What is a Game?

A game, in general terminology, is as broad a spectrum as it gets. According to the dictionary, a game is "Something played for fun". This sparks a new conflict. What is fun? What is not fun? And, in the interest of selling games, "How can I make this game more fun?"

The word "fun" is even more ephemeral than "game". "A time or feeling of enjoyment or amusement" doesn't narrow down, in game mechanics, what does and does not make a game fun.

So let's break a game down into its parts. In this way, we can see what aspects of a game get in the way of the "fun" and what aspects enhance it.

Purposes

This is the first element of a game, and perhaps the only one that is actually understood. In a game, the purpose is usually what is described when someone asks what the game is about. "Collect all the red gems" or "Stop the bad guy". Usually fairly clean cut, the purpose is what gives the player guidance and drive.

In more complex games, there can be multiple purposes. Take an MMO. Usually, the purposes are along the lines of "complete the requirements of the quests I have." This dovetails into a broader purpose of "level up". Once you reach the end of the game, that purpose gives way to another, usually "get powerful gear".

In any decent game, the purpose is given in plain English right out in front. A game where the purpose is confused or obscured usually fails to grab the player's attention and he wanders before the game is played very much.

Barriers

Barriers are the next element that forms a game. When one thinks of barriers, the first thing that comes to mind are walls, or other terrain elements that impede or direct movement. This is an extremely limited summation of a barrier, and leads to barriers being poorly used in a game.

A barrier is simply anything that impedes a direct progression to the purpose.

In game terms, this expands beyond simply walls. Enemies are barriers. Ammunition limitations are barriers. Time is a barrier. Literally ANYTHING that makes the player have to perform an action in order to progress is considered a barrier. Anything that leads to failure in a game is also a barrier. Failure could be as simple as not hitting a headshot, or as final as dying and having to load a saved game.

Barriers are just as important as purposes. A game with too few barriers is boring. Why? It's too easy. There's no challenge, no sense of accomplishment. The purpose is cheapened by the ease of the progression. Imagine an MMO where you kill a few rats and you hit max level, then an NPC walks up and dumps a chest at your feet with all the best gear. Where's the game? Even if the MMO has the most epic story ever written,there is no game. People want to play a game, not read a novel or watch a movie.

On the other hand, barriers can be too hard. Not enough of a resource to progress. Boss fights that go on forever. Sudden death traps. Bugs also fall under the category of barriers, as they prevent the usual progression. Bugs, of course, would be qualified as a bad barrier. Enemies that clip through walls or don't take damage, weapons that don't function, graphical glitches, and worst of all, game crashes.

This leads naturally to the last element of a game.

Freedoms

What is a freedom? Anything that the player can do is a freedom. Movement, being able to climb a ladder or hang from a ledge. Weapons and combat are freedoms, as is any information. Data, in a game, is a freedom, as the lack of it presents a barrier.

Freedoms allow progression toward the purpose. In an RPG, having equipment slots is a freedom as it then lets youdosomething. Having armor slots lets you equip that new helmet, being able to pick up that flaming sword lets you kill the ice monster.

As with any freedom, people dislike it being taken away. Invisible walls impede logical movement. Weapons that don't perform predictably, or any other freedom that doesn't operate as usual, reduce the "fun" in a game. This, of course, doesn't take into account paradigm shifts that alter the gameplay world significantly. Being in space naturally changes movement, a horror game might throw in a level where you don't have any ammo, etc. But these barriers usually come with their own freedoms, and vice versa.

Putting it together

Any game, therefore, is composed of purposes, barriers and freedoms. There are many variations, but those basic definitions are what makes something into a game. A lack of one of these elements, or too much barriers or freedoms, turns a game into a chore.

To give an example, let's take a specific game, Rift. I played during the early betas, so things have been smoothed out considerably since, but this rough stage of the game gives an excellent example of what happens when these elements aren't in balance.

You start out and the game world is presented to you. The text is too small to read easily (barrier) but gives you some data (freedom) about the world. The intro quests build up to presenting the purpose, which gives the player a sense of drive, making the beginning zone flow quickly.

The combat is simple, clicking skill buttons, of which you can only have 8 active at once (barrier, you have to pick and choose your active skills. Also a freedom, the ability to customize your loadout.) The graphics are visually appealing, the environment acts the way you'd expect it to. So far, so good. The freedoms act as expected, the barriers aren't too difficult or unexpected.

You finish the intro zone and get warped to the main world. And this is where the game falls apart. There is no purpose. Oh yes, there are people who want you to go kill 10 of ___ or collect a dozen ___, but that's not a real, driving purpose. You're supposed to "save the world." How does slaughtering a few dozen hapless mobs for the nebulous peace of mind of a random NPC progress toward the end goal? It doesn't.

Then there are the rifts. Gameplay-wise, they're a failure. Conceptually, promising, but in practice, what do they bring to the table? Barriers that don't impede a purpose. Later on in the game, the rifts give loot as a reward, and then provide the barrier to the purpose of gearing up, but early on they literally do nothing. Worse than nothing, in fact.

After you progress a bit, the rifts stop being swarmed by players and they have a chance to spread out and drop monsters onto the playing field. So you're level 15, grinding through your pointless NPC quests, and a posse of half a dozen level 30 ELITES show up and thrash you so hard you don't even know what hit you. One minute you're walking along, the next second you're dead with impossibly large damage numbers scrolling up over your head. There's ZERO hope of you defeating even one of these guys, let alone the eight currently desecrating your corpse. Well that was fun, you laugh, I'll just respawn and avoid them. So you respawn, deal with whatever piddling death penalty, then hike back over to continue grinding out your weak and flawed purpose. But now the quest zone is crawling with these level 30 elites, making it virtually impossible to progress on your purpose.

Talk about a BARRIER. This one was so iron-clad and impenetrable that it almost killed the game dead. You had to finish the quests so you could level enough to progress to the next zone, but your questing ground wasswarmingwith insurmountable barriers. And it wasn't like you could call together a few of your buddies and deal with the rift, letting you continue with your questing. The rift itself had 30 to 40 elites in it. And until you killed the rift boss, it would continue sending out overpowered elites to contaminate your questing zone. You couldn't even call together theentire populationof the zone to deal with the rift.

Eventually a few max level guys rode in and swatted the rift like a gnat and moved on.

Well, there was some purpose presented there, get overpowered like those guys and save the noobs. But the purpose was never presented to the playerin the game. Oh, sure, every MMO has the purpose of leveling up, but nobody told me "Look son, you haven't a prayer of handling these rifts. Just eek out what meager experience you can until you come of age." I'd be happy with that. A challenge! Bring it! But no, the only purpose presented to me was "My garden is overrun with mutated vegetation. Help!"

So I finished that set of quests and moved on, only to be stopped dead in my tracks yet again by a different set of rift mobs roaming the countryside in search of tender noobs.

And then I stopped playing. Too many barriers! No purpose! The game was notfun. I was notenjoyingdying repeatedly doing a quest two levels below me. And worst of all, it made me feel like the game didn't want me playing it.

So Rift during the beta was a good example of a barrier getting out of control and what happens when a game lacks purpose.

These three subjects are the building blocks of any game. Later, I'll go further into what makes a game fun and what makes it grind on your nerves.

For more insightful thoughts on game development, tune in later or visit my website.