Achievement Unlocked 06.20.08: Classifying How You Game

Posted by Rod Oracheski on 06.20.2008

Some people play to win, some play to win at all costs, some play to annoy, and some just play - which are you?



In his book The Grasshopper: Games, Life, and Utopia, originally published in 1978, Bernard Suits explored how people play games - but, more to the point, he examined why they play games that way. He wasn't the first to explore the theme, nor will he be the last, but he was Canadian so he's probably right.

Published in 1978, you say? How the hell can that possibly relate to today? We've got landers on Mars! Free porn on the Internet! Women of questionable morals on public television!

Don't get me wrong, all those things are great, but Suits had real insight into gaming as a whole, and that translates to electronic gaming pretty handily.


Suits' definition of the process of gaming is occasionally cited as the definition of sport:

• It is a goal-directed activity - prelusory goal


• The rules limit the permissible means of goal attainment - lusory means


• The rules prohibit the more efficient in favour of less efficient means - constitutive rules


• The rules are accepted to make the activity possible - lusory attitude

It's the rules in play that define a sport or game. Just throwing a ball towards someone and having them hit it is neither - it's only the addition of rules that create a game from an otherwise trivial activity, and it's a natural extension of almost any trivial activity.

You can see the phenomenon in children at play. Give a group of teenaged children a ball, bat, and some gloves and they'll eventually create a game - whether that's similar to baseball or more informal fly-ball hitting. You've probably taken part in this sort of thing yourself, whether on a school playground or in a back yard.

Only one person can bat at a time, so rules are swiftly constructed - three outs and you switch, 10 hits and you switch, one person catches three balls and they get to bat, etc...

Suits was interested in more than defining the mechanisms of gaming, however. He talked about how people gamed, expanding on the earlier work of someone I've unfortunately forgotten at the moment. It's in this analysis that we can find ourselves, even today.

The most obvious archetype is the Cheater. They know the goal and they know the rules - they just choose to ignore the latter in the pursuit of the former. These are typified by gamers who put their modem to stand-by in order to get an advantage in online play, or those who use cheat codes or glitches in order to 'win' the game. The experience en route to the goal isn't important to the cheater, merely achieving that goal by whatever means possible.

Another archetype is the Griefer. Anyone who has played a massively multiplayer online game (MMOG) has likely encountered this section of the gamer population. For this player, the goal of the game becomes secondary to a player-created one - annoying others as they try to continue on the game's 'true' purpose. This type often, but not always, crosses into the territory of the cheater as the rules of the game are also a secondary concern. At the most 'pure' levels of Griefer, the game itself is a secondary concern - they'll play anything that offers up an opportunity to truly anger other players.

Perhaps the class with the most crossover potential is the Player - a class that simply plays the game the way it's intended. The Player can often dabble with other types, griefing when bored for example, or turning to cheating when stuck in a game. Most gamers will categorize themselves as a Player

There's also the Trifler, a class that Suits called "quasi-players" as they, like the griefer, choose to ignore the game's goal - but without malice. Instead they set their own goals within the game, completely separate to the game's actual goals. He mentions chess, giving an example of someone who - playing chess - will simply try to move six of their pieces to the other side of the board before they are put into checkmate. This can be seen most clearly in games like Grand Theft Auto, where many a Player, Griefer, or Cheater has transformed into a Trifler - ignoring the game's content-related goals in order to explore or cause havoc.

So...which category do you fall into most?

I figure myself for the Player type most of the time, pushing into Trifler from time to time when I get bored. I'm guessing most people will fall into that category as well.

Pick-An-Achievement

In Achievement related news, Ubisoft is after gamer input on the new Prince of Persia's Achievement List. Gamers can choose one of three vaguely-described Achievements to make it into the new game. You can find the list here.

While, to be honest, none of the three are particularly 'great' Achievements, I'm leaning towards the Combo specialist one. The falling one seems fairly limited, and the one about running...well, I've never been a fan of 'sprint/drive/fly [x] miles' Achievements. Still, it's very nice to see Ubisoft looking for input and hopefully something we'll see more of in the future.



Finally picked up Ninja Gaiden II this week, churning through a number of Achievements as I went. It's kind of nice to see them teach you a new move, then give you a low-point Achievement for using it. The game isn't as brutally hard as the original, though I'm not playing on the hardest difficulty. I'm liking it so far - the camera really didn't take long to get the hang of once again, though it'd be nice to see them do it better next time.

Oh...right. I guess that's not going to happen any time soon.

I also grabbed Kung Fu Panda off the strength of the demo. It's aimed at kids, so I'm teaching my daughter how to play, but it's also got a good deal of humour and some decent gameplay for the adults. There's nothing amazing here, but worth a rental if you're a fan of beat-em-ups.

To close it out, here's a look at how to get one Achievement from The Incredible Hulk - the 'Around The World In 80 Steps' one, to be exact. The Achievement isn't that hard, but it does require you to unlock the Sprint ability, as well as upgrade your jumping twice.

Incredible Hulk (360) Achievement from Rod Oracheski on Vimeo.

Until next week, I'm out.