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<blockquote data-quote="GrahamWills" data-source="post: 8254887" data-attributes="member: 75787"><p>Well, honestly, "game design" does seem to be a fairly anarchic. It's pretty hard for me to discern any <em>structure</em> that covers all the designs across the board, so yes, I guess I agree with you -- game design doesn't have any form of organizing structured but instead pulls ideas from wherever seems good to the individual designer.</p><p></p><p>As evidence, I submit the acknowledgements section of the recently released game AGON:</p><ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Agon was first inspired by Jonathan Walton’s game concept Argonauts. Specifically, the Fate track that measures the lifetime of a hero was a core idea that sparked the original Agon design.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">The original playtesters for the first edition also contributed ideas and support that helped the game get off the ground. They were Brandon Amancio, Scott Dierdorf, Tony Dowler, Wilhelm Fitzpatrick, Philip LaRose, Ed Ouellette, and Cara Tyler.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">The gaming technique “ask questions and build on the answers” was taken from Apocalypse World by D. Vincent Baker and Meguey Baker.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">The experience of playing the epic, wandering heroes of Trollbabe, by Ron Edwards, was a big inspiration for Agon. Trollbabe also introduced us to the idea of portraying aspects of nature (the sea, a mountain) as characters in the game.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">The idea of using increasing die sizes to represent the potency of character traits was inspired by Savage Worlds by Shane Lacy Hensley and In A Wicked Age... by D. Vincent Baker.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">The battle sheet design was inspired by the range map in 3:16 Carnage Amongst the Stars, by Gregor Hutton.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">The Pathos mechanic was initially inspired by the exhaustion system in Don’t Rest Your Head by Fred Hicks.</li> </ul><p>It seems to me that an anarchy where the designers simply chose systems they liked and tested them out is a much better fit than saying they decided on a certain genre and followed some sort of structure or rules to make it happen. And I think this is a good thing. I'd much prefer to read the sort of description above than one that said "We set out to create a game in the Nordic LARP tradition and so used the following accepted techniques to make the game fit that genre".</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="GrahamWills, post: 8254887, member: 75787"] Well, honestly, "game design" does seem to be a fairly anarchic. It's pretty hard for me to discern any [I]structure[/I] that covers all the designs across the board, so yes, I guess I agree with you -- game design doesn't have any form of organizing structured but instead pulls ideas from wherever seems good to the individual designer. As evidence, I submit the acknowledgements section of the recently released game AGON: [LIST] [*]Agon was first inspired by Jonathan Walton’s game concept Argonauts. Specifically, the Fate track that measures the lifetime of a hero was a core idea that sparked the original Agon design. [*]The original playtesters for the first edition also contributed ideas and support that helped the game get off the ground. They were Brandon Amancio, Scott Dierdorf, Tony Dowler, Wilhelm Fitzpatrick, Philip LaRose, Ed Ouellette, and Cara Tyler. [*]The gaming technique “ask questions and build on the answers” was taken from Apocalypse World by D. Vincent Baker and Meguey Baker. [*]The experience of playing the epic, wandering heroes of Trollbabe, by Ron Edwards, was a big inspiration for Agon. Trollbabe also introduced us to the idea of portraying aspects of nature (the sea, a mountain) as characters in the game. [*]The idea of using increasing die sizes to represent the potency of character traits was inspired by Savage Worlds by Shane Lacy Hensley and In A Wicked Age... by D. Vincent Baker. [*]The battle sheet design was inspired by the range map in 3:16 Carnage Amongst the Stars, by Gregor Hutton. [*]The Pathos mechanic was initially inspired by the exhaustion system in Don’t Rest Your Head by Fred Hicks. [/LIST] It seems to me that an anarchy where the designers simply chose systems they liked and tested them out is a much better fit than saying they decided on a certain genre and followed some sort of structure or rules to make it happen. And I think this is a good thing. I'd much prefer to read the sort of description above than one that said "We set out to create a game in the Nordic LARP tradition and so used the following accepted techniques to make the game fit that genre". [/QUOTE]
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