Tag: Psychomechanism

The Fate Delusion

“Chance Favors the Prepared Mind”. This is one of the more important quotes that has guided me in life in my later years. We have all heard stories of a single chance meeting or unusual occurrence which has started a chain of events, putting a person on a path which eventually leads to success. Our propensity to eliminate noise makes us see this unbroken path as absolute, rather than a single branch among the scores of possible choices heading off in all directions. Our confirmation bias ensures us that this path was the only path to the ultimate goal. Last but not least, we overlook the mental “Priming” effect which brings this singular event to our attention, and inspires us to act on it. In short, we tend to subscribe to the popular delusion that success is based on fate.

Under closer examination of these success stories, there doesn’t appear to be any consistency in the number of attempts it takes to succeed. Some people have succeeded on what appears to be the first try, while others have only succeeded after a string of failures. This would imply that random events could be what starts a person on the path for success, but in the essence of true randomness, this could take any number of tries, or experiments. We also overlook the years of hard work which is often involved in becoming an “Overnight Success”. I believe that all these stories have one thing in common, a firm focus on success. This mental priming is the key factor.

It is fine to delude ourselves when we are in the safe environment of a Board Game, in fact it is often an important factor, contributing to the fun. The fate delusion is a welcome addition to the “Magic Circle” of the game group. The challenge to game designers, however, is how to employ this to the best effect.

It is critical to “prime” a player in the early part of a game so that they can start off on their path and head in a chosen direction. This can be done with unique character profiles or abilities, proper graphic design clues, a clear game theme, reduced choices in the beginning which expand afterwards, a story-line to follow, and anything else which can create a clear starting point in the players mind and one or more clear directions to head. Once a player is primed to look for certain specific opportunities, and has a clear direction to follow, the designer needs to introduce some choices.

Uncertainty could be introduced by other players actions, causing a player to make a choice and react a certain way. Another common way to induce choice is by introducing random events with cards or dice. However it is done, the players must receive a constant input of decisions to be made, so that they can lay down their path of action. As this decision path becomes more firmly anchored in a player’s mind, the player will be able to peer into the possible future and develop strategies. In the end, the player should be able to see a clear path of action from the beginning to the end of the game. Whether they attribute their victory or loss to fate or skill is completely up to the player and, of course, part of the fun.

Disclaimer…..

I am not an expert, nor am I  successful in publishing games. (Yet!) I am just trying to figure things out and hope you enjoy my occasional rant. Feel free to comment if you agree or disagree, or even if you just want to say hi.

Roger Meloche

Sacred Places

A Peek inside my Game Design Library

This is a list of the most important books in my Game Design library and the reason why they are so important to me. Everybody has their own unique approach to game design and may have their own favorite tomes which they rely on. This is a peek at my personal library.

We’ll start out with the nuts and bolts of game design:

The art of Game design, A book of lenses, by Jesse Schell

This will cover just about everything related to game design. It is a pricey book, but it covers every aspect of design and is well worth it. This is basically the foundation of my game design library and I couldn’t imagine being without it. (3 Squirrels)

Building Blocks of Tabletop Game Design, An encyclopedia of Mechanisms by Geoffrey Englestein and Isaac Shalev.

This is a catalog of every common game mechanism used in modern games. A very thorough listing of game mechanisms, which I consider to be the gold standard. Whenever I dream up some hairbrained mechanism, I check in this book to see if somebody has already done it, or something like it. It is also a good reference for when you really need a cool mechanism, or it can be used as a Thesaurus to inspire new ideas which build on earlier practices. (5 Squirrels)

The Design of Everyday Things by Don Norman

This may sound like some type of boring product design book, but in reality it’s about the psychology of design. It covers many topics, like the principles of human interaction, cognition and emotion. It sheds light on how the human mind interacts with the products we design as well as how it processes information and interprets what we encounter as we engage with the devices and systems around us. It also discusses how errors and misinterpretations can occur and how to avoid them. This is a must read for anybody designing anything! (3 Squirrels)

