The Challenge Aesthetics (MDA)
Aesthetics are the tone or experience. Hunicke describes Aesthetics as “what makes a game ‘fun’?”
They propose that game designers can approach their craft through the lens of MDA (Mechanics, Dynamics, and Aesthetics), where the Mechanics (what is feasible — rules and resources) results in Dynamics (what occurs — activity), which lead to players’ Aesthetic experience (components of engagement or Feeling).
Challenge (as per MDA means Game as obstacle course) urge to master something. Boosts a game’s replayability.
According to Richard Bartle, there are four types of personalities found in player. One of which is an achiever who is more excited about the challenge aesthetics. Players give themselves game-related goals, and vigorously began to realize them. This usually means accumulating and removing large quantities of high-value treasure or cutting a swathe through hordes of mobiles (i.e., monsters built into the virtual world).
What makes people feel challenging?
Advancement.
Gamers who score high derive satisfaction from reaching goals, leveling quickly and accumulating in-game resources such as gold, gems, coins, etc. They enjoy making constant progress and gaining power within the forms offered by the games — combat prowess, social recognition, or financial/industrial superiority. Gamers who score high on this subcomponent are typically drawn to serious, hard-core guilds that will facilitate their advancement.
Progress: — Development towards an improved or more advanced condition.
Power: — The ability or capacity to do something or act in a particular way.
Accumulation: — The gradual gathering of something (for status).
Status: — An individual’s relative social standing.
Mechanics
Gamers who score high on Mechanics derive satisfaction from analyzing and understanding the underlying numerical mechanics of the system. For example, they’ll have an interest in calculating the precise damage difference between dual-wielding one-handed swords vs. using a two-handed sword, or figuring out the resolution order of dodges, misses, and evasions. Their goal in understanding the underlying system is usually to facilitate templating or optimizing a personality that excels during a particular domain.
Optimization: — Most effective use of a situation or resource.
Analysis: — Detailed examination of the elements or structure of something.
Competition
Gamers who score high enjoy the rush and experience of competing with other gamers on the battlefield or economy. This includes both fair, constrained challenges — such as dueling or structured PvP(Player vs Player)/RvR(Realm vs Realm), as well as unprovoked acts — such as scamming or griefing. Gamers who score high on this subcomponent enjoy the power of beating or dominating other players.
Challenging others: — Testing other’s abilities and showing their ability to win
Provocation: — Action or speech that makes someone aggressive to play.
Domination: — Control over other people or things
What mechanics are used in games to make it challenging?
Progress: — Level, Stages; Missions, Seasonal Challenge;
Power: — Game Tools, Resources and their Level
Accumulation: — Game Assets count (Coins, Gems, Beans, Trophies, XPs, Skins, Inventory), Gamerscores and Achievement lists
Status: — Badges, Tier, Rank; Followers count;
Optimization: — Game Tools & Powers like Guns, health kit, etc in Pubg.
Analysis: — Rules and Elements of games.
Challenging others: — Duet match, Multiplayer match, Chat
Provocation: — After Match score, Leader board, Comments, and chats
Domination: — Killing other players or Destroying their progress (Raid)
Progress
Level & Stages
Levels are made for providing players with a goal and enjoyable play experience. The good level design strives to produce quality gameplay, provide an immersive experience, especially in story-based games. Skilled use of textures and audio is important to supply immersive player experience.
Levels also act as a checkpoint for the play to save progress and continue from there any time. Games like Mario, Candy crush works on the leveling system.
Game — Candy Crush
Missions, Seasonal Challenge, Goals
Missions are also given with specific goal and player gets rewards for the missions completed which act as the status count for the user. Unlike Levels, Missions are not always compulsory to complete to proceed in-game, but the act of achieving goals is rewarding and reinforces actions that allow individuals to continue completing goals. Whether it’s leveling your character or earning points for headshots, the very act of accomplishing something reinforces player’s desire to keep accomplishing. This goal-oriented reward cycle can make gamers stick to a game and facilitates flow in-game.
Pubg, Candy crush, Subway surfer are games that give in-game missions to the player and reward them on completion.
