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 --> 00:00:17,250 from hundreds of MIT courses, visit MIT OpenCourseWare 7 00:00:17,250 --> 00:00:18,420 at ocw.mit.edu. 8 00:00:21,260 --> 00:00:22,380 PROFESSOR: All right. 9 00:00:22,380 --> 00:00:26,940 So today's reading comes from a game designer, Lewis Pulsipher, 10 00:00:26,940 --> 00:00:29,532 who traditionally worked on war games. 11 00:00:29,532 --> 00:00:31,991 I believe he's done some of the board games, as well. 12 00:00:31,991 --> 00:00:33,490 But for the most part, I think, he's 13 00:00:33,490 --> 00:00:36,240 recognize for his war gaming work. 14 00:00:36,240 --> 00:00:44,250 And there's actually quite a lot of war gaming journals, mostly 15 00:00:44,250 --> 00:00:50,430 written by designers for fans or by fans for fans. 16 00:00:50,430 --> 00:00:52,290 Things like the [? Compleat ?] Strategist 17 00:00:52,290 --> 00:00:57,992 used to be like the PC Gamer of war gaming, right? 18 00:00:57,992 --> 00:00:59,450 It's like, this is what's happening 19 00:00:59,450 --> 00:01:02,150 and these are our thoughts, these are our critiques. 20 00:01:02,150 --> 00:01:07,170 And that particular reading I feel 21 00:01:07,170 --> 00:01:12,300 is very typical of that era of, maybe, late '80s, 22 00:01:12,300 --> 00:01:17,890 early to mid '90s magazine publications. 23 00:01:17,890 --> 00:01:22,020 And it's interesting because already at that time, sure, 24 00:01:22,020 --> 00:01:24,260 there are people who, say, wrote the core 25 00:01:24,260 --> 00:01:27,691 rulesets for various games, like Axis and Allies, 26 00:01:27,691 --> 00:01:29,190 or things like Dungeons and Dragons. 27 00:01:29,190 --> 00:01:31,020 But there was going to be this assumption 28 00:01:31,020 --> 00:01:33,353 that if you are interested in something like war gaming, 29 00:01:33,353 --> 00:01:36,030 you're also interested in creating your own scenarios. 30 00:01:36,030 --> 00:01:39,120 You are already halfway a game designer. 31 00:01:39,120 --> 00:01:41,970 And so you have to keep all of these things in mind. 32 00:01:41,970 --> 00:01:43,780 Particularly if you're a game master, 33 00:01:43,780 --> 00:01:45,710 has anyone been like a dungeon master or a game master 34 00:01:45,710 --> 00:01:46,751 for a role playing group? 35 00:01:46,751 --> 00:01:47,285 OK. 36 00:01:47,285 --> 00:01:48,660 You're basically a game designer. 37 00:01:48,660 --> 00:01:49,000 AUDIENCE: Yeah 38 00:01:49,000 --> 00:01:49,666 PROFESSOR: Yeah. 39 00:01:49,666 --> 00:01:51,060 You know, you're taking rule sets 40 00:01:51,060 --> 00:01:52,530 that somebody else [? came up with ?] and cherry 41 00:01:52,530 --> 00:01:54,655 picking the stuff that you really want to work with 42 00:01:54,655 --> 00:01:56,580 and discarding the stuff that doesn't and then 43 00:01:56,580 --> 00:01:58,428 coming up with your own rules. 44 00:02:01,470 --> 00:02:03,334 So just as and example of reading, 45 00:02:03,334 --> 00:02:06,000 I believe this is the first time I've asked you to read anything 46 00:02:06,000 --> 00:02:07,661 from the table top book? 47 00:02:07,661 --> 00:02:08,744 AUDIENCE: [? Tic a Tac. ?] 48 00:02:08,744 --> 00:02:09,699 PROFESSOR: [? Tic a Tac? ?] 49 00:02:09,699 --> 00:02:10,110 AUDIENCE: Yeah. 50 00:02:10,110 --> 00:02:10,830 PROFESSOR: OK, all right. 51 00:02:10,830 --> 00:02:12,120 AUDIENCE: You just ran this first. 52 00:02:12,120 --> 00:02:13,078 PROFESSOR: That's true. 53 00:02:13,078 --> 00:02:14,340 Yeah. 54 00:02:14,340 --> 00:02:16,270 But this particular piece of reading 55 00:02:16,270 --> 00:02:17,970 is also a nice little time capsule 56 00:02:17,970 --> 00:02:22,080 of how people used to write about game design. 57 00:02:22,080 --> 00:02:24,460 It's a fairly modern piece of writing it still 58 00:02:24,460 --> 00:02:26,670 has that same sort of style. 59 00:02:26,670 --> 00:02:28,710 So there's a lot of examples of, like, this 60 00:02:28,710 --> 00:02:31,140 is how this theoretical game is going to be played 61 00:02:31,140 --> 00:02:35,110 and I'm going to write it out completely in prose. 62 00:02:35,110 --> 00:02:40,960 And even when they refer to games that already exist, like, 63 00:02:40,960 --> 00:02:43,066 I believe they do cite [? Vinci, ?] at one point. 64 00:02:43,066 --> 00:02:43,940 AUDIENCE: [INAUDIBLE] 65 00:02:43,940 --> 00:02:47,440 PROFESSOR: Yeah, again the game mechanics that they're 66 00:02:47,440 --> 00:02:49,337 discussing are all in prose. 67 00:02:49,337 --> 00:02:51,420 It's not like in point form or anything like that, 68 00:02:51,420 --> 00:02:54,212 it's just free prose. 69 00:02:54,212 --> 00:02:55,920 I don't think there's ever any assumption 70 00:02:55,920 --> 00:02:59,400 that if you contributed an essay for something 71 00:02:59,400 --> 00:03:02,010 like [? the Compleat ?] Strategist that 72 00:03:02,010 --> 00:03:05,350 diagrams that you included would be included in the magazine, 73 00:03:05,350 --> 00:03:05,850 right? 74 00:03:05,850 --> 00:03:08,400 Because a lot of people who actually created 75 00:03:08,400 --> 00:03:10,800 those essays weren't necessarily artists. 76 00:03:10,800 --> 00:03:14,310 And that's not to say that you didn't 77 00:03:14,310 --> 00:03:17,670 have diagrams in magazines like that, but it was expensive. 78 00:03:17,670 --> 00:03:19,710 This was before desktop publishing. 79 00:03:19,710 --> 00:03:22,650 So people just got really, really used 80 00:03:22,650 --> 00:03:25,637 to describing things in prose, describing core game mechanics 81 00:03:25,637 --> 00:03:27,720 in prose, not just in point form or bullet points. 82 00:03:31,510 --> 00:03:34,800 So there were basically two suggestions 83 00:03:34,800 --> 00:03:39,840 that he has on how to deal with the whole three player problem. 84 00:03:42,540 --> 00:03:46,620 Actually, before I get into it, can anyone quickly 85 00:03:46,620 --> 00:03:51,120 sum up what's the main problem with designing 86 00:03:51,120 --> 00:03:53,702 a game for three players? 87 00:03:53,702 --> 00:03:54,235 Your answer. 88 00:03:54,235 --> 00:03:56,193 AUDIENCE: Well, one of them was [? turning-- ?] 89 00:03:56,193 --> 00:03:56,818 PROFESSOR: Mhm. 90 00:03:56,818 --> 00:03:58,840 AUDIENCE: --where two of the players 91 00:03:58,840 --> 00:04:01,612 sort of go at it for most of the game 92 00:04:01,612 --> 00:04:03,496 and then they weaken themselves, and then 93 00:04:03,496 --> 00:04:07,270 the third player [INAUDIBLE] 94 00:04:07,270 --> 00:04:09,250 PROFESSOR: OK, so, for a certain set 95 00:04:09,250 --> 00:04:12,790 of rules, that's one kind of strategy which encourages you 96 00:04:12,790 --> 00:04:15,050 to basically not interact with anybody else 97 00:04:15,050 --> 00:04:17,130 and then win the game, right? 98 00:04:17,130 --> 00:04:20,050 AUDIENCE: What I going to say is, 99 00:04:20,050 --> 00:04:22,190 this is where it's just one player chooses which 100 00:04:22,190 --> 00:04:23,440 of the other two players wins. 101 00:04:23,440 --> 00:04:26,670 PROFESSOR: Mhm, so I believe [? kingmating ?] 102 00:04:26,670 --> 00:04:30,340 was the name that was given to that. 103 00:04:30,340 --> 00:04:32,470 You may not be in a position to win 104 00:04:32,470 --> 00:04:37,280 the game but in a game with only three players, 105 00:04:37,280 --> 00:04:39,622 you might have enough influence to basically say, 106 00:04:39,622 --> 00:04:41,830 I don't like you, therefore you are not going to win. 107 00:04:41,830 --> 00:04:43,290 Therefore, the other person is going to win, 108 00:04:43,290 --> 00:04:44,290 even though I can't win. 109 00:04:47,680 --> 00:04:51,780 There were a few more subtle problems that he described. 110 00:04:51,780 --> 00:04:53,950 Anyone remember any of them? 111 00:04:57,240 --> 00:04:58,250 [INAUDIBLE] Yes? 112 00:04:58,250 --> 00:04:59,625 AUDIENCE: Politics, so two people 113 00:04:59,625 --> 00:05:01,166 decide to team up on the other player 114 00:05:01,166 --> 00:05:02,750 and the other player really can't win. 115 00:05:02,750 --> 00:05:03,374 PROFESSOR: Uh-- 116 00:05:03,374 --> 00:05:04,320 [INTERPOSING VOICES] 117 00:05:04,320 --> 00:05:06,850 PROFESSOR: --yeah, he brought that up. 118 00:05:06,850 --> 00:05:08,700 It does come up in reading. 119 00:05:08,700 --> 00:05:11,050 It's not necessarily described as a problem, 120 00:05:11,050 --> 00:05:14,340 but something that does happen and it happens often. 121 00:05:14,340 --> 00:05:20,550 So you either take advantage of it as a designer, 122 00:05:20,550 --> 00:05:23,630 or your game suffers because you hadn't thought about it, right? 123 00:05:23,630 --> 00:05:26,880 This whole idea of, somebody's in the lead and two people 124 00:05:26,880 --> 00:05:30,900 probably want to do a temporary alliance at the very least 125 00:05:30,900 --> 00:05:32,410 to take down that player. 126 00:05:32,410 --> 00:05:34,580 There was one called sandbagging and I actually 127 00:05:34,580 --> 00:05:36,554 am forgetting what that means here. 128 00:05:36,554 --> 00:05:39,237 AUDIENCE: If we could set that up, 129 00:05:39,237 --> 00:05:41,820 saying that you're [? doing ?] less well off than you actually 130 00:05:41,820 --> 00:05:42,200 are. 131 00:05:42,200 --> 00:05:43,033 PROFESSOR: Oh, yeah. 132 00:05:43,033 --> 00:05:45,760 Pretending that you are-- 133 00:05:45,760 --> 00:05:47,930 like bordering on lying, right? 134 00:05:47,930 --> 00:05:51,770 It's like, no I'm not going to win the game in the next turn, 135 00:05:51,770 --> 00:05:55,140 don't worry about me, deal with him, he's scarier. 136 00:05:55,140 --> 00:06:01,070 And that sort subtle deceit where 137 00:06:01,070 --> 00:06:04,785 you have to actively conceal the fact that you are not 138 00:06:04,785 --> 00:06:05,670 in the lead. 139 00:06:05,670 --> 00:06:07,430 There are some games that say, all right, 140 00:06:07,430 --> 00:06:10,142 here are some ways that you can do that. 141 00:06:10,142 --> 00:06:13,850 I'm not sure, are [? we enough ?] for Crunch? 