Games MDA

 

(image showing designer and players perspective on MDA, source)

This week for our reading task we read through and learned about MDA Framework (Mechanics, Dynamics and Aesthetics) and also about DDE (Design, Dynamic and Experience) for game design.
The articles and videos that we read and watched are:

MDA: A Formal Approach to Game Design and Game Research Hunicke, R. LeBlanc, M. & Zubek, R. (2004).
Design, Dynamics & Experience (DDE) for Game design Wolfgang Walk, Daniel Görlich, Mark Barrett (2017).
Explaining the MDA Design Framework | Video Game Design The Last Bacon (Youtube)

Game designers can use the MDA framework to better create and make games that the players can consume as a form of entertainment. The difference when it comes to games though is its unpredictability in comparison to other forms of entertainment such as movies or shows. MDA breaks down the consumption of games in components of Rules - System - Fun, with their design counterparts being Mechanics, Dynamics, Aesthetics. Taken from the first article, the definitions of the MDA components are:

> Mechanics describes the particular components of the game, at the level of data representation and algorithms.
> Dynamics describes the run-time behavior of the mechanics acting on player inputs and each others
outputs over time.
> Aesthetics describes the desirable emotional responses evoked in the player, when she interacts with the game system

When it comes to describing Aesthetics of a game, a game designers doesn't use vocabulary such as 'fun' or 'gameplay'. Rather they use Vocabulary such as:
> Sensation
> Fantasy
> Narrative
> Challenge
> Fellowship
> Discovery
> Expression
> Submission

This way instead of saying a game is just 'Fun' you can say a game is a mix of some of the above words for example 'The Sims' would be a mix of Discovery, Fantasy, Expression and Narrative. 

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