Power
Power = Rules that allow the player to become massive
Power means a minimum of one among the game’s features should go the additional mile, take the merchandise to a non-comfort zone, with a fresh and bold outlook.
According to Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, a perfect balance of perceived challenges and skills are important factors inflow. As difficulty level in-game increases to make it challenging, the player’s skills should also increase. This is achieved by giving players special powers to control over obstacles.
Games Tools
Tools are designed to make the player feel powerful in games. Tools are used to attack, defend, build or perform any game activity.
Guns, Bandages, Health Meter are some tools given in Pubg game.
Tools & Resources Level
Games give special power to players to fight with obstacles and most tools are upgradable to a different level. The level represents the strength of the tool.
Like in COC, level of Town Hall, Mine, Walls, defense shows their power to defend. The more you increase the level, the powerful your resources/tools will become. These levels can be upgraded by spending in-game currency which can be coins, gems, beans, etc. Another example of this is Power Jump and Head start in Subway surfer which can be upgraded using coins.
Accumulation
Acquiring is often associated with positive emotions, such as pleasure and excitement, motivating individuals who experience these emotions while acquiring to keep acquiring, despite negative consequences.
Game Assets/Items & Achievement List
Item collection has been a staple of games since Pac-Man swallowed his first cherry. We’ve collected stars, coins, rings, nuts, bolts, packages, Armor, weapons, Achievements and so on. Games like Call of Duty 4 take exploration out of the collection equation and use experience points and graphs to indicate how close we are to obtaining that next weapon or Perk.
Gamerscores and Achievement lists that are connected to a community of millions facilitate this need to point out that “I’m better than you”. Ultimately, it all plays into chasing that sense of fulfillment. But for others, it is about just accumulating, sometimes to the detriment, or even the demise, of the hoarder.
Status
Badges/Tiers/Rank/Level
Games often include a ranking feature to further increase the game’s competitiveness. Many video games award special items or badges that can be used in-game. Players tend to take great pride, often using their rank as a status symbol, and dominance hierarchies are common within groups of ranked players.
Followers count
Followers count measures the social standing of the user which is almost used in every social media platform. Large followers count one has, the higher the likelihood of them seeing and engaging with content. People use features like hashtags to reach out to the audience with the same interest and increase followers count.
Optimization & Analysis of Game Tools, Powers & Rules
For many who choose this path of power, understanding the underlying game mechanics is crucial because power is derived from charts and rules, and thus knowing those rules becomes a form of power.
In most of the Multiplayer games or competitive game like Pubg, Mini militia, Minecraft, Dota2, etc all the players are provided with the same set of tools & powers and no player is having different strength over others and to win the match with the same set of tools, the player has to use every tool and resource effectively. One can upgrade their tools but in competitive games, players are matched to those opponents only who have almost the same set of skills and at this stage specialization in the tools and resources is something which can make a player win.
Challenging others
Duet match, Multiplayer match
One of the appeals of online gaming to the Player(achiever) is that they have the opportunity to show off their skill and hold an elite status to others. They value (or despise) the competition from other Achievers and look to the Socializers to give them praise. Gamerscore is utilized to reward Achievers, who can get points by completing difficult “Achievements” in the various games they play. They can, in turn, compare themselves to other gamers from around the world.
Games like Pubg, Mini Militia, Ludo, etc are players with a friend to challenge them.
Chat
Although chats in games are mostly used for socialization purposes, players also use it to challenge others for the match. In games like Clash of clans, one can challenge his/her clanmates to raid on their castle.
Provocation
After Match score, Leader board
Leader boards are used to motivate the user to play more by giving them a goal to achieve, feedback on their performance, the progress of other players (social comparison) and rewards to the winner which can be a social standing reward (Intrinsic) or any extrinsic reward.
Dominating others
Griefing over other player is also found to be something which is enjoyed in most of the Multiplayer online games. Players like to dominate others by repeatedly killing them, targeting new and inexperienced players or exploring loopholes in the games to harass players. A griefer’s ability to find and exploit loopholes or other aspects of the game to accomplish their goals in unexpected ways may greatly satisfy their need for competence.
Killing in multiplayer games like Pubg and Raiding others castle in Clash of clan is done to dominate others and prove competence of self.