'When referring to toys, the term play value could be the likeliness that a toy will be
played with by the user. Play value could also be used to describe a measure of the
benefit of the play. Play value could also refer to the amount, variety or length of play.
For the purpose of this paper, we will say that a toy has play value if it affords play (i.e. it
affords activities that are enjoyable, captivating, intrinsically motivated and process
focused).
While a designer may believe that their toy concept has play value, the user is the one
that ultimately makes this decision. A toy is in the mind of the user, but a toy product is
in the mind of a designer. Ideally, the toy product is similar in the mind of the user and
the designer. This is not to say that toy products should only be used in the intended
manner, but rather, the designer should have a sense of what the user desires so to create
appropriate play affordances.
Brian Sutton-Smith writes “it is dangerous to pretend we know what a child will do
with a toy just from its characteristics alone; children have a way of doing things with
toys over and beyond the apparent character of the toy (1986, p.38)”. It is true that
children (and adults) can find play value in things that are not toy products (what we call
transformed toys) and children and adults will play with toys in ways that are not
expected or intended. However, when designing a toy product, the designer should ensure
that it affords at least one type of play, thus suggesting play value. A classification, such
as the play pyramid, can be used to determine if a toy product affords play.*
I want to come up with a spider plot to describe the play of a toy concept.
Spider plots would require assigning a quantity to the play value, which might be more difficult to determine than a binary present/not present.
It would be interesting to see the difference between the designer’s intended play affordances and what affordances are
actually perceived by the intended user.
QUANTITY TO THE PLAY VALUE
the difference between the designer's intended play affordances and what affordances are actually perceived by the intended user.
*Barry M. Kudrowitz and David R. Wallace about the Play Piramid
Posts tonen met het label Play. Alle posts tonen
Posts tonen met het label Play. Alle posts tonen
donderdag 1 maart 2012
woensdag 29 februari 2012
Imagination
Imagination: the ability to remember, dream, create, improvise and in the process entertain oneself anywhere and anytime.
Do we really need digital media to entertain a child, to trigger his imagination? When I look at children watching television, they're glancing at the screen, when you ask them something, they mostly don't answer, because they are too attracted to the screen. They are in a passive state, which doesn't trigger imagination, it's just following something (that can be very fantastical, but it doesn't trigger the child's own fantasy).
When you read a book to a child, the child can fantasize about the story, the story and the way it is read is imaging. There is no visual art that tells it all and if there are illustrations, these illustrations have a certain style that is loose and give children a certain handle for their imagination. The most important difference between books and films, is that children are in an active state during the reading of a book, they can use their imagination.
"A child can express his real self in imagination because the imagination is unmediated by anybody else's expectations or demands," says Alan Flashman MD, a child psychiatrist. "It's not imposed on him. It comes from within his inner life. Imagination is important because it integrates a child's feelings and dreams and actions. It's a place where a child can experiment and feel control and power. But we should respect the integrity and freedom of the experience rather than trying to quantify it as a utilitarian activity (what is the profit/utility of their activity)."
Beth Falk, PhD, explains: "Kids can become overwhelmed by their emotions but by using their imaginations, they can master their feelings. If a child is afraid of a monster, he can make up a story about hunting down the monster and scaring it and turning it into something else. He's found a way to transform it." (Kids are good problem solvers!)
Problem:
One way today's parents deny their children the opportunity to use their imaginations is by over-scheduling enrichment activities, lessons and tutors, and allowing a steady diet of TV. A return to some of the simpler activities of our own childhoods can pave the way to more imaginative freedom.
Reading stories is a wonderful way for a parent to imagine along with his kid because parents and children can respond to what they've just read. Spending unstructured time in nature can also evoke an imaginative response.
If you become involved in your child's imaginative play, be sure to let her take the lead. "One of the nice things about engaging with a child in fantasy play is that the child gets a chance to initiate, instead of following the parent's lead. But the parent has to be aware of the kid's borders. If the kid wants to share his fantasy, fine. But the parent shouldn't force an interaction," Flashman says.