142 00:06:13,850 --> 00:06:14,650 I think we are. 143 00:06:14,650 --> 00:06:15,974 [INTERPOSING VOICES] 144 00:06:15,974 --> 00:06:16,640 PROFESSOR: Yeah. 145 00:06:16,640 --> 00:06:19,580 So Crunch is a game about being a banker. 146 00:06:19,580 --> 00:06:22,760 You're trying to fill up your golden parachute 147 00:06:22,760 --> 00:06:26,300 before the market crashes, and you 148 00:06:26,300 --> 00:06:28,550 are encouraged to play the game in a three-piece suit 149 00:06:28,550 --> 00:06:31,570 so that you can actually actively hide cards. 150 00:06:31,570 --> 00:06:35,240 And the idea is that at the end of the game, 151 00:06:35,240 --> 00:06:38,195 the amount of money that you've managed to keep yourself 152 00:06:38,195 --> 00:06:40,690 for your own personal use, including any cards that you 153 00:06:40,690 --> 00:06:43,840 happen to [? have ?] on yourself, 154 00:06:43,840 --> 00:06:45,850 will win you the game. 155 00:06:45,850 --> 00:06:48,060 It's not about keeping your bank afloat, at all, 156 00:06:48,060 --> 00:06:51,850 it's all about leaving with the largest personal fortune. 157 00:06:51,850 --> 00:06:55,240 So it's a rye, satirical game, but one 158 00:06:55,240 --> 00:06:58,010 that actively encourages you to conceal 159 00:06:58,010 --> 00:06:59,170 how well you're performing. 160 00:06:59,170 --> 00:07:00,544 Now, it's a two-player game, it's 161 00:07:00,544 --> 00:07:04,310 not like a three-player game, so that you are also 162 00:07:04,310 --> 00:07:07,170 well aware that your opponent is doing the same sort of thing. 163 00:07:07,170 --> 00:07:09,260 You're just trying to do the best that you can in 164 00:07:09,260 --> 00:07:11,210 accumulating as much cash as possible 165 00:07:11,210 --> 00:07:13,430 because that's what's going to win you the game. 166 00:07:13,430 --> 00:07:15,290 But in the situation with three players, 167 00:07:15,290 --> 00:07:18,680 you can imagine a situation where someone could figure out 168 00:07:18,680 --> 00:07:22,070 that you're in the lead and that person can catch up. 169 00:07:22,070 --> 00:07:23,430 And what can you do? 170 00:07:23,430 --> 00:07:26,850 Like, pass cards to the player that you want to win, 171 00:07:26,850 --> 00:07:28,066 for instance? 172 00:07:28,066 --> 00:07:32,195 And that might be tough because someone might not 173 00:07:32,195 --> 00:07:35,486 be able to interfere with that process. 174 00:07:35,486 --> 00:07:41,450 AUDIENCE: In the game [? Junta ?] 175 00:07:41,450 --> 00:07:46,055 you're a politician in some Latin American banana republic, 176 00:07:46,055 --> 00:07:48,618 and your goal is to embezzle as much foreign aid 177 00:07:48,618 --> 00:07:50,580 money as possible. 178 00:07:50,580 --> 00:07:54,572 And one of the things is that, the number [INAUDIBLE] 179 00:07:54,572 --> 00:07:57,923 drawn each turn is variable, and only the president really 180 00:07:57,923 --> 00:08:03,500 knows, and so [INAUDIBLE] is that sometimes the president 181 00:08:03,500 --> 00:08:06,390 won't draw very much, which might cause people to launch 182 00:08:06,390 --> 00:08:08,890 a coup against him, because they think he's lying and taking 183 00:08:08,890 --> 00:08:09,860 a lot for himself and there scared 184 00:08:09,860 --> 00:08:11,195 he'll win for that reason. 185 00:08:11,195 --> 00:08:14,095 But, basically there's so much uncertainty 186 00:08:14,095 --> 00:08:15,220 about how much people have. 187 00:08:15,220 --> 00:08:17,790 It's not even computable how much people have in their-- 188 00:08:17,790 --> 00:08:18,800 PROFESSOR: It's Junta? 189 00:08:18,800 --> 00:08:21,000 With a J, right? 190 00:08:21,000 --> 00:08:23,150 AUDIENCE: Yeah. 191 00:08:23,150 --> 00:08:25,430 PROFESSOR: So, [? this ?] [? is ?] [? be, ?] right? 192 00:08:25,430 --> 00:08:28,090 It sort of plays around with this idea 193 00:08:28,090 --> 00:08:32,330 that you have this dictator that seems 194 00:08:32,330 --> 00:08:34,220 to be amassing a large personal fortune, 195 00:08:34,220 --> 00:08:37,460 whether or not the dictator can be 196 00:08:37,460 --> 00:08:39,310 successful in a process of amassing 197 00:08:39,310 --> 00:08:43,039 a large personal fortune, that game is designed 198 00:08:43,039 --> 00:08:44,600 to paint a giant target. 199 00:08:44,600 --> 00:08:46,115 And we have another game here called 200 00:08:46,115 --> 00:08:51,080 King of Tokyo, which is basically giant monsters trying 201 00:08:51,080 --> 00:08:53,840 to take over Tokyo bay. 202 00:08:53,840 --> 00:08:59,270 Every sing generic giant robot, giant dinosaur, 203 00:08:59,270 --> 00:09:02,910 octopus thing, mecha dinosaur. 204 00:09:02,910 --> 00:09:06,560 And whoever happens to be a king of the hill at that point 205 00:09:06,560 --> 00:09:08,270 has a giant target on them, and the game 206 00:09:08,270 --> 00:09:10,040 mechanics all support that, that's 207 00:09:10,040 --> 00:09:13,260 what the game's all about. 208 00:09:13,260 --> 00:09:15,860 So those are some of the problems 209 00:09:15,860 --> 00:09:20,300 and he proposed two solution, not necessarily the only two 210 00:09:20,300 --> 00:09:22,940 solutions, but these are the ones that occur to him, 211 00:09:22,940 --> 00:09:28,560 particularly in war gaming, that might work. 212 00:09:28,560 --> 00:09:32,300 And they're actually kind of opposite ends of the spectrum. 213 00:09:32,300 --> 00:09:34,815 Does anyone remember one of the two solutions? 214 00:09:34,815 --> 00:09:36,180 AUDIENCE: Equilibrium? 215 00:09:36,180 --> 00:09:37,090 PROFESSOR: Mhm. 216 00:09:37,090 --> 00:09:38,283 [INAUDIBLE] 217 00:09:38,283 --> 00:09:44,263 AUDIENCE: If one person gets ahead then they cannot be 218 00:09:44,263 --> 00:09:50,936 significantly defeated before they win the game. 219 00:09:50,936 --> 00:09:53,875 PROFESSOR: I think equilibrium was the opposite of that. 220 00:09:53,875 --> 00:09:54,666 AUDIENCE: Opposite? 221 00:09:54,666 --> 00:09:56,545 PROFESSOR: Yeah, so you've actually 222 00:09:56,545 --> 00:09:58,670 just completed two answers into one, which is good. 223 00:09:58,670 --> 00:10:03,100 [LAUGHTER] So, the equilibrium, if I recall correctly 224 00:10:03,100 --> 00:10:07,670 from the reading, the equilibrium design goal method 225 00:10:07,670 --> 00:10:11,050 that you can manage to design is taking advantage of things 226 00:10:11,050 --> 00:10:13,150 like the balance of power theory, which 227 00:10:13,150 --> 00:10:16,360 is, if there is a person who is clearly ahead, 228 00:10:16,360 --> 00:10:18,400 everybody else who is weaker is probably 229 00:10:18,400 --> 00:10:20,620 going to band up and take you down, 230 00:10:20,620 --> 00:10:23,980 and if you just balance the game in a certain way 231 00:10:23,980 --> 00:10:25,610 you give them the tools to do that, 232 00:10:25,610 --> 00:10:29,740 and that takes anyone who seems to be ahead back 233 00:10:29,740 --> 00:10:33,780 to a sort of equal power level. 234 00:10:33,780 --> 00:10:36,910 That's a balance of power theory is something 235 00:10:36,910 --> 00:10:38,450 from political science. 236 00:10:38,450 --> 00:10:39,950 I've only heard about it in passing. 237 00:10:39,950 --> 00:10:41,710 If there's anybody here who has taken political science 238 00:10:41,710 --> 00:10:44,320 classes, you can tell me if I'm getting this right or wrong. 239 00:10:44,320 --> 00:10:47,170 The whole thing is not a far fetched idea, right? 240 00:10:47,170 --> 00:10:51,810 If you've got a powerful nation other nations who 241 00:10:51,810 --> 00:10:56,320 are bordering that powerful nation 242 00:10:56,320 --> 00:10:59,170 are likely to either team up with the powerful nation, 243 00:10:59,170 --> 00:11:02,990 or more likely to band their [? nations ?] together, 244 00:11:02,990 --> 00:11:04,990 even though they may not be ideologically linked 245 00:11:04,990 --> 00:11:05,810 or anything. 246 00:11:05,810 --> 00:11:09,280 They're ideologically linked against the powerful nation, 247 00:11:09,280 --> 00:11:13,390 so same thing goes for players. 248 00:11:13,390 --> 00:11:17,730 So basically it comes down to giving everybody the tool 249 00:11:17,730 --> 00:11:25,000 to take down the leader a notch, and does restore everything 250 00:11:25,000 --> 00:11:28,000 to a sort of equilibrium state. 251 00:11:28,000 --> 00:11:31,450 And then your success criteria for the game 252 00:11:31,450 --> 00:11:35,431 probably isn't who is going to gain such a massive leap, 253 00:11:35,431 --> 00:11:37,555 because the game isn't deliberately really designed 254 00:11:37,555 --> 00:11:39,790 to wait for everything to equilibrium, 255 00:11:39,790 --> 00:11:43,420 you need to have some other kinds of success criteria. 256 00:11:43,420 --> 00:11:45,460 Maybe the game is time limited, for instance, 257 00:11:45,460 --> 00:11:48,370 maybe the game has different goals for each player, 258 00:11:48,370 --> 00:11:50,110 or something. 259 00:11:50,110 --> 00:11:53,530 So even though your power levels are about the same 260 00:11:53,530 --> 00:11:57,560 you might be able to get victory points on some things 261 00:11:57,560 --> 00:11:58,710 faster than others. 262 00:12:02,060 --> 00:12:03,970 The alternative, which you hinted at, 263 00:12:03,970 --> 00:12:08,050 which was, basically, making it difficult to take down 264 00:12:08,050 --> 00:12:10,130 the person who's in the lead once they're already 265 00:12:10,130 --> 00:12:10,990 in the lead. 266 00:12:15,070 --> 00:12:17,290 He had one very specific implementation 267 00:12:17,290 --> 00:12:25,806 of this, or one particular rule of thumb, on how effective must 268 00:12:25,806 --> 00:12:28,079 a person in the lead be in order to prevent 269 00:12:28,079 --> 00:12:29,620 the king making, and sandbagging, and 270 00:12:29,620 --> 00:12:31,876 [? turtling, ?] and everything. 