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Familiarity and Habituation In Learning Games

Posted by Soulskill on from the what-did-those-pixels-ever-do-to-you dept.

Gamasutra is running a feature about how the ease of learning new games depends on the types of games a player has seen before. "Pong offers quick pick-up not because it is easier to learn than Computer Space (although that was also true), but because it draws on familiar conventions from that sport. Or better, Pong is 'easy to learn' precisely because it assumes the basic rules and function of a familiar cultural practice." The article goes on to examine how the need to master some games is more akin to the "catchiness" of a song than an addiction. "Familiarity relates to another of Barsom's observations: repetition. Catchy songs often have a 'hook,' a musical phrase where the majority of the catchy payload resides. Indeed, the itch usually lasts only a few bars, sometimes annoyingly so. But games rely on small atoms of interaction even more so than do songs. The catchy part of a game repeats more innately than does a song's chorus. In Tetris it's the fitting together of tetrominoes."

14 comments

  1. No way! by TheSambassador · · Score: 4, Interesting

    The things that help us learn other things help us learn games too?

    Pong seems like a simplistic example... it's easy to learn because it's... a very simple game. A more interesting way to look at this would be in FPS games... does playing paintball or airsoft in the real world transfer any sort of skill into FPS's?

    The comparison of a song's chorus actually is moderately interesting. I wonder if games that we like are structured similarly...

    1. Re:No way! by cjfs · · Score: 2, Insightful

      The whole article is completely devoid of any insight. It's as if they just strung together random adjectives for four pages.

      How does spewing "easy to learn, difficult to master" in several different ways then saying "call them 'catchy', not 'addictive'" at the end warrant an article?

    2. Re:No way! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      DICK BUTT

    3. Re:No way! by kaladorn · · Score: 3, Insightful

      I imagine that some things would transfer (for instance, you may know enough to check your six regularly, to use cover and to look for it as you move, etc). This is more in the domain of tactical choices. The actual muscle skills (marksmanship, running, evasive manouvers, etc) are clearly not similar. And the physics engine of RealLife(TM) is fairly different than most games. Most games have a slant on how their physics should work and you learn to adapt to it. But it isn't ultra-realistic, unless you play hardcore sim FPSes. Even they aren't real, just more real. One example of a somewhat similar nature: When my old infantry reserve unit fielded a paintball team, they were mortified when the guys from the local comic shop kicked them around so badly. I heard comments like 'my FN wouldn't have been stopped by a twig' or other equally hilarious complaints. The actual military fieldcraft skills had some benefits for sneaking around, but the performance of the hardware (mainly paintball ballistics and the jam rates of paintball guns of the day) was different enough that the locals put the boots to the soldiers quite handily. As I pointed out to one of the guys in the unit though: If a fat guy in purple coveralls can get within 30' to kill you with an inaccurate marker, what would a guy with an AK manage? That shut down the complaints pretty fast. One of the interesting aspects of trying to carry training across to a different situation is that you sometimes learn lessons in training that aren't just un-useful, they're actually dangerous in the real situation.

      --
      -- Mal: "Well they tell you: never hit a man with a closed fist. But it is, on occasion, hilarious."
    4. Re:No way! by VeNoM0619 · · Score: 1

      One of the interesting aspects of trying to carry training across to a different situation is that you sometimes learn lessons in training that aren't just un-useful, they're actually dangerous in the real situation.

      Like teabagging the corpse after you kill them?

      --
      Disclaimer: I am not god.
      We may not be created equal
      But we can be treated equal.
  2. No way!-Training ground. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    "The things that help us learn other things help us learn games too? "

    Guys should excel at Hentai games.

  3. Tetrominoes? by pbhj · · Score: 1

    In Tetris it's the fitting together of tetrominoes.

    I doubt it is. It's something more like lego, jigsaws or wooden building blocks. Yes I just looked at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tetromino and thought "hey Tetris blocks".

    I'm getting old, 30s, so may have come across tetrominoes before I played tetris (and not remembered) but are they as widespread as tetris is? Tetris was based on them originally but the ease of gameplay and popularity isn't, I posit, based on previous familiarity with tetrominoes.

    1. Re:Tetrominoes? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      In Soviet Russia, tetrominoes fit you.

      It's like 10,000 cubes, when all you need is a line...

      Ironic? Don't you think?

  4. Testability by ShakaUVM · · Score: 1

    To test this hypothesis, they should go to a country without a history of tennis, and see how long it takes them to "get" pong.

    Methinks the author is a bit overblown with the claim that 100 years of ping pong made us ready for the video game.

    1. Re:Testability by tomhudson · · Score: 4, Interesting

      To test this hypothesis, they should go to a country without a history of tennis, and see how long it takes them to "get" pong.

      Methinks the author is a bit overblown with the claim that 100 years of ping pong made us ready for the video game.

      ... or a country that didn't have an Area 51 so they didn't know how to deal with Space Invaders ...

  5. And pentominoes by tepples · · Score: 2, Informative

    I'm getting old, 30s, so may have come across tetrominoes before I played tetris (and not remembered) but are they as widespread as tetris is?

    Pentomino puzzles have been around for decades. Tetrominoes are just a simplification of pentominoes such that one can place three of them every second (see this video and the end of this video).

  6. Isn't it alanis by tepples · · Score: 1
    Anonymous Coward channeled Alanis Morissette:

    It's like 10,000 cubes, when all you need is a line

    Note: This doesn't happen in modern Tetris games. They deal out pieces in groups of 7, where each group contains all seven tetrominoes. So the longest wait for an I is 12 pieces.

    1. Re:Isn't it alanis by HTH+NE1 · · Score: 1

      Anonymous Coward channeled Alanis Morissette:

      It's like 10,000 cubes, when all you need is a line

      Note: This doesn't happen in modern Tetris games. They deal out pieces in groups of 7, where each group contains all seven tetrominoes. So the longest wait for an I is 12 pieces.

      That really depends on the programmer. I have a Tetris-clone handheld game, purchased at Radio Shack, that can be induced to give nothing but I pieces, as long as you don't hasten their decent and that they hit the bottom of the playfield standing vertical (not atop any other pieces). You could only start it if this piece and the next piece were both I-pieces. Time of descent was apparently their randomizer for the next piece.

      --
      Oh, say does that Star-Spangled Banner entwine / The myrtle of Venus with Bacchus's vine?
    2. Re:Isn't it alanis by tepples · · Score: 1

      That really depends on the programmer.

      And the release date. Most games since 2002 that carry the "Authentic Tetris Game" seal use the new "bag" randomizer. The Tetris Company maintains a design document defining the rules of Tetris and revises it yearly.

      I have a Tetris-clone handheld game, purchased at Radio Shack

      Clone? In that case, it does depend on the programmer. Some clone programmers are unaware of the Guideline and will implement a randomizer intended to give an uncorrelated uniform distribution like that of the oldest Tetris products. And they often implement it poorly, in the case of the product you describe; even an LFSR-based technique would react better.