1 00:00:00,090 --> 00:00:02,490 The following content is provided under a Creative 2 00:00:02,490 --> 00:00:04,030 Commons license. 3 00:00:04,030 --> 00:00:06,330 Your support will help MIT OpenCourseWare 4 00:00:06,330 --> 00:00:10,690 continue to offer high quality educational resources for free. 5 00:00:10,690 --> 00:00:13,320 To make a donation, or view additional materials 6 00:00:13,320 --> 00:00:17,280 from hundreds of MIT courses, visit MIT OpenCourseWare 7 00:00:17,280 --> 00:00:20,230 at ocw.mit.edu. 8 00:00:20,230 --> 00:00:22,830 PROFESSOR: This class is called game design. 9 00:00:22,830 --> 00:00:24,520 It is not an intro class. 10 00:00:24,520 --> 00:00:28,560 How many of you have taken a CMS class before? 11 00:00:28,560 --> 00:00:29,773 OK, about half of you. 12 00:00:29,773 --> 00:00:32,189 All right, a number you haven't taken to CMS class before. 13 00:00:32,189 --> 00:00:35,432 It's actually a prerequisite, but I can really 14 00:00:35,432 --> 00:00:37,140 take as many students as can fit in here. 15 00:00:37,140 --> 00:00:40,060 So let me tell you why a prerequisite exists. 16 00:00:40,060 --> 00:00:42,960 The prerequisite exists because in a CMS class 17 00:00:42,960 --> 00:00:45,660 we typically expect people to do a lot of writing, 18 00:00:45,660 --> 00:00:48,030 we expect people to expect their grades 19 00:00:48,030 --> 00:00:50,830 to depend on the quality of their writing. 20 00:00:50,830 --> 00:00:53,640 We expect people to do all of the reading in class, 21 00:00:53,640 --> 00:00:55,530 and to be able to do it before class starts 22 00:00:55,530 --> 00:00:57,510 so that you can actually be prepared 23 00:00:57,510 --> 00:01:02,220 to have a conversation about that in class. 24 00:01:02,220 --> 00:01:04,739 Different departments even, different humanities 25 00:01:04,739 --> 00:01:06,970 departments do things differently. 26 00:01:06,970 --> 00:01:09,960 In CMS class, if you've taken any CMS class, none of this 27 00:01:09,960 --> 00:01:11,050 should sound surprising. 28 00:01:11,050 --> 00:01:12,862 You know, you've probably written way more 29 00:01:12,862 --> 00:01:14,820 in other CMS classes than you would [INAUDIBLE] 30 00:01:14,820 --> 00:01:15,730 write in this class. 31 00:01:15,730 --> 00:01:17,063 You're also expected to present. 32 00:01:17,063 --> 00:01:19,470 You're expected to come up in front of the entire class 33 00:01:19,470 --> 00:01:23,574 and say, and talk about your project. 34 00:01:23,574 --> 00:01:24,990 You should expect that your grades 35 00:01:24,990 --> 00:01:28,270 will depend on the quality of your presentation as well. 36 00:01:28,270 --> 00:01:30,540 So, one example-- 37 00:01:30,540 --> 00:01:33,750 You might design a perfectly good game. 38 00:01:33,750 --> 00:01:38,850 In fact an extremely elegant, beautiful game 39 00:01:38,850 --> 00:01:40,860 for the ages like Go or something like that, 40 00:01:40,860 --> 00:01:43,590 and you designed in this class, and that's great. 41 00:01:43,590 --> 00:01:46,587 But if your grammar is terrible in your rules, 42 00:01:46,587 --> 00:01:49,170 even though I can't so read the rules and I can play the game, 43 00:01:49,170 --> 00:01:51,211 and it says, wow this is a really beautiful game, 44 00:01:51,211 --> 00:01:54,580 but your writing sucks you are going to lose grade [INAUDIBLE] 45 00:01:54,580 --> 00:01:56,230 based on that. 46 00:01:56,230 --> 00:01:59,290 That's one of the things that you should expect. 47 00:01:59,290 --> 00:02:02,430 There is a writing center over in building 12 I think, 48 00:02:02,430 --> 00:02:04,369 they are going to be moving in the summer, 49 00:02:04,369 --> 00:02:06,160 but right now they're still in building 12. 50 00:02:06,160 --> 00:02:08,350 Definitely take advantage of them. 51 00:02:08,350 --> 00:02:09,960 We are looking for concise writing, 52 00:02:09,960 --> 00:02:12,070 we are looking for precise writing, 53 00:02:12,070 --> 00:02:16,470 but we're not looking for, how should I put it, 54 00:02:16,470 --> 00:02:19,830 any more words than is necessary to get a point across. 55 00:02:19,830 --> 00:02:22,530 We want things to be fast to read. 56 00:02:22,530 --> 00:02:25,500 We want things to be easy for laypeople to read, 57 00:02:25,500 --> 00:02:28,290 not necessarily MIT students to read. 58 00:02:28,290 --> 00:02:30,940 You are going to see examples, many, 59 00:02:30,940 --> 00:02:33,810 many examples of very poorly written rules in this -- 60 00:02:33,810 --> 00:02:37,770 of games that are actually very well made. 61 00:02:37,770 --> 00:02:41,005 I actually kind of like this company here, HABA. 62 00:02:41,005 --> 00:02:43,880 How many of you have heard of this company HABA? 63 00:02:43,880 --> 00:02:46,620 They make little wooden trains-- 64 00:02:46,620 --> 00:02:52,065 toys, if you have any kid siblings, 65 00:02:52,065 --> 00:02:55,890 they may have gotten toys from this company. 66 00:02:55,890 --> 00:02:57,600 They make games for kids, and not 67 00:02:57,600 --> 00:02:58,980 for children under three years. 68 00:02:58,980 --> 00:03:04,140 That's the barrier. 69 00:03:04,140 --> 00:03:07,700 And the rules are written for, like six different languages, 70 00:03:07,700 --> 00:03:09,380 but for kids. 71 00:03:09,380 --> 00:03:12,270 They still expect parents to be able to explain 72 00:03:12,270 --> 00:03:14,969 how these games go, but you can imagine a six year-old 73 00:03:14,969 --> 00:03:16,510 picking up a game like this and being 74 00:03:16,510 --> 00:03:17,751 able to play it just fine. 75 00:03:17,751 --> 00:03:19,500 And this is actually a really elegant game 76 00:03:19,500 --> 00:03:21,690 and will be taking a look a little bit closer 77 00:03:21,690 --> 00:03:24,570 at this later today. 78 00:03:24,570 --> 00:03:26,070 That's kind of like where you should 79 00:03:26,070 --> 00:03:28,710 be aiming for with the quality of the writing. 80 00:03:28,710 --> 00:03:31,140 Try to get your stuff as clearly as possible, as quickly 81 00:03:31,140 --> 00:03:36,360 as possible over to as low a reading level as possible. 82 00:03:36,360 --> 00:03:39,327 There are a couple of tips that we have written, 83 00:03:39,327 --> 00:03:41,910 and that file is up on Stellar, and I'm handing that sheet out 84 00:03:41,910 --> 00:03:46,566 so you can go home and download the PDF yourself, 85 00:03:46,566 --> 00:03:50,890 and that's called the Rules Style Guide. 86 00:03:50,890 --> 00:03:53,340 Do I have a link for that in here? 87 00:03:53,340 --> 00:03:55,360 I don't have a link for that in here. 88 00:03:55,360 --> 00:03:58,530 I'll just put it on top of the Stellar announcement page. 89 00:03:58,530 --> 00:04:01,980 The Rules Style Guide is basically a two page document, 90 00:04:01,980 --> 00:04:04,050 that just gives you a bunch of tips 91 00:04:04,050 --> 00:04:07,260 on when to use bullet points versus 92 00:04:07,260 --> 00:04:08,700 numbered bullets for instance. 93 00:04:16,529 --> 00:04:20,130 Things that you absolutely should include, like a list 94 00:04:20,130 --> 00:04:21,630 components in your game-- 95 00:04:21,630 --> 00:04:24,909 so that when I get it as an instructor 96 00:04:24,909 --> 00:04:26,700 at the end of the assignment I can actually 97 00:04:26,700 --> 00:04:29,116 make sure that everything in your game was provided to me, 98 00:04:29,116 --> 00:04:32,310 so that I can actually play the whole thing. 99 00:04:32,310 --> 00:04:34,867 Give players a way to decide who goes first, 100 00:04:34,867 --> 00:04:36,450 don't just leave it up to the players, 101 00:04:36,450 --> 00:04:37,940 pick a player to go first. 102 00:04:37,940 --> 00:04:40,020 Pick something silly like, person 103 00:04:40,020 --> 00:04:43,550 who grew up closest to the sea. 104 00:04:43,550 --> 00:04:49,350 That's a real rule from [INAUDIBLE], by the way. 105 00:04:49,350 --> 00:04:52,690 So, we do encourage inclusive language. 106 00:04:52,690 --> 00:04:54,471 It can be a little bit more verbose, 107 00:04:54,471 --> 00:04:55,470 but instead of writing-- 108 00:04:58,250 --> 00:05:00,690 instead of describing all players as male, 109 00:05:00,690 --> 00:05:04,160 we do appreciate it when people say he or she. 110 00:05:04,160 --> 00:05:07,290 It's fine to be able to flip between he and she, 111 00:05:07,290 --> 00:05:09,990 but, of course, not when you're describing the same player 112 00:05:09,990 --> 00:05:11,326 doing certain rule. 113 00:05:11,326 --> 00:05:12,700 They're not changing their gender 114 00:05:12,700 --> 00:05:15,406 in the middle of the turn. 115 00:05:15,406 --> 00:05:18,030 But the great way to be able to use language to describe player 116 00:05:18,030 --> 00:05:20,160 is player B. You can also just say 117 00:05:20,160 --> 00:05:22,341 the player, the player, the player. 118 00:05:22,341 --> 00:05:24,840 It is a little bit more verbose, but in that particular case 119 00:05:24,840 --> 00:05:27,420 there is a sort of higher goal in mind, 120 00:05:27,420 --> 00:05:30,229 that's to get across the point that games are for everyone. 121 00:05:30,229 --> 00:05:31,770 Especially the game that you're going 122 00:05:31,770 --> 00:05:32,894 to be making in this class. 123 00:05:32,894 --> 00:05:35,410 There's no particular reason why in this class, 124 00:05:35,410 --> 00:05:38,552 you should be making a game just for men to play, 125 00:05:38,552 --> 00:05:39,510 just for women to play. 126 00:05:39,510 --> 00:05:41,985 And right now it is too easy to fall into the trap 127 00:05:41,985 --> 00:05:45,480 that you just generalize that all players are male, 128 00:05:45,480 --> 00:05:46,990 and that's just bad. 129 00:05:46,990 --> 00:05:48,450 So don't do that. 130 00:05:48,450 --> 00:05:50,910 In fact, if you take the effort to do that, 131 00:05:50,910 --> 00:05:53,700 you will see that reflected in your grade. 132 00:05:53,700 --> 00:05:57,910 If you take the effort to use inclusive language. 133 00:05:57,910 --> 00:06:00,045 Let's see, what else. 134 00:06:02,950 --> 00:06:07,690 Attendance you have to attend every single class. 135 00:06:07,690 --> 00:06:10,994 If you are sick, and especially sick with something contagious, 136 00:06:10,994 --> 00:06:12,910 or sick to the point where you can't move, say 137 00:06:12,910 --> 00:06:15,940 you broke something, and you really 138 00:06:15,940 --> 00:06:17,930 should be resting that's fine to the email 139 00:06:17,930 --> 00:06:20,380 that before class starts. 140 00:06:20,380 --> 00:06:22,900 Now you know, if there was an accident or something 141 00:06:22,900 --> 00:06:26,620 and you had trouble getting to email that's fine, 142 00:06:26,620 --> 00:06:28,280 you can email us after. 143 00:06:28,280 --> 00:06:32,680 It would be nice to be able get some evidence from your doctor, 144 00:06:32,680 --> 00:06:36,400 but if push comes to shove I'm not going to be 145 00:06:36,400 --> 00:06:39,430 too much of a stickler on that. 146 00:06:39,430 --> 00:06:45,040 Things that I don't give automatic absences 147 00:06:45,040 --> 00:06:49,300 include being hauled away for a job interview, 148 00:06:49,300 --> 00:06:54,340 being stuck in an airport because you planed your spring 149 00:06:54,340 --> 00:06:57,970 break flight back too late or something like that. 150 00:06:57,970 --> 00:07:00,796 You have three free absences basically. 151 00:07:00,796 --> 00:07:02,170 You have three absences where you 152 00:07:02,170 --> 00:07:04,544 don't have to provide any excuse-- you don't have to tell 153 00:07:04,544 --> 00:07:06,820 me this is why you were gone. 154 00:07:06,820 --> 00:07:08,955 And that's what I expect. 155 00:07:08,955 --> 00:07:10,990 Now you can miss about three classes 156 00:07:10,990 --> 00:07:13,620 and I'm still quite satisfied that you've gotten everything 157 00:07:13,620 --> 00:07:15,060 that you need from this class. 158 00:07:15,060 --> 00:07:18,240 Illnesses are one of the few things that 159 00:07:18,240 --> 00:07:21,790 are really out of control, and can hit people 160 00:07:21,790 --> 00:07:25,404 for an extended period of time, and that wasn't necessarily 161 00:07:25,404 --> 00:07:27,070 your fault. Whereas something like being 162 00:07:27,070 --> 00:07:29,680 stuck in an airport usually only you for class, 163 00:07:29,680 --> 00:07:31,030 so it's not that bad. 164 00:07:34,840 --> 00:07:38,440 How many of are seniors on the job interview track? 