{"id":82,"date":"2018-05-25T14:00:00","date_gmt":"2018-05-25T14:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/briebeau.com\/thoughty\/2018\/05\/25\/approachable-theory-types-of-fun\/"},"modified":"2021-11-16T00:39:25","modified_gmt":"2021-11-16T05:39:25","slug":"approachable-theory-types-of-fun","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/briebeau.com\/thoughty\/2018\/05\/approachable-theory-types-of-fun\/","title":{"rendered":"approachable theory: Types of Fun"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\n\n
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Hi all! Today I have a post by Selene Tan on Types of Fun<\/b>! Selene is a game designer who is always up for a design competition, and writes about games and GMing. This post is about types of fun – the ways we enjoy games – using a variety of existing theory and talking about how we can understand those things in our own experiences. Selene said she loves “interacting with dynamic systems that produce unexpected and inspiring outcomes, and it’s even better with friends!” So let’s see what she has to say!<\/i><\/span>
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<\/b>I ask that you remember the requests I put forth<\/a> about treating my writers with respect and understand that a lot of game design theory is still growing, so definitions can be a little fluid. <\/i>
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A collection of materials for a game of Roar of Alliance (Game and photo by John Sheldon.) during play. <\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

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Whether you call it \u201cfun,\u201d \u201cenjoyment,\u201d or \u201cinvolvement\u201d: when you\u2019re playing the right game, there\u2019s something that makes you want to play it, and keep playing. But not all games are fun in the same way.<\/p>\n

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The fun of tactical miniatures combat in D&D 4th edition is different than the fun of a collaborative story\/map-making game like The Quiet Year. There are many types of fun, and while people have preferences, none is intrinsically better than any other.<\/div>\n
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We can sort these different types of fun into categories. Sorting and labeling experiences is a good way to analyze them, and analyzing game experiences is a key skill for game design. There are schemes that classify games or players, and schemes that classify fun directly. I find schemes that classify players reductive. As a player, I enjoy many kinds of games, depending on my mood and situation. Classifying games is more useful, but again, most games combine different types of fun. I prefer to classify fun because as a designer, those are my building blocks. The types of fun I want to focus on are a key part of my design vision.<\/div>\n
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It’s worth comparing several schemes to learn what works for you. The main factors that I consider when deciding on a scheme to use are:<\/div>\n
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  1. how applicable it is to the kinds of games I want to classify. If there are a lot of experiences not covered by the scheme, some of the types are unused, or most experiences go under one type, the scheme is a bad fit.<\/li>\n
  2. how easy it is to remember. If there are too many categories, or the names are confusing, it’s hard to remember the scheme.<\/li>\n
  3. how easy it is to apply. The categories should clearly describe what experiences belong to them, and most experiences should clearly belong to one or two categories, without confusion.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
    I\u2019m including links to several others, but here are three schemes with different approaches that I find <\/div>\n
    useful for analyzing RPGs.<\/div>\n

    Schemes of Fun<\/h3>\n

    8 Kinds of Fun<\/h4>\n
    My personal favorite scheme, and the one that started me on categorizing fun, is 8 Kinds of Fun<\/a>, originally described by Marc LeBlanc as part of the Mechanics\/Dynamics\/Aesthetics framework (overview<\/a>).<\/div>\n
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    Chris Sniezak at Gnome Stew has written in more detail<\/a> about the 8 Kinds of Fun for RPGs. Here\u2019s a quick summary of the types:<\/div>\n