Difference between revisions of "Social Adaptability"

Revision as of 07:34, 13 October 2012

Games that through their design easily can be modified for varying social contexts.

This pattern is a still a stub.

Examples

Using the pattern

Being able to control when one wants to play is an important aspect of Social Adaptability, which mainly is a question of how to support Interruptibility. This can be achieved through Drop-In/Drop-Out, Game Pauses, or Proxy Players depending on other features of a game (as if it is a Multiplayer Game), but is also one of the abilities the use of Game Masters can bring to a game design.

Can Be Instantiated By

Difficulty Levels, Game Masters , Minimalized Social Weight, Negotiable Game Sessions, Negotiable Game Instance Duration, Player Decided Rule Setup, Self-Reported Positioning, Ubiquitous Gameplay

Configurable Gameplay Areas together with Self-Facilitated Games

There are many patterns that can weaken or remove Social Adaptability in games. Challenging Gameplay can provide thresholds for novice players or those that cannot for some reason dedicate all their abilities to a specific play or game session; Player Physical Prowess does this as well but for physical activities. Games that require players attention continuously, i.e. those with The Show Must Go On but without being mitigated by Game Pauses or Drop-In/Drop-Out gameplay, also make it difficult to fit their gameplay into environments with changing social demands. Mediated Gameplay quite naturally lead to some restrictions on Social Interaction between players and thereby make enacting any possible Social Adaptability more difficult. Dedicated Game Facilitators typically do this as well but also restrict modifying or ignoring rules unless explicitly design to allow this - Game Masters are an exception to this since they often have power over changing the rules and game states freely.

A somewhat unlikely candidate for causing problems with Social Adaptability is Changes in Perception of Real World Phenomena due to Gameplay. However, games with this pattern are based on players already having some perceptions of the phenomena the game design focuses upon. This restricts the number of players that the design can work for and this cannot easily be changed by players in direct conjunction to playing these types of games.

Consequences

The primary consequence of Social Adaptability is to provide players with a Freedom of Choice regarding when and how they are to play a game.

Relations

Multiplayer Games

Can Instantiate

Freedom of Choice

Can Modulate

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Can Be Instantiated By

Difficulty Levels, Drop-In/Drop-Out, Game Pauses, Game Masters, Interruptibility, Minimalized Social Weight, Negotiable Game Sessions, Negotiable Game Instance Duration, Player Decided Rule Setup, Proxy Players, Self-Reported Positioning, Ubiquitous Gameplay

Configurable Gameplay Areas together with Self-Facilitated Games

Can Be Modulated By

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Possible Closure Effects

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Potentially Conflicting With

Challenging Gameplay, Changes in Perception of Real World Phenomena due to Gameplay, Dedicated Game Facilitators, Mediated Gameplay, Player Physical Prowess, The Show Must Go On

History

New pattern created in this wiki.

References

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Acknowledgements

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