Once again, a call goes out to make games more culturally meaningful. I agree very much with the sentiment, but I’ve always been frustrated with how designers set themselves up for failure due to the constraints placed on the problem. In mathematics, computer science, and physics there is a the concept of a ‘hard’ problem. What does the inside of a black hole look like? How do you identify an NP complete problem? How can […]
Lately I’ve been digging into research on testosterone. Over the past decade, scientists have been placing players in competitive situations and then measuring how their testosterone fluctuations predict future behavior. What you find from looking at the studies is that both winners and losers will leave your game if they are placed in a set of predictable situations involving dominance, luck, and friendship. There are four points that have experimental support: How playing with friends […]
LOSTGARDEN 