Uncertainty in Games (Playful Thinking) by Greg Costikyan

This book explains how every game requires some type of uncertainty. The uncertainty in chess, for example, lies in the inability to predict exactly how your opponent is going to move. Every game has its own type of uncertainty which is explored in this book. This uncertainty comes in many forms that you may not realize until it’s pointed out to you. (2 Squirrels)

Writing to be understood, What works and why  by Anne Janzer

This is an enlightening guide to writing non-fiction. It has really helped me understand my target audience when writing rules for games. I highly recommend this. (1 Squirrel)

Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman

This is a fascinating look into how we interpret the world around us. The basic premise is that our thought processes are split between a primitive but necessary automatic level and a more deliberate but much slower conscious and deliberate level. It explains the strengths and shortcomings of each level, and uses these to explain our quirks and behaviors like loss aversion, imprinting, and many other facets of our thinking. If you’ve ever wondered what’s going on inside a game player’s mind, this book can help you find out. (3 Squirrels)

Nudge, By Richard H. Thaler

A compelling look at what drives us to do what we we do. How people, our environment and social pressures guide our decisions. We can use these tools to guide players on a fascinating journey within our games. (3 Squirrels)


The following books are less essential to my design library, but still important. They delve deeper into some topics and provide interesting perspectives. I am glad to have them.

Board Game Design Advice, from the best in the world. By Gabe Barrett

This book asks the same questions to a hundred or so of the top board game designers world wide. It is basically a feel good book. It is nice to know that you aren’t the only one going through the problems you encounter when designing a game. It is also nice to know that there may not be one right answer to a given question. There are many different approaches and many common problems encountered when designing games. It’s nice to hear so many unique perspectives. (2 Squirrels)

Influence by Robert B Cialdini

Have you ever wondered what compels us to do things? This book will explain what drives us to do the things we do for better or worse. It is an expose’ on the influence peddlers, fast talking salespeople, compelling ads and media tricksters which control and exploit us. It is both a safety manual and a “how to guide” on influencing human behavior. This is a must read for people who want to manipulate others for fun… (by Designing Games) (4 Squirrels)

Scarcity, by Sendhil Mullainathan

This book deals with scarcity of resources and how it can have very strong effects on an individual. This is a very powerful effect which can be utilized in board games in many ways. (3 Squirrels)

Predictably Irrational by Dr. Dan Ariely

Another psychology book about how we are such irrational beings. This will also provide insight into game players’ odd and sometimes bizarre behaviors. (3 Squirrels)

Blink by Malcolm Gladwell

A peek under the hood of our subconscious mind. It shows how we often make decisions on a subconscious level, then consciously convince ourselves that we were very clever. (Confirmation Bias) It is a guide to the care and feeding and the function of our subconscious mind. It sheds some light on the decisions we make when playing games. (2 Squirrels)

GameTek by Geoffrey Englestein

No library is complete without a few words from Geoff Englestein. This is a collection of his most fascinating topics discussed on the GameTek segment of the Ludology podcast, distilled into one book. A fascinating and informative read. (4 Squirrels)

The Kobold guide to Board Game Design by Mike Seliker

A collection of insights and anecdotes from game designers like Richard Garfeild, Steve Jackson, James Ernest and many more. It’s really fascinating and fun read. (2 Squirrels)

Your Move by Joan Moriarty and Johnathan Kay

A game scholar and a game guru from “Snakes and Lattes board game café in Toronto, team up to discuss the social implications of modern board games. They tackle some controversial topics like colonialism, cultural appropriation and people behaving badly; as well as lighter topics like “That Stupid Free Parking Rule” in monopoly. I really enjoyed this book. (2 Squirrels)

The Game inventors Guidebook by Brian Tinsman

Game design in a nutshell. This is a great beginner’s primer on game design, and was the first book in my game design library. It’s a little outdated, but provides a good overall picture of the game making process. (2 Squirrels)

Winning the Brain Game by Mathew May

A fascinating look at how to overcome the roadblocks to truly creative thinking. A must read for any game designer. (2 Squirrels)

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I would love to hear about the cherished members of your own design library. Please leave a comment to recommend a book or tell me how absolutely right or wrong I am about my current selections.

