SCVNGR’s Secret Game Mechanics Playdeck | Hacker News Reader

SCVNGR’s Secret Game Mechanics Playdeck

techcrunch.com

40 pointsssclafani15 comments

Jesse Schell should get credit for the game cards concept ttp://artofgamedesign.com/cards/ as well as popularizing a lot of the talk about Game Mechanics.

In my experience, "Fun once, fun always" is the real key to a game that continues to be fun (and therefore keeps players). In a game about shooting virtual guns or driving virtual cars or building virtual cities, those basic actions had better continue to be enjoyable; no amount of rewards layered on top will fix a game with a poor basic mechanic.

(As a side note, my first thought when reading "Rolling physical goods" was "Donkey Kong".)

Great list, but I sense in a year or two a backlash by users who develop 'game-resistance': "Stop toying with me!"

Interesting, do you think StackOverflow.com users are going to be part of this backlash? If done right, the game mechanics aspect of an application shouldn't feel like a separate feature or game.

what parts of stackoverflow.com are game-mechanics? if it's what shows up in that yellow bar, i wouldn't know because it's too annoying to pay attention to.

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Very nice. Those 47 points are basically the Bible of Game Mechanics.

I disagree.

This is totally missing most of the fundamental game mechanics that make FPSes fun, platformers fun, etc.

In fact it misses out much of what makes WoW fun for end level raiders.

Re-reading it this feels more like a deck of false rewards to make people think they're playing a game when they're not.

I'm generally more interested in the 'motivation' aspect of Game Mechanics. (see profile for startup info) The 'fun' you speak of in FPSs is a bit different than the 'fun' that can come from a normal web application which offers some sort of incentive or status for your contributions.

Exactly.

These aren't game mechanics, they're psychological hacks. Classic game designers used all these 'mechanics' as a sort of spice, to enhance the solid gameplay already in place. Games like Farmeville are refined and condensed spice. No meat, just flavor.

Personally, after playing Diablo as a kid for god knows how long, I vowed to never play a 'grinding' game again. I suspect (but definitely am not certain) that most new casual gamers will go through their own experience, and come out the other side more immune to these hacks.

Of course, I was the old Total Annihilation buff. I had a few mods on it, mainly adding up to 1000 units per side, and up to 10 players.

The most I played was 6 sides, each of us around 800 units each, with 200 en route to someone elses base. Those games lasted for around 5 hours, which were a blast!

Then we compiled a private epic build system on top of advanced that had mechs, berthas on wheels, and walking fusions. The doomsday device was a nuclear launcher that would, on impact, destroy a 22 screen radius of everything. When you're playing on Real Earth v2, which is 128x128 screens (at 1024x768) you need big skills.

None of this "click on buttons to make xp go bigger" or other gimmicks of these net games.

No offense man, but it sounds like you are making aggrandizing generalizations to simply sound smarter than the guy who built the deck.

I find the list fascinating, and plan to use it to build a solid DnD campaign (in 3.5, 4.0 is WAY too restricting!)

How so? Many of the mechanics listed are "rewards in and of themselves" types:

1. Achievement 6. Blissful Productivity 10. Companion Gaming 17. Epic Meaning 22. Fun Once, Fun Always

etc, etc.

One complaint: the reward schedule rules are scattered all throughout, fixed, interval, variable, etc.

19. Fixed Interval Reward Schedules

20. Fixed Ratio Reward Schedule

...

23. Interval Reward Schedules

...

34. Ratio Reward Schedules

...

38. Reward Schedules

...

44. Variable Interval Reward Schedules

45. Variable Ratio Reward Schedules

What's with the ordering? It doesn't even go from most general to most specific? Is the list ordering a game mechanic itself (that would be meta)

The mechanics are ordered alphabetically.

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