体验游戏究竟能够获得多少乐趣？
starcraft from wordpress.com
我的游戏设计原理是游戏创造体验。在现有游戏中，几乎所有公司、学生开发者及独立开发商追求的都是让游戏富有趣味有趣。
但我们应该争取创造多少乐趣？有没有什么方式能衡量趣味？评级和评价是游戏成败的参考标准，通常基于百分制，主要瞄准细节。但若我们不考虑游戏整体质量，只讨论趣味性呢？若游戏已几近完美，所有设计选择都无懈可击，其奖惩机制设置合情合理，那其趣味性如何？
这是所有设计师最终都要面临的问题。此问题非常有趣，不仅关乎游戏设计，还涉及人类哲学。查看游戏趣味性相当于了解玩家从中收获的乐趣。若从玩家体验角度看待此问题，我认为趣味性可分为5个等级。
涉及多少词汇呢？
探究研究范围或情感波动深度和宽度的一个有趣方式是查看相关词汇数量。这些语言不是来自字典，而是来自其中群体形容此世界的语言。我们通常使用所知语言形容理解信息和希望分享的内容。但当新体验无法为既有词汇所描述，新词语便诞生。
例如，“Unfriend”（游戏邦注：即删除好友）是个动词，是近来出现的词汇，在社交网络时代到来前，其毫无意义。但如今几乎所有人都有删除他人或被他人删除的经历，这成为大家经历的一部分，所以该词语便诞生。
日本和中国有很多形容武术动作、武术哲学和风格的词汇。法国有很多描述烹饪、品尝和食物的词组。在各领域中，同某主题相关词汇的多寡直接反映人类从中获得体验的丰富程度。通过查看现有形容某物的词汇，我们能够获悉其定义的清晰度。
胃部状态
一个有趣的例子是关于吃和饱度。在某种程度上，你可以把胃当作量杯。你通过吃往里填充东西，填满了你也就吃饱了。
在填充过程中，你的胃就会给出诸如“两分饱”、“五分饱”之类的标记。但这其实并不存在。在康乃尔大学所做调查中，其将参与者聚集某室内，告知他们能够尽情喝汤。有些人使用正常汤碗，饮用至饱，而有些人则使用有导管的汤碗，参与者边吃汤边补充。所以即便喝很多口后，汤还是和原来一样多。
结果怎么样呢？你或许会认为使用填充碗的参与者会最终喝饱，然后在碗仍旧填满的状态下放弃饮用，对吧？
其实，研究者发现使用魔术碗的参与者饮用的量比使用正常碗的多得多，多达73%，而他们却浑然不知。他们似乎并未觉得比平时饱很多。食用过后，两个群体似乎相差无几，都是处于撑的状态。
这说明什么？说明人类很难准确描述其饱度。有趣的是这体现在我们描述胃部状态的词汇中。看看如下描述胃部状态的词汇：
* 饥饿
* 饿
* 有点饿
* 不太饿
* 饱
* 撑
当然词汇远不止这些，但人们通常都联想到这些词语。本质上看，就是这么回事。我们通常只用6种程度形容自己的胃部状态。足以说明吗？当然。但全然不是我们设想的100分标准。
趣味等级
所以若我们赞同描述体验的词汇数量反映程度级别，那我们就能够从体验游戏和游戏趣味中获得有趣发现。
我从小就玩游戏，致力游戏制作有10年之久，参与游戏测试也有7年。游戏测试意义很大，设计师亲自观看玩家体验游戏，观察其情感变化，提问相应问题。你观看他们操作游戏，同时目睹游戏给予的回馈。他们是否饥饿难耐？
任何参与游戏测试多年的开发商都会告诉你，他们已把握玩家情感模式。就我看来，玩家获得的游戏趣味可分为5大等级：
* 无趣
* 挫败感
* 感兴趣
* 满足感
* 欣喜
大概就是这样。等级名称合情合理。令人惊讶的是这些词汇竟然能够用来形容玩家游戏感受。下面让我们逐一进行分析：
无趣。当玩家对体验内容毫无兴趣，其就无法理解其中内容，内容就会令其困惑，或无法激起他们的想象，然后他们就会觉得很无趣。他们几乎就要退出游戏（游戏邦注：除非游戏提供长期奖励，促使他们回访游戏），除非内容出现变化。若你在他们觉得无趣的时候问说，“想要再玩一次吗？”他们定会回答“不要”。