"It can also be a lot of fun. Just last night, as I was driving home, my 13-year-old son informed me that the moths flying at our windshield were having a demonstration. We decided that they were demonstrating for more woolen clothes to eat. Our imaginative fantasy continued for the whole ride. We had a great time and sharing the fantasy made us feel closer."
Next time you see your child lost in a daydream or in an imaginative game of crashing cars, sit down next to him. You might just rediscover the lost part of yourself, the authentic self who engages with the world without premeditation or pretense and disguise. The self who dwells in fantasy without thought of utility or service. The free and authentic self who is content just to be.
This is actually why I like to design for children.
Children have no limits, they have imagination.
Children can be entertained and allowed to creatively express themselves with minimal expense. A few pieces of paper and crayons, a hand-made puppet, books (which can be purchased at yard sales or thrift shops), and a few animals can be enough for an entire afternoon of exploration. The benefits of imagination last long into adulthood, helping to develop creative and emotionally expressive individuals. Taking time to play is always an enriching experience.
What is imagination?
How can you trigger imagination?
Do I really want to design something digital?
http://www.wholefamily.com/grandparent-center/imagination-at-risk/nurturing-imagination
http://abby-deliz.suite101.com/the-top-toys-that-develop-imagination-a70357
http://www.etsy.com/shop/Imaginationkids <-lovely toys!
Do we really need digital media to entertain a child, to trigger his imagination? When I look at children watching television, they're glancing at the screen, when you ask them something, they mostly don't answer, because they are too attracted to the screen. They are in a passive state, which doesn't trigger imagination, it's just following something (that can be very fantastical, but it doesn't trigger the child's own fantasy).
When you read a book to a child, the child can fantasize about the story, the story and the way it is read is imaging. There is no visual art that tells it all and if there are illustrations, these illustrations have a certain style that is loose and give children a certain handle for their imagination. The most important difference between books and films, is that children are in an active state during the reading of a book, they can use their imagination.
"A child can express his real self in imagination because the imagination is unmediated by anybody else's expectations or demands," says Alan Flashman MD, a child psychiatrist. "It's not imposed on him. It comes from within his inner life. Imagination is important because it integrates a child's feelings and dreams and actions. It's a place where a child can experiment and feel control and power. But we should respect the integrity and freedom of the experience rather than trying to quantify it as a utilitarian activity (what is the profit/utility of their activity)."
Beth Falk, PhD, explains: "Kids can become overwhelmed by their emotions but by using their imaginations, they can master their feelings. If a child is afraid of a monster, he can make up a story about hunting down the monster and scaring it and turning it into something else. He's found a way to transform it." (Kids are good problem solvers!)
Problem:
One way today's parents deny their children the opportunity to use their imaginations is by over-scheduling enrichment activities, lessons and tutors, and allowing a steady diet of TV. A return to some of the simpler activities of our own childhoods can pave the way to more imaginative freedom.
Reading stories is a wonderful way for a parent to imagine along with his kid because parents and children can respond to what they've just read. Spending unstructured time in nature can also evoke an imaginative response.
If you become involved in your child's imaginative play, be sure to let her take the lead. "One of the nice things about engaging with a child in fantasy play is that the child gets a chance to initiate, instead of following the parent's lead. But the parent has to be aware of the kid's borders. If the kid wants to share his fantasy, fine. But the parent shouldn't force an interaction," Flashman says.
"It can also be a lot of fun. Just last night, as I was driving home, my 13-year-old son informed me that the moths flying at our windshield were having a demonstration. We decided that they were demonstrating for more woolen clothes to eat. Our imaginative fantasy continued for the whole ride. We had a great time and sharing the fantasy made us feel closer."
Next time you see your child lost in a daydream or in an imaginative game of crashing cars, sit down next to him. You might just rediscover the lost part of yourself, the authentic self who engages with the world without premeditation or pretense and disguise. The self who dwells in fantasy without thought of utility or service. The free and authentic self who is content just to be.
This is actually why I like to design for children.
Children have no limits, they have imagination.
Children can be entertained and allowed to creatively express themselves with minimal expense. A few pieces of paper and crayons, a hand-made puppet, books (which can be purchased at yard sales or thrift shops), and a few animals can be enough for an entire afternoon of exploration. The benefits of imagination last long into adulthood, helping to develop creative and emotionally expressive individuals. Taking time to play is always an enriching experience.