165 00:07:38,440 --> 00:07:40,724 Save those three for things like job interviews, 166 00:07:40,724 --> 00:07:42,140 because you're going to need that. 167 00:07:42,140 --> 00:07:45,310 And you don't have to ask for permission or anything-- 168 00:07:45,310 --> 00:07:47,180 Just go for your job interviews and realize 169 00:07:47,180 --> 00:07:48,552 that you have three of those. 170 00:07:54,100 --> 00:07:57,050 If you do miss more than three classes, 171 00:07:57,050 --> 00:08:01,180 and it was not due to illnesses, then you 172 00:08:01,180 --> 00:08:06,580 may well get a reduction in your grades. 173 00:08:06,580 --> 00:08:09,320 I have students drop by a full letter grade. 174 00:08:09,320 --> 00:08:11,490 So they would have gotten a B, they got a C 175 00:08:11,490 --> 00:08:13,840 based on absences alone. 176 00:08:13,840 --> 00:08:15,449 All of the assignments, told them 177 00:08:15,449 --> 00:08:16,990 that they were going to be B average, 178 00:08:16,990 --> 00:08:18,495 but their attendance was poor. 179 00:08:18,495 --> 00:08:19,960 and as a result of that. 180 00:08:19,960 --> 00:08:23,470 Usually missing four classes doesn't drop you a full letter 181 00:08:23,470 --> 00:08:29,230 grade, but it really depends on how close you were to the tip 182 00:08:29,230 --> 00:08:33,380 off, like a B-minus and a C-plus before your attendance 183 00:08:33,380 --> 00:08:35,020 into account. 184 00:08:35,020 --> 00:08:37,510 There's a little bit more detail in the syllabus 185 00:08:37,510 --> 00:08:39,630 about how grades are computed. 186 00:08:43,350 --> 00:08:49,210 Plagiarism is usually not so much of a problem 187 00:08:49,210 --> 00:08:51,029 when it comes to the group projects, 188 00:08:51,029 --> 00:08:53,320 because you're going to be writing a lot of your rules, 189 00:08:53,320 --> 00:08:56,800 and everyone is keeping an eye on what's actually being 190 00:08:56,800 --> 00:09:01,540 handed in for your assignments. 191 00:09:01,540 --> 00:09:03,100 Keep in mind that I certainly don't 192 00:09:03,100 --> 00:09:06,030 want you to be copying wholesale from somebody else's rules. 193 00:09:06,030 --> 00:09:07,810 That's more than plagiarism. 194 00:09:07,810 --> 00:09:11,570 That might be copyright infringement. 195 00:09:11,570 --> 00:09:14,020 But when it comes to your own writing, 196 00:09:14,020 --> 00:09:18,400 there is actually a one page personal report for every time 197 00:09:18,400 --> 00:09:21,700 you hand in a team assignment. 198 00:09:21,700 --> 00:09:25,940 We are expecting you to keep a journal of every team meeting. 199 00:09:25,940 --> 00:09:29,200 A personal journal about how the team meeting went, 200 00:09:29,200 --> 00:09:33,490 what decisions you made, you can write down things like, 201 00:09:33,490 --> 00:09:34,960 wow, only half the team turned up 202 00:09:34,960 --> 00:09:37,980 and that meeting wasn't really useful. 203 00:09:37,980 --> 00:09:41,020 These are all useful things to keep in mind. 204 00:09:41,020 --> 00:09:43,720 You get to choose what you are what you want to write down 205 00:09:43,720 --> 00:09:46,270 your one page report. 206 00:09:46,270 --> 00:09:49,800 Again I'm looking for something that's well-written, 207 00:09:49,800 --> 00:09:52,510 reflective would be very nice. 208 00:09:52,510 --> 00:09:56,810 Based on the experience of doing this team assignment, what will 209 00:09:56,810 --> 00:09:58,170 I do differently next time. 210 00:09:58,170 --> 00:10:01,240 Or what went well that I want to make sure that I do again? 211 00:10:03,787 --> 00:10:05,370 Those things are very good to put down 212 00:10:05,370 --> 00:10:06,760 in your one page report. 213 00:10:06,760 --> 00:10:08,740 Write those on your own, don't go into it 214 00:10:08,740 --> 00:10:10,840 like a group writing session. 215 00:10:10,840 --> 00:10:13,049 You can compare notes that's fine. 216 00:10:13,049 --> 00:10:14,590 But when it comes down to writing it, 217 00:10:14,590 --> 00:10:16,140 I want you to write it on your own. 218 00:10:22,820 --> 00:10:24,904 How many grad students in here? 219 00:10:24,904 --> 00:10:25,810 One? 220 00:10:25,810 --> 00:10:31,630 OK, so grad students, if you're signing up for 608, 221 00:10:31,630 --> 00:10:32,840 that's no additional work. 222 00:10:32,840 --> 00:10:35,700 If you're signing up for 864, which gives you grad credit, 223 00:10:35,700 --> 00:10:37,650 then there is additional work. 224 00:10:37,650 --> 00:10:40,500 That largely involves checking out the games one week 225 00:10:40,500 --> 00:10:43,334 in advance, making sure that they're all punched, 226 00:10:43,334 --> 00:10:45,000 making sure all the pieces are in there, 227 00:10:45,000 --> 00:10:46,505 and making sure you know the rules. 228 00:10:46,505 --> 00:10:49,080 You don't necessarily have to learn the rules 229 00:10:49,080 --> 00:10:50,820 by reading the rules, you can't do it 230 00:10:50,820 --> 00:10:54,480 by watching play videos on YouTube. 231 00:10:54,480 --> 00:10:57,330 However it takes to learn the game, you it in class 232 00:10:57,330 --> 00:10:59,580 and you teach your classmates how to play this game, 233 00:10:59,580 --> 00:11:02,670 so everyone can get started a little bit faster. 234 00:11:02,670 --> 00:11:04,670 And make sure that all of the pieces are inside. 235 00:11:07,850 --> 00:11:09,960 That being said, everyone should be 236 00:11:09,960 --> 00:11:14,660 looking at the rules of these games when they're in class. 237 00:11:14,660 --> 00:11:17,440 You will see in the class schedule, 238 00:11:17,440 --> 00:11:19,320 I actually have all the games that we're 239 00:11:19,320 --> 00:11:22,620 going to be playing listed so that if the name of the game 240 00:11:22,620 --> 00:11:28,452 escapes you, you'll be able to Google it and look it up later. 241 00:11:28,452 --> 00:11:29,910 And you should be look at the rules 242 00:11:29,910 --> 00:11:32,510 because you want to see how the rules are written-- 243 00:11:32,510 --> 00:11:34,980 how good rules are written, how bad rules are written. 244 00:11:34,980 --> 00:11:38,280 And you're going to again see a lot of really bad rules. 245 00:11:38,280 --> 00:11:42,760 And you want to understand how certain things are conveyed. 246 00:11:42,760 --> 00:11:45,180 Maybe there's a really elegant game mechanic 247 00:11:45,180 --> 00:11:47,670 that you want to try to use a version of that 248 00:11:47,670 --> 00:11:51,960 in your own game, but you are having difficulty 249 00:11:51,960 --> 00:11:52,860 explaining it. 250 00:11:52,860 --> 00:11:55,230 Well, look at the rules of how other board games do it, 251 00:11:55,230 --> 00:11:58,410 and see whether they do a better job of it. 252 00:11:58,410 --> 00:12:02,650 Look at videos-- I'm one of the few people who definitely learn 253 00:12:02,650 --> 00:12:05,010 the games better by watching a video of somebody who's 254 00:12:05,010 --> 00:12:07,780 actually played it, or talking to somebody who's actually 255 00:12:07,780 --> 00:12:09,870 played it and having them shown to me. 256 00:12:09,870 --> 00:12:11,580 I have trouble parsing rules myself, 257 00:12:11,580 --> 00:12:14,640 but that's why I can really appreciate well written rules 258 00:12:14,640 --> 00:12:15,535 when I see one. 259 00:12:18,680 --> 00:12:20,638 So make sure that you are looking at the rules. 260 00:12:27,940 --> 00:12:30,070 As I briefly mentioned earlier, all the assignments 261 00:12:30,070 --> 00:12:32,260 in this class are team projects. 262 00:12:32,260 --> 00:12:34,510 There is again, that one page individual report 263 00:12:34,510 --> 00:12:38,410 that you hand in, usually the week after the assignment, 264 00:12:38,410 --> 00:12:40,750 and that one you write yourself, but it's all 265 00:12:40,750 --> 00:12:42,210 based on that team project. 266 00:12:42,210 --> 00:12:44,650 Which means you're going to be working on teams typically 267 00:12:44,650 --> 00:12:46,630 of three to four people. 268 00:12:46,630 --> 00:12:50,080 I do not recommend teams of five people in this class, 269 00:12:50,080 --> 00:12:51,850 simply because once you hit five you 270 00:12:51,850 --> 00:12:55,120 get into to certain communication overheads that 271 00:12:55,120 --> 00:12:56,595 makes it kind of counterproductive, 272 00:12:56,595 --> 00:12:58,205 so you can probably get about the same amount of work 273 00:12:58,205 --> 00:12:59,147 done with four people. 274 00:13:02,076 --> 00:13:03,700 Sometimes of all five people are living 275 00:13:03,700 --> 00:13:06,937 in the same living group you might be able to make it work. 276 00:13:06,937 --> 00:13:08,770 It's still really hard to schedule a meeting 277 00:13:08,770 --> 00:13:11,320 with five people all at once. 278 00:13:11,320 --> 00:13:13,030 Class does end at 4 o'clock. 279 00:13:13,030 --> 00:13:15,864 Usually that last hour is game playing time, 280 00:13:15,864 --> 00:13:18,280 which means you might be able to take a set amount of time 281 00:13:18,280 --> 00:13:19,630 to meet up with your team. 282 00:13:19,630 --> 00:13:22,030 It's even better if the hour between 4 and 5 o'clock 283 00:13:22,030 --> 00:13:24,340 is all free for every single member of your team, 284 00:13:24,340 --> 00:13:26,810 but that's not going to be the case for every single team-- 285 00:13:26,810 --> 00:13:28,160 for every single project. 286 00:13:28,160 --> 00:13:30,060 And you can switch teams between projects. 287 00:13:30,060 --> 00:13:32,440 Assignment one can be with a completely different group 288 00:13:32,440 --> 00:13:37,030 of people from assignment and two, that's fine. 289 00:13:37,030 --> 00:13:39,040 We're going to team formation, I think 290 00:13:39,040 --> 00:13:41,320 the schedule has it on Monday, yeah, 291 00:13:41,320 --> 00:13:45,500 because I'm not sure if this is the entire class yet. 292 00:13:45,500 --> 00:13:47,710 So on Monday we'll actually go a little bit more 293 00:13:47,710 --> 00:13:52,930 into brainstorming, talking a little bit about what projects 294 00:13:52,930 --> 00:13:55,610 you want to do, assembling teams around that, 295 00:13:55,610 --> 00:13:57,730 and then you're off to the races. 296 00:13:57,730 --> 00:14:01,510 You've only got three weeks to finish this first game. 297 00:14:01,510 --> 00:14:03,470 Is it three weeks? 298 00:14:03,470 --> 00:14:06,277 Yep, exactly three weeks, actually less than 299 00:14:06,277 --> 00:14:08,360 that because you start on the Monday and then hand 300 00:14:08,360 --> 00:14:10,950 in on that third Wednesday. 301 00:14:10,950 --> 00:14:12,700 So a very short amount of time, but that's 302 00:14:12,700 --> 00:14:15,707 OK because this is supposed to be 303 00:14:15,707 --> 00:14:17,290 very quick and dirty first assignment, 304 00:14:17,290 --> 00:14:21,570 get it out of the way and get into the groove of things. 305 00:14:21,570 --> 00:14:25,080 We're going to spend most of this month just talking 306 00:14:25,080 --> 00:14:27,420 about the discipline of making games. 307 00:14:27,420 --> 00:14:31,740 What is iterative design, what is rapid prototyping, what 308 00:14:31,740 --> 00:14:34,299 is game testing, why is it important 309 00:14:34,299 --> 00:14:36,090 and why you're going to be doing this over, 310 00:14:36,090 --> 00:14:38,820 and over, and over, and over, and over again all semester 311 00:14:38,820 --> 00:14:39,390 long. 312 00:14:39,390 --> 00:14:40,890 That's the one thing that I want you 313 00:14:40,890 --> 00:14:43,300 to walk away from class with, is being better 314 00:14:43,300 --> 00:14:46,090 at itterative design. 315 00:14:46,090 --> 00:14:48,189 Who here is familiar with-- 316 00:14:48,189 --> 00:14:49,980 has practiced some sort of iterative design 317 00:14:49,980 --> 00:14:53,510 from any discipline? 318 00:14:53,510 --> 00:14:56,712 How many of you are from an engineering background 319 00:14:56,712 --> 00:14:58,740 where you practiced that. 320 00:14:58,740 --> 00:15:05,160 OK, just to get a sense which sort of project kind of work 321 00:15:05,160 --> 00:15:06,282 that you came from-- 322 00:15:06,282 --> 00:15:07,700 AUDIENCE: [INAUDIBLE] 323 00:15:07,700 --> 00:15:09,530 PROFESSOR: [INAUDIBLE]? 