271 00:12:31,876 --> 00:12:34,750 Remember this? 272 00:12:34,750 --> 00:12:37,150 Remember? 273 00:12:37,150 --> 00:12:41,740 The basic idea is that you must be able to do it in one turn, 274 00:12:41,740 --> 00:12:44,414 in a single turn. 275 00:12:44,414 --> 00:12:45,830 If you are in the lead, you should 276 00:12:45,830 --> 00:12:48,540 be able to complete the game and win the game in a single turn. 277 00:12:48,540 --> 00:12:51,490 I'm not so sure whether I agree with that. 278 00:12:51,490 --> 00:12:54,320 And I don't think he means win it on your turn. 279 00:12:54,320 --> 00:12:58,370 I think it means in a round of people. 280 00:12:58,370 --> 00:13:00,950 If you're in the lead in the game, 281 00:13:00,950 --> 00:13:03,620 you should be able to do something to cement that lead 282 00:13:03,620 --> 00:13:06,260 so that within that turn no one's going to be able to do 283 00:13:06,260 --> 00:13:09,890 anything about [? changing ?] the [? turnout of ?] the game. 284 00:13:09,890 --> 00:13:13,580 This is for games where there is a clear win 285 00:13:13,580 --> 00:13:18,380 condition that is based on overpowering your opponents. 286 00:13:18,380 --> 00:13:21,430 That you don't want to have the situation where, 287 00:13:21,430 --> 00:13:24,620 yeah, I'm in the lead but everybody else still 288 00:13:24,620 --> 00:13:29,120 has enough time to take me down to the point 289 00:13:29,120 --> 00:13:32,510 that somebody else can then catch up and be in the lead, 290 00:13:32,510 --> 00:13:36,530 because that basically means that the first person 291 00:13:36,530 --> 00:13:43,040 to get in the lead will probably lose, and that's sad. 292 00:13:43,040 --> 00:13:47,996 But we see that in certain computer games. 293 00:13:47,996 --> 00:13:51,560 We've seen games where whoever who is in the lead 294 00:13:51,560 --> 00:13:53,510 has a giant target painted on their back 295 00:13:53,510 --> 00:13:56,507 and you're expected to be taken down. 296 00:13:56,507 --> 00:13:57,965 If you're the first one in the lead 297 00:13:57,965 --> 00:14:00,440 you are probably going to get hit, but then that now 298 00:14:00,440 --> 00:14:03,160 [? there's ?] enough time to be able to pull ahead. 299 00:14:03,160 --> 00:14:07,340 So that's closer to the equilibrium style, right? 300 00:14:07,340 --> 00:14:09,420 So I think I heard someone give-- 301 00:14:09,420 --> 00:14:10,520 AUDIENCE: Oh, Mario Kart. 302 00:14:10,520 --> 00:14:13,560 PROFESSOR: Mario Kart being the obvious one. 303 00:14:13,560 --> 00:14:16,850 You get increasingly powerful weapons the further behind you 304 00:14:16,850 --> 00:14:18,980 get, or useful things. 305 00:14:18,980 --> 00:14:23,480 There's an example in this book here, the Rules of Play-- 306 00:14:23,480 --> 00:14:28,380 this is the hardback version-- 307 00:14:28,380 --> 00:14:30,900 of Super Monkey Ball. 308 00:14:30,900 --> 00:14:33,740 And, basically, all their weapons face forward. 309 00:14:33,740 --> 00:14:37,530 So again, number one, you can only shoot forward, 310 00:14:37,530 --> 00:14:40,340 there's nothing to shoot, there's nobody ahead of you. 311 00:14:40,340 --> 00:14:42,890 It's not actually a technical disadvantage, 312 00:14:42,890 --> 00:14:45,480 it's not like a weapon that slows you down, 313 00:14:45,480 --> 00:14:47,256 but it's useless thing. 314 00:14:47,256 --> 00:14:48,922 You get these powerups that are useless. 315 00:14:51,630 --> 00:14:57,860 So a lot of these feed into a different way 316 00:14:57,860 --> 00:15:01,610 of looking at games that is a very formal, very 317 00:15:01,610 --> 00:15:04,070 [? technique, ?] and one day you've probably heard 318 00:15:04,070 --> 00:15:05,840 of, mentioned multiple times in this class 319 00:15:05,840 --> 00:15:07,548 and in other classes, as well, and that's 320 00:15:07,548 --> 00:15:09,070 just feedback systems. 321 00:15:09,070 --> 00:15:11,990 I don't care about UI feedback, I'm talking about feedback 322 00:15:11,990 --> 00:15:13,860 from the cybernetic [? sense. ?] Anyone 323 00:15:13,860 --> 00:15:17,394 here has heard about cybernetics from another class? 324 00:15:17,394 --> 00:15:18,216 Yeah. 325 00:15:18,216 --> 00:15:20,340 AUDIENCE: Oh, I was going with the feedback systems 326 00:15:20,340 --> 00:15:21,822 that you used in your other class, 327 00:15:21,822 --> 00:15:23,530 like we did [? in the engineering one. ?] 328 00:15:23,530 --> 00:15:24,470 PROFESSOR: Yeah, yeah. 329 00:15:24,470 --> 00:15:25,970 I definitely brought it up in there. 330 00:15:25,970 --> 00:15:27,500 AUDIENCE: Yeah, where you had a forward feedback 331 00:15:27,500 --> 00:15:29,110 system and a backward feedback system, and, basically-- 332 00:15:29,110 --> 00:15:30,303 PROFESSOR: Mhm, positive and negative. 333 00:15:30,303 --> 00:15:30,656 Yeah. 334 00:15:30,656 --> 00:15:32,447 AUDIENCE: --If you were winning, you either 335 00:15:32,447 --> 00:15:37,476 start winning by more, or your losing, you start to catch up. 336 00:15:37,476 --> 00:15:40,512 For example, [INAUDIBLE] 337 00:15:40,512 --> 00:15:41,220 PROFESSOR: Right. 338 00:15:41,220 --> 00:15:45,310 So, the whole basic idea of cybernetics 339 00:15:45,310 --> 00:15:49,770 is based on, sort of, automated control. 340 00:15:49,770 --> 00:15:52,950 You create systems, mechanical or electronic, or with a set 341 00:15:52,950 --> 00:15:58,270 of rules that basically are going to either accelerate 342 00:15:58,270 --> 00:16:06,590 or snowball the performance of the system, 343 00:16:06,590 --> 00:16:09,720 or bring it back to equilibrium. 344 00:16:09,720 --> 00:16:12,450 If this sounds very familiar to something [? Mech-E ?] 345 00:16:12,450 --> 00:16:15,230 or [? EE ?] or something, that's completely expected 346 00:16:15,230 --> 00:16:18,720 because this all originally came from that. 347 00:16:18,720 --> 00:16:22,440 So, the basic model is that you have 348 00:16:22,440 --> 00:16:27,710 some sort of sensor, something that detects 349 00:16:27,710 --> 00:16:29,020 an environmental change. 350 00:16:29,020 --> 00:16:33,690 It could be something that detects the state of your game, 351 00:16:33,690 --> 00:16:36,870 some way of telling you this is the current state 352 00:16:36,870 --> 00:16:38,360 that you're looking at. 353 00:16:38,360 --> 00:16:42,070 Then goes to a comparator-- 354 00:16:42,070 --> 00:16:44,230 which needs more space because it's 355 00:16:44,230 --> 00:16:47,553 a longer word, comparator-- 356 00:16:47,553 --> 00:16:51,370 which performs some sort of logical assessment 357 00:16:51,370 --> 00:16:55,345 on the state of the system that you're looking at. 358 00:16:55,345 --> 00:17:02,970 And then you're going to an actuator, which 359 00:17:02,970 --> 00:17:04,330 performs some sort of action. 360 00:17:04,330 --> 00:17:06,300 And it's called feedback because the thing just 361 00:17:06,300 --> 00:17:09,040 keeps feeding back, all right? 362 00:17:09,040 --> 00:17:12,290 Real life systems that do this, what 363 00:17:12,290 --> 00:17:15,349 are some of the simplest real-life systems that do this, 364 00:17:15,349 --> 00:17:21,832 electronically or mechanically, without human intervention? 365 00:17:21,832 --> 00:17:22,915 AUDIENCE: Washing machine. 366 00:17:22,915 --> 00:17:23,980 PROFESSOR: Washing machine? 367 00:17:23,980 --> 00:17:24,855 AUDIENCE: Thermostat. 368 00:17:24,855 --> 00:17:26,589 PROFESSOR: Thermostat. 369 00:17:26,589 --> 00:17:27,480 Washing machine? 370 00:17:27,480 --> 00:17:29,690 That would watch water levels I think, right? 371 00:17:29,690 --> 00:17:31,690 AUDIENCE: Well, the [INAUDIBLE] 372 00:17:31,690 --> 00:17:32,980 PROFESSOR: Oh, yeah, yeah. 373 00:17:32,980 --> 00:17:34,950 That's true. 374 00:17:34,950 --> 00:17:39,790 So, thermostat, things get too hot, turn on the cooling system 375 00:17:39,790 --> 00:17:42,810 or shut off the heating system. 376 00:17:42,810 --> 00:17:46,290 AUDIENCE: Wonder if that emergency [INAUDIBLE] 377 00:17:46,290 --> 00:17:47,165 PROFESSOR: Emergency? 378 00:17:47,165 --> 00:17:51,657 AUDIENCE: [INAUDIBLE] There's a hole at the top of sinks where 379 00:17:51,657 --> 00:17:52,564 if the water-- 380 00:17:52,564 --> 00:17:53,230 PROFESSOR: Yeah. 381 00:17:53,230 --> 00:17:53,976 AUDIENCE: [INAUDIBLE] 382 00:17:53,976 --> 00:17:54,642 PROFESSOR: Yeah. 383 00:17:54,642 --> 00:17:59,836 The sensors, whether the water has actually hit that hole. 384 00:17:59,836 --> 00:18:04,550 [INAUDIBLE] I guess the sensor is the level of the water, 385 00:18:04,550 --> 00:18:06,956 the comparator is the height of the hole, 386 00:18:06,956 --> 00:18:09,455 and then the actuator is if it's at the height of the whole, 387 00:18:09,455 --> 00:18:10,632 go out the hole, right? 388 00:18:10,632 --> 00:18:12,090 So, it's actually just like physics 389 00:18:12,090 --> 00:18:13,984 is the entire system for you, but it's 390 00:18:13,984 --> 00:18:15,900 engineered in a way to take advantage of that. 391 00:18:15,900 --> 00:18:17,280 AUDIENCE: Systems like autopilot. 392 00:18:17,280 --> 00:18:20,320 PROFESSOR: Mhm, keeping you on the path 393 00:18:20,320 --> 00:18:22,370 that you're supposed to be on, always just doing 394 00:18:22,370 --> 00:18:24,207 minute little corrections. 395 00:18:24,207 --> 00:18:26,540 The majority of these things are real-world applications 396 00:18:26,540 --> 00:18:29,495 of these negative feedback systems. 397 00:18:32,814 --> 00:18:37,310 And the idea is that if there is a change in one direction, 398 00:18:37,310 --> 00:18:38,760 pull it back. 399 00:18:38,760 --> 00:18:42,980 If goes in the other direction pull it forward 400 00:18:42,980 --> 00:18:49,180 so it always hovers around the same point. 