What is imagination?
How can you trigger imagination?
Do I really want to design something digital?
http://www.wholefamily.com/grandparent-center/imagination-at-risk/nurturing-imagination
http://abby-deliz.suite101.com/the-top-toys-that-develop-imagination-a70357
http://www.etsy.com/shop/Imaginationkids <-lovely toys!
dinsdag 28 februari 2012
The Wall
I realized I needed more focus. This blog is not easy enough to get a clear view of all my thoughts and gained knowledge. So I decided to use my wall as an analogue blog. I've put a lot of pictures that inspire me on this wall, but also examples of interactive books and games and other media. I use post-its and paint to quickly explain elements that I find interesting or important.
Today I added inspirational pictures that tell about children's imagination. Which is my inpiration to do this project. I want to focus more on this aspect. Till now I was researching interactive books and thinking about how to design one. And I got stuck. Today I realized that I should do it the other way around. I want to design something for children that triggers their imagination. I will still be designing an Interactive Children's Book, but I will look at it from a play design view. Which is funny, because I'm saying this all along, but it is only since today that I realized what it actually meant!
woensdag 15 februari 2012
More about play and flow
I read the thesis Jenova Chen wrote about Flow in games. Some interesting points and my opinion:
Elements of Flow
According to Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi's research the phenomenology of Flow has eight major components.
1. A challenge activity that requires skills
2. The merging of action and awareness
3. Clear goals
4. Direct feedback
5. Concentration on the task at hand
6. The sense of control
7. The loss of self-consciousness
8. The transformation of time
Not all of these components are needed for flow to be experienced. [Csikszentmihalyi 1990]
Once we have digested the above components and revisited them with a game design perspective, here are the three core elements a video game must have in order to evoke Flow experience.
1. As a premise, the game is intrinsically rewarding, and the player is up to play the game.
2. The game offers right amount of challenges to match with the player’s ability, which allows him/her to delve deeply into the game.
3. The player needs to feel a sense of personal control over the game activity.
For play design this might be:
1. As a premise, the toy has a playful interaction that is both invite as reward the player, and the player is up to play with the toy.
2. Challenge play: The toy offers a right amount of challenge to match with the player’s ability, which allows him/her to delve deeply into the game.
3. Sensory play: The toy offers a right amount of sensory triggers which react directly on the player.
4. Construction play: The toy offers a right amount of movement.
5. Fantasy play: The toy offers the right amount of iconisation, realism and abstraction to create a good tension between fantasy and reality.
6. The player needs to feel a sense of personal control over the play activity.
As a result, the game will make player lose track of time and self-consciousness.
To make a game that different people can enjoy, the game itself must retain these four elements, especially to adjust the challenge based on each player’s ability.
Dynamic Difficulty Adjustment
Dynamic Difficulty Adjustment, also known as DDA, is a fairly straightforward and ideal concept in the game design field. The difficulty of a game should change dynamically based on its player’s skill and performance.
Flow in games is really based on creating a certain difficulty that creates the right tension between Ability and Challenge.
In play challenge doesn't always need to be there. You can only base challenge play on this information. Sensory, Fantasy and Constructionplay don't have challenge in their play. But there is a sort of challenge, which you can find in the play itself. You challenge yourself to play with your senses, or to create something or to use your imagination. So the challenge is not in the play, but in bringing and keeping yourself in a certain state of mind. So when you want to create flow when you are claying, for instance, the challenge is in finding an interesting interaction with the clay you like to entertain yourself with and playing with the possibilities. Once you've found the right balance between using your abilities as a clayer and challenging yourself to do a certain interaction, you'll get in a flow.
For fantasyplay it's about finding the right balance between reality and fantasy, using your abilities to fantasize and challenge to use more or less reality in your own world or story.
Design Flow in Games
Video games as a media can be reviewed as two essential components:
Game Content - The soul of a video game; a specific experience the game is designed to convey
Game System - The body of a video game; an interactive software that communicates Game Content to the players through visuals, audio and interactions
Expand the Flow Zone
The player may feel a certain part of the game experience is a little bit harder or easier than their expectation. But he can still tolerate and maintain his Flow experience inside the safe zone.
