Note: Slides can be found here
http://www.slideshare.net/jesseschell
Note: By Jesse Schell's own admission this material is in 'Beta'
Notes on 8 pieces of free to play.
Lots of focus on Game Design is mechanics. People are often looking at free to play mechanics as a way to monetize their game. In a way this makes game mechanics like keys and player's minds become the locks. a good game will unlock a players mind.
However, if you want to make a key that opens a lock, you should probably examine the lock. Traditionally if you wanted to know about the mind, you consult psychologists. But psychologists don't know much about optimal experience and 'fun'. if they did, they wouldn't throw such terrible parties. In a way this makes game design at the fore front of the study of fun. This also means there really isn't any literature out there on the 'Mechanics of the Mind'.
So it's a jungle out there, but if you keep searching you will find things (like buildings in a jungle).
So in the study of the mind for game design purposes Jesse has found 8 'pieces' for better crafting an optimal free to play experience (Personally, I'm not sure if it's limited to free to play).
1. Self Determination Theory
Self Determination Theory states that beyond survival there are 3 psychological needs in an experience.
Competence - People want to feel effective at what they are doing (they make a difference).
Autonomy - People like to feel in control of their actions and how they do their job.
Relatedness - People want to feel as if they are part of a community or connected with others.
2. Novelty Seeking
People like to be surprised by something new.
Setting and achieving a reward gives a dopamine boost; being surprised by something cool gives you a greater reward.
Variable rewards tend to be better than a fixed reward schedules. The brain comes to expect rewards on a
schedule and they cease becoming rewards. (Personally I think the brain files them as patterns/ rules/ mechanics)
People also buy things to try them out and see what they are like.
3. Plans
Cookies.
Simply, stating that 3 cookies are 1.20$ gets people thinking that they should buy 3 cookies (and they will). Basically they create or see a plan in their head.
A plan is a real thing. People want to execute a plan or mental model in their head.
4. Worlds
Star-wars was/is a a very popular world and people want to go to that world. Often when kids play with toys from a world (or IP) they make up their own stories that take place in their perception of the world. These toys and games really are selling access to this world.
Pokemon is a great example; there are so many ways to access that world...
These worlds of fantasy creates a inner 'psychosis' (Personally I call this a 'real fantasy', a fantasy I identify with. Its my my fantasy that I can sort of have in its own little place. People have the real world where you do the real stuff like eat and sleep and a fantasy world where you do dangerous exciting things that you would never attempt in the real world)
Fantasy worlds are real in the sense they are really important to some people.
In a way people can be broken into 2 groups:
Imagineers - people who really like fantasy worlds
Mundanes - people who are not in the fantasy worlds (they like sports, which have no fantasy)
5. Pleasure Seeking and Pain Avoiding
Pain avoidance and pleasure seeking are different pathways in the brain. In a way Pain avoidance is when you "Hafta" (have to or must) do things. Pleasure seeking is when you "wanna" (want to, like to do)
F2P hate often stems from when players feel like they "hafta" do something.
Leaving a F2P game is jokingly referred as a Divorce.
6. Status
All human interaction has status.
People have an innate status and will attempt to maintain that status with the individuals around them.
see Testosterone and competitive play (link provided)
http://www.lostgarden.com/2009/11/testosterone-and-competitive-play.html
7. Membership
People tend to choose to identity with a particular group (will act to conform to this).
People want to feel like they are a part of something bigger
This can be a negative group (like those saps who spend money on a social game)
For instance people don't want to buy-out of work. Players want to feel like they earned it.
8. Utopia
People want to make the world a better place.
So often fantasies take place in broken worlds and the players goal is to fix it (or leave it in a better place than they started)
Everyone wants a perfect world, Game will let players actually be able to create it.
Epilogue
I know I left some things out if you follow the slides (I can do a Slide by Slide breakdown of the presentation if requested).