324 00:15:09,530 --> 00:15:11,880 AUDIENCE: [INAUDIBLE] 325 00:15:11,880 --> 00:15:14,785 PROFESSOR: Yeah, creative video games. 326 00:15:14,785 --> 00:15:18,237 AUDIENCE: Building a robot that is [INAUDIBLE] competition. 327 00:15:18,237 --> 00:15:19,411 PROFESSOR: OK, yeah. 328 00:15:19,411 --> 00:15:19,910 Others? 329 00:15:19,910 --> 00:15:20,720 AUDIENCE: Software development. 330 00:15:20,720 --> 00:15:22,011 PROFESSOR: Software development 331 00:15:22,011 --> 00:15:23,612 AUDIENCE: Creating the [INAUDIBLE]. 332 00:15:23,612 --> 00:15:24,570 PROFESSOR: Right, Yeah. 333 00:15:24,570 --> 00:15:27,870 I'll just leave the computer game design classes, 334 00:15:27,870 --> 00:15:30,840 very relevant experience here. 335 00:15:30,840 --> 00:15:33,390 This class is, of course, a good prerequisite 336 00:15:33,390 --> 00:15:37,110 for getting into CMS.611 which is our creating video games 337 00:15:37,110 --> 00:15:37,940 class. 338 00:15:37,940 --> 00:15:41,030 That class is about teamwork, is a lot more about obviously 339 00:15:41,030 --> 00:15:42,805 software because it's a video games class. 340 00:15:46,460 --> 00:15:49,610 That's going to be in the fall, so if you're 341 00:15:49,610 --> 00:15:51,469 interested after this class is over, 342 00:15:51,469 --> 00:15:53,010 you might want to check that one out, 343 00:15:53,010 --> 00:15:54,843 and you can talk to the students around here 344 00:15:54,843 --> 00:15:56,097 who've done it before. 345 00:15:56,097 --> 00:15:57,930 By the way, for those people who've actually 346 00:15:57,930 --> 00:16:00,160 been in classes with me I haven't gotten contacts, 347 00:16:00,160 --> 00:16:01,530 I'm just blind right now. 348 00:16:01,530 --> 00:16:06,360 My glasses snapped in half, and I have a three-year-old, 349 00:16:06,360 --> 00:16:08,130 things are happening. 350 00:16:08,130 --> 00:16:19,945 Actually I was playing StarCraft and then [INAUDIBLE] 351 00:16:19,945 --> 00:16:21,820 The final thing that I want to talk about all 352 00:16:21,820 --> 00:16:23,278 the way at the end of the syllabus, 353 00:16:23,278 --> 00:16:24,910 is this thing called a change log. 354 00:16:24,910 --> 00:16:27,530 Some of you have done CMS.611 recently 355 00:16:27,530 --> 00:16:30,100 will find this quite familiar. 356 00:16:30,100 --> 00:16:32,914 This is again one per group, not one for person, 357 00:16:32,914 --> 00:16:34,330 but you hand this at the same time 358 00:16:34,330 --> 00:16:36,167 as you hand in each assignment. 359 00:16:36,167 --> 00:16:38,500 And what I want you to do, is that you end up every time 360 00:16:38,500 --> 00:16:40,708 you have a design meeting, whether you meet in class, 361 00:16:40,708 --> 00:16:43,240 or you might outside of class on a weekend, even 362 00:16:43,240 --> 00:16:48,850 online or something, every time you make changes to your game 363 00:16:48,850 --> 00:16:52,591 write down why those changes written down in this format. 364 00:16:52,591 --> 00:16:55,090 We give you the sample format, we expect you to stick to it. 365 00:16:55,090 --> 00:16:56,800 You can tweak it, but we expect to see 366 00:16:56,800 --> 00:17:01,480 at least this much detail. 367 00:17:01,480 --> 00:17:04,089 What are the actions do in your games, 368 00:17:04,089 --> 00:17:10,010 what are the goals of the player, or players of course. 369 00:17:10,010 --> 00:17:11,510 What are the problems that your team 370 00:17:11,510 --> 00:17:15,099 is noticing after having played through this game? 371 00:17:15,099 --> 00:17:18,099 Turn takes too long, no one knows 372 00:17:18,099 --> 00:17:22,690 what to do, game takes too long, games over to quickly, 373 00:17:22,690 --> 00:17:24,940 game seems too random and out of our control. 374 00:17:24,940 --> 00:17:27,160 All those things, write down in problems. 375 00:17:27,160 --> 00:17:30,790 These should be useful for you as it is for us. 376 00:17:30,790 --> 00:17:32,779 If somebody misses a design meeting, 377 00:17:32,779 --> 00:17:34,570 you should be able to keep this on a Google 378 00:17:34,570 --> 00:17:36,880 Doc or some publicly shared document, 379 00:17:36,880 --> 00:17:39,640 and you can look at this, oh that's what happened last week. 380 00:17:39,640 --> 00:17:44,414 Oh, you change the wind condition to half what it was. 381 00:17:44,414 --> 00:17:46,330 OK I guess that's what we're working with now, 382 00:17:46,330 --> 00:17:47,170 why did you do that? 383 00:17:47,170 --> 00:17:49,378 And it says, Oh, because the game was taking too long 384 00:17:49,378 --> 00:17:51,330 or something. 385 00:17:51,330 --> 00:17:53,902 I expect to see that coming with your final assignment-- 386 00:17:53,902 --> 00:17:55,110 with each assignment as well. 387 00:18:02,934 --> 00:18:04,401 Any questions so far? 388 00:18:11,270 --> 00:18:13,910 There's going to be a bunch of guest lectures 389 00:18:13,910 --> 00:18:16,630 but we haven't labeled them in here because we haven't quite 390 00:18:16,630 --> 00:18:17,757 scheduled them just yet. 391 00:18:17,757 --> 00:18:19,840 The readings are the same, the games are the same. 392 00:18:19,840 --> 00:18:22,750 Some changes might happen to the schedule on Stellar. 393 00:18:22,750 --> 00:18:26,890 I will obviously make announcements on Stellar, 394 00:18:26,890 --> 00:18:28,380 I'll make announcements in class, 395 00:18:28,380 --> 00:18:30,420 I'll try to update the document on Stellar 396 00:18:30,420 --> 00:18:32,332 with schedule changes. 397 00:18:32,332 --> 00:18:33,790 But, for the most part, assignments 398 00:18:33,790 --> 00:18:35,850 are not going to change, just some readings 399 00:18:35,850 --> 00:18:37,870 may get rearranged. 400 00:18:37,870 --> 00:18:40,290 I have to point out something about reading. 401 00:18:40,290 --> 00:18:44,860 So, here are books that we're referencing in class. 402 00:18:44,860 --> 00:18:47,140 There's a few individual essays, but you're not 403 00:18:47,140 --> 00:18:49,306 going to have to read every single one of these back 404 00:18:49,306 --> 00:18:51,183 to back. 405 00:18:51,183 --> 00:18:55,180 For tabletop, this is actually available as a free PDF 406 00:18:55,180 --> 00:18:58,490 from the publisher, and the link of that is on Stellar. 407 00:18:58,490 --> 00:19:01,540 So, you don't have to buy the book you just download the PDF, 408 00:19:01,540 --> 00:19:05,274 scroll down to the reading and just read that. 409 00:19:05,274 --> 00:19:06,690 We have one reading from his book, 410 00:19:06,690 --> 00:19:09,590 but I actually recommend this book. 411 00:19:09,590 --> 00:19:12,113 How many of you have heard of the New Games Movement? 412 00:19:12,113 --> 00:19:13,000 AUDIENCE: New Games? 413 00:19:13,000 --> 00:19:14,580 PROFESSOR: New Games. 414 00:19:14,580 --> 00:19:19,660 It's from the '60s, so new is relative. 415 00:19:19,660 --> 00:19:22,410 The New Games Movement was something that-- 416 00:19:22,410 --> 00:19:24,810 OK, how many of you played with a parachute in gym class 417 00:19:24,810 --> 00:19:26,580 when you were in elementary school? 418 00:19:26,580 --> 00:19:29,680 OK, you were part of the New Games Movement. 419 00:19:29,680 --> 00:19:33,760 This was basically an activist group of game designers 420 00:19:33,760 --> 00:19:38,410 in the '60s, heavily influenced by the Whole Earth Catalog 421 00:19:38,410 --> 00:19:41,200 if you've heard of that-- 422 00:19:41,200 --> 00:19:42,556 Stewart Brand, yeah. 423 00:19:45,240 --> 00:19:49,870 Basically typical counterculture, 424 00:19:49,870 --> 00:19:52,690 but in the games side of things was very specifically 425 00:19:52,690 --> 00:19:56,320 about making games that feature different kinds 426 00:19:56,320 --> 00:19:58,750 of cooperative play. 427 00:19:58,750 --> 00:20:00,280 If they were competitive they were 428 00:20:00,280 --> 00:20:02,430 sort of light hearted competitive, 429 00:20:02,430 --> 00:20:05,450 and we're still trying to develop a sense of community. 430 00:20:05,450 --> 00:20:07,390 The parachute type games are very 431 00:20:07,390 --> 00:20:09,160 much about taking military hardware 432 00:20:09,160 --> 00:20:13,646 and turning them into peacetime fun activities. 433 00:20:13,646 --> 00:20:16,145 The parachute is something that used to drop soldiers right? 434 00:20:19,170 --> 00:20:22,010 It's a really neat book. 435 00:20:22,010 --> 00:20:25,890 You can see the title of a Playful [INAUDIBLE] Home. 436 00:20:25,890 --> 00:20:31,660 It could be some sort of New Age writing, 437 00:20:31,660 --> 00:20:34,960 but it's actually a pretty nice treatise 438 00:20:34,960 --> 00:20:36,970 on a particular kind of game design, which 439 00:20:36,970 --> 00:20:40,290 is how do you make games to bring people together, 440 00:20:40,290 --> 00:20:43,420 which is a perfectly fine goal when if you 441 00:20:43,420 --> 00:20:45,010 want to be a game designer. 442 00:20:45,010 --> 00:20:47,770 So, check that out. 443 00:20:47,770 --> 00:20:50,740 The Design of Everyday Things, you should graduate from MIT 444 00:20:50,740 --> 00:20:52,780 without having read this book. 445 00:20:52,780 --> 00:20:56,650 If you design anything mechanical engineer, software, 446 00:20:56,650 --> 00:20:58,877 anything that's meant to be used by a human being. 447 00:20:58,877 --> 00:21:00,460 Maybe some of you will work but robots 448 00:21:00,460 --> 00:21:02,418 might be able to skip this, but I would suggest 449 00:21:02,418 --> 00:21:05,050 not, I think you can read this too, and get 450 00:21:05,050 --> 00:21:08,890 a lot about usability, accessibility, how 451 00:21:08,890 --> 00:21:12,460 to make good user interfaces. 452 00:21:12,460 --> 00:21:14,640 We have two readings from here, these 453 00:21:14,640 --> 00:21:17,560 are PDFs that are up on our Stellar site. 454 00:21:17,560 --> 00:21:22,300 Let me leave these two follow-ups for last. 455 00:21:22,300 --> 00:21:23,980 The Oxford History of Board Games-- 456 00:21:23,980 --> 00:21:26,350 we actually have a lot of readings of it from here 457 00:21:26,350 --> 00:21:29,900 because it's relevant to our final assignment. 458 00:21:29,900 --> 00:21:35,740 And what it is, is a surprisingly readable list 459 00:21:35,740 --> 00:21:42,246 of traditional board games that maybe you've heard about 10% 460 00:21:42,246 --> 00:21:42,746 of these. 461 00:21:45,570 --> 00:21:47,210 It's a really interesting analysis, 462 00:21:47,210 --> 00:21:52,210 and the reason why I prescribe this book is two reasons. 463 00:21:52,210 --> 00:21:54,340 One, you need this background knowledge 464 00:21:54,340 --> 00:21:57,160 to be able to execute assignment three. 465 00:21:57,160 --> 00:22:03,520 Second reason, is that it's a good example of what game 466 00:22:03,520 --> 00:22:05,830 historical analysis looks like. 467 00:22:05,830 --> 00:22:08,290 So, if you're ever interested in going to academia 468 00:22:08,290 --> 00:22:10,290 and doing this sort of writing, you at least now 469 00:22:10,290 --> 00:22:13,420 have a sample of what that looks like. 470 00:22:13,420 --> 00:22:15,850 It's not as dry and stodgy as you think, 471 00:22:15,850 --> 00:22:18,795 it is about game play after all. 472 00:22:18,795 --> 00:22:20,170 But we do have a lot of readings, 473 00:22:20,170 --> 00:22:24,460 this book is available on reserve in the library. 474 00:22:24,460 --> 00:22:28,127 We're going to try to get more scans of this up on Stellar. 475 00:22:28,127 --> 00:22:29,710 I'm not entirely sure what I'm legally 476 00:22:29,710 --> 00:22:34,330 allowed to put that many scans up on Stellar. 477 00:22:34,330 --> 00:22:36,309 The hard copy itself is there. 478 00:22:36,309 --> 00:22:38,350 I don't think you can even buy this book anymore. 479 00:22:38,350 --> 00:22:40,420 This book has been out of print for a long time, 480 00:22:40,420 --> 00:22:42,520 so I'm going to try and increase access to this, 481 00:22:42,520 --> 00:22:44,670 but the best I can do right now is 482 00:22:44,670 --> 00:22:48,325 that it's on reserve in Hayden Library I believe. 483 00:22:52,280 --> 00:22:55,610 Finally, these three books, you might be familiar 484 00:22:55,610 --> 00:22:58,270 if you've ever taken any of the game lab classes-- 485 00:22:58,270 --> 00:23:01,240 Game Design Workshop, Challenges for Game Designers, 486 00:23:01,240 --> 00:23:02,850 and Rules of Play. 487 00:23:02,850 --> 00:23:04,870 The reading for today is actually 488 00:23:04,870 --> 00:23:10,190 chapter one from Challenges for Game Designers. 