If the actual experience gets too far away from the Flow zone, the negative psychic entropy like anxiety and boredom will break player’s Flow experience.
Passive Flow Adjustment
Performance is objective while Flow is subjective. When a player is in the Flow of just jumping around in Super Mario Bro but not finishing any level, the DDA system will have trouble to sense that.
Analysis based on assumptions - Assumptions never work for mass audience. When a player enjoys performing a suicidal stunt in Grand Theft Auto, it would be ridiculous for a DDA system to assume that the player's skill is too poor because of the death count.
Active Flow Adjustment
Considering the core elements of Flow, most of the system-oriented DDA designs were over focused on one aspect, balancing between challenge and ability. However, they ignored the other important core element, to make player feel a sense of control over the game activity.
Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi often describes Flow as driving a small boat in parallel to the current. Being able to drive freely gifts a sense of control over micro action, and being carried by the current offers a sense of control over the macro activity, therefore evokes Flow.
In traditional passive media, like the current, the sense of control comes from the sense of progression and positive feedback. [Adams 2002] In video games, not only can players gain control from the progression, they can also earn it through driving the boat, which is in fact making meaningful choices. So why don't we give the players choices in a video game and let them navigate their Flow experience?
Once a network of choices is applied, the Flow experience is very much customizable by the players. If they start feeling bored, they can choose to play harder, vice versa.
Embed Choices into Gameplay
Player-oriented DDA offers an active mechanic for players to control their in-game Flow experience. However, the implementation of these choices is not trivial.
In order to adjust Flow experiences dynamically and to reduce Flow noises, the choices have to appear in a relatively high frequency. These frequent choices might become potential interruptions for players who are in the Flow Zone.
The easy solution that might come to mind is to implement a monitor system to detect whether or not it is a good time to offer choices to the player. However, monitor systems are still not mature enough to be able to detect player’s Flow. The only solution is to embed choices into the gameplay, let the player treat choices as part of the play and eventually ignore them. Thus their choices will become intuitive and reflecting their actual desires.
Conclusion
Designing game systems where a wide range of players can get into Flow is not difficult:
1. Expand your game’s Flow coverage by including a wide spectrum of gameplay with different difficulties and flavors
2. Create an Player-oriented Active DDA system to allow different players to play in their own paces
3. Embed DDA choices into the core gameplay mechanics and let player make their choices through play
If a game designer can apply the above methodologies upon his own design, the game will become more dynamic and flexible, allowing more people to get into the Flow and finish it.
The fun thing about play is that players adjust the amount of challenge and ability theirselves, because toys theirselves are pretty simple as they are, but evoke a lot of play value. Players like to play with a toy so that they can bring themselves into a flow.
So toys mostly don't need a DDA system, a toy is a world of play possibilities. But now toys become more and more interactive, I am wondering how these DDA system could be used for toys.
Maybe we could create a DDA system based on the elements of toy design - construction, fantasy, challenge and sensory. You can transform every toy on the piramid on play, so why not in gameplay. But I don't think this as anything to do with flow anymore. An interactive book should also have a certain adjustable balance between challenge and ability, based on play design. And the player should feel like he's in control.
FlOw: construction play (critter evolution), fantasy play (in the abiss), challenge play (challenges), sensory play (physics)
This study further emphasized that flow is a state of effortless attention.
Elements of Flow
According to Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi's research the phenomenology of Flow has eight major components.
1. A challenge activity that requires skills
2. The merging of action and awareness
3. Clear goals
4. Direct feedback
5. Concentration on the task at hand
6. The sense of control
7. The loss of self-consciousness
8. The transformation of time
Not all of these components are needed for flow to be experienced. [Csikszentmihalyi 1990]
Once we have digested the above components and revisited them with a game design perspective, here are the three core elements a video game must have in order to evoke Flow experience.
1. As a premise, the game is intrinsically rewarding, and the player is up to play the game.
2. The game offers right amount of challenges to match with the player’s ability, which allows him/her to delve deeply into the game.
