Play-Persona: Modeling Player Behaviour in Computer Games

4. CREATING EXPERIENCES
The MDA framework [52] has already attempted to describe how designers embed meaning into
their artifacts and how these artifacts express meaning to people, eventually shaping the play
experience. The focus of the framework is on the unidirectional channel from designer to player; in
fact it moves from “mechanics” (the rules of the game and the code that supports them) to
“dynamics” (the processes that are enacted in each session of play) to “aesthetics” (the emotional
requirements or the “fun”). The greatest achievement of the framework is to show how important
is for designers to choose aesthetic goals (the emotions that the game should elicit) and build
mechanics and dynamics that support those goals. Nevertheless the player’s input, desires,
motivations and background are not kept into consideration since it is the application that brings
goals to the user.
From a designer’s point of view, creating experiences consists of weaving ludic affordances upon
the aesthetic canvas of the game. Ludic affordances provide players with actions to carry out within
the aesthetic canvas of the game space. Examining what players chose to do among several
alternative actions can shed light on their interaction and navigation attitudes, eventually leading to
the inclusion of players’ goals into the equation. This biunivocal communication process is unfolded
on two layers: the designers’ intent of creating entertaining experiences by telling a story through
aesthetic and ludic codes, and the players’ desire to interact with the game and influence it
(explained by figure 11).
Figure 11: the two layers of communication, from designers to players, through the aesthetic and ludic
affordances; and from players to designers through players’ behaviour.
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