489 00:23:10,190 --> 00:23:12,830 All of these books are available online, 490 00:23:12,830 --> 00:23:15,620 through MIT Libraries web portal. 491 00:23:15,620 --> 00:23:19,830 The trick is you need to be on a MIT subnet. 492 00:23:19,830 --> 00:23:22,960 How many of you live on campus? 493 00:23:22,960 --> 00:23:24,594 OK, you're not going to have a problem. 494 00:23:24,594 --> 00:23:26,510 Just got our Stellar site, there is this thing 495 00:23:26,510 --> 00:23:29,210 called the books 24/7 link on the Stellar, 496 00:23:29,210 --> 00:23:32,240 you click on that first before you read any book, that 497 00:23:32,240 --> 00:23:34,400 basically does some authentication to make sure 498 00:23:34,400 --> 00:23:35,930 that you're actually an MIT student, 499 00:23:35,930 --> 00:23:38,400 and have a browser with cookies it should work just fine. 500 00:23:38,400 --> 00:23:42,077 And then you click the book as you want to read, 501 00:23:42,077 --> 00:23:43,535 you'll get a table of contents, you 502 00:23:43,535 --> 00:23:46,948 jump to the chapter, [INAUDIBLE] reading of this book 503 00:23:46,948 --> 00:23:49,700 [INAUDIBLE]. 504 00:23:49,700 --> 00:23:52,100 However, if you're not on the MIT campus, 505 00:23:52,100 --> 00:23:55,390 I think you have a browser with cookies you're still fine. 506 00:23:55,390 --> 00:23:58,280 But, you might have better luck by actually 507 00:23:58,280 --> 00:23:59,470 being on MIT subnet. 508 00:23:59,470 --> 00:24:01,220 You do exactly the same steps that I said. 509 00:24:01,220 --> 00:24:04,830 You go to Stellar, you click on the books 24/7 link, 510 00:24:04,830 --> 00:24:07,400 it authenticates you, and then you 511 00:24:07,400 --> 00:24:10,250 can read the book-- you can even print it out. 512 00:24:10,250 --> 00:24:13,130 But, if you do have trouble reading it for any reason, 513 00:24:13,130 --> 00:24:15,110 please let me know because we're going 514 00:24:15,110 --> 00:24:16,818 to have a lot of reading from these three 515 00:24:16,818 --> 00:24:20,829 books over the entire semester, so let's try 516 00:24:20,829 --> 00:24:22,620 to fix that for you as quickly as possible, 517 00:24:22,620 --> 00:24:24,800 and then you won't have any trouble with that. 518 00:24:24,800 --> 00:24:26,880 It's free, but it's a bit of a hassle. 519 00:24:34,900 --> 00:24:38,530 That's basically it for the formalities. 520 00:24:38,530 --> 00:24:42,260 Again, any questions about how the class is organized, 521 00:24:42,260 --> 00:24:44,800 how grades are assigned? 522 00:24:44,800 --> 00:24:46,512 It is a project based class, which 523 00:24:46,512 --> 00:24:48,220 means your grades are going to be heavily 524 00:24:48,220 --> 00:24:50,178 dependent on the performance of your teammates, 525 00:24:50,178 --> 00:24:53,020 so get along with your teammates. 526 00:24:53,020 --> 00:24:55,700 Try to do good work, but it's-- 527 00:24:55,700 --> 00:24:57,610 your grade is not going to be determined 528 00:24:57,610 --> 00:24:59,980 by how fun your game is. 529 00:24:59,980 --> 00:25:02,740 This may be coming as a surprise to some of you. 530 00:25:02,740 --> 00:25:08,440 Fun is one of those things that is really elusive, even if you 531 00:25:08,440 --> 00:25:10,420 know what you're trying to design for, 532 00:25:10,420 --> 00:25:12,350 you might not get there. 533 00:25:12,350 --> 00:25:14,440 Especially in the constraints of doing 534 00:25:14,440 --> 00:25:17,685 three projects in one semester. 535 00:25:17,685 --> 00:25:19,480 As someone who has designed a lot of games, 536 00:25:19,480 --> 00:25:25,570 both in MIT and outside, I fully acknowledge 537 00:25:25,570 --> 00:25:27,400 that you might be perfectly disciplined 538 00:25:27,400 --> 00:25:28,840 and do everything that I tell you 539 00:25:28,840 --> 00:25:31,510 and still end up with a very unfun game. 540 00:25:31,510 --> 00:25:34,390 So I'm not going to grade you on the quality that. 541 00:25:34,390 --> 00:25:38,125 I am going to grade you on your ability to listen to feedback, 542 00:25:38,125 --> 00:25:39,700 from feedback that provided, feedback 543 00:25:39,700 --> 00:25:41,890 that you're getting from the testers, your ability 544 00:25:41,890 --> 00:25:45,910 to do things like regular testing sessions, 545 00:25:45,910 --> 00:25:49,533 the ability to stick to the discipline of iterative design. 546 00:25:53,130 --> 00:25:56,200 If your game is mostly not playable until the last week, 547 00:25:56,200 --> 00:25:58,960 and then suddenly you pull some sort of marathon effort 548 00:25:58,960 --> 00:26:03,430 to try to get everything working together in that last week, 549 00:26:03,430 --> 00:26:05,232 you should expect a good grade. 550 00:26:05,232 --> 00:26:06,940 That's not what I'm trying to teach here. 551 00:26:06,940 --> 00:26:09,400 You should be constantly iterating on these games 552 00:26:09,400 --> 00:26:12,700 every single week. 553 00:26:12,700 --> 00:26:16,050 And if you do that you should count on a fairly reasonable, 554 00:26:16,050 --> 00:26:17,390 fairly good grade. 555 00:26:20,120 --> 00:26:21,850 This is a B-average class though. 556 00:26:21,850 --> 00:26:26,360 So, typically when I grade that's how it ends up. 557 00:26:26,360 --> 00:26:27,890 I'm not actually grading on a curve, 558 00:26:27,890 --> 00:26:31,330 It is possible to have an A-average class if everybody 559 00:26:31,330 --> 00:26:33,310 does incredibly well, but typically, 560 00:26:33,310 --> 00:26:35,943 in the past couple of years it'll always be B-average. 561 00:26:43,501 --> 00:26:45,000 Let me start with the easy question. 562 00:26:45,000 --> 00:26:46,690 What are people playing nowadays? 563 00:26:46,690 --> 00:26:50,120 What are people in this class playing, 564 00:26:50,120 --> 00:26:52,350 maybe not right now with this instant, but-- 565 00:26:55,135 --> 00:26:56,760 AUDIENCE: You mean like computer games? 566 00:26:56,760 --> 00:26:58,240 [INAUDIBLE] 567 00:26:58,240 --> 00:27:00,800 PROFESSOR: Any games, board games, card games, 568 00:27:00,800 --> 00:27:01,690 computer games, 569 00:27:01,690 --> 00:27:02,590 AUDIENCE: League of Legends. 570 00:27:02,590 --> 00:27:03,670 PROFESSOR: League of Legends. 571 00:27:03,670 --> 00:27:05,586 AUDIENCE: I got a lot of people on [INAUDIBLE] 572 00:27:05,586 --> 00:27:06,680 AUDIENCE: [INAUDIBLE] 573 00:27:06,680 --> 00:27:09,197 PROFESSOR: On Ascension? 574 00:27:09,197 --> 00:27:10,780 AUDIENCE: I was going to say Dominion. 575 00:27:10,780 --> 00:27:11,322 PROFESSOR: OK 576 00:27:11,322 --> 00:27:12,946 AUDIENCE: You should learn [INAUDIBLE]. 577 00:27:12,946 --> 00:27:13,910 Settlers of Catan. 578 00:27:13,910 --> 00:27:14,839 Yeah. 579 00:27:14,839 --> 00:27:15,630 AUDIENCE: Settlers. 580 00:27:15,630 --> 00:27:21,475 AUDIENCE: [INAUDIBLE] So when you-- 581 00:27:21,475 --> 00:27:22,600 PROFESSOR: Adventure Quest? 582 00:27:22,600 --> 00:27:24,290 AUDIENCE: [INAUDIBLE] 583 00:27:24,290 --> 00:27:25,540 PROFESSOR: Wait, wait hold on. 584 00:27:25,540 --> 00:27:26,530 What's Adventure Quest? 585 00:27:26,530 --> 00:27:27,912 I haven't heard this one. 586 00:27:27,912 --> 00:27:31,040 AUDIENCE: It's this online game. 587 00:27:31,040 --> 00:27:31,580 Yeah. 588 00:27:31,580 --> 00:27:32,080 Always-- 589 00:27:32,080 --> 00:27:34,370 [INTERPOSING VOICES] 590 00:27:34,370 --> 00:27:35,960 PROFESSOR: It's like-- 591 00:27:35,960 --> 00:27:37,865 AUDIENCE: I guess like, it's a lot of-0 592 00:27:37,865 --> 00:27:42,320 [INTERPOSING VOICES] 593 00:27:42,320 --> 00:27:44,750 PROFESSOR: So it's an adventure game. 594 00:27:44,750 --> 00:27:47,180 [INAUDIBLE] Cool. 595 00:27:47,180 --> 00:27:49,810 OK. 596 00:27:49,810 --> 00:27:52,440 So we've got [INAUDIBLE] Adventure Quest. 597 00:27:52,440 --> 00:27:55,130 That one I just [INAUDIBLE] to be trail. 598 00:27:55,130 --> 00:27:58,669 AUDIENCE: Smash [INAUDIBLE]. 599 00:27:58,669 --> 00:28:00,668 PROFESSOR: Wait, hold on which version of Smash? 600 00:28:00,668 --> 00:28:01,626 AUDIENCE: I like Melee. 601 00:28:01,626 --> 00:28:05,175 AUDIENCE: [INAUDIBLE] to play Brawl. 602 00:28:05,175 --> 00:28:07,455 PROFESSOR: So Melee is GameCube right? 603 00:28:07,455 --> 00:28:08,405 AUDIENCE: Yeah. 604 00:28:08,405 --> 00:28:10,310 That was the first one I ever played. 605 00:28:10,310 --> 00:28:11,824 Liars Poker. 606 00:28:11,824 --> 00:28:12,490 PROFESSOR: What? 607 00:28:12,490 --> 00:28:13,240 Liars Poker? 608 00:28:13,240 --> 00:28:13,750 All right. 609 00:28:13,750 --> 00:28:15,340 AUDIENCE: Normal Poker. 610 00:28:15,340 --> 00:28:16,340 PROFESSOR: Wait hold on. 611 00:28:16,340 --> 00:28:18,377 What's normal poker? 612 00:28:18,377 --> 00:28:19,710 AUDIENCE: I guess Texas hold'em. 613 00:28:19,710 --> 00:28:21,210 PROFESSOR: Texas hold'em poker. 614 00:28:21,210 --> 00:28:22,210 OK, all right. 615 00:28:26,126 --> 00:28:27,070 AUDIENCE: Innovation? 616 00:28:29,730 --> 00:28:32,780 PROFESSOR: The card game Innovation? 617 00:28:32,780 --> 00:28:35,370 Actually made locally. 618 00:28:35,370 --> 00:28:36,350 AUDIENCE: [INAUDIBLE] 619 00:28:36,350 --> 00:28:37,016 PROFESSOR: Yeah. 620 00:28:37,016 --> 00:28:38,322 AUDIENCE: Alien [INAUDIBLE]. 621 00:28:38,322 --> 00:28:39,530 PROFESSOR: Alien [INAUDIBLE]. 622 00:28:39,530 --> 00:28:41,030 I'm just not familiar with this one. 623 00:28:41,030 --> 00:28:41,658 This is-- 624 00:28:41,658 --> 00:28:45,402 AUDIENCE: It's an out of print board game, Euro style. 625 00:28:45,402 --> 00:28:48,420 [INAUDIBLE] Empire Builder, but you already 626 00:28:48,420 --> 00:28:51,945 have that on one of the [INAUDIBLE] that you own. 627 00:28:51,945 --> 00:28:53,945 PROFESSOR: I'm not saying, what games do I have. 628 00:28:53,945 --> 00:28:54,835 [INTERPOSING VOICES] 629 00:28:54,835 --> 00:28:57,251 AUDIENCE: I know, but I want that game, so I'm [INAUDIBLE] 630 00:28:57,251 --> 00:28:58,250 PROFESSOR: Why won't you try it out? 631 00:28:58,250 --> 00:28:59,420 AUDIENCE: Zombie Apocalypse. 632 00:28:59,420 --> 00:28:59,920 PROFESSOR: Zombie Apocalypse. 633 00:28:59,920 --> 00:29:00,860 AUDIENCE: Oh yeah. 634 00:29:00,860 --> 00:29:01,800 Munchkin? 635 00:29:01,800 --> 00:29:06,980 [INAUDIBLE] One day I'll be able to add Nymph to this list. 636 00:29:06,980 --> 00:29:08,832 PROFESSOR: What's Nymph? 637 00:29:08,832 --> 00:29:10,415 AUDIENCE: The board game that came out 638 00:29:10,415 --> 00:29:11,540 on Kickstarter [INAUDIBLE]. 639 00:29:11,540 --> 00:29:14,817 It's going to be delivered sometime this month. 640 00:29:14,817 --> 00:29:16,150 That's one of the most exciting. 641 00:29:16,150 --> 00:29:18,399 PROFESSOR: I missed something after Zombie Apocalypse. 642 00:29:18,399 --> 00:29:20,500 AUDIENCE: Munchkin. 643 00:29:20,500 --> 00:29:22,500 RoboRally. 644 00:29:22,500 --> 00:29:24,620 PROFESSOR: RoboRally, wow. 645 00:29:24,620 --> 00:29:26,590 How did people get exposed to RoboRally, 646 00:29:26,590 --> 00:29:29,392 just out of curiosity? 647 00:29:29,392 --> 00:29:31,260 AUDIENCE: I saw it at an internship. 648 00:29:31,260 --> 00:29:33,330 They just had a bunch of board games on the wall. 649 00:29:33,330 --> 00:29:35,210 PROFESSOR: OK 650 00:29:35,210 --> 00:29:37,250 AUDIENCE: My brother played it somewhere, 651 00:29:37,250 --> 00:29:40,820 and then I bought it for my [INAUDIBLE]. 652 00:29:40,820 --> 00:29:44,752 PROFESSOR: Very MIT-ish game, it's a game about programing 653 00:29:45,251 --> 00:29:46,622 [LAUGHTER] 654 00:29:46,622 --> 00:29:49,930 PROFESSOR: Programming and robots beating each other up. 655 00:29:49,930 --> 00:29:53,180 AUDIENCE: Cards Against Humanity. 656 00:29:53,180 --> 00:29:53,930 AUDIENCE: Hex Hex. 657 00:29:57,000 --> 00:30:01,570 PROFESSOR: I know Hex one, but what type of Hex? 658 00:30:01,570 --> 00:30:06,595 AUDIENCE: Hex Hex is a game where someone casts a hex, 659 00:30:06,595 --> 00:30:08,450 and then everyone has a certain number 660 00:30:08,450 --> 00:30:11,510 of cards that just tell you what to do with the hex, 661 00:30:11,510 --> 00:30:13,468 like pass it left, and pass it right. 