Personal GrowthThere are many games that do not focus on the system or the rules of the game in a noteworthy way and instead focus on the player and their position in the game. Role Playing Games (RPGs) like Dungeons & Dragons and computer RPGs like Ultima Online use this kind of focus. When the game's point is to augment and build up a character, their status or an environment, the game is using the growth focus of gameplay.
SimCity, while technically not a game in itself as it doesn't have any rules, is often played with the rule of "building the best city" or "building a city without crime and transportation problems". In this way SimCity is being used with a focus on growth in the gameplay. The player is trying to build the environment, and the actions of placing buildings and roads or destroying them are relatively unimportant compared to how they are placed and the effect they have on the city. While growth focus is about augmenting a players position or environment, gaining higher scores and lower times are not necessarily part of a growth focus. In a game with a system focus these elements are ways to rate the player's performance and mastery of the system. Even when the player is playing a game strictly to get a high score they are only playing to challenge others and their own mastery of the system. The way that getting a high score in a pinball game can be distinguished from getting a higher level in an RPG is by determining the purpose of the game. The pinball game is presented in a way that challenges the player to control and adjust to the movement of the ball, the points are awarded by the success of these actions. The RPG game is presented where the player must manage which monsters he chooses to fight by how powerful their character has become and increasing power is the ultimate goal. Instead of the ability to control the battle against the monsters, it is the ability to increase in power that is the key.
|
|||||||||||
![]() |