Week 6: Emergent Play

On Wednesday, we discussed Design for an Ebay Resistant Virtual Economy, an excellent example of a game designer observing emergent play (twinking, muling, ebaying), tracing the play back to key design choices(gifting, scarcity, e.g.) , and making new design choices to encourage a different kind of play.

Your assignment this weekend: Find an example of emergent play in a game that resembles your final project. That is, answer the following question: What are players of that game doing before, during or after play that could not be anticipated just by reading the rules of the game? Once you have identified the emergent phenomenon, discuss what design choice or choices you think are responsible for it.