662 00:30:13,468 --> 00:30:16,580 And then who ever has the hex in front of them 663 00:30:16,580 --> 00:30:18,706 has to deal with hex as one of their cards. 664 00:30:18,706 --> 00:30:20,950 If they can't then they're hexed, 665 00:30:20,950 --> 00:30:23,840 and then they chance to play cards that say, play one hex. 666 00:30:23,840 --> 00:30:26,305 PROFESSOR: I hope that's a hexagon involved in there. 667 00:30:26,305 --> 00:30:26,888 AUDIENCE: Yes. 668 00:30:26,888 --> 00:30:27,929 PROFESSOR: OK [INAUDIBLE] 669 00:30:27,929 --> 00:30:30,340 [LAUGHTER] 670 00:30:30,340 --> 00:30:32,340 AUDIENCE: We didn't play [INAUDIBLE] 671 00:30:32,340 --> 00:30:35,812 PROFESSOR: [INAUDIBLE] Same people that did Innovation. 672 00:30:35,812 --> 00:30:38,172 [INAUDIBLE] There's a game called 673 00:30:38,172 --> 00:30:40,488 We Didn't Playtest This At All, and We Didn't 674 00:30:40,488 --> 00:30:42,766 Playtest This Either, right? 675 00:30:42,766 --> 00:30:45,206 AUDIENCE: I want to try those. 676 00:30:45,206 --> 00:30:46,182 Air Baron. 677 00:30:46,182 --> 00:30:47,660 PROFESSOR: What? 678 00:30:47,660 --> 00:30:48,750 AUDIENCE: Air Baron. 679 00:30:48,750 --> 00:30:49,625 PROFESSOR: Care Bear? 680 00:30:50,125 --> 00:30:51,260 [LAUGHTER] 681 00:30:51,260 --> 00:30:53,450 AUDIENCE: A-I-R, air, as in the sky, 682 00:30:53,450 --> 00:30:56,790 baron, as in not a noble or the lords of a baron. 683 00:30:56,790 --> 00:30:58,080 PROFESSOR: Oh, Air Baron. 684 00:30:58,080 --> 00:31:00,099 AUDIENCE: Yes. 685 00:31:00,099 --> 00:31:02,140 PROFESSOR: We should make a game called Air Bear. 686 00:31:02,140 --> 00:31:04,140 [LAUGHTER] 687 00:31:04,140 --> 00:31:05,924 PROFESSOR: This is digital? 688 00:31:05,924 --> 00:31:07,600 AUDIENCE: No, Avalon Hill, 1997. 689 00:31:07,600 --> 00:31:08,780 PROFESSOR: Oh, OK. 690 00:31:08,780 --> 00:31:10,630 AUDIENCE: Yeah. 691 00:31:10,630 --> 00:31:12,770 Yeah. 692 00:31:12,770 --> 00:31:15,094 PROFESSOR: This is like a Mafia like game right? 693 00:31:15,094 --> 00:31:16,385 AUDIENCE: Yeah, love that game. 694 00:31:16,385 --> 00:31:17,470 Cout. 695 00:31:17,470 --> 00:31:18,440 PROFESSOR: Clue? 696 00:31:18,440 --> 00:31:19,406 AUDIENCE: Cout. 697 00:31:19,406 --> 00:31:20,372 C-O-U-T. 698 00:31:20,372 --> 00:31:21,340 PROFESSOR: C-O 699 00:31:21,340 --> 00:31:23,340 AUDIENCE: U-T 700 00:31:23,340 --> 00:31:25,340 PROFESSOR: Oh yeah. 701 00:31:25,340 --> 00:31:30,410 AUDIENCE: [INAUDIBLE] It's kind of like Mafia, 702 00:31:30,410 --> 00:31:33,548 except instead of having night and day papers, what 703 00:31:33,548 --> 00:31:35,090 they have is people take turns. 704 00:31:35,090 --> 00:31:39,590 They have two different roles, and your role 705 00:31:39,590 --> 00:31:41,490 lets you take actions. 706 00:31:41,490 --> 00:31:43,400 So what you do is you lie about what role 707 00:31:43,400 --> 00:31:46,260 you have in order to take actions that you wouldn't 708 00:31:46,260 --> 00:31:49,250 have access to. 709 00:31:49,250 --> 00:31:51,900 Overall that mechanics are, you make money, 710 00:31:51,900 --> 00:31:54,792 and then you pay money to kill other people. 711 00:31:54,792 --> 00:31:58,120 When you kill someone they lose one of their roles. 712 00:31:58,120 --> 00:32:01,410 The way you lose rolls is killing someone, 713 00:32:01,410 --> 00:32:07,455 or by lying and being caught, or by challenge someone 714 00:32:07,455 --> 00:32:08,940 and being wrong. 715 00:32:08,940 --> 00:32:10,760 Like Mascarade. 716 00:32:10,760 --> 00:32:15,200 PROFESSOR: [INAUDIBLE] Say what? 717 00:32:15,200 --> 00:32:16,670 AUDIENCE: It's like Mascarade. 718 00:32:16,670 --> 00:32:18,250 PROFESSOR: OK, Yeah. 719 00:32:18,250 --> 00:32:22,038 Actually, we could add Mascarade to this here as well. 720 00:32:25,250 --> 00:32:29,170 So far I asked a couple of people 721 00:32:29,170 --> 00:32:32,240 to describe the games that have come out. 722 00:32:32,240 --> 00:32:35,490 And you can see it's not really all that difficult to say 723 00:32:35,490 --> 00:32:37,240 this is what's interesting about the game, 724 00:32:37,240 --> 00:32:39,573 it's kind of like this game then it's got these changes. 725 00:32:42,370 --> 00:32:44,420 That's a normal way of communicating. 726 00:32:44,420 --> 00:32:47,140 You're going to have to do that multiple times this semester 727 00:32:47,140 --> 00:32:48,490 for your own games. 728 00:32:48,490 --> 00:32:50,734 But, often what happens is that when students 729 00:32:50,734 --> 00:32:52,150 come up and talk about their game, 730 00:32:52,150 --> 00:32:56,230 they just start from step one-- 731 00:32:56,230 --> 00:33:01,710 Well, this game is a card game that has 52 cards, 732 00:33:01,710 --> 00:33:04,600 and is going to be played with four players, and it's like, 733 00:33:04,600 --> 00:33:07,040 can you like, cut to the chase and a little bit faster? 734 00:33:07,040 --> 00:33:08,250 The way that you just. 735 00:33:08,250 --> 00:33:10,880 The way you just described, you know it's kind of like Mafia 736 00:33:10,880 --> 00:33:12,670 but you make these changes. 737 00:33:12,670 --> 00:33:16,117 We will want those details especially when it's written, 738 00:33:16,117 --> 00:33:17,950 or when we're actually sitting down to play. 739 00:33:17,950 --> 00:33:20,350 But when you're coming up here and talking 740 00:33:20,350 --> 00:33:23,191 about your own game, give us those elevated pitches 741 00:33:23,191 --> 00:33:23,940 that you just did. 742 00:33:26,650 --> 00:33:31,770 If you think of this game as a little bit like chess, 743 00:33:31,770 --> 00:33:34,300 but with different pieces or something like that. 744 00:33:34,300 --> 00:33:35,680 And then you cut in, and then you 745 00:33:35,680 --> 00:33:37,960 can go into greater detail about what your game is. 746 00:33:37,960 --> 00:33:39,760 When you give a presentation though, 747 00:33:39,760 --> 00:33:43,365 usually what I'm listening for isn't so much, 748 00:33:43,365 --> 00:33:45,490 what is your game right now, because I can actually 749 00:33:45,490 --> 00:33:47,310 read that. 750 00:33:47,310 --> 00:33:50,547 What was your game before it became the thing that is now? 751 00:33:50,547 --> 00:33:52,380 Because I don't necessarily always see that. 752 00:33:52,380 --> 00:33:55,150 I'll see various play tests, but I may not necessarily 753 00:33:55,150 --> 00:33:57,160 get to every single thing. 754 00:33:57,160 --> 00:34:01,390 I want to know how you made the decisions that you did in order 755 00:34:01,390 --> 00:34:03,980 to end up with what you finally submitted. 756 00:34:03,980 --> 00:34:05,890 And I'll get all the details that I 757 00:34:05,890 --> 00:34:08,960 need from the final submission when I actually read it. 758 00:34:08,960 --> 00:34:10,989 So when you give your presentations, 759 00:34:10,989 --> 00:34:12,509 talk about the history of your game, 760 00:34:12,509 --> 00:34:14,550 three week history of your game, or the four week 761 00:34:14,550 --> 00:34:16,934 history of the game. 762 00:34:20,260 --> 00:34:23,150 So, these are the games that people have been playing. 763 00:34:23,150 --> 00:34:27,320 A lot of board games, couple of digital games 764 00:34:27,320 --> 00:34:29,489 although I think I'm seeing-- 765 00:34:29,489 --> 00:34:32,030 how many of you are playing these games digitally? 766 00:34:32,030 --> 00:34:34,060 Any of these board games playing in digitally? 767 00:34:34,060 --> 00:34:35,460 AUDIENCE: [INAUDIBLE] 768 00:34:35,460 --> 00:34:36,366 PROFESSOR: Yeah. 769 00:34:36,366 --> 00:34:38,474 On the phone, yeah? 770 00:34:38,474 --> 00:34:43,489 AUDIENCE: I think we [INAUDIBLE] Dominion web application. 771 00:34:43,489 --> 00:34:44,440 PROFESSOR: Web app? 772 00:34:44,440 --> 00:34:46,315 [INTERPOSING VOICES] 773 00:34:46,315 --> 00:34:47,690 PROFESSOR: Your hand was up, yes? 774 00:34:47,690 --> 00:34:49,760 AUDIENCE: Ascension, I think it's on the iPhone now. 775 00:34:49,760 --> 00:34:51,801 PROFESSOR: Yeah, a lot of these games actually do 776 00:34:51,801 --> 00:34:54,003 have iPhone and iOS [INAUDIBLE], Android mode. 777 00:34:57,280 --> 00:34:59,512 AUDIENCE: [INAUDIBLE] not fun at all. 778 00:34:59,512 --> 00:35:01,400 PROFESSOR: Oh, because you don't-- yeah. 779 00:35:01,400 --> 00:35:01,920 Why? 780 00:35:01,920 --> 00:35:02,970 AUDIENCE: More fun to yell at people. 781 00:35:02,970 --> 00:35:05,095 PROFESSOR: Because it's more fun to yell at people? 782 00:35:05,095 --> 00:35:08,580 It's more fun to guilt people into giving you trades 783 00:35:08,580 --> 00:35:10,570 that are beneficial to you. 784 00:35:10,570 --> 00:35:13,590 We often refer to that as over the table talk. 785 00:35:13,590 --> 00:35:18,060 Or, the over the table interaction. 786 00:35:18,060 --> 00:35:19,950 That's something that when you're 787 00:35:19,950 --> 00:35:21,564 designing a board game or a card game, 788 00:35:21,564 --> 00:35:22,980 or even a live action game, I want 789 00:35:22,980 --> 00:35:25,290 to say that you're allowed to design live action 790 00:35:25,290 --> 00:35:26,325 games in this class. 791 00:35:26,325 --> 00:35:28,200 Games where you're not actually sitting down, 792 00:35:28,200 --> 00:35:30,090 but you're actually moving around. 793 00:35:30,090 --> 00:35:33,851 Mafia kind of sits in a gray area. 794 00:35:33,851 --> 00:35:36,506 AUDIENCE: I think Risk is the perfect example of that. 795 00:35:36,506 --> 00:35:39,192 Because video Risk is an entirely different than board 796 00:35:39,192 --> 00:35:42,200 Risk because you can't cheat. 797 00:35:42,200 --> 00:35:44,460 Cheating is an integral part of Risk. 798 00:35:44,460 --> 00:35:46,640 PROFESSOR: Describe the tactics of cheating in-- 799 00:35:46,640 --> 00:35:49,060 AUDIENCE: You hide cards in your shoe. 800 00:35:49,060 --> 00:35:50,820 You move people's armies to places 801 00:35:50,820 --> 00:35:51,986 that they weren't on before. 802 00:35:51,986 --> 00:35:53,690 PROFESSOR: That one I've seen. 803 00:35:53,690 --> 00:35:55,544 AUDIENCE: [INAUDIBLE] people to your places. 804 00:35:55,544 --> 00:35:57,210 PROFESSOR: But not like re-rolls, right? 805 00:35:57,210 --> 00:35:58,876 Because those are hard to get away with. 806 00:35:58,876 --> 00:36:00,956 AUDIENCE: Monopoly is the worst game ever. 807 00:36:00,956 --> 00:36:03,330 PROFESSOR: Because of the cheating, or because of the way 808 00:36:03,330 --> 00:36:04,556 how the game is made? 809 00:36:04,556 --> 00:36:05,680 AUDIENCE: Because cheating. 810 00:36:05,680 --> 00:36:08,457 And because it takes like 12 hours to play. 811 00:36:08,457 --> 00:36:09,290 [INTERPOSING VOICES] 812 00:36:09,290 --> 00:36:10,340 AUDIENCE: --you get the best game, right? 813 00:36:10,340 --> 00:36:11,312 Play Riskopoly. 814 00:36:14,672 --> 00:36:17,763 PROFESSOR: [INAUDIBLE]. 815 00:36:17,763 --> 00:36:21,370 [INTERPOSING VOICES] 816 00:36:21,370 --> 00:36:22,660 PROFESSOR: I think that's it. 817 00:36:22,660 --> 00:36:23,190 Well, OK. 818 00:36:23,190 --> 00:36:27,090 So let's briefly talk about Monopoly then. 819 00:36:27,090 --> 00:36:31,528 How many people here like playing Monopoly? 820 00:36:31,528 --> 00:36:32,028 OK. 821 00:36:32,028 --> 00:36:33,932 AUDIENCE: [INAUDIBLE]. 822 00:36:33,932 --> 00:36:36,540 PROFESSOR: How many play Monopoly regularly, 823 00:36:36,540 --> 00:36:38,296 like with families? 824 00:36:40,798 --> 00:36:42,290 AUDIENCE: [INAUDIBLE]. 825 00:36:42,290 --> 00:36:44,415 PROFESSOR: What are the good things about Monopoly? 826 00:36:44,415 --> 00:36:46,566 What do people like about Monopoly? 827 00:36:46,566 --> 00:36:47,940 AUDIENCE: Making bank. 828 00:36:47,940 --> 00:36:48,600 PROFESSOR: OK. 829 00:36:48,600 --> 00:36:49,800 All right. 830 00:36:49,800 --> 00:36:52,820 There's this real sense of progression there, right? 831 00:36:52,820 --> 00:36:56,404 AUDIENCE: I like putting four houses on one property. 832 00:36:56,404 --> 00:36:58,320 PROFESSOR: That's kind of like the real estate 833 00:36:58,320 --> 00:36:59,380 version of making bank. 834 00:36:59,380 --> 00:37:00,284 Sure. 835 00:37:00,284 --> 00:37:02,242 AUDIENCE: When you have a long row 836 00:37:02,242 --> 00:37:03,950 of properties all in a row and somebody's 837 00:37:03,950 --> 00:37:04,691 like heading into them. 838 00:37:04,691 --> 00:37:06,305 And you're like, OK, you're not going to get through here 839 00:37:06,305 --> 00:37:07,540 without [INAUDIBLE]. 