Theory of Fun for Game Design

by Raph Koster

Fun from games arises out of mastery.

with games, learning is the drug.

Boredom is the opposite of learning.

Games are not stories (though players can create stories from them).* It is interesting to make the comparison, though: Games tend to be experiential teaching. Stories teach vicariously. Games are good at objectification. Stories are good at empathy. Games tend to quantize, reduce, and classify. Stories tend to blur, deepen, and make subtle distinctions. Games are external — they are about people’s actions. Stories (good ones, anyway) are internal — they are about people’s emotions and thoughts. Games are generators of player narratives. Stories provide a narrative. In both cases, when stories and games are good, you can come back to them repeatedly and keep learning something new. But we never speak of fully mastering a good story.

Fun is about learning in a context where there is no pressure from consequence, and that is why games matter.