Why we play games: Natural funativity. Noah Falstein

'Fun' is a word used to describe a source where we can receive enjoyment from. Fun can be hard to describe, but we know when we have experienced it, regardless of how hard it is to describe.

Paleolithic pastimes:

As humans, we have a strong dependency on social interactions with one another. This also leads to another dependency that we need. An establishment in our families and the ability to maintain this place in our families.

(RSS) Refined Sugar Syndrome is a theory that considers the way we behave towards things that give us pleasure. As humans in our past history we have always strived to get more of the things that taste sweet in this world. Sugar being a natural substance found in fruit, as ancient beings we found the sugary fruits and treasured them. However nowadays we have been able to produce a concentrated form of this substance. This is now true with the act of play, we have taken the simple act of playing and turned this into a concentrated source that is a video game. Our ancestors played games as a form of entertainment and as a way to keep their survival and hunting skills sharp and a constant improving.

Physical fun:

One of our primary urges as human beings is the survival instinct, anything that threatens our survival automatically commands our full attention and awareness. Games tend to tap into this theme to capture players and immerse them further into their games. As this urge is an automatic instinct, players find it hard to ignore, its built into our mind set. This can be considered to the whole mass entertainment media. Even films put viewers in a state of mind of survivability to capture their attention. This physical fun relies on strong muscles and good coordination. A theory as to why sports are popular, these often focus on physical strength and team cooperation. These activities go back in our history as they are similar to the hunting and surviving instinct of our ancestors.

The article mentions why many game items can easily be relevant toward our ancestry.

Casinos - Berry picking
Collectible games - Gatherers
RTS,RPG,FPS - Travellers/discovery
Weapons/hand tools - Stone tools

Social fun:

Games bring people together, it creates a ground for us to build social interactions and increase the development of language. It has also given us an indirect way of learning and increasing the ability of our process of improving our survival instincts. The existence of storytelling shows that our ancestors enjoyed or at least had the desire to communicate and socialise with each other.

MMO's can create the basis of socialisation from many different features in the game. Chat rooms can open up where people discuss experiences and such they have had in the game. The media is constantly expansive which then create more social interaction. A reason why many people play these games and a reason why many game developers focus on this aspect of their games.

Mental Fun:

Games that challenge us mentally, lure some players in just for that challenge.  We have developed as human beings to have a large brain that holds so much information and this has given us the advantage of learning to survive and adapting over time. The constant expansion of our brains has given us quicker reactions, recognising patterns and important decisions.

Blended fun:

These games are smart as they use more than one of these natural funativity 'types' in their games to lure or attract in more than one type of gamer. Different gamers prefer different types of funativity, and so tapping into more than one type of funativity, they can gain a wider audience for their games.


All these types of funativity need to be considered when designing an original game that can be fun. However i never took the time to think how deep in history our instinct to have fun and entertainment were.

Why We Play Games: Four Keys to more more Emotion without story

Why do we play games? Well we play games to change or structure our internal experiences, these experiences create an emotional impact on ourselves as the player. Emotions are important to human beings as it is a way of expressing ourselves and to communicate to other human beings. Many games use tools in order to create challenges for player to overcome, as these challenges are attempted it can create a variety of emotions such as frustration and anger, but the reward of completing these challenges can be relief and happiness. This happiness can be that breakthrough people play to step into their own fantasy world and escape their everyday life. XEODesign are a company the specialise in player experience research and design for mass market interactive entertainment. Here they have constructed a field study upon 30 different players of many different games in order to find out what makes them tick and what makes them want to play games. Over playing a variety of games they came up with a set of Keys to emotion with story:

1. Like: What players like most about playing
2. Emotion: Creates unique emotion without story
3. Games: Already present in ultra popular games
4. Theory: Supported by psychology theory and other larger studies

The research carried out showed that each key is a reason why people these games.

Hard Fun:

Players mostly players as an attempt to overcome obstacles. Hard fun is a way of creating emotions by structuring the players experiences towards them pursuing a goal. This mainly focuses on the reward factor of the goal is achieved. This technique can amplify frustration and passion for completing goals, players enjoy the relief from frustration and this one reason why people play. Hard fun can attract people who enjoy a challenge and often say things like:

• I play to see how good I am
• I play to beat the game
• I play to have multiple objectives
• I prefer using strategy rather than luck

Easy Fun:

This type of fun attracts players who just play for the sheer enjoyment of the experience of playing the game. This enjoyment often uses the sense of curiosity which entices the player to delve deeper into the game world. The sensation of wonder and shock often lures these players into the game. They often have a short attention span so adventurous games keep them satisfied. These players often use these words to describe their reasons for playing:

• I play to explore new worlds with intriguing people
• I play for the excitement and adventure
• I play because I want to figure the story out
• I play because I want to see what happens in the story, even if I have to use a walk through
• I play because me and my character are one
• I love the sounds of the cards shuffling
• I play because of the growing dragons

Altered States:

These type of people play games that generate emotion with perception, thought, behaviours and playing with other people. A majority of people confess they play games because it makes them feel better about themselves, these games are used to move players from one mental state to another. Players who receive enjoyment from these mention that:

• They enjoy letting the game clear their mind by clearing a level
• They feel better about themselves whilst playing
• They play to avoid boredom
• Being better than someone at something that matters

The people factor:

These games create opportunities for player interaction and competition. These players often play just for the social aspect of the game. Players will even play games they dont like just because they enjoy socialising with the people who play. Tempers can flare and jokes can be thrown but its all part of the game. These players often feel that:

• It's the people who play that are addictive, not the game itself
• I want an excuse to invite my friends over for some games
• I don't like playing games, but its a fun way to spend time with my friends
• I don't play, but it's fun to watch.

Why some people no longer or never want to play:

Some people don't want to play games as they value other things in life with a higher valued responsibility such as jobs or raising families. Some never want to play again because they know that games can become addictive and develop bad habits. Some even regard games as against their morals.

"I won’t play his games, because someone has to take care of the kids!” –Wife of a Hard Core Gamer