840 00:37:07,540 --> 00:37:12,562 PROFESSOR: Those little plastic bits mean everything when-- 841 00:37:12,562 --> 00:37:14,942 OK. 842 00:37:14,942 --> 00:37:17,110 AUDIENCE: It's family friendly. 843 00:37:17,110 --> 00:37:18,660 So people like it. 844 00:37:18,660 --> 00:37:22,560 The reason people like is that a little kid can just win. 845 00:37:22,560 --> 00:37:25,170 Can do really well and win [INAUDIBLE]. 846 00:37:25,170 --> 00:37:27,080 PROFESSOR: That's kind of like a minimum age 847 00:37:27,080 --> 00:37:28,594 where they get the basic strategy, 848 00:37:28,594 --> 00:37:31,010 and then past that point, it's kind of like anyone's game. 849 00:37:31,010 --> 00:37:31,801 AUDIENCE: Anecdote. 850 00:37:31,801 --> 00:37:33,630 I played with my family once. 851 00:37:33,630 --> 00:37:35,951 The first and last time I'll ever play with them. 852 00:37:35,951 --> 00:37:38,450 My sister, she's a year younger than me, and for some reason 853 00:37:38,450 --> 00:37:40,130 always has it out for me. 854 00:37:40,130 --> 00:37:42,300 And so she was about to go bankrupt 855 00:37:42,300 --> 00:37:44,690 and my dad made a deal with her, basically. 856 00:37:44,690 --> 00:37:47,300 So any time you make a profit, you give me two thirds of it 857 00:37:47,300 --> 00:37:48,860 and I'll make sure you never go out. 858 00:37:48,860 --> 00:37:52,470 I was like, now I'm playing against two people. 859 00:37:52,470 --> 00:37:55,680 I don't know what I'm supposed to do anymore. 860 00:37:55,680 --> 00:37:59,810 PROFESSOR: That situation has been described as king-making, 861 00:37:59,810 --> 00:38:02,190 where a player who isn't going to win 862 00:38:02,190 --> 00:38:04,510 decides who's going to win. 863 00:38:04,510 --> 00:38:08,080 And it can be sucky if they're not the person who-- 864 00:38:08,080 --> 00:38:10,360 AUDIENCE: Basically. 865 00:38:10,360 --> 00:38:13,490 AUDIENCE: I actually really like-- kind of what he said, 866 00:38:13,490 --> 00:38:17,570 but in a different way, that it seems like anyone can win. 867 00:38:17,570 --> 00:38:19,438 But the more you know about the game, 868 00:38:19,438 --> 00:38:23,044 the more you actually start to understand not anyone can win. 869 00:38:23,044 --> 00:38:26,530 And in any game where you're rolling a thousand times, 870 00:38:26,530 --> 00:38:28,090 there's very little luck involved. 871 00:38:28,090 --> 00:38:30,440 PROFESSOR: It all averages out. 872 00:38:30,440 --> 00:38:32,150 AUDIENCE: So yeah, it does allow you 873 00:38:32,150 --> 00:38:35,262 to implement a lot of strategy, even though just about anyone 874 00:38:35,262 --> 00:38:38,925 can play it and understand the rules [INAUDIBLE]. 875 00:38:38,925 --> 00:38:44,070 PROFESSOR: How many of you play Monopoly with sort 876 00:38:44,070 --> 00:38:46,115 of over-the-table bargaining? 877 00:38:46,115 --> 00:38:48,060 AUDIENCE: All the time. 878 00:38:48,060 --> 00:38:49,075 PROFESSOR: All the time? 879 00:38:49,075 --> 00:38:49,658 AUDIENCE: Yep. 880 00:38:49,658 --> 00:38:50,970 PROFESSOR: Who doesn't? 881 00:38:50,970 --> 00:38:52,350 Like only the rules? 882 00:38:52,350 --> 00:38:53,590 Only the things that-- 883 00:38:53,590 --> 00:38:54,920 AUDIENCE: I do only the rules. 884 00:38:54,920 --> 00:38:55,620 PROFESSOR: You do only the rules. 885 00:38:55,620 --> 00:38:57,555 But do the other people around the table 886 00:38:57,555 --> 00:39:00,330 also do only the rules, or will they play-- 887 00:39:00,330 --> 00:39:01,500 AUDIENCE: [INAUDIBLE]. 888 00:39:01,500 --> 00:39:03,750 PROFESSOR: Things like, I was going to give you money, 889 00:39:03,750 --> 00:39:04,960 things like that. 890 00:39:04,960 --> 00:39:07,251 AUDIENCE: They always make me offers that I don't want. 891 00:39:07,251 --> 00:39:08,947 I'm just like, skip it. 892 00:39:08,947 --> 00:39:11,030 PROFESSOR: There is something that a lot of people 893 00:39:11,030 --> 00:39:14,672 do in Monopoly and that's put money in Free Parking. 894 00:39:14,672 --> 00:39:15,255 AUDIENCE: Yep. 895 00:39:15,255 --> 00:39:16,010 Have to. 896 00:39:16,010 --> 00:39:17,270 PROFESSOR: Never do that. 897 00:39:17,270 --> 00:39:18,380 Never do that. 898 00:39:18,380 --> 00:39:20,744 Game gets four times longer. 899 00:39:20,744 --> 00:39:25,010 Never do that because the game is designed to-- 900 00:39:25,010 --> 00:39:28,650 the rules of the game at least was designed to suck money out 901 00:39:28,650 --> 00:39:29,390 of the system. 902 00:39:29,390 --> 00:39:32,570 There are inflows-- things like the collect $200. 903 00:39:32,570 --> 00:39:35,330 Things like the certain Community Chest and Chance 904 00:39:35,330 --> 00:39:36,380 cards. 905 00:39:36,380 --> 00:39:39,080 But the game is also designed to take money 906 00:39:39,080 --> 00:39:41,210 out so that people go bankrupt. 907 00:39:41,210 --> 00:39:44,480 By saying, I'm now losing this money, 908 00:39:44,480 --> 00:39:46,122 but I'm now putting it on this square. 909 00:39:46,122 --> 00:39:48,080 And if anybody happens to land on free parking, 910 00:39:48,080 --> 00:39:48,920 they get all this money. 911 00:39:48,920 --> 00:39:51,295 That money hasn't actually been sucked out of the system. 912 00:39:51,295 --> 00:39:54,190 It's just waiting to be redistributed to somebody else. 913 00:39:54,190 --> 00:39:57,970 And that means people take a very long time to go bankrupt. 914 00:39:57,970 --> 00:40:00,881 And if everyone's complaining about how long the game takes, 915 00:40:00,881 --> 00:40:02,630 you might want to check if you're actually 916 00:40:02,630 --> 00:40:02,810 playing with that rule. 917 00:40:02,810 --> 00:40:05,450 And if you are and you read the rules, it's not there. 918 00:40:05,450 --> 00:40:07,370 It's not there at all. 919 00:40:07,370 --> 00:40:09,440 It's the sort of thing though that 920 00:40:09,440 --> 00:40:11,810 does make it a lot easier for somebody 921 00:40:11,810 --> 00:40:14,510 who is about to go bankrupt to get back into the game. 922 00:40:14,510 --> 00:40:17,250 So now we're back to this whole family-friendly thing, 923 00:40:17,250 --> 00:40:18,830 which is-- 924 00:40:18,830 --> 00:40:20,930 if you are not that great at playing this game, 925 00:40:20,930 --> 00:40:23,480 or maybe even taking it that seriously, 926 00:40:23,480 --> 00:40:25,230 you still stand a chance. 927 00:40:25,230 --> 00:40:27,620 There's a couple of other things about Monopoly. 928 00:40:27,620 --> 00:40:34,320 It's a decent game if you're not at the table all the time. 929 00:40:34,320 --> 00:40:36,230 Say, at Thanksgiving or something, 930 00:40:36,230 --> 00:40:40,730 and somebody is watching the game 931 00:40:40,730 --> 00:40:44,034 or making sure that the turkey doesn't 932 00:40:44,034 --> 00:40:45,200 catch on fire, or something. 933 00:40:45,200 --> 00:40:47,830 That needs to stand up and check, and then 934 00:40:47,830 --> 00:40:49,362 come back to the game. 935 00:40:49,362 --> 00:40:51,320 Everything that you need to know about the game 936 00:40:51,320 --> 00:40:53,840 is right there in front of you at the moment of time 937 00:40:53,840 --> 00:40:55,340 when you need to make your decision. 938 00:40:55,340 --> 00:40:58,086 There's very little-- 939 00:40:58,086 --> 00:40:59,960 I don't think there's any hidden information, 940 00:40:59,960 --> 00:41:01,960 except for the amount of money that people have. 941 00:41:01,960 --> 00:41:05,360 And that's usually fairly easy to just see. 942 00:41:05,360 --> 00:41:08,335 Some people get very secretive, but most people don't. 943 00:41:10,850 --> 00:41:13,920 Monopoly is an incredibly successful game. 944 00:41:13,920 --> 00:41:16,210 I don't think this is a contentious issue. 945 00:41:16,210 --> 00:41:19,970 It makes a lot of money. 946 00:41:19,970 --> 00:41:21,920 A lot of copies get sold and bought. 947 00:41:21,920 --> 00:41:25,814 And there was some ambivalence here about 948 00:41:25,814 --> 00:41:27,230 whether it was a good game or not. 949 00:41:27,230 --> 00:41:32,952 Why does that game do well, do so commercially well? 950 00:41:32,952 --> 00:41:36,933 AUDIENCE: Because it's easy and well-known. 951 00:41:36,933 --> 00:41:37,940 PROFESSOR: Is it easy? 952 00:41:37,940 --> 00:41:39,720 AUDIENCE: Sorry, easy to pick up. 953 00:41:39,720 --> 00:41:42,110 Not necessarily easy to win. 954 00:41:42,110 --> 00:41:44,150 You can take 10, 15 minutes to explain it, 955 00:41:44,150 --> 00:41:45,391 and then you play a game. 956 00:41:45,391 --> 00:41:46,890 PROFESSOR: 10, 15 minutes to explain 957 00:41:46,890 --> 00:41:48,080 if you already know the rules. 958 00:41:48,080 --> 00:41:49,313 AUDIENCE: If one person knows. 959 00:41:49,313 --> 00:41:50,530 Just explaining to another person. 960 00:41:50,530 --> 00:41:52,863 PROFESSOR: But chances are somebody does know the rules. 961 00:41:52,863 --> 00:41:55,400 Somebody in that room probably has played Monopoly. 962 00:41:55,400 --> 00:41:56,360 AUDIENCE: Because it's so well-known. 963 00:41:56,360 --> 00:41:57,943 PROFESSOR: Because it's so well-known. 964 00:41:57,943 --> 00:41:59,360 [INTERPOSING VOICES] 965 00:41:59,360 --> 00:42:02,152 AUDIENCE: It's sort of like the classic that-- 966 00:42:02,152 --> 00:42:05,560 it's an old game [INAUDIBLE] other games. 967 00:42:05,560 --> 00:42:08,510 Also, it's easy to play because you don't make decisions, 968 00:42:08,510 --> 00:42:09,494 really. 969 00:42:09,494 --> 00:42:10,160 PROFESSOR: Yeah. 970 00:42:10,160 --> 00:42:11,740 AUDIENCE: It's easy to play without making a decision. 971 00:42:11,740 --> 00:42:12,976 Like, roll the dice and move. 972 00:42:12,976 --> 00:42:13,390 Roll the dice and move. 973 00:42:13,390 --> 00:42:15,348 PROFESSOR: If you can afford to buy it, buy it. 974 00:42:15,348 --> 00:42:16,640 That's the decision-making. 975 00:42:16,640 --> 00:42:17,870 It's not a decision. 976 00:42:17,870 --> 00:42:18,844 It's strategy. 977 00:42:18,844 --> 00:42:21,010 AUDIENCE: I hate it when people make long decisions, 978 00:42:21,010 --> 00:42:23,042 like do I buy it, for like 15 minutes. 979 00:42:23,042 --> 00:42:24,250 PROFESSOR: And it's like, no. 980 00:42:24,250 --> 00:42:26,700 If you can afford it, buy it. 981 00:42:26,700 --> 00:42:28,350 All right. 982 00:42:28,350 --> 00:42:31,950 So there's a lot to do in the game, though. 983 00:42:31,950 --> 00:42:33,120 You roll the dice. 984 00:42:33,120 --> 00:42:34,470 You pull cards out. 985 00:42:34,470 --> 00:42:35,695 You move your little dog. 986 00:42:38,820 --> 00:42:41,860 You can make bargains with people over the table. 987 00:42:41,860 --> 00:42:44,109 You pick your little houses and you put the down 988 00:42:44,109 --> 00:42:45,150 and you turn into hotels. 989 00:42:45,150 --> 00:42:46,925 So there's a lot of busy work that you 990 00:42:46,925 --> 00:42:49,050 get to do without having to make a single decision. 991 00:42:49,050 --> 00:42:52,730 So you feel very active while you're doing it. 992 00:42:52,730 --> 00:42:54,940 Any other ideas about why it might be popular? 993 00:42:54,940 --> 00:42:57,550 We already talked about how well-known it is. 994 00:42:57,550 --> 00:43:00,514 AUDIENCE: They sell different versions of the same game. 995 00:43:00,514 --> 00:43:04,350 If you want one that's Star Wars-themed, [INAUDIBLE]. 996 00:43:04,350 --> 00:43:07,740 PROFESSOR: Trivially reskinnable. 997 00:43:07,740 --> 00:43:09,980 I have Monopoly Singapore somewhere. 998 00:43:09,980 --> 00:43:11,460 It's where I'm from. 999 00:43:11,460 --> 00:43:14,290 They just renamed all the properties. 1000 00:43:14,290 --> 00:43:17,038 All the amounts of money are exactly the same 1001 00:43:17,038 --> 00:43:19,030 as your standard Monopoly. 1002 00:43:19,030 --> 00:43:22,029 I think there are some more clever versions of Monopoly 1003 00:43:22,029 --> 00:43:23,820 out there where you add in a few new rules. 1004 00:43:23,820 --> 00:43:25,770 But you're right, you can easily sell 1005 00:43:25,770 --> 00:43:29,364 somebody who has a monopoly a different copy of Monopoly. 1006 00:43:32,230 --> 00:43:37,226 But is that person buying a new copy of Monopoly? 