3. The player needs to feel a sense of personal control over the game activity.
For play design this might be:
1. As a premise, the toy has a playful interaction that is both invite as reward the player, and the player is up to play with the toy.
2. Challenge play: The toy offers a right amount of challenge to match with the player’s ability, which allows him/her to delve deeply into the game.
3. Sensory play: The toy offers a right amount of sensory triggers which react directly on the player.
4. Construction play: The toy offers a right amount of movement.
5. Fantasy play: The toy offers the right amount of iconisation, realism and abstraction to create a good tension between fantasy and reality.
6. The player needs to feel a sense of personal control over the play activity.
As a result, the game will make player lose track of time and self-consciousness.
To make a game that different people can enjoy, the game itself must retain these four elements, especially to adjust the challenge based on each player’s ability.
Dynamic Difficulty Adjustment
Dynamic Difficulty Adjustment, also known as DDA, is a fairly straightforward and ideal concept in the game design field. The difficulty of a game should change dynamically based on its player’s skill and performance.
Flow in games is really based on creating a certain difficulty that creates the right tension between Ability and Challenge.
In play challenge doesn't always need to be there. You can only base challenge play on this information. Sensory, Fantasy and Constructionplay don't have challenge in their play. But there is a sort of challenge, which you can find in the play itself. You challenge yourself to play with your senses, or to create something or to use your imagination. So the challenge is not in the play, but in bringing and keeping yourself in a certain state of mind. So when you want to create flow when you are claying, for instance, the challenge is in finding an interesting interaction with the clay you like to entertain yourself with and playing with the possibilities. Once you've found the right balance between using your abilities as a clayer and challenging yourself to do a certain interaction, you'll get in a flow.
For fantasyplay it's about finding the right balance between reality and fantasy, using your abilities to fantasize and challenge to use more or less reality in your own world or story.
Design Flow in Games
Video games as a media can be reviewed as two essential components:
Game Content - The soul of a video game; a specific experience the game is designed to convey
Game System - The body of a video game; an interactive software that communicates Game Content to the players through visuals, audio and interactions
Expand the Flow Zone
The player may feel a certain part of the game experience is a little bit harder or easier than their expectation. But he can still tolerate and maintain his Flow experience inside the safe zone.
If the actual experience gets too far away from the Flow zone, the negative psychic entropy like anxiety and boredom will break player’s Flow experience.
Passive Flow Adjustment
Performance is objective while Flow is subjective. When a player is in the Flow of just jumping around in Super Mario Bro but not finishing any level, the DDA system will have trouble to sense that.
Analysis based on assumptions - Assumptions never work for mass audience. When a player enjoys performing a suicidal stunt in Grand Theft Auto, it would be ridiculous for a DDA system to assume that the player's skill is too poor because of the death count.
Active Flow Adjustment
Considering the core elements of Flow, most of the system-oriented DDA designs were over focused on one aspect, balancing between challenge and ability. However, they ignored the other important core element, to make player feel a sense of control over the game activity.
Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi often describes Flow as driving a small boat in parallel to the current. Being able to drive freely gifts a sense of control over micro action, and being carried by the current offers a sense of control over the macro activity, therefore evokes Flow.
In traditional passive media, like the current, the sense of control comes from the sense of progression and positive feedback. [Adams 2002] In video games, not only can players gain control from the progression, they can also earn it through driving the boat, which is in fact making meaningful choices. So why don't we give the players choices in a video game and let them navigate their Flow experience?
Once a network of choices is applied, the Flow experience is very much customizable by the players. If they start feeling bored, they can choose to play harder, vice versa.
Embed Choices into Gameplay
Player-oriented DDA offers an active mechanic for players to control their in-game Flow experience. However, the implementation of these choices is not trivial.
In order to adjust Flow experiences dynamically and to reduce Flow noises, the choices have to appear in a relatively high frequency. These frequent choices might become potential interruptions for players who are in the Flow Zone.
The easy solution that might come to mind is to implement a monitor system to detect whether or not it is a good time to offer choices to the player. However, monitor systems are still not mature enough to be able to detect player’s Flow. The only solution is to embed choices into the gameplay, let the player treat choices as part of the play and eventually ignore them. Thus their choices will become intuitive and reflecting their actual desires.