无趣无疑是最糟情况，对设计师来说，这是游戏的最坏状态。无趣内容是指那些无法引起玩家兴趣的游戏。这不会让他们的生活变糟，也不会让他们的生活变好。这是趣味性的初级水平。
挫败感。接着就是挫败感。当玩家常因某内容感到沮丧，那么他们就陷入挫败当中。他们不理解游戏运作方式，不断失败，或者非常不认同游戏机制，那么玩家就会变得挫败。
但挫败总好过无趣。为什么？若玩家因你的游戏而感到沮丧，说明他们至少还关心游戏。若玩家毫不关心游戏，一去不复返，他们就不会在乎UI不完善，或第三个boss过于健壮。觉得无趣的玩家不会希望游戏变得有趣，因为他们不再投身其中。所以虽然初级趣味让玩家处于矛盾状态，但其实第二等级才会减少其生活乐趣，因为他们感到挫败。
感兴趣。当玩家开始体验游戏，探索能够吸引眼球的元素，揣摩游戏目标，希望继续体验，他们就处于感兴趣状态。这或许是角色外观设计或基础机制中的趣味感，但也是吸引玩家体验游戏，不断回访的元素。他们希望从中进行学习，观赏更多，体验更多。
Final Fantasy from blogspot.com
这是玩家享受游戏时常有的感觉。《最终幻想》玩家探索世界，挖掘财富。《使命的召唤》玩家需寻找对手地图。在这些游戏中，玩家都希望继续游戏。他们不会感到无趣或沮丧，他们饶有兴致，兴趣促使他们完成整个体验过程。
满足感。兴趣通常持续好几小时，而满足感只是针对某个环节的短暂感受。若某人因某款游戏而感到满足，他们就会充满成就感和喜悦感。他们因自身行为、游戏发展或个人预言而感到自豪。他们愿意体验更多游戏内容。游戏带给他们一定程度的欢乐（游戏邦注：这是游戏的优势所在）。
满足感并不需要通过游戏目标形式体现。当然若玩家在《新超级马里奥兄弟》中晋级，他们也会很有满足感。但若mayor在《虚拟城市》中建成玩家帝国，玩家也会感到满足。当有人获得高分，拯救同伴，升至12级，他们就会获得相应时间投入回报，进行充分享受。
欣喜。虽然游戏达到满足程度就能算是成功作品，但令人玩家感到欣喜的作品才能长久掳获玩家芳心。欣喜不是单纯的“更具满足感”。欣喜与美妙时刻（游戏邦注：这通常只会持续几秒钟，每隔几天或几周出现）截然不同。欣喜是游戏体验的最高境界。令人玩家感到欣喜的游戏通常已完全融入其生活当中。
bioshock from primotechnology.com
完成游戏或因结局、情节起伏感到惊讶通常令玩家觉得欣喜。《Braid》或《Bioshock》的欣喜时刻通常会激起整个论坛的激烈讨论。在《星际争霸》中同好友一起赢得原本以为会输的艰难比赛，会令你感慨“不会吧！我没想到我们竟然赢了！”这就是个欣喜时刻。看到Kirby吃掉整只熊，对其可爱态势忍俊不禁，也是个欣喜时刻。或者回访情有独钟的Facebook游戏，看到妈妈送给你一个礼物，即使你们已好几天没有讲话，都是令人欣喜的时刻。这对设计师来说颇有难度吧？毫无疑问。但欣喜时刻是游戏的魅力所在，是游戏趣味性的第五等级。
你的游戏处于何种等级？
我要说的是5大趣味等级并不能覆盖所有游戏情绪。《生化危机》带给玩家的是惊恐，《汪达与巨像》产生的则是惊讶。《暴雨》让玩家陷入沉思，感到愧疚，而《飞驰竞速》则让玩家心跳加速，七上八下。5大趣味等级无法涵盖所有玩家体验，但足以用来衡量游戏趣味程度。
5大趣味等级推动游戏领域发展成当前态势：创造有趣体验供全球数百万玩家在其日常生活内外尽情享受。创造激发兴趣、富有满足感和欣喜感，且避免出现无趣和挫败感的游戏体验，能够促使玩家持续回访。（本文为游戏邦/gamerboom.com编译，作者：Brice Morrison）
The 5 Degrees of Fun
by Brice Morrison
Exactly how much fun is it possible for someone have playing a game?