401 00:18:49,180 --> 00:18:51,870 These are deliberately designed systems 402 00:18:51,870 --> 00:18:54,240 trying to do this all the time. 403 00:18:54,240 --> 00:18:57,150 But there are a lot of real-world systems 404 00:18:57,150 --> 00:18:58,816 that do the opposite, right? 405 00:19:01,828 --> 00:19:03,820 Stuff that snowballs. 406 00:19:03,820 --> 00:19:08,510 For instance, a snowball rolling down the hill. 407 00:19:08,510 --> 00:19:12,730 As it goes down it gets larger and it makes it slightly easier 408 00:19:12,730 --> 00:19:15,520 to continue rolling. 409 00:19:15,520 --> 00:19:18,080 I think some of the area in contact to snow 410 00:19:18,080 --> 00:19:21,556 actually decreases by a proper ratio 411 00:19:21,556 --> 00:19:24,100 [? required ?] to make it easier to keep going. 412 00:19:24,100 --> 00:19:27,720 It picks up more snow and gets larger and larger. 413 00:19:27,720 --> 00:19:30,060 Another positive feedback system in the real world? 414 00:19:30,060 --> 00:19:31,893 AUDIENCE: I don't know the name of the game, 415 00:19:31,893 --> 00:19:34,287 but there's this [INAUDIBLE] game where 416 00:19:34,287 --> 00:19:35,495 you start off as an asteroid. 417 00:19:35,495 --> 00:19:36,770 AUDIENCE: [? Astrobrah. ?] 418 00:19:36,770 --> 00:19:37,978 AUDIENCE: Is that what it is? 419 00:19:37,978 --> 00:19:40,536 PROFESSOR: Astro-what? 420 00:19:40,536 --> 00:19:41,460 [INAUDIBLE] 421 00:19:41,460 --> 00:19:43,865 AUDIENCE: You start off as a small asteroid, 422 00:19:43,865 --> 00:19:47,232 and what happens is you meet other small asteroids 423 00:19:47,232 --> 00:19:50,130 and you grow up to be a planet, and then, at that point, 424 00:19:50,130 --> 00:19:53,487 asteroids become fairly easy to gobble up, 425 00:19:53,487 --> 00:19:55,820 but you want to go after other smaller planets than you, 426 00:19:55,820 --> 00:19:59,628 and then [INAUDIBLE] and then keep on getting bigger 427 00:19:59,628 --> 00:20:00,957 until you become a black hole. 428 00:20:00,957 --> 00:20:01,540 PROFESSOR: Hm. 429 00:20:01,540 --> 00:20:02,220 AUDIENCE: And then, eventually you 430 00:20:02,220 --> 00:20:04,860 get so large that you can just eat everything up afterwards. 431 00:20:04,860 --> 00:20:07,400 PROFESSOR: There are two games that reminds me of. 432 00:20:07,400 --> 00:20:11,485 One is Orbital, which was a Nintendo game. 433 00:20:11,485 --> 00:20:12,570 Do you know? 434 00:20:12,570 --> 00:20:13,695 AUDIENCE: Wait, which one? 435 00:20:13,695 --> 00:20:14,820 Which game were you saying? 436 00:20:14,820 --> 00:20:16,860 AUDIENCE: That sounds like Katamari Damacy. 437 00:20:16,860 --> 00:20:18,342 PROFESSOR: It sounds like Katamari Damacy. 438 00:20:18,342 --> 00:20:20,133 AUDIENCE: I think that sounds like a genre. 439 00:20:20,133 --> 00:20:20,802 PROFESSOR: Yeah. 440 00:20:20,802 --> 00:20:23,340 AUDIENCE: So, get bigger so you can get bigger. 441 00:20:23,340 --> 00:20:25,028 PROFESSOR: Yeah. 442 00:20:25,028 --> 00:20:27,010 Let's see. 443 00:20:27,010 --> 00:20:31,597 What's the game done by Andy Nealen? 444 00:20:31,597 --> 00:20:32,722 AUDIENCE: [? Orthos? ?] No. 445 00:20:32,722 --> 00:20:33,674 Osmos. 446 00:20:33,674 --> 00:20:34,975 PROFESSOR: Osmos. 447 00:20:34,975 --> 00:20:40,950 Yeah, I think that's a PC and portable device game. 448 00:20:40,950 --> 00:20:44,020 So, Osmos is an interesting situation 449 00:20:44,020 --> 00:20:47,350 because yes, the bigger you get, the bigger you can get, 450 00:20:47,350 --> 00:20:50,080 because the idea of Osmos is like you're just 451 00:20:50,080 --> 00:20:53,970 a little amoeba-like blob, so asteroid, amoeba-like blob. 452 00:20:53,970 --> 00:20:55,820 You can eat anything smaller than you, 453 00:20:55,820 --> 00:20:57,880 and everything that you eat makes you bigger, 454 00:20:57,880 --> 00:20:59,750 so you can eat even bigger things. 455 00:20:59,750 --> 00:21:01,810 But actually it makes it more difficult for you 456 00:21:01,810 --> 00:21:04,830 to navigate because you're more massive now. 457 00:21:04,830 --> 00:21:07,780 So you actually have both negative and positive loops 458 00:21:07,780 --> 00:21:09,187 going on at once. 459 00:21:09,187 --> 00:21:10,770 AUDIENCE: I have another possible one. 460 00:21:10,770 --> 00:21:11,730 PROFESSOR: Mhm? 461 00:21:11,730 --> 00:21:12,462 AUDIENCE: Bombs. 462 00:21:12,462 --> 00:21:13,170 PROFESSOR: Bombs? 463 00:21:13,170 --> 00:21:15,720 AUDIENCE: Yeah, because then [INAUDIBLE] exploding and-- 464 00:21:15,720 --> 00:21:17,570 PROFESSOR: It makes other things explode? 465 00:21:17,570 --> 00:21:20,594 AUDIENCE: Well there's that, but there's also some bombs where-- 466 00:21:20,594 --> 00:21:21,600 AUDIENCE: Nuclear bombs. 467 00:21:21,600 --> 00:21:22,850 AUDIENCE: Yeah, nuclear bombs. 468 00:21:22,850 --> 00:21:26,320 PROFESSOR: Oh, so like you're using an atomic bomb to set off 469 00:21:26,320 --> 00:21:27,820 a hydrogen bomb, that sort of thing? 470 00:21:27,820 --> 00:21:28,550 AUDIENCE: Something like that. 471 00:21:28,550 --> 00:21:29,430 PROFESSOR: OK, yeah. 472 00:21:33,213 --> 00:21:39,670 Positive feedback often happens in military conflict, right? 473 00:21:39,670 --> 00:21:47,740 If you've got overwhelming forces every engagement just 474 00:21:47,740 --> 00:21:52,450 makes the ratio, if everything goes according 475 00:21:52,450 --> 00:21:55,560 to military doctrine, every engagement 476 00:21:55,560 --> 00:21:58,920 is going to give you yet a greater advantage. 477 00:21:58,920 --> 00:22:02,050 [INAUDIBLE] 478 00:22:02,050 --> 00:22:05,960 So, the way this has been applied in games is-- 479 00:22:05,960 --> 00:22:09,100 just to make it literal-- 480 00:22:09,100 --> 00:22:13,390 you have some sort of state of the game. 481 00:22:13,390 --> 00:22:14,590 Am I getting this right? 482 00:22:14,590 --> 00:22:15,699 Yeah. 483 00:22:15,699 --> 00:22:16,990 You have the state of the game. 484 00:22:20,820 --> 00:22:23,150 Wait, hold on, let me just make sure I've 485 00:22:23,150 --> 00:22:24,290 got this perfectly right. 486 00:22:24,290 --> 00:22:26,020 Here we go. 487 00:22:26,020 --> 00:22:27,644 You have some sort of scoring function. 488 00:22:30,440 --> 00:22:32,470 It doesn't have to be the literal score, 489 00:22:32,470 --> 00:22:35,740 but it has to be some way of assessing how close you 490 00:22:35,740 --> 00:22:37,600 are to some sort of goal. 491 00:22:37,600 --> 00:22:40,370 So either the short term goal or the overall goal 492 00:22:40,370 --> 00:22:44,780 of the game, some sort of scoring function. 493 00:22:44,780 --> 00:22:51,030 And that goes into some set of [? prior ?] input. 494 00:22:56,110 --> 00:22:58,740 There are some versions of this diagram that separate this 495 00:22:58,740 --> 00:23:02,640 into two things, that's kind of like the player decides 496 00:23:02,640 --> 00:23:05,040 what they're going to do and then actually executes 497 00:23:05,040 --> 00:23:07,260 the input. 498 00:23:07,260 --> 00:23:10,260 Actually, there is one more stage, sorry. 499 00:23:13,647 --> 00:23:15,480 There is one more stage, and that's the kind 500 00:23:15,480 --> 00:23:17,200 of the mechanical bias. 501 00:23:24,000 --> 00:23:26,600 So the state of the game can be revealed in some sort 502 00:23:26,600 --> 00:23:27,770 of scoring function. 503 00:23:27,770 --> 00:23:30,860 A player assesses what they want to do 504 00:23:30,860 --> 00:23:33,470 and then tries to execute it. 505 00:23:33,470 --> 00:23:37,280 That is filtered within the computer's or the board game's 506 00:23:37,280 --> 00:23:39,290 or the card game's interpretation of what 507 00:23:39,290 --> 00:23:42,290 that input is going to do, and then that feeds back 508 00:23:42,290 --> 00:23:44,840 into game state, right? 509 00:23:44,840 --> 00:23:48,170 So for games like Mario Kart, you 510 00:23:48,170 --> 00:23:52,250 perceive that you are doing badly 511 00:23:52,250 --> 00:24:01,480 because you are the last one at the back of the races. 512 00:24:01,480 --> 00:24:06,200 You drive your vehicle into one of those rotating boxes 513 00:24:06,200 --> 00:24:08,920 because you're deliberately steering to them 514 00:24:08,920 --> 00:24:11,760 because they're probably your only chance 515 00:24:11,760 --> 00:24:13,880 to be able to catch up again. 516 00:24:13,880 --> 00:24:16,249 You get usually something really, 517 00:24:16,249 --> 00:24:18,165 really sweet because you're all the way behind 518 00:24:18,165 --> 00:24:20,060 and the way the game is designed, 519 00:24:20,060 --> 00:24:24,220 if you're all the way behind you get all the best toys. 520 00:24:24,220 --> 00:24:26,470 Every single tool that you need to be able to catch up 521 00:24:26,470 --> 00:24:28,678 is given to you when you are all the way at the back. 522 00:24:28,678 --> 00:24:30,590 That's the mechanic bias, all right? 523 00:24:30,590 --> 00:24:32,182 It gives you the right tool and that 524 00:24:32,182 --> 00:24:34,640 affects game state because now you have this wonderful tool 525 00:24:34,640 --> 00:24:37,630 and you use it, hopefully it works, and then 526 00:24:37,630 --> 00:24:39,771 you gain a couple of places up in the race. 527 00:24:42,530 --> 00:24:46,070 So, there are a couple of other examples 528 00:24:46,070 --> 00:24:47,940 that are a little bit clearer. 529 00:24:47,940 --> 00:24:51,280 So, say, basketball. 530 00:24:51,280 --> 00:24:53,270 If you've got a situation where you've 531 00:24:53,270 --> 00:24:55,880 got five people on each side, you 532 00:24:55,880 --> 00:24:59,360 could do a game where if you start 533 00:24:59,360 --> 00:25:07,740 to have a lead of five points, you lose a player. 534 00:25:07,740 --> 00:25:09,672 Someone's benched. 