Gameplay — is the particular way in which players interact with a game and, in particular, with video games. Gameplay is a key aspect of any video game, representing the game process, the interaction of the player with the game, and the way in which the player interacts with the game world and its rules. Gameplay defines how the player participates in the game, solves problems, overcomes challenges, and interacts with the environment and characters. Gameplay — is a pattern defined by the rules of the game, the connection between the player and the game, the challenges and their overcoming, the storyline and the player's connection to it. The gameplay of a video game is distinct from its graphics and audio elements.
In card games, the equivalent term is "turn" or "play a card".
Overview
Gameplay of an early version of the puzzle game Edge.
Originating in the 1980s alongside the development of video games, the term «gameplay» was used exclusively in the context of video games, though its popularity has now begun to be applied to describe other, more traditional forms of play as well. As a rule, gameplay is considered the overall experience of playing a video game, excluding such factors as graphics and sound. Game mechanics, on the other hand, are the set of game rules intended to provide an enjoyable game process. Academic discussions tend to favor game mechanics over gameplay, since the latter is too vague. [13] This word is sometimes incorrectly applied to card games, where, however, the usual term is « play » and refers to how the cards are played in accordance with the rules (as opposed to other aspects such as dealing or betting).
Types
Gameplay consists of three components: «Manipulation rules», which define what the player can do in the game, «Goal rules», which define the objective of the game, and «Meta-rules», which define how the game can be configured or modified. In video games, the game process can be divided into several types. For example, cooperative gameplay involves two or more players playing on a team. Another example is Twitch gameplay, which is based on testing the player's reaction time and precision, possibly in rhythm games or first-person shooters. Below are listed the various types of gameplay.
- Asymmetric video game
- Cooperative video game
- Emergent gameplay
- Nonlinear gameplay
Ambiguity in the definition
The definition of the term «gameplay» can be quite ambiguous; as such, different authors have defined it in different ways.
For example:
- «A series of interesting choices». - Sid Meier
- «The structures of player interaction with the game system and with other players in the game».
- «One or more causally linked series of challenges in a simulated environment».
- «A good game — is one that you can win by doing unexpected things and making them work».
- «The gameplay experience — is the interaction with the game design in performing cognitive tasks, with a variety of emotions arising from or associated with various elements of motivation, task performance, and completion».
- «Gameplay is considered here as the interactive game process of the player with the game».
Playability
Playability — is the ease with which a game can be played, as well as the amount or duration of play, and it is an overall measure of the quality of the gameplay. Playability evaluation methods aim to improve game design while the players gain experience. The evaluation methods target the players in order to improve the game». This should not be confused with the ability to control characters (or play) in multi-character games such as role-playing games or fighting games, or factions in real-time strategy games.
Playability is defined as a set of properties describing the player's experience when using a particular game system, whose main goal — is to provide enjoyment and entertainment while being trustworthy and satisfying, whether the player plays alone or in the company of others. Playability is characterized by various attributes and properties that allow the player's impressions of a video game to be measured.
- Satisfaction: the degree of satisfaction or enjoyment the player gets from completing a video game or some aspect of it, such as a mechanism, graphics, user interface, story, etc. Satisfaction — is a highly subjective attribute that is difficult to measure due to the player's preferences and pleasures affecting the result. Satisfaction with specific game elements: characters, virtual world, challenges, etc.
- Learning: the ability to understand and control the game system and mechanics (goals, rules, ways of interacting with the video game, etc.). Board systems try to minimize learning effort, but gamers can use a learning curve in video games in accordance with the nature of the game. For example, on the one hand, games may require excellent initial abilities from gamers before playing, or rigorously train them in the first stages of the game to help players understand and master all the game rules and resources and use them from the very start. On the other hand, players may learn step by step under guidance when they need certain skills in the video game.