1007 00:43:37,226 --> 00:43:38,850 If you already have a copy of Monopoly, 1008 00:43:38,850 --> 00:43:41,570 are you buying yourself a new copy of Monopoly? 1009 00:43:44,134 --> 00:43:45,800 AUDIENCE: I guess you're buying yourself 1010 00:43:45,800 --> 00:43:47,680 a new skin of Monopoly. 1011 00:43:47,680 --> 00:43:48,550 PROFESSOR: Are you? 1012 00:43:48,550 --> 00:43:51,340 Does anyone actually pay money for that? 1013 00:43:51,340 --> 00:43:52,201 AUDIENCE: No. 1014 00:43:52,201 --> 00:43:53,450 PROFESSOR: I think you get it. 1015 00:43:53,450 --> 00:43:54,760 AUDIENCE: They're good gifts. 1016 00:43:54,760 --> 00:43:56,200 PROFESSOR: They're a good gift. 1017 00:43:56,200 --> 00:44:00,400 That's the dirty, little secret about all these Parker 1018 00:44:00,400 --> 00:44:01,910 Brothers, Hasbro. 1019 00:44:01,910 --> 00:44:03,430 Maybe it's not dirty. 1020 00:44:03,430 --> 00:44:05,140 It's the reality. 1021 00:44:05,140 --> 00:44:11,320 The majority of board games, these super, mega, ultra 1022 00:44:11,320 --> 00:44:14,470 perennial favorites are not bought by the people 1023 00:44:14,470 --> 00:44:15,760 who are playing them. 1024 00:44:15,760 --> 00:44:20,170 They are bought by somebody else or given as a gift. 1025 00:44:20,170 --> 00:44:22,983 Which means you can expect that they usually sell most 1026 00:44:22,983 --> 00:44:26,110 of the copies at Christmas. 1027 00:44:26,110 --> 00:44:30,940 And people might get them for their birthdays. 1028 00:44:30,940 --> 00:44:34,420 And that's the difference between a game that shows up 1029 00:44:34,420 --> 00:44:37,840 in Target and Wal-Mart and a game that 1030 00:44:37,840 --> 00:44:40,405 shows up in a speciality board game store. 1031 00:44:40,405 --> 00:44:43,360 You walk into a specialty board game store, which is probably 1032 00:44:43,360 --> 00:44:45,970 under threat by companies like Amazon, 1033 00:44:45,970 --> 00:44:48,280 and you're buying a game for yourself. 1034 00:44:48,280 --> 00:44:52,680 You're buying special dice because your role playing game, 1035 00:44:52,680 --> 00:44:54,379 game player or miniatures. 1036 00:44:54,379 --> 00:44:56,170 And right next to that are the board games. 1037 00:44:56,170 --> 00:44:59,770 And you say, hey, this will be fun for my next gathering, 1038 00:44:59,770 --> 00:45:03,310 either at some friend's house or at my own place, or something 1039 00:45:03,310 --> 00:45:03,980 like that. 1040 00:45:03,980 --> 00:45:05,676 I want to play this game. 1041 00:45:05,676 --> 00:45:07,590 You buy a Monopoly and it's usually not 1042 00:45:07,590 --> 00:45:08,590 for your own collection. 1043 00:45:08,590 --> 00:45:10,020 It's usually for somebody else. 1044 00:45:10,020 --> 00:45:12,090 So you give Monopoly to somebody else who already has it. 1045 00:45:12,090 --> 00:45:14,673 And it's fine because you just gave them the Star Wars version 1046 00:45:14,673 --> 00:45:16,090 and they didn't have that. 1047 00:45:16,090 --> 00:45:19,300 That's how they're successful. 1048 00:45:19,300 --> 00:45:21,610 I guess what I'm trying to say is not necessarily-- 1049 00:45:21,610 --> 00:45:23,920 it doesn't necessarily have anything to do with how 1050 00:45:23,920 --> 00:45:25,150 well the game is designed. 1051 00:45:25,150 --> 00:45:29,987 There are a couple of nice things that Monopoly does. 1052 00:45:29,987 --> 00:45:32,070 We talked about how it's relatively easy to learn. 1053 00:45:32,070 --> 00:45:34,210 The fact that it's been around makes it very easy to teach. 1054 00:45:34,210 --> 00:45:35,890 It's very friendly to people who are 1055 00:45:35,890 --> 00:45:38,390 playing on some sort of [INAUDIBLE] schedule. 1056 00:45:38,390 --> 00:45:41,298 But that's not the reason that [INAUDIBLE] game. 1057 00:45:41,298 --> 00:45:42,881 AUDIENCE: So I think a lot of it comes 1058 00:45:42,881 --> 00:45:44,750 from like the snowball effect. 1059 00:45:44,750 --> 00:45:46,858 Everyone knows about [INAUDIBLE]. 1060 00:45:46,858 --> 00:45:48,794 If we assume that's true, how do you then 1061 00:45:48,794 --> 00:45:51,720 make a commercially successful board game? 1062 00:45:51,720 --> 00:45:54,960 PROFESSOR: How much marketing money do you have? 1063 00:45:54,960 --> 00:45:56,830 I mean, we've got Blokus here. 1064 00:45:56,830 --> 00:46:00,250 That's probably one of the more successful recent entries. 1065 00:46:00,250 --> 00:46:04,630 And there's a couple of ways to be 1066 00:46:04,630 --> 00:46:09,940 able to get a large number of families to buy a board game. 1067 00:46:09,940 --> 00:46:12,790 If you're living in Germany, there 1068 00:46:12,790 --> 00:46:17,050 is a big conference called the Essen Spiel, I believe. 1069 00:46:17,050 --> 00:46:21,040 I might be mangling the language here in the town of Essen. 1070 00:46:21,040 --> 00:46:24,840 There are smaller conferences in places like Leipzig. 1071 00:46:24,840 --> 00:46:28,240 But what they are-- 1072 00:46:28,240 --> 00:46:30,550 in addition to the vendors bringing 1073 00:46:30,550 --> 00:46:33,160 all of their old and the new board games saying like, 1074 00:46:33,160 --> 00:46:34,990 this is what we have on sale. 1075 00:46:34,990 --> 00:46:37,270 We have tons and tons and tons of families 1076 00:46:37,270 --> 00:46:38,660 going there trying to decide what 1077 00:46:38,660 --> 00:46:40,120 they're buying for Christmas. 1078 00:46:40,120 --> 00:46:44,050 And in Germany, that is kind of like an annual tradition 1079 00:46:44,050 --> 00:46:47,056 for families to buy a Christmas game. 1080 00:46:47,056 --> 00:46:49,644 Built on top of that, there is this thing-- 1081 00:46:52,974 --> 00:46:57,610 I'm going to mangle all the German in here. 1082 00:46:57,610 --> 00:46:59,000 AUDIENCE: BoardGameGeek. 1083 00:46:59,000 --> 00:47:01,724 PROFESSOR: The [NON-ENGLISH] 1084 00:47:01,724 --> 00:47:02,640 AUDIENCE: [INAUDIBLE]. 1085 00:47:02,640 --> 00:47:03,420 PROFESSOR: Oh. 1086 00:47:03,420 --> 00:47:05,200 Yeah, OK. 1087 00:47:05,200 --> 00:47:07,480 Basically, game of the year award 1088 00:47:07,480 --> 00:47:12,340 that is awarded, I believe, at Essen, they 1089 00:47:12,340 --> 00:47:15,300 definitely do a big thing. 1090 00:47:20,300 --> 00:47:22,700 I'm not exactly sure how the timing lines up. 1091 00:47:22,700 --> 00:47:24,350 But definitely, the game that happens 1092 00:47:24,350 --> 00:47:26,420 to be awarded game of the year is 1093 00:47:26,420 --> 00:47:31,220 going to be the biggest mover at a convention like-- 1094 00:47:31,220 --> 00:47:35,600 convention is not the right word I am looking for. 1095 00:47:35,600 --> 00:47:38,660 Its more like a trade fair. 1096 00:47:38,660 --> 00:47:40,970 That's probably a good example. 1097 00:47:40,970 --> 00:47:43,730 And just lots and lots of families will go there. 1098 00:47:43,730 --> 00:47:46,679 They will buy a lot of the game of the year 1099 00:47:46,679 --> 00:47:48,470 because a bunch of board game critics said, 1100 00:47:48,470 --> 00:47:51,530 this is the best new game that came out this past year. 1101 00:47:51,530 --> 00:47:56,180 And then, all that money gets circulated back into marketing. 1102 00:47:56,180 --> 00:47:57,560 You see more ads. 1103 00:47:57,560 --> 00:48:01,990 You see the awards sticker on the side of the boxes. 1104 00:48:01,990 --> 00:48:03,374 More families buy it. 1105 00:48:03,374 --> 00:48:05,540 And that just snowballs on top of each other, right? 1106 00:48:05,540 --> 00:48:08,980 So winning sort of similar things in the US I 1107 00:48:08,980 --> 00:48:10,861 believe there are-- 1108 00:48:10,861 --> 00:48:11,860 AUDIENCE: BoardGameGeek. 1109 00:48:11,860 --> 00:48:13,097 AUDIENCE: ABC News. 1110 00:48:13,097 --> 00:48:14,138 PROFESSOR: BoardGameGeek. 1111 00:48:14,138 --> 00:48:16,400 AUDIENCE: Yeah, they have their own con [INAUDIBLE]. 1112 00:48:16,400 --> 00:48:17,930 PROFESSOR: Yeah. 1113 00:48:17,930 --> 00:48:19,970 But not that many families. 1114 00:48:19,970 --> 00:48:23,420 I mean, I'm thinking more like ABC News 1115 00:48:23,420 --> 00:48:30,320 doing a top 10 hot toys for this Christmas kind of thing. 1116 00:48:30,320 --> 00:48:34,002 That's the sort of thing that bumps you up from a game 1117 00:48:34,002 --> 00:48:35,460 that you buy for yourself to a game 1118 00:48:35,460 --> 00:48:37,860 you start buying for other people, which multiplies how 1119 00:48:37,860 --> 00:48:40,396 many copies actually get sold. 1120 00:48:43,910 --> 00:48:44,780 So that's one way. 1121 00:48:44,780 --> 00:48:47,240 That's usually one way that it happens. 1122 00:48:47,240 --> 00:48:49,900 That's not to say that a game that-- 1123 00:48:49,900 --> 00:48:51,537 what's called an enthusiast board game. 1124 00:48:51,537 --> 00:48:53,120 A game that's basically sold to people 1125 00:48:53,120 --> 00:48:55,096 who are buying it for themselves can't 1126 00:48:55,096 --> 00:48:56,220 be commercially successful. 1127 00:48:56,220 --> 00:48:59,510 It just means that you need to make enough money that you 1128 00:48:59,510 --> 00:49:01,910 made a profit on it. 1129 00:49:01,910 --> 00:49:04,910 And a lot of these games-- 1130 00:49:04,910 --> 00:49:11,000 I think of all the games that I've got today, let's see. 1131 00:49:11,000 --> 00:49:14,302 This is probably-- let me see if this 1132 00:49:14,302 --> 00:49:17,210 won any awards [INAUDIBLE]. 1133 00:49:17,210 --> 00:49:19,340 This is probably the sort of game 1134 00:49:19,340 --> 00:49:21,820 that you would buy for families. 1135 00:49:21,820 --> 00:49:22,852 This is Set. 1136 00:49:22,852 --> 00:49:24,560 And of course, missing it's original box. 1137 00:49:24,560 --> 00:49:27,710 But you have played Set, right? 1138 00:49:27,710 --> 00:49:30,200 OK. 1139 00:49:30,200 --> 00:49:33,350 So this probably fits into the category of a game 1140 00:49:33,350 --> 00:49:35,690 that somebody in the room has probably played once 1141 00:49:35,690 --> 00:49:39,030 and can teach everybody else how to play. 1142 00:49:39,030 --> 00:49:42,030 Who's played Blokus before today? 1143 00:49:42,030 --> 00:49:42,620 Yep. 1144 00:49:42,620 --> 00:49:43,350 OK. 1145 00:49:43,350 --> 00:49:45,440 How many people played with your family? 1146 00:49:45,440 --> 00:49:46,760 Before you came to-- 1147 00:49:46,760 --> 00:49:49,531 how many of you played before you came to MIT? 1148 00:49:49,531 --> 00:49:50,030 OK. 1149 00:49:50,030 --> 00:49:51,550 High school? 1150 00:49:51,550 --> 00:49:52,550 AUDIENCE: Middle school. 1151 00:49:52,550 --> 00:49:54,090 PROFESSOR: Middle school? 1152 00:49:54,090 --> 00:49:54,590 Yeah. 1153 00:49:54,590 --> 00:49:58,340 So I think the reason for it-- this is Mattel. 1154 00:49:58,340 --> 00:50:00,581 So they certainly know their marketing. 1155 00:50:00,581 --> 00:50:03,030 But I think the reason why this got popular was again, 1156 00:50:03,030 --> 00:50:08,670 one of those top 10 toys to buy that Christmas 1157 00:50:08,670 --> 00:50:09,830 when it was released. 1158 00:50:09,830 --> 00:50:11,580 And that's why Blokus really took off. 1159 00:50:11,580 --> 00:50:12,860 It's a well-designed game. 1160 00:50:12,860 --> 00:50:14,250 You don't get on those lists without being 1161 00:50:14,250 --> 00:50:14,860 a well-designed game. 1162 00:50:14,860 --> 00:50:17,450 But that's not the reason why these games are successful. 1163 00:50:17,450 --> 00:50:21,356 That's kind of the bare minimum to even be considered 1164 00:50:21,356 --> 00:50:22,322 [INAUDIBLE]. 1165 00:50:26,110 --> 00:50:29,494 So if you're in this class thinking 1166 00:50:29,494 --> 00:50:31,160 that you're going to make a lot of money 1167 00:50:31,160 --> 00:50:36,650 as a board game designer, I know people in Hasbro 1168 00:50:36,650 --> 00:50:37,980 I can get you in touch with. 1169 00:50:37,980 --> 00:50:41,230 And I think they're probably going to say don't expect that. 1170 00:50:43,953 --> 00:50:48,380 You might be able to have a decent living working 1171 00:50:48,380 --> 00:50:50,700 in a large company like Hasbro on Mattel, which I think 1172 00:50:50,700 --> 00:50:52,295 is the same company, yeah. 1173 00:50:54,810 --> 00:50:58,820 But it's probably not because of the quality 1174 00:50:58,820 --> 00:51:00,410 of the games that you're designing, 1175 00:51:00,410 --> 00:51:04,070 but more about your ability to design a game based 1176 00:51:04,070 --> 00:51:05,622 on s spec that was handed to you. 1177 00:51:05,622 --> 00:51:06,580 Based on a requirement. 