The  outcome  of  Mario  kart  is  to  unlock  and  place  1st  in  every  level  and  world  and  in  all  hardness  that  you  can  set  the  game  too.    Another  desire  is  to  unlock  all  of  the  characters  that  there  are  to  play  and  perhaps  complete  every  level  in  first  place  whilst  being  every  character.    

The  desired  outcome  would  be  to  have  a  very  large  hospital  with  lots  of  happy  staff  working  there.  You  would  have  no  debt  with  the  bank  and  be  able  to  keep  the  hospital  looking  clean  and  classy.  

5. Player has an emotional attachment to the outcome  

When  you  play  the  game  you  get  more  into  it  and  don’t  want  to  loose  because  of  the  process  that  you  have  made  and  if  you  do  lose  you  have  to  start  at  the  beginning.  

When  you  play  this  game  it  makes  you  want  to  unlock  every  track  and  character.  You  always  will  want  to  come  first  and  beat  all  of  the  other  players.    

When  you  play  this  game  you  gain  a  attachment  to  the  hospital  and  its  staff  because  them  depend  on  you  as  the  player  to  play  them.  If  you  no  longer  control  them  and  just  see  what  happens  then  the  game  is  destroyed.    

6. Negotiable consequences for real life  

That  if  you  lose  badly  you  may  have  to  start  from  the  beginning  but  you  keep  some  of  the  rewards  such  as  in  this  game  it’s  the  coins  and  the  score  that  you  have  collected  in  the  game.  

If  you  start  to  loose  and  not  place  in  the  top  3  your  experience  in  the  game  will  decline  because  you  will  become  tiresome  and  frustrated.  

If  you  come  to  a  brick  wall  when  your  hospital  becomes  to  large  for  you  to  control  every  building  and  aspect  this  can  be  frustrating  as  you  want  to  be  able  to  carry  on  the  game  but  you  cannot.