535 00:25:09,672 --> 00:25:15,262 [LAUGHTER] So is that negative or is positive? 536 00:25:15,262 --> 00:25:16,684 AUDIENCE: Negative. 537 00:25:16,684 --> 00:25:18,100 PROFESSOR: That's negative, right? 538 00:25:18,100 --> 00:25:20,690 Because you're saying, all right, you 539 00:25:20,690 --> 00:25:23,660 are far enough ahead, we're going to take away 540 00:25:23,660 --> 00:25:25,970 one of the advantages. 541 00:25:25,970 --> 00:25:28,210 Is there another way to do negative feedback 542 00:25:28,210 --> 00:25:29,810 on that example? 543 00:25:29,810 --> 00:25:31,576 Instead of taking away a player? 544 00:25:31,576 --> 00:25:32,470 AUDIENCE: Add another player to the others. 545 00:25:32,470 --> 00:25:35,330 PROFESSOR: You could add another player to the other side. 546 00:25:35,330 --> 00:25:38,990 That's also negative feedback, even though you're 547 00:25:38,990 --> 00:25:40,940 adding something, what you're really 548 00:25:40,940 --> 00:25:44,180 doing is you're going to give an advantage to someone who's not 549 00:25:44,180 --> 00:25:48,150 doing so well, and that's trying to bring things to equilibrium. 550 00:25:48,150 --> 00:25:50,932 The positive feedback version of this would be-- 551 00:25:50,932 --> 00:25:54,750 [LAUGHTER] [INTERPOSING VOICES] What? 552 00:25:54,750 --> 00:25:56,629 AUDIENCE: Turn the three-point line 553 00:25:56,629 --> 00:25:58,045 into a four-point line [INAUDIBLE] 554 00:25:58,045 --> 00:25:59,096 PROFESSOR: Oh, OK. 555 00:25:59,096 --> 00:25:59,595 All right. 556 00:25:59,595 --> 00:26:00,948 AUDIENCE: Every time you score a point 557 00:26:00,948 --> 00:26:02,250 the other team loses a player. 558 00:26:02,250 --> 00:26:03,510 PROFESSOR: Yeah, OK. 559 00:26:03,510 --> 00:26:04,369 [LAUGHTER] 560 00:26:04,369 --> 00:26:05,952 AUDIENCE: Do you ever play basketball? 561 00:26:05,952 --> 00:26:08,730 [LAUGHTER] 562 00:26:08,730 --> 00:26:10,200 PROFESSOR: I was thinking something 563 00:26:10,200 --> 00:26:13,070 more literal like just giving the team that's 564 00:26:13,070 --> 00:26:14,570 ahead extra players. 565 00:26:14,570 --> 00:26:17,030 Right, that's right. 566 00:26:17,030 --> 00:26:18,830 You could do it, every five point that you 567 00:26:18,830 --> 00:26:20,110 get, you get one more player. 568 00:26:20,110 --> 00:26:22,080 Then pretty soon you've got two more players, then pretty 569 00:26:22,080 --> 00:26:23,973 soon you've got three more players, and then-- 570 00:26:23,973 --> 00:26:25,270 AUDIENCE: Pretty soon you have too many players. 571 00:26:25,270 --> 00:26:27,832 PROFESSOR: --and then you just have more people than anyone 572 00:26:27,832 --> 00:26:30,290 can move on a basketball court, and as a result of that you 573 00:26:30,290 --> 00:26:31,890 kind of win by default. 574 00:26:31,890 --> 00:26:34,057 AUDIENCE: Some game have a similar mechanism, 575 00:26:34,057 --> 00:26:36,390 like, somebody's on fire, they make three shot in a row, 576 00:26:36,390 --> 00:26:39,140 and all of a sudden they're just way better at playing. 577 00:26:39,140 --> 00:26:41,805 PROFESSOR: They run faster, they jump a little higher. 578 00:26:41,805 --> 00:26:44,069 Yeah, and the computer games can totally do that. 579 00:26:44,069 --> 00:26:45,402 AUDIENCE: [INAUDIBLE] [LAUGHTER] 580 00:26:45,402 --> 00:26:50,182 PROFESSOR: Well-- [INTERPOSING VOICES] 581 00:26:50,182 --> 00:26:52,384 AUDIENCE: Being on fire is the same as momentum. 582 00:26:52,384 --> 00:26:53,050 PROFESSOR: Yeah. 583 00:26:53,050 --> 00:26:54,110 Yeah. 584 00:26:54,110 --> 00:26:56,500 AUDIENCE: Statistically, if you're throwing a good game 585 00:26:56,500 --> 00:26:59,746 and you're doing more and more pitches, better 586 00:26:59,746 --> 00:27:02,669 and better pitches, you are playing better. 587 00:27:02,669 --> 00:27:04,460 PROFESSOR: But I'm wondering whether that's 588 00:27:04,460 --> 00:27:05,930 correlation or causation. 589 00:27:05,930 --> 00:27:07,970 Is the reason why you're doing better because-- 590 00:27:07,970 --> 00:27:10,137 AUDIENCE: Right now they're thinking it's causation. 591 00:27:10,137 --> 00:27:11,219 PROFESSOR: It's causation? 592 00:27:11,219 --> 00:27:12,370 AUDIENCE: They thinking it. 593 00:27:12,370 --> 00:27:14,229 There's a new study that just came out. 594 00:27:14,229 --> 00:27:15,770 PROFESSOR: But it definitely comes up 595 00:27:15,770 --> 00:27:18,430 in sports psychology, right? 596 00:27:18,430 --> 00:27:23,320 You're sort of building on the mental momentum of doing well. 597 00:27:23,320 --> 00:27:28,330 And similarly a team that's not doing well can lose hope. 598 00:27:28,330 --> 00:27:30,590 Again, that's positive feedback, I just 599 00:27:30,590 --> 00:27:33,030 want to be extremely clear about the use of positive, 600 00:27:33,030 --> 00:27:37,700 if there's anything that amplifies differences 601 00:27:37,700 --> 00:27:40,710 that already exist. 602 00:27:40,710 --> 00:27:45,620 So, there are a couple of things to think 603 00:27:45,620 --> 00:27:49,250 about when it comes to feedback, especially as a problem solving 604 00:27:49,250 --> 00:27:51,950 technique for design. 605 00:27:51,950 --> 00:27:55,640 We've already talked about how negative feedback tries 606 00:27:55,640 --> 00:27:57,650 to bring things down to equilibrium, 607 00:27:57,650 --> 00:28:00,150 so it's a stabilizing force. 608 00:28:00,150 --> 00:28:05,090 If your game is out of control and unpredictable and chaotic, 609 00:28:05,090 --> 00:28:07,450 negative feedback can rein things in a little bit. 610 00:28:07,450 --> 00:28:09,675 Sure, it may be unpredictable, but it's not 611 00:28:09,675 --> 00:28:11,060 going to hurt me so bad. 612 00:28:11,060 --> 00:28:14,010 Or if somebody gets and advantage 613 00:28:14,010 --> 00:28:17,180 it's not going to be a runaway advantage. 614 00:28:17,180 --> 00:28:22,152 Similarly if your games just actually always hovering 615 00:28:22,152 --> 00:28:24,610 at equilibrium and nobody seems to be getting an advantage, 616 00:28:24,610 --> 00:28:28,840 then positive feedback will destabilize that. 617 00:28:28,840 --> 00:28:32,750 It will make it more likely that somebody who gets an advantage 618 00:28:32,750 --> 00:28:36,080 will actually get a large advantage, 619 00:28:36,080 --> 00:28:39,470 and that could be a good thing if your game is kind of dull 620 00:28:39,470 --> 00:28:45,260 and it's always just kind of hovering at the same level. 621 00:28:45,260 --> 00:28:49,850 But there's a trade-off with that, 622 00:28:49,850 --> 00:28:52,220 because any amount of feedback that you're 623 00:28:52,220 --> 00:28:54,487 adding into your game, especially 624 00:28:54,487 --> 00:28:56,570 this kind of automated feedback, this is something 625 00:28:56,570 --> 00:28:59,240 that your rules are automatically generating, 626 00:28:59,240 --> 00:29:02,200 can actually be taking control away from players, 627 00:29:02,200 --> 00:29:04,190 and as a result of that might actually 628 00:29:04,190 --> 00:29:06,050 make the game less engaging. 629 00:29:06,050 --> 00:29:11,180 So even a game with like, all right, this game is too stable, 630 00:29:11,180 --> 00:29:13,780 we're going to add some positive feedback mechanisms 631 00:29:13,780 --> 00:29:16,520 so that people who have an advantage 632 00:29:16,520 --> 00:29:18,850 can capitalize on that advantage. 633 00:29:18,850 --> 00:29:21,170 But if that's not done right, then you've 634 00:29:21,170 --> 00:29:24,290 just got a situation where once someone starts 635 00:29:24,290 --> 00:29:26,600 winning everybody else loses interest because there's 636 00:29:26,600 --> 00:29:29,250 no way that they can catch up. 637 00:29:29,250 --> 00:29:31,610 So it destabilizes it in a point that, yeah, someone's 638 00:29:31,610 --> 00:29:33,818 going to win this game whereas previous it was always 639 00:29:33,818 --> 00:29:35,030 stuck at equilibrium. 640 00:29:35,030 --> 00:29:38,067 But it's very easy to lose people 641 00:29:38,067 --> 00:29:39,900 in that process because you're just creating 642 00:29:39,900 --> 00:29:42,230 and automated system to take control away from them. 643 00:29:42,230 --> 00:29:48,550 So that's one danger of putting in a feedback system. 644 00:29:48,550 --> 00:29:51,800 Also we talked about bringing things down to equilibrium 645 00:29:51,800 --> 00:29:54,770 to make things a little bit easier for people to catch up 646 00:29:54,770 --> 00:29:58,220 or to make advantages a little bit less drastic. 647 00:29:58,220 --> 00:30:00,766 That can also make our game much more, right? 648 00:30:00,766 --> 00:30:02,140 Because nobody gets an advantage, 649 00:30:02,140 --> 00:30:03,681 and depending on your win conditions, 650 00:30:03,681 --> 00:30:07,130 depending on your end of game conditions, 651 00:30:07,130 --> 00:30:11,614 could actually just make it interminably long. 652 00:30:11,614 --> 00:30:13,030 You could take a half an hour game 653 00:30:13,030 --> 00:30:14,196 and make it a one hour game. 654 00:30:14,196 --> 00:30:16,490 So on the flip side, the positive feedback game 655 00:30:16,490 --> 00:30:19,140 can actually help rein in the length of the game. 656 00:30:19,140 --> 00:30:23,200 So if your game is currently taking an hour long [INAUDIBLE] 657 00:30:23,200 --> 00:30:25,100 and your victory conditions happen 658 00:30:25,100 --> 00:30:29,960 to be on gaining an advantage over your opponents, 659 00:30:29,960 --> 00:30:32,490 then a positive feedback system can help speed that along. 660 00:30:32,490 --> 00:30:32,990 Right? 661 00:30:32,990 --> 00:30:35,305 OK, maybe we can cut it down by half 662 00:30:35,305 --> 00:30:37,430 by just giving some advantages the the person who's 663 00:30:37,430 --> 00:30:39,360 ahead or penalizing the people who are behind. 