All That Noise

Noise vs Bias in out Decision Making

According to the renowned psychologist, Daniel Kahneman, we make bad decisions when we confuse Noise with Bias. Noise is a collection of random occurrences like dice rolls, or randomly drawn cards. Bias is a correlation between related events like the sun shining and the ground warming up as a result. We are wired to recognize patterns and correlations because it would be too inefficient for our brains to ponder every possibility for every little action and event. As a result, we see many patterns that simply aren’t there. This leads us to believe crackpot conspiracies and behave like irrational children by putting our dice into a “dice dungeon” because they are misbehaving. This irrational behavior is fine within the bounds of “The Magic Circle” of your current board game or RPG, as long as you remember to come to your senses when the game is over.

I remember one example which illustrates this confusion clearly. It is (or was back in the 80’s) a statistical fact that light blue and yellow cars got into the fewest traffic accidents. Could this be because they were easier to see? Before you go out and have your car repainted, lets take a closer look. It turns out that yellow and light blue are the most common colors for police cars and cabs. In other words, professional drivers are less likely to get in accidents than amateurs , which makes perfect sense. The yellow and blue cars were noise, and the true bias is the correlation between professional divers and traffic accidents.

Noise happens quite frequently in games and is often mistaken for meaningful events or patterns. It takes some effort to truly comprehend a random dice roll. How often have you thought “The Dice Hate Me” because you rolled a string of ones when you are expecting sixes. (“Bad Dice” “Lock them Up”). Streaks of the same numbers are are a common manifestation of random dice rolls. Most of us expect an even distribution, but this is not random. Random rolls include long strings of the same number as well as a mix of random numbers. The patterns we see are nothing more than wishful thinking and we tend to forget the varied mix of rolls because we are looking for specific numbers. We look at horse racing forms, trying to predict the next upcoming random event, as well as the previous winning numbers at the roulette wheel to try and discern some magical patterns that everybody else has missed. We seem to have a need to find meaning in random events; a meaning in all this noise.

This irrational behavior is nothing to be ashamed of. In fact, it might be used to generate a very entertaining game experience. Provide an interesting narrative, throw in a few random events, and with just the slightest nudge, you might send your players off on an interesting and unique adventure. Various game scenarios can seem plausible if players receive enough random information to start constructing a working theme or character roll in their imaginations. Players will naturally ignore what doesn’t fit and focus on what does fit the role constructed in their minds. There are probably many ways that a game or RPG scenario designer can use this strange human quirk to create a rich game experience.

I am not an expert, nor am I a successful in publishing games. (Yet!) I am just trying to figure things out and hope you enjoy my occasional rant. Feel free to comment if you agree or disagree, or even if you just want to say hi.

Roger M

The Rational Market Fallacy

As anybody who has invested regularly in the stock market can tell you, this market is anything but rational. At least not in the short term. It is subject to some severe swings, and behaviors that can only be described as psychotic. How can a company like McDonalds be worth 25% less in a short period? I don’t recall seeing a few thousand stores suddenly disappearing into the void. How can a company like Tesla be valued higher than GM when it is miniscule in comparison? How can 3D printer stocks see a rise of over 1,000% , just to come crashing back down in value within 6 months. This doesn’t sound like rational behavior to me. The rational market theory states, more or less, that the fair market value of a commodity will be determined by supply and demand. I’ll believe this if I ever see it!

Experiments were performed by Dan Airely to explore how initial market values are arrived at, and the results are quite surprising. You can check out chapter 2 of his book “Predictably Irrational” for more detail on this topic. It turns out that the initial price of an item is often completely arbitrary. Once we see this price (We don’t even have to agree with it.) we latch on to it and it affects our perceived value of this item and anything associated with it. The item’s true value, or the cost to create this item, could be considerably different from what we’re willing to pay for it. The initial value of any item is strongly associated with the item and influences all future decisions we make regarding it.

