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conway game playing the

Play has been recognised as one of the most significant activities in childhood, playing a critical role in the development of children. While play manifests in different forms as the child grows, its definition remains elusive, often being seen as a uni-dimensional concept in the past. A contemporary definition of play does not simply look at the absence or presence of play but rather looks at a continuum or gradability using the handle of ‘playfulness’, such that an activity could be more or less playful depending on a set of dispositional characteristics which are present like intrinsic motivation, non-literality, means v/s ends, active engagement, positive affect, etc. Moreover, recent definitions have conceptualized playfulness as a dynamic entity which is dependent on the context . Thus, understanding playfulness as context-dependent and multi-dimensional, allows for the possibility of design interventions to increase the playfulness in an activity/artefact. Having been extensively studied from a long time, there are a plethora of play theories and classifications. Some of these selected theories and classifications are briefly discussed below, which are interesting from the point of view of using them in design applications.

Play has been recognised as one of the most significant activities in childhood, playing a critical role in the development of children. While play manifests in different forms as the child grows, its definition remains elusive, often being seen as a uni-dimensional concept in the past. A contemporary definition of play does not simply look at the absence or presence of play but rather looks at a continuum or gradability using the handle of ‘playfulness’, such that an activity could be more or less playful depending on a set of dispositional characteristics which are present like intrinsic motivation, non-literality, means v/s ends, active engagement, positive affect, etc. Moreover, recent definitions have conceptualized playfulness as a dynamic entity which is dependent on the context . Thus, understanding playfulness as context-dependent and multi-dimensional, allows for the possibility of design interventions to increase the playfulness in an activity/artefact. Having been extensively studied from a long time, there are a plethora of play theories and classifications. Some of these selected theories and classifications are briefly discussed below, which are interesting from the point of view of using them in design applications.

Building a game that people play for years is no simple task and has no magic formula. However, in this session, Clash of Clans developer, Jonas Collaros, takes an insider's look at the hit game's development history and asks: what lessons can Clash teach? The mobile, free-to-play marketplace is rife with challenges, even for veteran developers, but, Jonas explains, perhaps the greatest challenge is maintaining a focus on essentials. A project's essential needs change again and again, especially over the span of years. Exploring the "three eras" of Clash development, Jonas reveals the specific needs, challenges, and pitfalls they encountered along the way. Clash developers value a critical eye towards essential needs, eschewing project roadmaps in favor of simply playing the game and focusing relentlessly on "what matters most." This focused development, by extension, is what Jonas claims has resulted in a game that keeps the interest of players year after year.

Classroom role-play is an interactive learning technique with a long history of success, but current attempts to augment it with technology limit the very interactions that make this technique successful. For example, digital roleplay games often engage individual students at a computer, rather than creating rich social interactions among students. In order to design interactions that better support the core aspects of classroom role-play, we conducted interviews with teachers; we also interviewed role-play gamers to discover how traditional RPG techniques and technology can be used to enhance classroom role-play. In this paper we 1) explore the reasons instructors choose role-play for learning, such as giving students practice opportunities; 2) identify barriers to instructors using classroom role-play activities, such as time constraints and student discomfort; 3) report issues around integrating technology, such as the benefit of reducing cognitive load and the threat of distraction; and 4) highlight two areas where insights from role-playing games can inform the design of interactive learning systems for classroom role-play: by providing methods for emphasizing "group success" over individual achievement and by preserving the "spirit of the experience." [This paper was published in: "CHI PLAY '17: Proceedings of the Annual Symposium on Computer-Human Interaction in Play," ACM, 2017, pp. 241-251.]

Building a game that people play for years is no simple task and has no magic formula. However, in this session, Clash of Clans developer, Jonas Collaros, takes an insider's look at the hit game's development history and asks: what lessons can Clash teach? The mobile, free-to-play marketplace is rife with challenges, even for veteran developers, but, Jonas explains, perhaps the greatest challenge is maintaining a focus on essentials. A project's essential needs change again and again, especially over the span of years. Exploring the "three eras" of Clash development, Jonas reveals the specific needs, challenges, and pitfalls they encountered along the way. Clash developers value a critical eye towards essential needs, eschewing project roadmaps in favor of simply playing the game and focusing relentlessly on "what matters most." This focused development, by extension, is what Jonas claims has resulted in a game that keeps the interest of players year after year.

This paper outlines and analyses some key design issues we encountered in the process of creating an online role-play simulation (RPS) for a course targeting personnel involved in crisis management. Titled "Black Blizzard" the RPS aims to enable an exploration of typical issues and problems that arise in cross and multi-cultural international collaboration. Focusing on the basic structure of games and on aspects that make good games engaging the paper compares the issues that arose in designing the structure of this RPS with other RPS designs. It then outlines some practical suggestions and theoretical conclusions to help teachers design online role-play simulations that are in harmony with educational objectives while simultaneously deploying good game-play design principles that make it engaging for students.

This paper outlines and analyses some key design issues we encountered in the process of creating an online role-play simulation (RPS) for a course targeting personnel involved in crisis management. Titled "Black Blizzard" the RPS aims to enable an exploration of typical issues and problems that arise in cross and multi-cultural international collaboration. Focusing on the basic structure of games and on aspects that make good games engaging the paper compares the issues that arose in designing the structure of this RPS with other RPS designs. It then outlines some practical suggestions and theoretical conclusions to help teachers design online role-play simulations that are in harmony with educational objectives while simultaneously deploying good game-play design principles that make it engaging for students.