664 00:30:42,670 --> 00:30:45,080 That's an interesting little side 665 00:30:45,080 --> 00:30:50,930 effect, which is because positive feedback builds 666 00:30:50,930 --> 00:30:56,720 on itself, if you have an advantage early on, like you 667 00:30:56,720 --> 00:31:00,650 have early success, then positive feedback 668 00:31:00,650 --> 00:31:02,170 is going to be the mechanism that's 669 00:31:02,170 --> 00:31:04,040 going to help build on that. 670 00:31:04,040 --> 00:31:06,209 On the other hand, if you have a negative feedback 671 00:31:06,209 --> 00:31:08,000 system in your game, which means everything 672 00:31:08,000 --> 00:31:11,110 is kind of being brought down to an equilibrium, 673 00:31:11,110 --> 00:31:14,590 but everyone's getting closer to actually finishing the game, 674 00:31:14,590 --> 00:31:16,660 but no one really has a huge lead, 675 00:31:16,660 --> 00:31:20,405 then late successes mean a lot more. 676 00:31:20,405 --> 00:31:23,590 That last boost when you are near the final-- 677 00:31:27,900 --> 00:31:28,687 What's it called? 678 00:31:28,687 --> 00:31:29,770 AUDIENCE: The finish line. 679 00:31:29,770 --> 00:31:31,050 PROFESSOR: The finish line! 680 00:31:31,050 --> 00:31:34,910 That last boost before you hit the finish line 681 00:31:34,910 --> 00:31:37,011 on the very last round of Mario Kart 682 00:31:37,011 --> 00:31:39,250 means a lot because the whole game 683 00:31:39,250 --> 00:31:43,550 is designed with a huge amount of negative feedback, 684 00:31:43,550 --> 00:31:47,036 and could make all the difference. 685 00:31:47,036 --> 00:31:49,100 People have played Mario Kart where 686 00:31:49,100 --> 00:31:50,600 that was pretty much the game, there 687 00:31:50,600 --> 00:31:53,740 was this last fight [INAUDIBLE] Someone just 688 00:31:53,740 --> 00:31:56,375 got hit with a blue shell in the last five seconds 689 00:31:56,375 --> 00:32:01,880 and [INAUDIBLE] So negative feedback prioritizes what 690 00:32:01,880 --> 00:32:05,890 happens late in the game, whereas positive feedback 691 00:32:05,890 --> 00:32:08,540 prioritizes what happens earlier on in the game, the strategies 692 00:32:08,540 --> 00:32:09,900 that you pick, the cards that you have 693 00:32:09,900 --> 00:32:12,275 which you draw in play right at the beginning of the game 694 00:32:12,275 --> 00:32:14,840 [INAUDIBLE] Positive feedback stresses that. 695 00:32:19,120 --> 00:32:22,970 And finally, , always keep in mind that any interactional 696 00:32:22,970 --> 00:32:26,321 game systems probably create emergent feedback loops even 697 00:32:26,321 --> 00:32:30,362 if you had [INAUDIBLE] So what you want to do is you want 698 00:32:30,362 --> 00:32:32,300 to try to find that. 699 00:32:32,300 --> 00:32:35,430 There is a tool out there that I've seen some student teams 700 00:32:35,430 --> 00:32:37,258 use, and I don't know whether it's 701 00:32:37,258 --> 00:32:39,674 going to be useful for you, I'm just going to give you it. 702 00:32:39,674 --> 00:32:42,150 Has anyone heard of causal loop diagrams? 703 00:32:42,150 --> 00:32:45,150 It's from economics. 704 00:32:45,150 --> 00:32:46,650 You have? 705 00:32:46,650 --> 00:32:48,830 AUDIENCE: [INAUDIBLE] 706 00:32:48,830 --> 00:32:50,475 PROFESSOR: It's a very simple concept. 707 00:32:50,475 --> 00:32:54,580 You just basically write in your variables in your game, 708 00:32:54,580 --> 00:32:57,650 and you can add in a few in between variables 709 00:32:57,650 --> 00:33:02,660 if you know how players are thinking about your game. 710 00:33:02,660 --> 00:33:05,170 I've been using Mario Kart too much for an example. 711 00:33:05,170 --> 00:33:09,430 Let's pick another game with a obvious [? defect ?] in it 712 00:33:09,430 --> 00:33:11,350 that everyone in this room probably knows. 713 00:33:11,350 --> 00:33:12,310 AUDIENCE: Chess. 714 00:33:12,310 --> 00:33:13,750 PROFESSOR: Chess? 715 00:33:13,750 --> 00:33:14,870 Chess, does our piece-- 716 00:33:14,870 --> 00:33:26,360 OK, so, [? our ?] [? pieces ?] in chess sort of influence 717 00:33:26,360 --> 00:33:41,940 the number of attack [? patterns. ?] Which means 718 00:33:41,940 --> 00:33:46,660 the number of pieces will influence the number of pieces 719 00:33:46,660 --> 00:33:48,790 being threatened. 720 00:33:48,790 --> 00:33:51,915 Of your opponents pieces being threatened. 721 00:34:05,551 --> 00:34:17,728 And so it's just the number of opponent pieces taken. 722 00:34:22,510 --> 00:34:25,540 Now, if I flip this around a little bit, 723 00:34:25,540 --> 00:34:30,820 I think I could make an argument that if I switched it 724 00:34:30,820 --> 00:34:37,030 to the number of my own pieces, rather than my opponents 725 00:34:37,030 --> 00:34:38,320 pieces, then it connects. 726 00:34:38,320 --> 00:34:40,540 But not everything is a positive connection. 727 00:34:40,540 --> 00:34:44,040 Number of pieces that I have means 728 00:34:44,040 --> 00:34:46,960 if I have more pieces I have attack power, sort of. 729 00:34:46,960 --> 00:34:51,225 It's not exactly a linear connection, but [INAUDIBLE] 730 00:34:51,225 --> 00:34:52,250 chess set, right? 731 00:34:52,250 --> 00:34:54,619 I have more pieces than you, I have more ways 732 00:34:54,619 --> 00:34:57,010 to attack than you. 733 00:34:57,010 --> 00:34:59,710 If I have more ways to attack than you, then actually 734 00:34:59,710 --> 00:35:01,840 I have fewer pieces threatened because I get also 735 00:35:01,840 --> 00:35:03,670 more ways to defend. 736 00:35:03,670 --> 00:35:08,070 So I'm going to say, defend attack [? powers. ?] 737 00:35:08,070 --> 00:35:11,446 Anything that I can attack, I can prevent from-- 738 00:35:11,446 --> 00:35:13,020 I say, well, if you take this piece, 739 00:35:13,020 --> 00:35:16,020 then I'm just going to take the piece that you just moved, 740 00:35:16,020 --> 00:35:21,360 and with a one for one trade, I also have more pieces than you. 741 00:35:21,360 --> 00:35:28,826 And if you fewer of my pieces are threatened, 742 00:35:28,826 --> 00:35:31,291 that means I can-- 743 00:35:31,291 --> 00:35:33,980 let's see, if number of pieces that are threatened goes down, 744 00:35:33,980 --> 00:35:37,826 then the number of pieces that I can take goes up. 745 00:35:37,826 --> 00:35:38,450 AUDIENCE: Wait. 746 00:35:38,450 --> 00:35:40,420 [INTERPOSING VOICES] 747 00:35:40,420 --> 00:35:42,970 PROFESSOR: I think, yeah. 748 00:35:42,970 --> 00:35:44,471 AUDIENCE: [INAUDIBLE] be ignored 749 00:35:44,471 --> 00:35:45,054 PROFESSOR: Hm? 750 00:35:45,054 --> 00:35:46,637 AUDIENCE: If the number of your pieces 751 00:35:46,637 --> 00:35:49,084 threatened goes down then the number of your pieces taken 752 00:35:49,084 --> 00:35:49,975 goes down, as well. 753 00:35:49,975 --> 00:35:50,600 PROFESSOR: Yes. 754 00:35:50,600 --> 00:35:52,000 AUDIENCE: Those two are positively correlated. 755 00:35:52,000 --> 00:35:53,615 PROFESSOR: Yes, yes, that's right. 756 00:35:53,615 --> 00:35:54,330 You are right. 757 00:35:58,570 --> 00:36:00,440 And that should just decrease. 758 00:36:00,440 --> 00:36:05,308 And if the number of pieces taken goes down-- 759 00:36:05,308 --> 00:36:09,950 If the number of pieces taken goes up, 760 00:36:09,950 --> 00:36:11,040 then I have fewer pieces. 761 00:36:11,040 --> 00:36:16,240 If I have fewer pieces taken, then I have more pieces. 762 00:36:16,240 --> 00:36:19,150 So we have two classes and we have two minor 763 00:36:19,150 --> 00:36:22,080 [? suspicions. ?] Over all, this entire loop 764 00:36:22,080 --> 00:36:24,440 is called a reinforcing loop. 765 00:36:24,440 --> 00:36:24,940 Right? 766 00:36:24,940 --> 00:36:27,250 This is part of the feedback loop. 767 00:36:27,250 --> 00:36:30,250 You can connect this to other things. 768 00:36:30,250 --> 00:36:34,720 Maybe in chess I'm not terribly good at causal loop diagrams 769 00:36:34,720 --> 00:36:37,310 to begin with, but in chess you might 770 00:36:37,310 --> 00:36:39,700 be able to connect it to other things like positioning 771 00:36:39,700 --> 00:36:42,660 of pieces, or the value of pieces. 772 00:36:42,660 --> 00:36:47,500 So those might be reinforcing, and reinforcing is basically 773 00:36:47,500 --> 00:36:49,952 another way of saying it's a positive feedback loop. 774 00:36:49,952 --> 00:36:52,410 Another way that you can say is that it's a balancing loop, 775 00:36:52,410 --> 00:36:54,326 which means actually a negative feedback loop, 776 00:36:54,326 --> 00:37:03,460 and that's usually you put that with [? another ?] [? B. ?] 777 00:37:03,460 --> 00:37:05,960 [? Just remember ?] that thing used as well as students from 778 00:37:05,960 --> 00:37:08,586 economics and management who have actually done that 779 00:37:08,586 --> 00:37:10,960 because they're trying to study things like supply chains 780 00:37:10,960 --> 00:37:14,630 and how a system [INAUDIBLE] and industry. 781 00:37:14,630 --> 00:37:16,493 That's why they've already used the tool 782 00:37:16,493 --> 00:37:19,610 and then they can put it in. 783 00:37:19,610 --> 00:37:21,932 But, it might be worth looking up, 784 00:37:21,932 --> 00:37:24,332 it might be a useful diagnostic tool for your game 785 00:37:24,332 --> 00:37:25,790 if you're just trying to figure out 786 00:37:25,790 --> 00:37:28,140 what are all the different loops and just write down 787 00:37:28,140 --> 00:37:33,740 all of your variables and figure out whether things even up. 788 00:37:33,740 --> 00:37:37,527 Two negatives and two positives give you a reinforcing loop; 789 00:37:37,527 --> 00:37:39,110 positive, positive, positive, positive 790 00:37:39,110 --> 00:37:42,090 gives you a reinforcing loop; positive, positive, negative, 791 00:37:42,090 --> 00:37:44,000 and that's it, gives you a balancing loop. 792 00:37:44,000 --> 00:37:50,250 Basically, [INAUDIBLE] add up to positive, positive, [INAUDIBLE] 793 00:37:50,250 --> 00:37:51,540 negative. 