The Fun Factor

The English word "fun" has no cognate in any other language. Every other language has words for happiness, enjoyment, pleasure, and so forth, but it seems that no other language has a word that expresses the special kind of playful happiness that is encompassed in the word "fun." Indeed, most people place the words "game," "play," and "fun" in a straightforward relationship:

  • "Game" is the formal activity that you perform.

  • "Play" is the actual behavior that you engage in.

  • "Fun" is the experience or emotion that you derive from that behavior.

This relationship leads to a simple conclusion: Games and play must lead to fun. If a game isn't fun, it's a bad game. It sounds perfectly logical, and it is flatly wrong.

The problem with this reasoning lies in the fact that the words "game," "play," and "fun" are in flux. They have historically been associated with the behavior of children, yet in the last century, with the creation of significant amounts of leisure time, adults have taken up play as well. This new, adult kind of play is still play by any definition, but the word "fun" doesn't quite fit the adult's experience. When two friends play a hard-fought game of tennis, are they having fun? Do bird watchers brave the elements to have fun? How about the lady who putters around in the garden trying to raise the perfect rose? A truly broad definition of "fun" would of course cover all these activities, but most of the time we use "fun" in a much narrower sense. Some game designers seem to want it both ways: They claim that play covers a universe of entertainment activities, but then apply much narrower criteria to the evaluation of the merits of a game. The same people who argued yesterday that gardening is a form of play will tomorrow deride a gardening game as utterly devoid of fun.

LESSON 7

Use the word "fun" as you would any other approbatory term, such as "cool," "far out," "groovy," or "neat-o."

"Fun" is a misleading word to be using just yet. It is a semantic chameleon, changing its meaning in each new context. I continue to use the word informally and loosely, but I never use that word in serious design analysis. Games don't have to be fun to provide entertainment, rewarding play, or just nice feelings. Condemning a game as "not fun" is about as useful as calling it "crummy"; it expresses an emotional reaction but offers absolutely nothing that you can get your hands on. Let's banish this term from our serious game design discussions.



Chris Crawford on Game Design
Chris Crawford on Game Design
ISBN: 0131460994
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 2006
Pages: 248

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