- Effectiveness: the time and resources required to offer players fun and entertainment while achieving various game goals and reaching the final objective. An effective video game can immediately capture the player's attention and encourage them to continue playing to the end. Effectiveness can be analyzed as the correct use of the task through the game, the correct structuring of goals, or the best adaptation of controls to actions in the game.
- Immersion: the ability to believe in the content of a video game and to integrate the player into the virtual game world. Immersion provokes the player to appear involved in the virtual world, to become part of it and interact with it, since the user perceives the virtual world presented by the video game with its laws and rules that characterize it. A video game has a good level of immersion when it has a balance between the challenges offered and the abilities the player needs to overcome them.
- Motivation: the characteristics that prompt the player to carry out specific actions and persist in them until their culmination. To achieve a high degree of motivation, the game must have resources that ensure the player's persistence in the actions performed to overcome game challenges. This means providing various factors to ensure a positive perception when interpreting the gameplay, holding the player's attention on the challenges offered, demonstrating the relevance of the goals to be achieved, and rewarding challenges in order to maintain the player's confidence and motivation. The player must feel satisfaction after receiving a reward or completing a task.
- Emotion: an involuntary impulse arising in response to a video game stimulus and evoking feelings or triggering automatic reactions and behavior. The use of emotions in video games helps to improve the gaming experience and brings players into various emotional states: happiness, fear, intrigue, curiosity, sadness... using game challenges, story, aesthetics, appearance, or musical compositions capable of affecting the player.
- Socialization: the degree of game attributes, elements, and resources that contribute to the social factor of the gaming experience in a group. This kind of experience encourages a different appreciation of a video game thanks to the relationships established with other players or with other game characters that help the player solve game challenges in a collaborative, competitive, or cooperative way. The socialization of a game allows players to gain a completely different gaming experience when they play with other people and to develop new social relationships through their interaction. In addition to this, socialization is also manifested in how the players' social ties are projected with the group onto the video game characters and the context in which the game is realized. For example, the player's choice to connect or share something, interact, obtain information, ask for help, or negotiate over certain items, as well as how positive or negative our influence on another character is for achieving game goals. To promote the social factor, it is desirable to develop new shared challenges that will help players integrate and be satisfied with the new rules and goals of the game, creating a set of collective emotions in which players (or characters) encourage and motivate themselves to overcome collective challenges.
Aspects of playability
The analysis of playability — is a very complex process due to the different points of view for analyzing various parts of a video game's architecture. Each aspect allows us to identify various attributes and properties of playability that are influenced by various elements of the video game architecture. The aspects of playability:
- Intrinsic playability: playability based on the nature of the video game and how the player displays it. This is strongly related to gameplay and game mechanics. In this aspect we can analyze the implementation of the video game design, especially the video game rules, goals, challenges, rhythm, and other design mechanics.
- Mechanical playability: the quality of the video game as a software system. It is related to the game engine, focusing in particular, for example, on the smoothness of movie scenes, correct lighting, shadows and rendering, sound and music, graphical movements, the implementation of the character's personality, and the communication systems in a multiplayer video game.
- Interactive playability: the player's interaction and the development of the video game's user interface, for example, the interaction dialog and game controls. This playability is easy to see in the game interface.
- Artistic playability: the quality of the graphics and aesthetics of the video game in the game elements: visual graphics, sound effects, music and melodies, storyline and narrative, and how these elements are shown in the video game.
- Intrapersonal playability or personal playability: the individual vision, perception, and feelings that a video game evokes in each player when they play it. It has a highly subjective value.
- Interpersonal playability or social playability: the group consciousness and the different perception of the user when the player plays with other players in competitive, cooperative, or collaborative mode.
Finally, the «global» playability of a video game will be determined based on each attribute value across the various aspects of playability. It is extremely important to improve the game's playability in the various aspects in order to guarantee the best gaming experience when the player plays the video game.
See also
- Game development and game design
- Game mechanics
- Interactive design
- Game (activity)
- Timing systems in games
- Video game genres
See also
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