Video Games between Real Rules and Fictional Worlds

What were interesting for me was Juul’s words: “The advantage of structuring a game like this is that the player experiences a predefined story by completing the missions, while having freedom to solve the tasks in different ways. Even thought the player is in principle free to ignore the missions, most players will try to complete them because they want to, because it is more interesting to undertake the missions than not to (pp.82-83)”.
I had been thinking that the more freedom people have, it becomes more interesting to the players, because they can move on their own. But come to think of it, if there were no restrictions, and the player can do what ever they want to, it wouldn’t be playing the game, but rather, creating the game.

I was playing cards with my Singaporean friends when I came here. The game was similar to the one I knew in Japan, so I didn’t have difficulty understanding how to play, but the rules were slightly different. The Japanese version I knew is more restricting, and hence it was difficult for me to win the game in Singapore. I know I’m biased in ‘my way’ of playing the game, and not used to the Singaporean version, but I thought that more rules would make the game more exciting. …Though my friend said that it’s because I was losing too much! :P

I think that overcoming the restrictions makes the players excited about the game. Too much limitation is not, but by overcoming all the rules and making out the way, is challenging and exciting.

It’s like the rules in school – it’s exciting when we find a bypath!