1178 00:51:06,580 --> 00:51:12,920 It's like, we need a Star Wars Risk game by Christmas. 1179 00:51:12,920 --> 00:51:15,320 Design it in two months, or something like that. 1180 00:51:15,320 --> 00:51:21,290 And you execute that well and you will get a good career 1181 00:51:21,290 --> 00:51:23,872 in a place like Hasbro. 1182 00:51:23,872 --> 00:51:26,790 If you're designing for yourself, 1183 00:51:26,790 --> 00:51:28,770 you should feel very happy if you 1184 00:51:28,770 --> 00:51:32,270 manage to make your initial investment back. 1185 00:51:32,270 --> 00:51:36,250 A lot of people who are sort of hobbyist game designers 1186 00:51:36,250 --> 00:51:39,680 who make incredibly good games don't make back the money 1187 00:51:39,680 --> 00:51:41,660 that they initially invested into it. 1188 00:51:41,660 --> 00:51:44,840 And that's fine if you know-- 1189 00:51:44,840 --> 00:51:47,690 if you went into that business knowing that. 1190 00:51:47,690 --> 00:51:49,910 Because for some people, it's just good enough 1191 00:51:49,910 --> 00:51:51,576 to be able to have a game with your name 1192 00:51:51,576 --> 00:51:54,260 on it being played by a whole bunch of people 1193 00:51:54,260 --> 00:51:56,120 who appreciate it. 1194 00:51:56,120 --> 00:51:58,160 That's fine. 1195 00:51:58,160 --> 00:52:00,800 More likely, a lot of people are going 1196 00:52:00,800 --> 00:52:04,880 into careers, I'm assuming, that are not game design. 1197 00:52:04,880 --> 00:52:06,780 Some of you are. 1198 00:52:06,780 --> 00:52:09,140 But some of you will go into a career that 1199 00:52:09,140 --> 00:52:13,072 might benefit from some of the design practices 1200 00:52:13,072 --> 00:52:14,780 that you're going to learn in this class. 1201 00:52:14,780 --> 00:52:17,180 Not just iterative design. 1202 00:52:17,180 --> 00:52:19,280 Although, we've already talked about how 1203 00:52:19,280 --> 00:52:22,520 that's relevant to a number of engineering disciplines. 1204 00:52:22,520 --> 00:52:26,360 But also, things like you want to teach people 1205 00:52:26,360 --> 00:52:27,990 a new system that you've designed, 1206 00:52:27,990 --> 00:52:32,450 or a new system that's been put into practice. 1207 00:52:32,450 --> 00:52:34,814 You want to create some sort of team building exercise. 1208 00:52:34,814 --> 00:52:36,230 You want to communicate to someone 1209 00:52:36,230 --> 00:52:40,110 how complex a certain system is that's relevant to you 1210 00:52:40,110 --> 00:52:42,951 through your work and your discipline. 1211 00:52:42,951 --> 00:52:44,450 There's a bunch of things that games 1212 00:52:44,450 --> 00:52:50,710 can do to communicate ideas that might be relevant in whatever 1213 00:52:50,710 --> 00:52:54,980 career you end up in. 1214 00:52:54,980 --> 00:52:58,010 Even here in MIT, I'm the Creative Director 1215 00:52:58,010 --> 00:52:59,390 of the MIT Game Lab. 1216 00:52:59,390 --> 00:53:01,850 There's a bunch of different labs here in MIT 1217 00:53:01,850 --> 00:53:08,390 who are using games for a variety of different purposes. 1218 00:53:08,390 --> 00:53:08,890 Eyewire. 1219 00:53:08,890 --> 00:53:11,550 Anyone heard of that one? 1220 00:53:11,550 --> 00:53:12,530 Yep. 1221 00:53:12,530 --> 00:53:14,370 AUDIENCE: I was in [INAUDIBLE] class. 1222 00:53:14,370 --> 00:53:15,230 PROFESSOR: Yeah. 1223 00:53:15,230 --> 00:53:17,540 Over in the [INAUDIBLE] Institute right 1224 00:53:17,540 --> 00:53:20,450 across the street where the train tracks 1225 00:53:20,450 --> 00:53:24,710 run under the building, they've got a game that's basically 1226 00:53:24,710 --> 00:53:29,420 massively multiplayer, massively single player really, 1227 00:53:29,420 --> 00:53:37,070 and you solve the puzzle which is kind of like [INAUDIBLE]. 1228 00:53:37,070 --> 00:53:38,690 It's kind of like paint by numbers. 1229 00:53:38,690 --> 00:53:41,150 You're clicking and you're coloring a field. 1230 00:53:41,150 --> 00:53:44,270 What you're really doing is you're identifying neurons 1231 00:53:44,270 --> 00:53:47,760 from scanning tunneling microscopes. 1232 00:53:47,760 --> 00:53:51,740 These are neurons from a mouse retina. 1233 00:53:51,740 --> 00:53:54,379 And you're basically doing all of the pattern recognition 1234 00:53:54,379 --> 00:53:56,420 that computers have a tremendously difficult time 1235 00:53:56,420 --> 00:53:58,690 to do, but humans actually are pretty good at. 1236 00:53:58,690 --> 00:54:00,950 And then, you're accumulating all of that data. 1237 00:54:00,950 --> 00:54:06,530 It's a fairly nice, very clicky Minesweeper-ish kind 1238 00:54:06,530 --> 00:54:07,730 of feel to this game. 1239 00:54:07,730 --> 00:54:10,450 It's like you're just clicking things so that you find-- 1240 00:54:10,450 --> 00:54:12,316 they meet a nice contiguous space. 1241 00:54:12,316 --> 00:54:14,690 It's a 3D game, So there's some sort of like mental hoops 1242 00:54:14,690 --> 00:54:15,898 that your brain gets through. 1243 00:54:15,898 --> 00:54:18,732 And kind of nice build, puzzle feeling. 1244 00:54:18,732 --> 00:54:20,315 But what you're really doing is you're 1245 00:54:20,315 --> 00:54:22,700 providing Sebastian Seung's lab with a ton 1246 00:54:22,700 --> 00:54:29,719 of data about how a mouse's eye is wired, which is amazing. 1247 00:54:29,719 --> 00:54:31,510 And I think they've got a couple of papers. 1248 00:54:31,510 --> 00:54:32,240 So try it. 1249 00:54:32,240 --> 00:54:35,070 It's real fun. 1250 00:54:35,070 --> 00:54:39,132 Anyone here from systems, systems dynamics? 1251 00:54:39,132 --> 00:54:40,050 No? 1252 00:54:40,050 --> 00:54:40,550 Engineering. 1253 00:54:40,550 --> 00:54:44,750 I their parent group is the AeroAstro department. 1254 00:54:48,487 --> 00:54:50,087 [BACKGROUND NOISE] 1255 00:54:50,087 --> 00:54:50,670 PROFESSOR: OK. 1256 00:54:53,240 --> 00:54:57,340 Do you think that's a kid out there? 1257 00:54:57,340 --> 00:55:00,345 AUDIENCE: I wonder if they're walking away or not. 1258 00:55:00,345 --> 00:55:02,470 PROFESSOR: Just like a three-year-old or something, 1259 00:55:02,470 --> 00:55:03,290 that's fine. 1260 00:55:03,290 --> 00:55:05,392 But I hope it's not someone who's hurt. 1261 00:55:08,090 --> 00:55:14,390 But a lot of system dynamics folks on campus, engineering 1262 00:55:14,390 --> 00:55:16,010 systems design for instance, will 1263 00:55:16,010 --> 00:55:18,500 use games to try to teach clients 1264 00:55:18,500 --> 00:55:21,290 about certain engineering practices. 1265 00:55:21,290 --> 00:55:27,414 So there's a group here that has a game called Space Tug-- 1266 00:55:27,414 --> 00:55:28,806 AUDIENCE: Space Tug Skirmish? 1267 00:55:28,806 --> 00:55:30,080 PROFESSOR: Yeah, skirmish. 1268 00:55:30,080 --> 00:55:30,866 AUDIENCE: I've played that. 1269 00:55:30,866 --> 00:55:32,407 My roommate worked there last summer. 1270 00:55:32,407 --> 00:55:33,183 PROFESSOR: Yeah. 1271 00:55:33,183 --> 00:55:34,110 At UROP? 1272 00:55:34,110 --> 00:55:35,240 AUDIENCE: Yeah. 1273 00:55:35,240 --> 00:55:37,822 PROFESSOR: And I think they're still looking for more UROPs 1274 00:55:37,822 --> 00:55:40,280 because they've turned their board game into a digital game 1275 00:55:40,280 --> 00:55:42,567 and they need to keep working on it. 1276 00:55:42,567 --> 00:55:44,940 AUDIENCE: [INAUDIBLE]. 1277 00:55:44,940 --> 00:55:46,490 PROFESSOR: Yeah. 1278 00:55:46,490 --> 00:55:50,322 It's kind of got a-- 1279 00:55:50,322 --> 00:55:52,280 I was going to say a Magic: The Gathering feel, 1280 00:55:52,280 --> 00:55:54,260 but that's not really true anymore, 1281 00:55:54,260 --> 00:55:56,500 the way how the game has evolved. 1282 00:55:56,500 --> 00:56:00,020 But it's primarily a card game about building satellites, 1283 00:56:00,020 --> 00:56:01,730 launching them into space. 1284 00:56:01,730 --> 00:56:04,100 And then realizing that by the time you launch something 1285 00:56:04,100 --> 00:56:05,516 into space, it's kind of obsolete. 1286 00:56:05,516 --> 00:56:08,910 And the question is, how do you design a satellite 1287 00:56:08,910 --> 00:56:12,370 so that it can adapt to changing circumstances? 1288 00:56:12,370 --> 00:56:16,070 That's what they are teaching people from NASA, 1289 00:56:16,070 --> 00:56:19,309 from the military about. 1290 00:56:19,309 --> 00:56:21,350 And they decided that games are the way to do it. 1291 00:56:21,350 --> 00:56:22,558 It started with a board game. 1292 00:56:22,558 --> 00:56:23,820 They're going to digital game. 1293 00:56:23,820 --> 00:56:26,870 It's a very large group here on campus 1294 00:56:26,870 --> 00:56:30,200 called the Scheller Teacher Education Program. 1295 00:56:30,200 --> 00:56:38,180 And they design games for K-12 to freshmen undergraduate-level 1296 00:56:38,180 --> 00:56:41,120 science, math, language. 1297 00:56:41,120 --> 00:56:45,560 How to better address some problems in curriculum, 1298 00:56:45,560 --> 00:56:48,690 in sub-standard classroom curriculum. 1299 00:56:48,690 --> 00:56:50,210 So they've done MMOs. 1300 00:56:50,210 --> 00:56:51,890 They've done puzzle games. 1301 00:56:51,890 --> 00:56:54,020 They've done a lot of stuff on Flash 1302 00:56:54,020 --> 00:56:56,720 because it's very easy to get Flash running in a school. 1303 00:56:56,720 --> 00:56:59,504 It's very much harder to get a whole school [INAUDIBLE] 1304 00:56:59,504 --> 00:57:01,420 to download a piece of software and install it 1305 00:57:01,420 --> 00:57:04,580 across all the computers. 1306 00:57:04,580 --> 00:57:05,900 All these places have UROPs. 1307 00:57:05,900 --> 00:57:06,650 My lab has UROPs. 1308 00:57:06,650 --> 00:57:08,889 So if you're interested in any of these things, 1309 00:57:08,889 --> 00:57:10,430 you should definitely check them out. 1310 00:57:10,430 --> 00:57:13,842 You can ask me for more leads. 1311 00:57:13,842 --> 00:57:15,050 There are a lot of different. 1312 00:57:15,050 --> 00:57:16,640 And finally, back to AeroAstro. 1313 00:57:16,640 --> 00:57:22,337 There is a group that works with zero gravity satellites. 1314 00:57:22,337 --> 00:57:23,420 [INAUDIBLE] talking about. 1315 00:57:23,420 --> 00:57:24,400 They're satellites. 1316 00:57:24,400 --> 00:57:25,220 They work in zero gravity. 1317 00:57:25,220 --> 00:57:25,970 AUDIENCE: SPHERES? 1318 00:57:25,970 --> 00:57:27,130 PROFESSOR: SPHERES, yeah. 1319 00:57:27,130 --> 00:57:29,780 These little compressed, I think, 1320 00:57:29,780 --> 00:57:36,585 carbon dioxide propelled SPHERES. 1321 00:57:36,585 --> 00:57:39,260 They look like gigantic dice, actually. 1322 00:57:39,260 --> 00:57:41,230 And they spin around in space. 1323 00:57:41,230 --> 00:57:44,540 And they'll run C code. 1324 00:57:44,540 --> 00:57:46,850 And they have a high school programming competition, 1325 00:57:46,850 --> 00:57:51,170 kind of like the FIRST robotics tournaments. 1326 00:57:51,170 --> 00:57:53,050 Think of that in zero gravity. 1327 00:57:53,050 --> 00:57:55,123 So they have you accomplish things. 1328 00:57:55,123 --> 00:57:58,010 It's a pretty cool high school education 1329 00:57:58,010 --> 00:58:02,090 thing to connect high school kids to space, basically. 1330 00:58:02,090 --> 00:58:03,531 I know they are looking for UROPs. 1331 00:58:03,531 --> 00:58:05,780 So if you're interested in that, you should definitely 1332 00:58:05,780 --> 00:58:06,696 talk to me about that. 1333 00:58:06,696 --> 00:58:10,490 I'll give you the contact information. 1334 00:58:10,490 --> 00:58:14,969 So I've been yammering for about an hour. 1335 00:58:14,969 --> 00:58:15,760 Let's take a break. 1336 00:58:15,760 --> 00:58:16,617 Stretch. 1337 00:58:16,617 --> 00:58:18,450 I'll start distributing some of these games. 1338 00:58:18,450 --> 00:58:19,949 So we have one more discussion topic 1339 00:58:19,949 --> 00:58:21,772 before we go into game planning. 1340 00:58:21,772 --> 00:58:24,230 Some people should probably distribute [INAUDIBLE] as well. 1341 00:58:24,230 --> 00:58:25,990 AUDIENCE: Where's the nearest [INAUDIBLE]? 1342 00:58:25,990 --> 00:58:28,030 PROFESSOR: Bathrooms are out to the right. 1343 00:58:28,030 --> 00:58:29,280 [INTERPOSING VOICES]