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As a designer of games I always strive to have a deeper understanding of what it is that I’m designing. What are games? What is play? What is fun?

My latest attempt at answering these questions started at the Tale of tales website. The discussion was actually on a different subject but for me it turned into a discussion about games and toys. I believed that one of their projects was more of a toy then a game. But then I started thinking; what is the difference exactly?

I believe that the main difference is in the kind of play that the experience allows. As I found out, players can have different levels of authorship over the actual play experience. With toys for instance, players have full - or at least a lot - of authorship over the experience. Players decide how play is experienced, what is being played and how it is played.

Continue reading ‘Scale of authorship’