794 00:37:51,540 --> 00:37:54,980 So, the one thing to keep in mind 795 00:37:54,980 --> 00:37:56,450 is that occasionally what happens 796 00:37:56,450 --> 00:38:02,010 is that you have something like a time delay, 797 00:38:02,010 --> 00:38:04,097 and that's notation for a time delay. 798 00:38:04,097 --> 00:38:05,930 And that means things sometimes won't end up 799 00:38:05,930 --> 00:38:08,480 oscillating because of your [? timeline. ?] 800 00:38:08,480 --> 00:38:11,520 So you get a better state in some things. 801 00:38:11,520 --> 00:38:14,600 We had a game, for instance, which was about climate change 802 00:38:14,600 --> 00:38:20,020 and you can invest money into research. 803 00:38:20,020 --> 00:38:22,910 Yeah, at some point of time in the far, far future 804 00:38:22,910 --> 00:38:24,029 that pays off, right? 805 00:38:24,029 --> 00:38:25,820 But that doesn't necessarily mean that it's 806 00:38:25,820 --> 00:38:27,175 going to pay off right away. 807 00:38:29,960 --> 00:38:32,820 So that may end up in situations where 808 00:38:32,820 --> 00:38:35,750 you can make money, big fluctuations around the 809 00:38:35,750 --> 00:38:38,750 [? store, ?] so balancing in terms of equilibrium. 810 00:38:38,750 --> 00:38:42,780 But just like a thermostat that's very slow to respond. 811 00:38:42,780 --> 00:38:46,580 You might have something like a heater that warms up a room 812 00:38:46,580 --> 00:38:49,940 and it makes the room too warm before the sensor actually 813 00:38:49,940 --> 00:38:52,830 realizes that it's warm enough and then shuts it off 814 00:38:52,830 --> 00:38:55,176 and then the room becomes really, really cold 815 00:38:55,176 --> 00:38:57,050 before the sensor realizes that it's too cold 816 00:38:57,050 --> 00:38:58,970 and then turns it back on again. 817 00:38:58,970 --> 00:39:01,780 And that can lead to these oscillations. 818 00:39:01,780 --> 00:39:03,530 So keep in mind also things like timelines 819 00:39:03,530 --> 00:39:05,155 when you're drawing out these diagrams. 820 00:39:05,155 --> 00:39:07,080 How long does it take this advantage 821 00:39:07,080 --> 00:39:09,596 to turn into that advantage, or this increase 822 00:39:09,596 --> 00:39:10,720 to turn into that decrease? 823 00:39:16,807 --> 00:39:18,180 Yeah, any questions? 824 00:39:18,180 --> 00:39:18,854 Yes. 825 00:39:18,854 --> 00:39:20,354 AUDIENCE: So isn't [? a change in ?] 826 00:39:20,354 --> 00:39:23,214 negative and positive feedback usually-- 827 00:39:23,214 --> 00:39:25,380 it seems really weird because usually positive means 828 00:39:25,380 --> 00:39:27,950 a multiplier greater than one and negative 829 00:39:27,950 --> 00:39:29,870 means a multiplier between zero and one, 830 00:39:29,870 --> 00:39:33,230 in the sense that, how much does your point [? mean ?] really 831 00:39:33,230 --> 00:39:34,383 near? 832 00:39:34,383 --> 00:39:37,418 If I had a one point lead right now, 833 00:39:37,418 --> 00:39:39,137 positive feedback means that it's really 834 00:39:39,137 --> 00:39:39,890 like a two point lead-- 835 00:39:39,890 --> 00:39:40,473 PROFESSOR: Hm. 836 00:39:40,473 --> 00:39:43,350 AUDIENCE: --because the points provide more for me later 837 00:39:43,350 --> 00:39:46,748 and, even though, [INAUDIBLE] negative loop that wins but it 838 00:39:46,748 --> 00:39:49,385 will often mean that it's actually more like a half point 839 00:39:49,385 --> 00:39:52,604 lead because it means less than it really does, whereas-- 840 00:39:52,604 --> 00:39:53,270 PROFESSOR: Yeah. 841 00:39:53,270 --> 00:39:55,570 AUDIENCE: --it means power differences definitely 842 00:39:55,570 --> 00:39:58,549 have a case where sometimes if it's negative then 843 00:39:58,549 --> 00:40:00,340 that can literally be negative in the sense 844 00:40:00,340 --> 00:40:03,039 that taking this lead right now could actually hurt me 845 00:40:03,039 --> 00:40:04,580 because in the game it could actually 846 00:40:04,580 --> 00:40:06,486 hurt me in the long run. 847 00:40:06,486 --> 00:40:07,860 PROFESSOR: Yeah, I think positive 848 00:40:07,860 --> 00:40:13,660 and negative signals originally inherited from math, 849 00:40:13,660 --> 00:40:15,010 cybernetics. 850 00:40:15,010 --> 00:40:19,310 It's actually referring to a differential, rather than the-- 851 00:40:19,310 --> 00:40:22,750 it's referring to the rate of change, 852 00:40:22,750 --> 00:40:25,250 rather than the actual multiplier. 853 00:40:30,970 --> 00:40:35,050 That's some baggage that we've taken on. 854 00:40:35,050 --> 00:40:37,650 It's funny because some people think negative feedback 855 00:40:37,650 --> 00:40:39,432 means bad, right? 856 00:40:39,432 --> 00:40:42,100 And it's like, no, negative feedback could mean good, 857 00:40:42,100 --> 00:40:45,296 and could mean that negative feedback for someone who's 858 00:40:45,296 --> 00:40:48,430 behind could be an advantage. 859 00:40:48,430 --> 00:40:53,590 So the terminology doesn't quite make it easy for everyone 860 00:40:53,590 --> 00:40:57,280 to use, but it's something that is currently 861 00:40:57,280 --> 00:40:59,930 in use, so it's good to know that game designers do 862 00:40:59,930 --> 00:41:02,058 use these terms. 863 00:41:02,058 --> 00:41:03,052 Hm? 864 00:41:03,052 --> 00:41:04,635 AUDIENCE: Talking about flight control 865 00:41:04,635 --> 00:41:06,034 systems and positive feedback. 866 00:41:06,034 --> 00:41:07,040 Bad. 867 00:41:07,040 --> 00:41:08,415 PROFESSOR: A control system where 868 00:41:08,415 --> 00:41:10,000 positive feedback would be bad. 869 00:41:10,000 --> 00:41:12,865 Yeah, I think that's kind of the opposite of the word control. 870 00:41:12,865 --> 00:41:16,645 [LAUGHTER] Chain reaction might be a great way 871 00:41:16,645 --> 00:41:19,770 to describe that, for instance. 872 00:41:19,770 --> 00:41:24,210 Any other questions about these ideas? 873 00:41:24,210 --> 00:41:27,010 A lot of the stuff that I've been talking about 874 00:41:27,010 --> 00:41:29,840 is known as first order cybernetics, which is basically 875 00:41:29,840 --> 00:41:33,285 the system is doing its own thing happily, 876 00:41:33,285 --> 00:41:36,856 and if I'm taking a look at the system from the outside 877 00:41:36,856 --> 00:41:38,230 I don't really have any influence 878 00:41:38,230 --> 00:41:41,090 on how it's going to perform. 879 00:41:41,090 --> 00:41:43,350 But, there is a second order, a whole school 880 00:41:43,350 --> 00:41:46,160 of second order cybernetics that I'm totally unfamiliar with, 881 00:41:46,160 --> 00:41:48,330 which actually takes into account having 882 00:41:48,330 --> 00:41:50,600 a person in the loop, which you would think 883 00:41:50,600 --> 00:41:53,470 would be a lot more applicable for games, especially 884 00:41:53,470 --> 00:41:54,890 games being played by people. 885 00:41:54,890 --> 00:41:59,060 But I don't know much about second order cybernetics. 886 00:41:59,060 --> 00:42:02,180 So, if you're interested in a research project or something 887 00:42:02,180 --> 00:42:06,032 like that, a thesis or something like that, come and talk to me. 888 00:42:06,032 --> 00:42:09,438 I would love to [INAUDIBLE] because I don't know about 889 00:42:09,438 --> 00:42:10,634 that just yet. 890 00:42:10,634 --> 00:42:13,630 All right. 891 00:42:13,630 --> 00:42:16,450 One final word, this is a very formal way 892 00:42:16,450 --> 00:42:20,290 of looking at game systems. 893 00:42:20,290 --> 00:42:22,110 Just as I have [INAUDIBLE] I just 894 00:42:22,110 --> 00:42:26,920 admitted that it doesn't take people's involvement 895 00:42:26,920 --> 00:42:33,610 in the process very well, it is not necessarily the case 896 00:42:33,610 --> 00:42:36,430 that the formal ways of looking at a system, 897 00:42:36,430 --> 00:42:39,470 just looking at how the rules interact, 898 00:42:39,470 --> 00:42:42,690 is necessarily always the best way to look at games. 899 00:42:42,690 --> 00:42:44,890 In many ways, in many occasions, it 900 00:42:44,890 --> 00:42:48,550 is actually not a useful technique. 901 00:42:48,550 --> 00:42:50,190 I can have [? all these systems ?] 902 00:42:50,190 --> 00:42:54,210 in my rules, but if people are going to read my rules 903 00:42:54,210 --> 00:42:56,020 and interpret my rules, as you've already 904 00:42:56,020 --> 00:42:59,486 seen happen in this class, differently, 905 00:42:59,486 --> 00:43:03,610 then they may be motivated to do things 906 00:43:03,610 --> 00:43:06,010 that operate against my assumptions 907 00:43:06,010 --> 00:43:10,680 because that's something else in my narrative, my aesthetic, 908 00:43:10,680 --> 00:43:13,560 in their own individual motivations. 909 00:43:13,560 --> 00:43:17,140 If somebody wants to take down somebody else in a game 910 00:43:17,140 --> 00:43:20,820 just because they happen to hate that person 911 00:43:20,820 --> 00:43:25,183 and it's outside of the game rules then nothing in the rules 912 00:43:25,183 --> 00:43:27,010 are going to tell me that. 913 00:43:27,010 --> 00:43:29,575 But it's still going to affect how that game gets played, 914 00:43:29,575 --> 00:43:33,650 and I might want to take that into account. 915 00:43:33,650 --> 00:43:36,840 The Game of Diplomacy, for instance, 916 00:43:36,840 --> 00:43:40,380 has to take into account the fact that you're probably 917 00:43:40,380 --> 00:43:42,167 playing it with people that you know, 918 00:43:42,167 --> 00:43:44,125 and you have some sort of existing relationship 919 00:43:44,125 --> 00:43:44,890 with them. 920 00:43:44,890 --> 00:43:47,920 I don't think it does a very, very good job of insulating you 921 00:43:47,920 --> 00:43:49,960 from the fallout of the game. 922 00:43:49,960 --> 00:43:53,550 [LAUGHTER] Everyone knows what I'm talking about, right? 