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Flexible Games by Which I Mean Digital Game Systems That Can Accommodate Rule-Changing and Rule-Bending

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Flexible Games by Which I Mean Digital Game Systems That Can Accommodate Rule-Changing and Rule-Bending Let’s Play Our Way: Designing Flexibility into Card Game Systems Gifford Cheung A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy University of Washington 2013 Reading Committee: David Hendry, Chair David McDonald Nicolas Ducheneaut Jennifer Turns Program Authorized to Offer Degree: Information School ©Copyright 2013 Gifford Cheung 2 University of Washington Abstract Let’s Play Our Way: Designing Flexibility into Card Game Systems Gifford Cheung Chair of the Supervisory Committee: Associate Professor David Hendry Information School In this dissertation, I explore the idea of designing “flexible game systems”. A flexible game system allows players (not software designers) to decide on what rules to enforce, who enforces them, and when. I explore this in the context of digital card games and introduce two design strategies for promoting flexibility. The first strategy is “robustness”. When players want to change the rules of a game, a robust system is able to resist extreme breakdowns that the new rule would provoke. The second is “versatility”. A versatile system can accommodate multiple use-scenarios and can support them very well. To investigate these concepts, first, I engage in reflective design inquiry through the design and implementation of Card Board, a highly flexible digital card game system. Second, via a user study of Card Board, I analyze how players negotiate the rules of play, take ownership of the game experience, and communicate in the course of play. Through a thematic and grounded qualitative analysis, I derive rich descriptions of negotiation, play, and communication. I offer contributions that include criteria for flexibility with sub-principles of robustness and versatility, design recommendations for flexible systems, 3 novel dimensions of design for gameplay and communications, and rich description of game play and rule-negotiation over flexible systems. A model of rule-negotiation is introduced as well as advancements in theory regarding unexpected use of software and socially-negotiated play. 4 Table of Contents Let’s Play Our Way: Designing Flexibility into Card Game Systems ........................................... 1 1 Introduction ........................................................................................................................... 13 2 Domain: Card Games ............................................................................................................ 15 2.1 Related Substantive Areas (Board Games, Table top computing) ................................. 15 2.2 From Analog to Digital Card Games: A Case for Flexibility ........................................ 16 2.2.1 Motivation: Gambling ............................................................................................. 17 2.2.2 Motivation: Skill ..................................................................................................... 17 2.2.3 Motivation: Social ................................................................................................... 19 2.2.4 Summary: Lost in Translation ................................................................................ 24 2.3 Research Questions ........................................................................................................ 29 3 Related Literature and My Preliminary Work ...................................................................... 31 3.1 Criteria for Flexible Digital Systems ............................................................................. 31 3.2 Clarifications and Terminology in this Dissertation ...................................................... 33 3.3 Flexibility as a Strategy .................................................................................................. 34 3.4 Flexibility as a Property of Digital Systems................................................................... 39 3.4.1 End-user Programming ........................................................................................... 42 3.4.2 Expecting Tradeoffs, or Are Flexible Digital Systems inherently sub-optimal? .... 44 3.5 Flexibility and Game Studies ......................................................................................... 45 3.6 Technology for Leisure .................................................................................................. 48 5 3.7 CSCW: Collaborative Systems or The Work of Play .................................................... 49 3.8 My Preliminary Work .................................................................................................... 53 3.9 Coardial .......................................................................................................................... 53 3.10 Remix and Play: Lessons from Rule Variants in Texas Hold’em and Halo 2 ........... 56 3.11 Other Related Work .................................................................................................... 58 4 Design Investigation ............................................................................................................. 58 4.1 Introduction .................................................................................................................... 58 4.2 Goals............................................................................................................................... 59 4.3 Communicative Dimensions .......................................................................................... 60 4.4 Gameplay Dimensions and Design 0, 1, and 2 .............................................................. 63 4.4.1 Design Idea 0 .......................................................................................................... 69 4.4.2 Design Idea 1 .......................................................................................................... 70 4.4.3 Design Idea 2 .......................................................................................................... 71 4.4.4 Summary ................................................................................................................. 72 4.5 System Description: Card Board .................................................................................... 73 4.5.1 Public and Private Areas ......................................................................................... 74 4.5.2 Cards ....................................................................................................................... 75 4.5.3 Permissions ............................................................................................................. 76 4.5.4 Chips ....................................................................................................................... 76 4.5.5 Communicative Signaling ....................................................................................... 76 4.5.6 Helper Functions ..................................................................................................... 77 4.5.7 Design Reflection: Dimensions for Designing a Flexible, Robust, Card Deck ...... 78 4.5.8 Limitations regarding Flexibility ............................................................................ 82 6 4.6 Design 2, Dealer – Further Benefits of Automation ...................................................... 83 4.6.1 Cardboard with Dealer Scenario: Texas Hold’em .................................................. 85 4.6.2 Tracking the state of the game: Game pieces and Zones ........................................ 92 4.6.3 Personal Zone.......................................................................................................... 93 4.6.4 Bet Tracker & Betting Pot Zone ............................................................................. 94 4.6.5 Community Zone .................................................................................................... 95 4.6.6 Game Log and other informative text ..................................................................... 96 4.7 Reflection after completing Design 2............................................................................. 97 4.7.1 Meagerly-supported vs. Richly-supported functionality ........................................ 97 4.7.2 The locus of flexibility and on recomposing an automatic feature as semi-automatic 98 4.7.3 Necessary Manual Modes: Where Automation and Semi-automation fail .......... 101 4.8 Summary ...................................................................................................................... 102 5 User Study ........................................................................................................................... 104 5.1 Participant Recruitment, Screening by Personality ...................................................... 106 5.2 Study Procedures .......................................................................................................... 108 5.3 Group Interview ........................................................................................................... 111 5.4 Method of Analysis ...................................................................................................... 112 5.5 Study Limitations ......................................................................................................... 114 5.6 Overview of Sessions ................................................................................................... 114 5.6.1 Participants ...........................................................................................................
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