Pottering

The management of game resources for its own sake.

Games are often describe as allowing player to engage in playing or gaming standing quite consciously outside ”ordinary” life or, borrowing from the flow concept in Psychology, being autotelic

Examples

FarmVille Ravenwood Fair

Europa Universalis series

Civilization series

Minecraft

SimCity

Value of Effort

Using the pattern

Pottering requires that players can find activities in a game which they want to perform for their own sake without them being forced on them by the design or other players. This means that Player Defined Goals are required for the pattern to emerge. These goals should however not be Committed Goals or ones that need too much effort before having some types of closures since they otherwise become a pressure that lessen the feeling that one is performing the activity for its own sake. Typical actions or activities that can provide this is Construction when players have Creative Control, but sorting activities as part of Resource Management can also work as can Grinding. Puzzles, either as part of games or as complete games but without Time Limits or Time Pressure, can be seen as an option as well given that they let players take their time and only perform actions when they wish to.

A main component of supporting Pottering is that players do not constantly feel stressed that the activities they are doing can be destroyed or interfered with, making games with Casual Gameplay or Private Game Spaces likely types of games in which Pottering can occur. If one wishes to only encourage Pottering in certain areas of the Game World, Safe Havens can be used instead. In contrast, games with Time Limits or constant Tension or Time Pressure works against the pattern. This does not mean that oppositions or threats cannot exist in the games: Minecraft have monsters appearing during the night but these are no problem if players have constructed Safe Havens for themselves, and players' countries in the Europa Universalis series may be attacked by other countries but this is a rather rare occurrence throughout game instances.

Diegetic Aspects

Pottering most often involves manipulating game elements or small parts of the Game Worlds themselves.

Narrative Aspects

Being an activity with no set overarching goal, Pottering does not support Narration Structures. The various actions and smaller goals players set up for themselves when engaging in the activity does however create Never Ending Stories since their is no clear end forced upon them.

Consequences

Pottering is typically instantiated through players changing Game Worlds (but Resource Management shows how this does not always need to be the case). In games with small Game Worlds (e.g. FarmVille or Ravenwood Fair) or those were Pottering is done extensively in the regions the players inhabit (e.g. Minecraft), the pattern can give rise to Player-Constructed Worlds.

Relations

Can Instantiate

Player-Constructed Worlds, Never Ending Stories

Can Modulate

Game Worlds

Can Be Instantiated By

Casual Gameplay, Grinding, Safe Havens, Player Defined Goals, Private Game Spaces Puzzles, Resource Management

Construction together with Creative Control

Can Be Modulated By

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Possible Closure Effects

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Potentially Conflicting With

Committed Goals, Tension, Time Limits, Time Pressure

History

New pattern created in this wiki.

Acknowledgements

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