My game design philosophy has always been that games create an Experience. For the vast majority of games that are made, I would say around 99%, the core experience that companies, student developers, and indie developers are shooting for is for the game to be fun.
But how much fun should we be shooting for? Is there a way of measuring fun? Sure, ratings and reviews give us a scale of how well made a game was, on a 100-point scale. That’s a very high level of detail. But what if we aren’t talking about the overall quality of the game, we’re just talking about how fun it is? If a game has been polished to infinity, if every game design choice was perfect, thePunishment and Reward Systems tuned perfectly, how fun could it possibly be?
This is the ultimate question for every game designer. It is a very interesting question that not only ask questions of game design, but also of human psychology. To understand how fun a game can be is to understand how much fun people can have across all their experiences. And if we look at it from that perspective, I would propose that there are only 5 Degrees of Fun that players can experience at any moment in a game.
How Many Words?
One interesting way to look at the level of depth and breadth of an area of study or emotion is to count the number of words associated with it. Language does not come from a dictionary; language is created on the fly by people who are trying to describe the world they are experiencing. We use the words that we know to describe what we understand and what we want to share with others. But when new experiences commonly occur that can’t manage to be encapsulated by existing words or phrases, new ones tend to be invented.
For example, “Unfriend” was a verb (“I unfriended her on Facebook.”) that didn’t exist until the last couple of years, because it didn’t really make any sense before the age of social networks. However now many people have experienced being unfriended or unfriending other people — the idea has a place in people’s experiences, and so the word itself was born.
Japanese and Chinese have thousands of words to describe martial arts moves, philosophies, and styles. French has thousands of words to describe cooking, tasting, and food. In different areas of expertise, the number of words associated with a subject can be a strong indicator to the variety of experiences people can have with the subject. And by looking at the words that exist to describe something, we can see the number degree of definition that something can sustain.
The Degrees of Fullness
One interesting example is the subject of eating and fullness. In some ways you can view your stomach as a kind of measuring cup. You can put food in by eating, and when it fills up you get full.
You would think then that on its way to being full, your stomach would pass markers like “20% full”, “50% full”, and so on. But this doesn’t actually happen. In a study done at Cornell University, participants were sat down in a room and told that they could eat as much soup as they wanted. While some of the participants had normal bowls of soup and ate until they were full, others had unusual bowls of soup hooked up to tubes that, unbeknown to the diners, refilled the soup as they ate. So even after a couple bites, the soup would in reality be just as full as it had been.
So what happened? You would think that the ones with the refilling bowls would get stuffed and quit eating while the bowl was still full, right?
Actually, the researchers found that the people who had the magical refilling bowls ate substantially more soup than people who had a normal bowl. However, these participants, who ate up to 73% more soup than the other participants, didn’t notice at all. They didn’t say that they felt more full or bursting at the seems. After the meal, both groups actually sounded basically the same. They were stuffed.
What does this mean? It means that people generally can’t tell how full they are to the degree you and I would imagine. And what’s interesting is that this is reflected in the number of words and phrases we have (at least in english) to describe how full we are. Consider the follow words which represent the degrees of hunger:
* Starving
* Hungry
* Kind of hungry
* Not hungry
* Full
* Stuffed
Of course there are other words, but they essentially align themselves with these measures (“peckish” is the same as “kind of hungry”, “satiated” is the same as “not hungry”). But essentially, that’s it. We only have about six degrees of being able to tell how full we are. Enough to help us get by? Certainly. But not exactly the 100 point scale we were imagining.
The Degrees of Fun
So if we agree that the number of words around an experience can reflect the degree to which people can measure themselves, then we can make some interesting observations around playing games and having fun as well.
I have been playing games my whole life, making games for over 10 years, and playtesting games for more than 7 years. Playtesting is incredibly valuable, where you sit a player down, watch them play your game, reading the emotions on their face and asking them questions. You watch what they do in the game, and in turn you see what the game does to them. Do they pur
After doing years of playtests, any developer will tell you that they will begin to see patterns in how players feel. In my experience, there are only 5 different Degrees of Fun that players can experience and describe having in games:
* Bored
* Frustrated
* Interested
* Satisfied
* Delighted
That’s it. The names of the Degrees themselves may not be surprising; what’s most surprising is that one of those five words can accurately describe the feeling that players have in any given game in any given situation. Let’s break these down:
Bored. When players aren’t interested in what they are doing, they don’t understand it, it’s confusing, or just doesn’t strike their fancy, then they are bored. They are just about to quit playing (unless they have a strong Long Term Incentive to pull them through) unless something changes fast. If you ask them in the moment of being bored, “Would you like to play this game again?” they would likely respond, “No.”