We also have another strange quirk when we are establishing a value.If we are paid to acquire an item, this is considered work and we tend to ascribe a lower value to the object. If we have to pay for an item, we will value it more highly. The Item doesn’t change, but our perceived value of it could vary quite a bit. In one board game where we have to pick-up and deliver items, and another game where we have to purchase items and speculate, we likely view the two markets in completely different ways, even if both of these markets were fluctuating in the same manner. The value is skewed by the fact that we are doing a chore or accomplishing a mission, rather than speculating and taking a risk.

How do we establish this arbitrary value? A random card flip or dice roll would do the job, but it may not be very satisfying. Players might, perhaps, make up a value, but this could quickly get out of hand. (The game “QE” does this). The answer must lie somewhere in between. Players can be given rough guidelines, initial recommendations based on the game state, and enough freedom to set a price they think the other players are willing to pay. The player setting the price should, of course, have some way to exploit this newly priced item. The other players should also have some way to access the item besides dealing with the player initiating the value. This might keep things in balance. Let’s create a hypothetical example.

A pick-up and deliver game, set in the desert, where players are free to buy and sell goods by travelling to the various cities. The market will be driven by transactions, where every offer to sell would reduce the value of a commodity and every offer to buy would increase the value. Random actions will also affect the market, but the general market always trends upward in the long run. Players set initial prices by travelling to different cities and establishing trading centers for certain goods. A player can choose from a range of initial starting prices, with the more remote locations allowing players to set higher values. The player initiating the trading center could become the agent for that city and other players can trade through the agent for a fee. Players can also travel to the city to deal directly. As more cities trade in the same commodity, the prices could tend to decline. This might make for an interesting game where values are somewhat arbitrary, and players have to try and determine what the other players are willing to pay.

In the above example, players will probably lend credence to the arbitrary starting values, even though they know the values are artificial. The fluctuating market will hopefully result in some wild market swings, especially with the random events occurring regularly to shake things up. The player interaction and trading should also add some variability to the game as players might demand high prices based on potential market values. The key component of this game would be the initial values set by the players opening up the trade centers. This could make for an interesting market economy.

The bottom line is that a predictable market economy and values that are obvious will probably make for a boring game. Add a few random events, arbitrary values that can’t be clearly predicted, and a dash of irrational player behavior and you might just have some real fun. I am not an expert, nor am I a successful in publishing games. (Yet!) I am just trying to figure things out and hope you enjoy my occasional rant. Feel free to comment if you agree or disagree, or even if you just want to say hi.

Roger Meloche

The Road Less Travelled

Relative Value Bias

I am Currently reading the book “Predictably Irrational” by Dan Ariele. As described in chapter one, people’s decisions can be irrationally swayed by relative comparisons. For example, if you were given a choice between a brown or grey jacket of equivalent value (assuming you have no color preference) you are equally likely to pick either one. If a third jacket were introduced which is similar, but slightly inferior to one of the original two, your choice will be strongly influenced by this. If, for example, you introduce a second grey jacket which has a minor flaw or is the same, but without a belt, the great majority of us would pick the original grey jacket. This is because the grey jacket would seem like a better deal, simply because you have a basis of comparison, and the brown jacket will seem like a lesser value, because we have nothing relative to compare it against. This irrational bias in our decision making is exploited regularly by merchandisers and just about anybody else who wants us to buy their product or service.

This behavior shouldn’t be ignored when designing a game. You can, perhaps, reward players who explore alternative strategies by increasing the utility or value of unique and less obvious cards or other components in your game. This might enhance the replay value of a game and may even lead toward more varied strategies emerging in your game. You might instead decide to guide players in a certain direction  by using similar components and graphical cues to lead plyers to a more interesting and fun path of action. No matter how you plan to use it, it is a behavior that probably should be considered in your design.

I am not an expert, nor am I a successful in publishing games. (Yet!) I am just trying to figure things out and hope you enjoy my occasional rant. Feel free to comment if you agree or disagree, or even if you just want to say hi.

Roger Meloche