I have no words and I must design - my notes and my thoughts on a quote.

Here are my notes after reading Greg Costikyan's "I have no words & I must design". After all my notes are my thoughts on the quote "An interactive structure of endogenous meaning that requires players to struggle toward a goal."

A game is an interactive structure of endogenous meaning that requires players to struggle towards goals

gameplay - possibly overused, what even is it? > bad term = good gameplay (expand upon it)

"game" is a very broad term - described as "plastic medium" by Costikyan

refers to Chris Crawford's "The art of Computer Game Design" - contrasts games with puzzles. puzzles = static, present player with logic structure to solve. games change with player's actions.

almost every game has a degree of puzzle-solving, although not as literal.

puzzle = static. game = interactive. interactive doesn't just mean computer video game. interacting with cards or pieces on a board game.

interactive game is redundant - interactive.

can interact with a light. for interaction to = game, must have a purpose or force decisions.

most games have goals. as players allow the objective to guide our behaviour in the game. some games do not have explicit goals. e.g. SimCity (Will Wright a designer) - sandbox game - no victory conditions.

SimEarth, also designed by Wright, complete contrast to SimCity. limited play - game ends once intelligent life has evolved. game crashed on the market in comparison to SimCity.

Wright describes SimCity as a software toy. compares to a ball. it offers many behaviours - bounce it, twirl it, throw it, dribble it. usable in game of football, basketball, etc. the game isn't the toy, the game is what the player makes it.

In a way, SimCity isn't a game. it is like a toy that lets the player play what/how they want to.

Character improvement is fundamental to both RPGs (roleplaying game) and MUDs (Multi User Dungeon).

Although there is no goal within these types of games, as a player/group we set out to find a goal ourselves, or have the gamesmaster create a goal for the players.

games are goal-directed interaction - although goals alone are not enough

competition creates struggle. the opposition is the struggle. best way to create struggle is head-to-head versus a determined human opponent, e.g. in a game like chess. 

competition isn't the only way to create struggle. protagonist has goal: faces obstacle a, b, c, and d. struggles at each turn, growing after each obstacle. completing obstacles gives satisfaction. obstacles don't have to be enemies.

dungeons and dragons you cooperate with other players in your group. mutually supporting each others goals. opponent isn't in the form of other players. struggle in D&D is monsters, NPCS, and the world itself set out by the dungeon master.

Grim Fandango - graphic adventure - essentially animated stories held apart by puzzles. The game isn't entirely linear. Solving a puzzle transit to next space in game, encountering new puzzles. Why not get rid of puzzles and turn it into a story game? Because you lose the struggle - it's no longer a game.

Struggle is a tough concept - if there's too much, a player will find it frustrating. If it's too easy, it will be dull. Where feasible, allow adjustment of struggle.

A game without struggle is a dead game.

Games are to kill time. If a game is over quickly, it isn't much fun.

Game requires players to struggle interactively toward a goal.

"Games are structures of of desire" Eric Zimmerman. Games have goals, players mutually agree to behave as if goal is important to them when they play.

Not much distinction between childhood "let's pretend" and a commercial paper RPG. Main difference being that children playgames have minimal structure. However structure is invented as and when it's needed, e.g. having to tag someone to attack them.

"Let's pretend" has minimal structure, can become confusing. Confusing structure is deadly to a game.

Small change in structure breeds a big change in player behaviour

A good game provides considerable freedom for the player to experiment with alternate strategies and approaches.

Ultima Online allows players to engage in player-killing. Garriott didn't want players to kill each other, he allows his games to have a moral subtext and allow players to take certain moral paths.

A good game will not dictate an outcome, but guide behaviour through the need to achieve a single goal.

A game's structure creates its own meanings. Meaning grows out of structure, caused by structure, endogenous to the structure.

Monopoly money is useless outside of the game itself. Has meaning endogenous to the game of Monopoly. It is vitally important to its players.

Is stock market a game? It's interactive, has structure, has a struggle, has a goal - but isn't endogenous. Shares in companies would still have meaning if the stock market evaporated.

An interactive structure of endogenous meaning that requires players to struggle toward a goal.

Entertainment is a side effect of many things, but not always the purpose. The purpose of games is to entertain.

Creating a compelling game - provide goal, create endogenous meanings, establish a structure, make sure you make the player struggle.

Categories of pleasure: sensation, fantasy, narrative, challenge, fellowship, discovery, expression, masochism.

Sensation
Good visuals, tactile pleasure, muscle pleasure (e.g. dance dance revolution)

Fantasy
It's important to be able to lose yourself in a game. Losing yourself is fun.

Narrative
Not all games will be improved by adding narrative, but games should support a sense of drama. Good narrative = sense of rising tension, leading to a climax. Games, too, though with a sense of accomplishment after the climax.

Challenge
Equivalent to struggle mentioned earlier. Heart of any game. A game has a struggle.

Fellowship
= Community in online gaming. Creates points of contact with other people and reason to feel friendly towards them.

Discovery
Exploring a brand new world, revealing new information. Exciting appeals of many games.

Expression
RPGs, MUDs, MMORPGs are best to self-express. Choice of name, personality, appearance, attributes, etc.

Masochism
Pleasure to be gained from submitting yourself to structure of a game. We don't care about whether or not we get monopoly money, but when we play, we agree to act like we do. An important transition to make when playing a game, especially to have fun.

WHAT MAKES IT A GAME?
This entire section is worth reading again and again.

Games unlike other artform - not passively received - means you aren't spoon fed the entertainment. you work for it.

An interactive structure of endogenous meaning that requires players to struggle toward a goal.
I completely agree with this quote. I've never really looked at games in such a broken down manner and this quote really hits the nail on the head, for me. 

"An interactive structure"
Games are structured environments in which we interact with either other players, pieces on the board, cards, characters in the game.

"Endogenous meaning"
It's really interesting to think that a game can be described as having no meaning outside of itself. I don't think that's the case, at least not all the time. It's very easy for people to become attached to their in-game characters. For example, some people play a lot of Dungeons & Dragons, weekly, for hours at a time, and it's very easy for those people to practically live the character. Although, again, it kind of is endogenous because albeit they might play the game a lot, once they stop playing the game they return to their normal life. I don't know where I sit on this but it's hard to disagree with him.

"requires players to struggle towards a goal"
The most important part of a game. Almost every game will have a goal, although not always predetermined by the game itself. In RPGs it's often the case that the goal is set both by the dungeon masters and by the players themselves, and it's that which I find interesting - we create our own goals when playing if we aren't set any. The goals ("rules") are required to have fun.

All in all I really like this quote from Costikyan. It breaks down what a game really means almost perfectly.