ch 6 reading response

I am drawn to Artful Design’s concepts of Ludus and Paidia in game design. When I think of what makes a game pleasurable, it involves two things - competition and exploration. Competition probably falls under Ludus; it has a strict goal, stimulates the player, contains a set of rules as a guiding structure of actions, and is generally striving to complete some end. Exploration is a little trickier to think about. At first glance, it seems like exploration cleanly falls under Paidia, since it is often improvised playing without an immediate goal. However, these categories also feel like they can have significant overlap. Take the game of Tanks that comes with the Wii -- it is incredibly simple, with 100 levels that players can explore together or solo, and has incredibly well-defined goals: kill the tanks to advance, and don’t die. However, this game was a sublime element of my childhood because my brother and I often took the time to explore the depths of what tanks can do in the game, independent of the goal of killing enemies and surviving. We performed experiments on the enemy tanks and catalogued their powers. We explored different playthroughs and strategized like military commanders. We tried to make the tanks do doughnuts in the sand, even though the game was most definitely not meant for that purpose. By exploiting the game, we were able to create our own experience of Paidia, even though it may not have been the intended use. What made this game so fun is that it initially seemed like it was simple with an easy goal, but my brother and I were able to discover another world within it, and it was such a fun memory to share. Looking back at my times playing this game, I can’t tell if the competition and goal-achieving aspect was the most fun, or if the exploration of the game’s limits is what kept me coming back. Perhaps it is a combination of both, and perhaps this is what people want from a game: the option to dial in and try hard, and the option to sit back and enjoy a piece of art that has been created to foster a sublime experience. When I think of other games, such as Fortnite, the distinct experience of Ludus and Paidia are extremely apparent. Obviously the goal is to win the game, but the pleasures of running around the arena, chopping down everything, and riding boats on land are unparalleled and are what make the game so sublime. If that exploratory aspect was the only component of the game, however, I might get bored. If only the competition aspect is preserved, I might get stressed out and disassociate from the game to keep myself grounded. The perfect harmony of Ludus and Paidia in Fortnite is what I think makes it such a popular and sublime game, and I am glad to have the vocabulary to precisely describe what about it makes it so fun.