Being bored is the absolute bottom of the barrel, the worst place that your game could be in as a Designer. A boring game is a game that has failed to interest the player. It’s doesn’t make their life worse, but it doesn’t make their life better either. Thus we have our first degree of fun.
Frustrated. Next up is frustrated. When players are actively becoming upset at something, then they are frustrated. They don’t understand how the game works, they are losing over and over, or they strongly disagree with how the gameplay is going, then players become frustrated.
However, being frustrated is actually better than being bored. Why? Because if people are frustrated with your game, then at least they care about it. Players who don’t care about your game, that just go, “meh…” and move on, they won’t be upset that the UI isn’t working or that the third boss has way too much health. Bored players don’t want your game to be fun because they aren’t invested. And so while the first Degree of Fun leaves players ambivalent to your game, the second actually reduces their enjoyment of their life because of the frustration.
Interested. When players are just starting to play a game, exploring something that catches their eye, understand what they goals are and want to continue going, then they are interested. It may be the Aesthetic Layout of the characters or the fun feeling of the Base Mechanics, but something has pulled the player into the game and beckons them to keep going. They want to learn, they want to see more, and they want to play more.
You can see this almost any time you see someone playing a game they enjoy. A Final Fantasy player exploring the world and looking for treasure. A Call of Duty player searching the map for opponents. These are moments where players are continuing to play the game of their own free will; they aren’t frustrated or bored with the game, they are interested in it, and that interest compels them to continue on through the play experience.
Satisfied. While being interested can last for hours on end, being satisfied is often only a single moment within a play session. When someone is satisfied with a game, then they have a feeling of accomplishment and a spark of happiness. They are proud of what they has done, what is happening, or what they know is about to happen. They would be happy to play the game more. The game gives them a small degree of joy, which is one of the things that games are the best at.
Satisfaction doesn’t have to always come in the form of game-driven goals. Of course when a player completes a level of New Super Mario Bros., they are satisfied. But they are also satisfied when a mayor completes building his empire in Sim City. When someone beats a high score, saves a comrade, or rolls a 12, then they receive payoff for the time they have invested in the game and enjoy themselves.
Delighted. While a game that satisfies players is often enough of a goal to make a successful game, games that allow players to be Delighted are the ones that find special places in their hearts. Delighted is not simply “more satisfied”. Delighted is a distinctly different magical moment, a moment that may only last for a few seconds and occur every few days or weeks. Delight is the pinnacle of a game experience. Moments when players are delighted are moments that stay with them their whole lives.
Completing a game and being dazzled by the ending or a plot twist often delights players – the delighted moments from Braid or Bioshock spawned entire forums full of discussions . Winning a tough match in Starcraft with your friends that you were sure you were going to lose, yelling “Holy cow! I can’t believe we won!” is a moment of delight. Watching Kirby inhale an entire bear and laugh out loud at the unbearable cuteness is a moment of delight. Or coming back to your favorite facebook game to see that your mom has sent you a present, even though you haven’t talked in days — these are moments of delight. Difficult to engineer? Most definitely. But moments of delight are some of the magic of games, and mark the fifth Degree of Fun and enjoyment.
Which Degree does your game reside in?
I should make a note that the 5 Degrees of Fun do not speak at all to the other emotions of playing a game. Resident Evil makes players frightened, while Shadow of the Colossus gives a sense of wonder. Heavy Rain causes players to think deeply and feel regret, while Forza gets players hearts racing and lifts their emotion up and down. I do not claim that the 5 Degrees of Fun are a complete vocabulary with which to describe all player experience. My only claim is that is a sufficient vocabulary to measure the aspect of Fun.
The 5 Degrees of Fun have made the game industry what it is today: an industry of creating fun experiences for millions of players around the world to enjoy apart from, inside, and along with their normal lives. Creating moments of interest, satisfaction, and delight while avoiding boredom and frustration is what entices players to come back to games again and again.（Source：thegameprodigy）
