Playing Gamecamp

Yesterday was Gamecamp 4, the first one I’ve been to, and I had a properly fantastic time. Some excellent sessions, some fascinating conversations, and some surprisingly forgiving zombies made it a great day.

Here’s what I took from the day.

• We like stories in our games, and we like games in our stories, but not all games (or stories) need both.
• Boss fights interrupt flow, but can be used to build interesting characters. They can be frustrating (Metal Gear Solid), but when they’re done well and foreshadowed properly, they can also be hugely satisfying (Limbo).
• Free play without structure isn’t a game.
• Digital games suck at relationships.
• A lot of digital games writing sucks, full stop.
• Romance and sex in games are two very different things with different problems to be solved.
• Some problems being tackled by digital game folks have already been solved by live game folks, and vice versa.
• When under attack, people seem to instinctively try to get to high ground. When high ground is not available, they use tables.
• Lemon jousting is harder than it looks.
• Mechanically, World of Warcraft and Farmville are (depressingly?) similar.
• We like our extrinsic motivators without coercive social marketing practices.
• Gamification isn’t particularly interesting to people who already make games.
• My working definition of emergent stories – stories created by players interacting with game mechanics without a designer getting in the way – is flawed, hugely flawed, but works OK for demonstration purposes.
• Emergent stories need space to emerge. People make up stories to fill gaps.
• Story can be constructed after experience, collaboratively.
• Someone has already run an art heist game in a museum. I really hope they do it again. Soon.
• Museums, like news organisations, need help making good games with few resources.
• The Keyworth building at London South Bank Uni would be an excellent venue for a full-scale game of Zombie.
• The unconference format just works. No bit of my day was boring or slow or non-interactive. I went to half a dozen really interesting talks, and missed about a dozen more, and that’s fine.
• Always put zombies in the lifts.