I have no words I must design "notes"

These are my notes which I took while reading the article.
Costikyan talks about struggle, structure, endogenous meaning and goals within this article. Firstly is the goals and these are important to some games as the whole game revolves around completing tasks and goals. Some of the most obvious in games are in MMO’s as the goal is to advance levels and become the best player online, in online fps the general goal is to stay alive and kill everyone else usually. Games like Sim City and Football Manager don’t have true goals set with the game like go to this place, collect 100 coins or something like that or even goals which can be obvious like kill everyone. These are called ‘pointless games’ which can seem a bit harsh but you do create the goals yourself so it may seem pointless. As a huge Football Manager fan I think even though simulation games do not have clear goals they can still have user created goals and are enjoyable for some. He also goes on to say players always want something to do and players should be allowed to pick their own goals in games. This is evident in most simulation games and along with rpg’s as there are usually so many side quests and goals the player is able to choose what ones to do but they still have to complete the main ones to finish the game.

He then talks about struggle in games and how a game without struggle is dead. Struggle in games are vital as without it they would be boring and the player would leave after 5 minutes. He also says struggle isn’t always good in games players want a sense of achievement or mastery eventually so they feel something has been accomplished. I believe this to be true of course as players always want to feel they have completed something in a game rather than just play through everything with ease.

Structure is the next thing he talks about and how a good structure is pivitol for a game to be successful. Good structure allows the player to take many possible paths and methods of playing the game and this can appeal to a wide audience therefore making the game more popular which can also mean it’s better. I agree with what he is saying, I just think of an rpg or mmo and how boring it would be if you only done one task at a time and everyone had to be the same character or class, for example in Dragon Age 2 it would be less appealing if everyone had to be a rouge, warrior or mage.

Last but not least he talks about endogenous meaning, which is when something is important in the game but not elsewhere for example someone buying a super duper fantastic sword of doom on ebay so they can use it in game. Personally I never thought about these sorts of things beforehand but there are tons of examples if you think about it, just take the hugely successful valve hat store for tf2 along with the weapon store they have. Allowing players to buy something which customises the character is clearly something which appeals to games companies as Costikyan says as it is important factor to look into when making a game, as it adds replay ability when characters are customised as well as making the player more involved and drawn in.

I will be adding my notes from quite 5-6 other readings/guest lectures I have experience over the last 8 or so months in the coming days.