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Wheels Within Wheels
If the rules of a digital game are those aspects of the program that have to do with the behavior of the player, where do the rules end? For example, interacting with the game of Tetris to move and rotate falling blocks is interacting with the game. But what about the options screen where the player selects the difficulty level and music for the game? What about the "game over" screen that the player has to move through when a game is finished? What about the main menu screen that a player sees when the game is turned on? The player is interacting with these aspects of the program, too. Is the code that governs the player's interaction with these portions of the program also part of the game rules? Possibly. It depends on how the interaction is framed, just as with non-digital games. Are the unused pawns and the game box of Chutes and Ladders something that the printed rules need to address? Normally not, but as indicated earlier, the written-out rules of Chutes and Ladders make the interaction with these game elements explicit. In order to more precisely clarify the kinds of lines that we might draw in framing the rules of a digital game, we return to our three-part model of constituative, operational, and implicit game rules. The operation of computer machinery can be described at a number of levels. The "lowest" of these is the electronics of hardware… Descriptions are causal and physical: electrons, currents, voltages. The second level is digital logic. The hardware electronics are designed to represent logical or mathematical operations, such as "AND" or the addition of binary digits or "bits"…. Descriptions are logical, not physical, but they are still tied to the hardware itself, whose structure determines how each operation affects its successor. At a third level lies the "machine language" of the programs that "run" on a particular machine. Machine language consists of the binary representation of program instructions-the language the machine itself "speaks." [1]
One of the trickiest aspects to understanding rules as they apply to digital games is that digital games are structurally very complex. As theorist Paul Edwards points out, computer software operates in a multi-layer fashion, where machine language code interacts with lower-level binary information, which ultimately is derived from electronic signals.The hierarchy could continue upwards as well: machine-level code interacts with a higher-level operating system (such as Windows XP or Mac OS X), which in turn interacts with actual program applications and files.These layers of software and the way that they function to produce an experience for a player vary from platform to platform, program to program, and game to game.
Although there are some similarities between the framework of constituative, operational, and implicit rules and the layers of software code by which computer devices operate, we hesitate to apply the three-part model of rules directly to the actual functioning of a computer program. Our model is not meant to directly facilitate technical production of a game program, but to offer a conceptual framework to shape game design thinking. With that said, how might we juxtapose digital games and the three categories of rules?
Constituative
The constituative rules of a digital game are remarkably similar to those of a non-digital game. For example, take another look at the constituative rules of Tic-Tac-Toe:
Two players alternate making a unique selection from a grid array of 3 by 3 units.
The first player to select three units in a horizontal, vertical, or diagonal row is the winner.
If no player can make a selection and there is no winner, then the game ends in a draw.
These rules would have to be the foundation of a digital game of Tic-Tac-Toe as well. Note that the actions the players take, the way that these actions are represented to the players, and even whether one or both players are human or program-controlled, are not specified. Constituative rules are concerned only with the internal functioning of the game logic.To use the terms that we established in Interactivity, constituative rules are concerned with internal events (events related to the processing of a choice) and not with external events (events relating to the representation of a choice).
Operational
The operational rules of a digital game are those rules that relate directly to a player's behavior and interaction with the game. Because operational rules directly engage with the materials of the game interaction, the operational rules of a digital game include the use of input devices such as the mouse and keyboard or a game controller. Just as with non-digital games, there are many different sets of operational rules that could be formulated from any given set of constituative rules. Below is one set of operational rules for a digital Tic-Tac-Toe game, designed for two human players on a computer:
A game begins with an empty 3 by 3 grid on the screen.
The screen displays an X or an O to one side of the grid to indicate which player will move next. The first player is always X.
Players alternate turns, using the mouse to click on an empty square of the grid. When a player clicks on an empty square, the current symbol will be displayed in that square. At the same time, a sound effect of a voice saying "X" or "O" will play (the sound will correspond to the current symbol). Also at that time, the symbol indicating which player is currently taking a turn will flash on and off twice and then switch to the other symbol.
If a player attempts to click anywhere else on the screen besides an empty square, there is no effect.
If a player places an X or O and thereby creates three symbols in a horizontal, vertical, or diagonal row, the three symbols that are in a row will begin flashing. At the same time, a sound effect of a voice saying "X wins" or "O wins" will play, depending on which symbol won the game. If a player places a symbol and there is no winner and no empty squares, a sound effect of a voice saying "draw" will play.
After a win or a draw, if the player clicks anywhere on the screen, the game will reset back to the beginning with an empty 3 by 3 grid.
Note that in describing the operational rules of the game, we only went into detail about the external or representational events that impact player interactivity and formal game events. We did not include the aesthetic, experiential components of the game that did not relate to the rules. We did not describe, for example, the typeface of the "X" and "O"or the personality of the voice-over. But because the voice audio communicates a formal game event to the player, it is part of the operational rules. Is the inclusion of the voice cues absolutely necessary? Probably not. But what is and what is not an "official rule" of a game is a design decision. As a game designer, it is up to you to frame the game's rules in a way that is appropriate and useful. There are obviously many other ways to construct the operational rules of Tic-Tac-Toe on a computer. In our example, a sound paired with flashing symbols indicates winning. But should a visual element also appear that lets the players know who won? Should a text message be used to more clearly indicate which player is currently taking a turn? What about getting into and out of the game? The version listed above has no exit or quit function, so presumably it is designed for a computer context where a player would exit the program by closing the program window or by using a standard "quit" key command. Are these the best design decisions for the game? Playtesting and careful consideration of your audience will help answer these questions.
Implicit
Many implicit rules are common to digital and non-digital games. If you are playing Tic-Tac-Toe with your friend on a computer, the same implicit rule about taking a "reasonable" amount of time on your turn still applies. In addition, there are implicit rules that are unique to digital games, most of them similar across games designed for the same technological platform. Below are a few examples of implicit rules of the digital Tic-Tac-Toe game:
When you move the mouse, the cursor on the screen corresponds to the mouse movement.
The Tic-Tac-Toe game program can be started, stopped, copied, deleted, renamed, etc., like other program files.
Playing the game will not affect your computer in any permanent way.
Although these implicit rules may seem like obvious assumptions, it is the nature of implicit rules that they are usually taken for granted. But it might be interesting to design a game that surprised players by "playing" with the implicit rules of computer interaction. For example, what if during a game the cursor did not correspond directly to mouse movement? Or what if when you typed in chat to another player in an online multi-player game, the text that appeared on the other player's screen did not correspond exactly to what you typed? Questioning implicit rules can be a powerful source for design ideas. [1]Paul N. Edwards, The Closed World (Cambridge: MIT Press, 1996), p. 246.