Conclusion
Designing game systems where a wide range of players can get into Flow is not difficult:
1. Expand your game’s Flow coverage by including a wide spectrum of gameplay with different difficulties and flavors
2. Create an Player-oriented Active DDA system to allow different players to play in their own paces
3. Embed DDA choices into the core gameplay mechanics and let player make their choices through play
If a game designer can apply the above methodologies upon his own design, the game will become more dynamic and flexible, allowing more people to get into the Flow and finish it.
The fun thing about play is that players adjust the amount of challenge and ability theirselves, because toys theirselves are pretty simple as they are, but evoke a lot of play value. Players like to play with a toy so that they can bring themselves into a flow.
So toys mostly don't need a DDA system, a toy is a world of play possibilities. But now toys become more and more interactive, I am wondering how these DDA system could be used for toys.
Maybe we could create a DDA system based on the elements of toy design - construction, fantasy, challenge and sensory. You can transform every toy on the piramid on play, so why not in gameplay. But I don't think this as anything to do with flow anymore. An interactive book should also have a certain adjustable balance between challenge and ability, based on play design. And the player should feel like he's in control.
FlOw: construction play (critter evolution), fantasy play (in the abiss), challenge play (challenges), sensory play (physics)
This study further emphasized that flow is a state of effortless attention.
donderdag 9 februari 2012
Play and Flow
PLAY
Caillois: "Play is the quality of mind during enjoyable, captivating, intrinsically motivated and process focused activities."
-captivating: player is fully engaged/absorbed in the activity
-intrinsically motivated: free, activity is not obligatory
-process-focused: player is engaged because of the activity itself and not for the outcome.
FLOW
Csíkszentmihályi: "Flow is the mental state of operation in which a person in an activity is fully immersed in a feeling of energized focus, full involvement, and success in the process of the activity."
-energized focus - the person is engaged in the activity very actively
-full involvement - the person is fully engaged/absorbed in the activity
-success in the process of the activity - person is more engaged in the activity when he is succeeding
Flow is based on positive psychology, it is completely focused motivation. In flow, the emotions are not just contained and channeled, but positive, energized, and aligned with the task at hand. Flow is being completely involved in an activity for its own sake. The ego falls away. Time flies. Every action, movement, and thought follows inevitably from the previous one, like playing jazz. Your whole being is involved, and you're using your skills to the utmost.
Everytime I think about flow, I always remember how I (as a toddler) could enjoy myself with a piece of Playdough for hours and hours without ever getting distracted of my single action: knead the clay. It was play in all it's simplicity. But it was also flow.
Play and Flow have got similarities and points that could intwine perfectly. When done properly, play en flow can go hand in hand and even create a more amazing experience.
One game I really got into a flow was Traffic Rush, a simple game for the iPhone where you needed to let all the cars cross over safely. The only things you could do was swipe to increase the speed of a car or tab a car to stop it for some seconds. That simple. But there was a right balance in difficulty. Once it got more difficult, you get in a flow and you don't want to get out of it, because once you get in that flow, you really feel like you're playing it right.
Now ofcourse, there is a game based on flow, called Flow.
One of the makers, Jenova Chen, came up with with the game Flow, after doing his Thesis about flow in games, which you can read here.
So some more knowledge out of this thesis:
In order to maintain a person’s Flow experience, the activity needs to reach a balance between the challenges of the activity and the abilities of the participant. If the challenge is higher than the ability, the activity becomes overwhelming and generates anxiety. If the challenge is lower than the ability, it provokes boredom. Fortunately, human beings have tolerance, there is a fuzzy safe zone where the activity is not too challenging or too boring, and psychic entropies like anxiety and boredom would not occur. [Csikszentmihalyi 1990]
The description of Flow is identical to what a player experiences when totally immersed in a video game. During this experience, the player loses track of time and forgets all external pressures. It is obvious that gamers value video games based on whether or not those games can provide Flow experiences. [Holt 2000]
maandag 23 januari 2012
The Piramid of Play
http://product.design.umn.edu/courses/pdes3711/documents/Kudrowitz2010.pdf
Sensory play
Fantasy play
Construction play
Challenge play
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