1. Designing to Promote Intentional Play

12. a short story or short series of words spoken or communicated with the intent of being laughed at or found humorous by the listener or reader.
a short story or short series of words spoken or communicated with the intent of being laughed at or found humorous by the listener or reader.

13. Creator
Designer
Mediator
Machine
Creator
Player

14. Creator
Machine
Fatter
Viewer

15. Intentionality
Player Intention is the ability of the player to devise his own meaningful goals through his understanding of the game dynamics and to formulate meaningful plans to achieve them using the information and resources provided by the game.

17. a short story or short series of words spoken or communicated with the intent of being laughed at or found humorous by the listener or reader.
Most jokes contain two components: joke setup (for example, "A man walks into a bar...") and a punchline, which, when juxtaposed with the setup, provides the necessary irony to elicit laughter from the audience.

20. Player Intent
To cause John to bash down a door, which has been trapped with a wall-mine, in order to blast John down an open elevator shaft while on fire, after making a cocky remark about how he’s not an amateur.

21. Sticky Camera Pan and Zoom Thermal Vision Night Vision Distraction
Persistent

22. Wall Mine
Adhesive
Sticks to Doors
Directional
Back-blast effect

23. NPC Input Behavior State > Default Distraction Sound > Aware
Search
> Alert

24. NPC 2nd Input Behavior Behavior Result
State
2nd Input
Behavior
Behavior
> Default
Whistle
> Aware
-Stressed
Door
Bash
Search
> Alert
Result
Search Fails

25. NPC Input Bark Class > Rookie > Soldier Distraction Sound
> Elite
“I heard something.”

26. combined with state change to Aware-Stressed
NPC
combined with state change to Aware-Stressed
Class
2nd Input
> Rookie
Bark
Bark
> Soldier
Whistle
> Elite
“I heard something.”
“A trap? Who does this guy think he's dealing with? Amateurs?”
Result
Explosive Hilarity
Search Fails

27. NPC 2nd Input Bark Bark Result
combined with state change to Aware-Stressed
2nd Input
Bark
Bark
> Rookie
Whistle
> Soldier
“I heard something.”
“Holy crap! … Guess I'm a little jumpy…”
> Elite
Result
ffftt… pop
Search Fails

28. 36 9 Object Related NPC Related Barks Sticky Camera Behavior
Wall Mines
State
Doors
Class
Camera
Sound
Whistle
Inputs

32. GDC 2004
Smith, H
Smith, R

33. Emergent Gameplay

34. Emergent Gameplay

35. Emergent Gameplay

36. Smith and Smith Emergence in GTA 3
Player takes a jump
Car flips and lands upside down
Car explodes
Nearby pedestrians are injured by explosion
Pedestrians begin to attack player
Player takes a jump
Car flips and lands upside down
Car explodes
Nearby pedestrians are injured by explosion
Pedestrians begin to attack player

37.
easy to verify
harder to solve

38. Smith and Smith Emergence in DX:IW
Player reaches locked door
Player dominates Spiderbot
Spiderbot EMP’d when domination ends
Player shoots EMP’d bot
Spiderbot explodes
Explosion destroys door

39. Object
Related
Spider Bot
Doors 12 5
EMP
Bot Domination
Damage
Inputs

40. Player’s Primary Intent: Get Through Locked Door
Player deploys Spiderbot
Because he knows that he can Dominate it
Player Dominates Spiderbot
Because he knows when Domination times out, the bot will be EMP’d
Player allows Spiderbot to time out beside locked door
Because he knows that EMP’d bots explode when damaged
Player damages Spiderbot because he knows explosion will destroy locked door
Player fulfills intent by crossing through doorway

42. Emergence Intentionality
Emergence and Intentionality [disambiguation]
Emergence
Intentionality
Arises from interconnections between systems
Arises from player comprehension of the interconnection between systems

43. Spider Bot
Doors 12 5
EMP
Bot Domination
Damage

44. 36 9 Barks Sticky Camera Behavior Wall Mines State Doors Class Camera
Sound
Whistle

45. 14

46. 28

47. 96

53. Britney:
hey! 24f Cali here, 5’10”, 135, blonde, blue… u?

54. Smith and Smith Emergence in GTA 3
Player takes a jump
Car flips and lands upside down
Car explodes
Nearby pedestrians are injured by explosion
Pedestrians begin to attack player
Player takes a jump
Car flips and lands upside down
Car explodes
Nearby pedestrians are injured by explosion
Pedestrians begin to attack player

59. Affordance
An object (or system) has affordance if it displays obvious indicators of its properties.

60. Cart Properties: Metal Bulletproof Dimensions (shield) Magnets Wheeled
Can’t burn
Mass
Low center of mass
Etc

61. Explosive Barrel Properties:
Metal
Contains explosive fuel
Can ignite, burn, explode
Magnets
Mass and shape
Flat and round
Can be rolled
higher center of mass
Etc

62.
easy to verify
harder to solve

66. Conclusions
Highly Intentional play enables the player to become a creative participant in the play experience. I believe this is important.
Highly intentional play – the kind of play I’m suggesting we attempt to promote – takes place in robustly interconnected systems.
Helping the player comprehend these sorts of systems can be done in three ways: by requiring comprehension to progress, by offering a safe environment in which the player can experiment, and/or by directly rewarding the player by for experimenting with the systems.
There is a risk that in deciphering systems, the player can ‘See the Matrix’ and thereby lose appreciation or immersion in the fictional frame of the game world. I believe this is undesirable.
Finally – especially when dealing with messy systems – affordance is critical to enabling the player to gain a high degree of comprehension rapidly and responsively.

67. In Closing
Do players really want to be an active creative participant??

68. Designing to Promote Intentional Play