Beyond the game...

Finally... we're at the last blog exercise? *phew* this sem's blogging seemed to have taken much more time than last sem... or is it just my imagination?

Ok... definitions first...

According to the lecture notes:
1. game is a voluntary interactive activity, in which one or more players follow rules that constrain their behaviour, enacting an artificial conflict that ends in a quantifiable outcome.
2. emergence is crucial for meaningful play
3. meaningful play occurs when the relationships between actions and outcomes in a game are both discernible and integrated into the larger context of the game.

I'd consider Beast to be a game despite the fact that the developers refused to acknowledged its presence as a game when it was played. Involving the movie's characters in the game suggests to players that this is an artificial conflict and so is a game! And of course the players engage in it voluntarily and 7000 of them shared ideas to solve every puzzle to unravel the mystery in this game. About the quantifiable outcome... there is too isn't? The players ultimately won the game by solving all puzzles and mysteries right?

Even though the moderators of the game denied its existence, the players believed in it and hence constructed this magic circle giving it boundaries within their imagination. Unfortunately, it led to the boundaries being so blurred that some players couldn't draw themselves out of it even though the game has really ended.

Emergence was definitely present as there were 7000 players solving this 1 mystery together. As for meaningful play, discernability progressed the players to the next puzzle upon solving the current. If they hadn't solved it right, the next puzzle would most probably not be presented to them. Integration would have allowed the players to solve the entire mystery at the end by solving all the previous puzzles. Right???

Since the players feel that they have been challenged mentally and gain some sense of satisfaction upon unravelling the mystery, it is highly possible that they feel that this is the meaningful play to them...

Despite such blurred boundaries of the magic circle, I will still consider the Beast to be a game as it fits in well with our definition so far.

Ahhhhhhh~!!! finally all done... after spending the past 3~4hrs on these last 2 exercise *sweat*