Theory of Fun for Game Design

by Raph Koster

Much of our view of the world is shaped by our perceptions and the way we filter information as it reaches us. Clarifying our understanding of that filter is reshaping our relationship to the world. In this light, it’s interesting to see how many of the most famous quotes of Jean-Paul Sartre seem eerily applicable to our relationship to the virtual worlds created by games. Students of philosophy would tell you that he was simply recognizing the artificiality of every world we perceive, since they are all mental constructs in the end. Games thus far have not really worked to extend our understanding of ourselves. Instead, games have primarily been an arena where human behavior — often in its crudest, most primitive form — is put on display. There is a crucial difference between games really illuminating and exploring the human condition, and seeing how the human condition manifests while we play games. The latter is interesting in an academic sense, but it is unsurprising. The human condition manifests anywhere and anytime we interact.