Player Discretion is Advised: Designing for Rule-Changing Play

Paper Title

Player Discretion is Advised: Designing for Rule-Changing Play

Publication Info

• Topic area: Game design for player creativity and rule-changing play.
• Keywords: Rule-changing play, player creativity, metagames, game design, Research through Design, internal rules, digital games, player authorship, appropriative play, HCI.

Background and Problem

• Problem / challenge: Traditional video games often enforce rigid, "thin" rules that limit player discretion and creativity, prioritizing predefined goals and standard gameplay practices. This rigidity inhibits the diversity of play-practices and player authorship.
• Significance: Enabling players to change and create their own rules can foster creativity, expand the diversity of play-practices, and transform video games into tools for metagame creation.
• Motivation and related work: Prior research highlights the potential of appropriative play, such as modding and speedrunning, but these often require specialized expertise and occur outside gameplay. This paper seeks to explore how rule-changing play can be supported within gameplay itself, building on concepts from HCI, meta-design, and folk games.

Solution

• Proposed approach: A multiplayer game prototype, "Player Discretion is Advised," where changing rules and parameters is the central mechanic.
• Novelty:
  1. Introduced a rule deck that allows players to modify digital rules and parameters.
  2. Highlighted internal rules as a space for player reflection and creativity.
  3. Enabled players to redefine game goals by translating digital goals into internal ones.
• Procedure and key techniques:
  • Developed a 2D competitive platformer-shooter with a "design phase" for rule experimentation and a "play phase" for gameplay.
  • Iteratively refined the game through seven playtests with 14 participants, using semi-structured interviews for feedback.
  • Documented the design process in a reflective journal and a public Git repository.

Results

• Concrete findings:
  • Players used the rule deck to experiment with parameters (e.g., player size, gravity, bullet speed) and create novel metagames.
  • Internal rules, written in a "House Rules" notepad, encouraged players to reflect on implicit gameplay norms and invent new practices.
  • Allowing players to redefine goals (e.g., scoring conditions) led to diverse and unexpected play-practices.
• Advantage over baselines:
  • Unlike traditional games with fixed rules, this approach gave players the freedom to author and adapt their own metagames, fostering creativity and discretion.
• Experiments / evaluation:
  • Playtests involved pairs of PhD students familiar with video games but not specialized in modding. Sessions lasted 20–60 minutes, followed by 20-minute interviews.
  • Observed behaviors included experimentation with parameters, negotiation of fairness, and creation of unconventional rules and goals.
• Limitations and future work:
  • Limited to multiplayer, non-narrative games; applicability to single-player or narrative games remains unexplored.
  • Findings are constrained by the prototype's simplicity and the researchers' design capabilities.
  • Future work could investigate player creativity in rule-changing play and explore alternative design approaches.

Summary

This paper explores how video games can be designed to invite players to engage with and change game rules, fostering creativity and personal play-practices. Through the development and playtesting of a multiplayer game prototype, the authors identified three design themes: opening up digital rules and parameters, bringing internal rules to the surface, and translating digital goals into internal ones. These approaches empower players to create their own metagames, shifting the role of the game from a rigid system to a flexible tool. While the findings are specific to the prototype's context, they provide a foundation for further research into designing for player authorship and appropriative play.