Reflection Wk 6: Player-centred design

Personally I am more on Raph Koster‘s side than on Ernest and Adams’s side. I do agree with Ernest and Adam that designers have the obligation entertain and empathize, but not to the degree that designers should give up creative ideas if the vision is incompatible with entertaining the player. The industry needs creative ideas, not the same game idea in 10 different games. Sure every gamer has his own preference on game type, but just because someone is more into shooting game does not mean he cannot enjoy in other types of game. Who knows what will happen if he is introduced with other type of games? May be he will like it?We try to think like the players, guess what they like, but we are not exactly them. We will not know whether a new creative idea will work unless we let the players experience  it.  All I want to say is, we should not give up on our creative ideas just because it seems not fit with the goal of entertaining players. We should actually try it and see how the players react to it. With the game Braid, at the beginning, I felt that it’s another Mario game, but as I progressed on levels, I started to realise it is completely different. In Braid, the key component is the the time control, rather than just like Mario, jumping and hitting the mushrooms’ head. Instead of a reaction game like Mario Bros, I would classify Braid as a mind set game, where players need to control the time to solve different challenges. Guess what? I actually like Braid more than Mario Bros, especially the time control feature. If the designers didnt introduce the new time control idea in Braid, I’d never imagine such an idea, and never know I will enjoy using this feature. And I appreciate the graphics in Braid too, they are beautiful. As described in one of the professional comments: “The whimsical world looks like a painting come to life.” I enjoyed that sensory pleasure.