923 00:43:53,550 --> 00:43:54,720 OK. 924 00:43:54,720 --> 00:43:56,790 Just unfriend the people that you play diplomacy 925 00:43:56,790 --> 00:43:58,420 with anymore. 926 00:43:58,420 --> 00:44:00,460 That's why I don't like playing that game, 927 00:44:00,460 --> 00:44:02,032 but I like talking about it. 928 00:44:04,570 --> 00:44:08,920 So, we'll be going into things like games for social play, 929 00:44:08,920 --> 00:44:10,584 and the social function of games, 930 00:44:10,584 --> 00:44:13,216 how you interact with people, right? 931 00:44:13,216 --> 00:44:14,590 Some other topics are going to be 932 00:44:14,590 --> 00:44:16,590 things like games of simulation, games that 933 00:44:16,590 --> 00:44:20,990 have a slightly flawed mirror to the real world, 934 00:44:20,990 --> 00:44:22,320 but an interesting one. 935 00:44:22,320 --> 00:44:26,230 It could be a fun house mirror which could be fun. 936 00:44:26,230 --> 00:44:30,610 So, we'll be looking at that in weeks ahead. 937 00:44:30,610 --> 00:44:32,680 This is probably about as formal as we get. 938 00:44:32,680 --> 00:44:34,060 We've been talking about things like information systems, 939 00:44:34,060 --> 00:44:35,420 that's also very formal. 940 00:44:35,420 --> 00:44:39,140 Just keep in mind that's just one school of game design 941 00:44:39,140 --> 00:44:42,852 and writing about game design. 942 00:44:42,852 --> 00:44:44,708 OK. 943 00:44:44,708 --> 00:44:48,230 So we have games that all have an interesting way 944 00:44:48,230 --> 00:44:49,580 of dealing with this. 945 00:44:49,580 --> 00:44:52,302 Some of them, you're going to see these problems come up, 946 00:44:52,302 --> 00:44:53,760 like especially in [? Imperiums. ?] 947 00:44:53,760 --> 00:44:55,140 How many people do we have in class today? 948 00:44:55,140 --> 00:44:57,098 One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, 949 00:44:57,098 --> 00:44:58,820 nine, 10, 11. 950 00:44:58,820 --> 00:44:59,640 OK. 951 00:44:59,640 --> 00:45:05,675 So, 11, that's like one four-person game-- 952 00:45:05,675 --> 00:45:08,880 [INTERPOSING VOICES] 953 00:45:08,880 --> 00:45:09,520 PROFESSOR: OK. 954 00:45:09,520 --> 00:45:10,426 AUDIENCE: [INAUDIBLE] 955 00:45:10,426 --> 00:45:14,680 PROFESSOR: So we'll get about three games going on at once. 956 00:45:14,680 --> 00:45:17,270 Some games like King of Tokyo is very much 957 00:45:17,270 --> 00:45:20,440 a king of the hill game, so it's deliberately 958 00:45:20,440 --> 00:45:24,100 trying to ask you to take down the person who's in the lead, 959 00:45:24,100 --> 00:45:26,060 and the game mechanics make wonder 960 00:45:26,060 --> 00:45:30,240 whether being in the lead is really all that great. 961 00:45:30,240 --> 00:45:33,020 So, it's playing around with [INAUDIBLE] Small World 962 00:45:33,020 --> 00:45:39,947 is occupying territory with your army. 963 00:45:39,947 --> 00:45:40,446 Yeah? 964 00:45:40,446 --> 00:45:42,487 AUDIENCE: [INAUDIBLE] when he talked about Vinci, 965 00:45:42,487 --> 00:45:44,080 Small World is a update of Vinci. 966 00:45:44,080 --> 00:45:46,350 PROFESSOR: Yeah, though faster to play, 967 00:45:46,350 --> 00:45:47,680 which fits in this class. 968 00:45:47,680 --> 00:45:50,190 We have Vinci too if anybody wants to take a look at that. 969 00:45:50,190 --> 00:45:53,200 We have that at home but we don't play that often 970 00:45:53,200 --> 00:45:55,044 because it takes like two hours. 971 00:45:55,044 --> 00:45:57,030 Unless, of course, you already know it. 972 00:45:57,030 --> 00:46:00,930 Lifeboats is just about a bunch of sailors 973 00:46:00,930 --> 00:46:05,150 trying to get to safety. 974 00:46:05,150 --> 00:46:07,830 Basically, their boats are sinking 975 00:46:07,830 --> 00:46:09,540 and they're all trying to get to safety 976 00:46:09,540 --> 00:46:11,900 and everyone's jumping on and pushing 977 00:46:11,900 --> 00:46:14,961 people out of lifeboats, and swimming to lifeboats, 978 00:46:14,961 --> 00:46:15,794 and stuff like that. 979 00:46:15,794 --> 00:46:19,280 So it's all about knocking people out. 980 00:46:19,280 --> 00:46:22,900 Hoity Toity and-- 981 00:46:22,900 --> 00:46:24,644 AUDIENCE: El Grande and [INAUDIBLE] 982 00:46:24,644 --> 00:46:26,727 PROFESSOR: Yeah, I actually know relatively little 983 00:46:26,727 --> 00:46:27,470 about these ones. 984 00:46:27,470 --> 00:46:28,850 I forget-- 985 00:46:28,850 --> 00:46:29,790 AUDIENCE: Bluffing. 986 00:46:29,790 --> 00:46:30,761 PROFESSOR: Yeah. 987 00:46:30,761 --> 00:46:32,260 Hoity Toity's a game about bluffing? 988 00:46:32,260 --> 00:46:33,670 OK. 989 00:46:33,670 --> 00:46:37,405 These were recommended by somebody's [? father ?] when I 990 00:46:37,405 --> 00:46:44,340 shared with them the [? syllabus. ?] And El Grande 991 00:46:44,340 --> 00:46:48,020 is a Spanish game about being territorial? 992 00:46:48,020 --> 00:46:48,887 AUDIENCE: Yeah. 993 00:46:48,887 --> 00:46:50,720 PROFESSOR: No, I totally [? made this up. ?] 994 00:46:50,720 --> 00:46:52,550 AUDIENCE: Do you have English rules in here? 995 00:46:52,550 --> 00:46:54,508 PROFESSOR: Yes, the English rules are in there. 996 00:46:54,508 --> 00:46:56,470 The box is just [INAUDIBLE] but I'm 997 00:46:56,470 --> 00:46:58,410 pretty sure I looked in there earlier 998 00:46:58,410 --> 00:47:01,970 and I saw British or English rules. 999 00:47:01,970 --> 00:47:04,870 Intrigue is the game that I like the thing the most. 1000 00:47:04,870 --> 00:47:08,250 It's basically, you're running a university 1001 00:47:08,250 --> 00:47:09,874 and you're trying to put your foot down 1002 00:47:09,874 --> 00:47:11,900 with another university. 1003 00:47:11,900 --> 00:47:14,900 That's not what the game says in the box, 1004 00:47:14,900 --> 00:47:17,580 but I would like you to try playing the game 1005 00:47:17,580 --> 00:47:19,094 with that theme in mind. 1006 00:47:19,094 --> 00:47:26,510 [LAUGHTER] So, yeah, it's interesting game 1007 00:47:26,510 --> 00:47:30,000 because you are doing exactly the same thing 1008 00:47:30,000 --> 00:47:31,830 that everybody else is trying to do, 1009 00:47:31,830 --> 00:47:34,520 but in order to succeed in the game you have 1010 00:47:34,520 --> 00:47:41,560 to put your troops, your colors, into other people's territory, 1011 00:47:41,560 --> 00:47:43,490 and they're trying to put into yours. 1012 00:47:43,490 --> 00:47:48,400 And there's some mutual benefit [INAUDIBLE] So a lot 1013 00:47:48,400 --> 00:47:50,390 of opportunity for you-- 1014 00:47:50,390 --> 00:47:52,109 It's a pretty good negative feedback game 1015 00:47:52,109 --> 00:47:53,900 because it gives you a whole bunch of tools 1016 00:47:53,900 --> 00:47:56,354 to basically take [INAUDIBLE] take the lead. 1017 00:47:59,150 --> 00:48:04,130 Take a look at which games hide the progress of players 1018 00:48:04,130 --> 00:48:05,230 from you. 1019 00:48:05,230 --> 00:48:07,417 Some of these games, you can easily see who's ahead, 1020 00:48:07,417 --> 00:48:09,458 and some of these games it's really hard to tell, 1021 00:48:09,458 --> 00:48:12,020 but that's deliberate so that you don't have these situations 1022 00:48:12,020 --> 00:48:17,939 where someone all gang up on the people who are in the lead. 1023 00:48:17,939 --> 00:48:20,230 Look at how they're avoiding things like [? turtling ?] 1024 00:48:20,230 --> 00:48:23,510 and how they discourage [? stuff like ?] sandbagging, 1025 00:48:23,510 --> 00:48:27,770 or maybe sometimes encourage them and use them in favor 1026 00:48:27,770 --> 00:48:28,630 of them. 1027 00:48:28,630 --> 00:48:31,800 Like Intrigue definitely encourages sandbagging. 1028 00:48:31,800 --> 00:48:33,252 All right. 1029 00:48:33,252 --> 00:48:37,007 And then we'll have these boxes out at three o'clock, working 1030 00:48:37,007 --> 00:48:38,650 on teams, [INAUDIBLE] I think we're 1031 00:48:38,650 --> 00:48:40,520 going to see your teams before spring break 1032 00:48:40,520 --> 00:48:43,400 so you might want to give each other tasks to work on 1033 00:48:43,400 --> 00:48:44,800 during spring break. 1034 00:48:44,800 --> 00:48:47,430 If you can't think of anything, test over spring break. 1035 00:48:47,430 --> 00:48:51,650 A good number of you are going to see people 1036 00:48:51,650 --> 00:48:53,150 who haven't seen your game yet. 1037 00:48:53,150 --> 00:48:53,650 And-- 1038 00:48:53,650 --> 00:48:55,460 AUDIENCE: So that you can have written rules, a first draft 1039 00:48:55,460 --> 00:48:56,990 of your written rules. 1040 00:48:56,990 --> 00:48:59,160 It's a great opportunity to take the test then. 1041 00:48:59,160 --> 00:48:59,560 PROFESSOR: Yeah. 1042 00:48:59,560 --> 00:49:01,250 And if you don't have a first draft of the written rules 1043 00:49:01,250 --> 00:49:03,560 then this last hour of class is probably a good time 1044 00:49:03,560 --> 00:49:07,870 to bring out the laptop and just start editing that text so 1045 00:49:07,870 --> 00:49:09,916 that you can go into spring break with something 1046 00:49:09,916 --> 00:49:10,975 that you can test with. 1047 00:49:10,975 --> 00:49:12,559 All right? 1048 00:49:12,559 --> 00:49:14,225 AUDIENCE: And for the game King of Tokyo 1049 00:49:14,225 --> 00:49:16,183 the people will probably be able to play twice, 1050 00:49:16,183 --> 00:49:17,860 maybe you can play another game. 1051 00:49:17,860 --> 00:49:19,748 But yet again they're all about 40 minutes. 1052 00:49:19,748 --> 00:49:21,182 PROFESSOR: Yeah. 1053 00:49:21,182 --> 00:49:23,830 AUDIENCE: Is El Grande longer? 1054 00:49:23,830 --> 00:49:27,160 AUDIENCE: Yeah, El Grande is probably 90 minutes or so. 1055 00:49:27,160 --> 00:49:28,700 AUDIENCE: Small World is 40 to 80. 1056 00:49:28,700 --> 00:49:29,950 [INAUDIBLE]