Replayability: A Structural Approach to Players and Computer Games

Genspilningsværdi: En strukturel tilgang til spillere og computerspil

Thygesen, Lasse Weissenberg

4. term

Interactive Digital Media, Master

2014

2014-06-27

71

This thesis examines replayability as an under-theorized yet central design principle in digital games. It addresses two guiding questions: whether replayability involves more than “good gameplay,” and how different a game must feel to be replayable without losing recognizability. Combining a structural analysis of games with Michael Apter’s reversal theory, it maps how shifts between metamotivational states shape players’ motivation, emotion, and willingness to return. The thesis proposes defining replayability as a balance between sameness and difference: a recognizable core experience across playthroughs coupled with a sense of novelty. It distinguishes primary and secondary core mechanics to locate sources of continuity and variation, and contrasts emergent and progression structures—arguing that emergent structures enable multiple approaches to the same content, while progression structures rely more on player mastery and state shifts to sustain variety. A three-level model—games as platform, virtual space, and activity—clarifies how sameness and difference are perceived at different analytic levels. Using World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria as a case, the thesis outlines a framework that links game structures with reversal theory to show how design can accommodate state shifts within and across activities, thereby extending a game’s lifespan.

Specialet undersøger genspilningsværdi (replayability) som et underbelyst, men centralt designprincip i computerspil. Det stiller to hovedspørgsmål: om der er mere i genspilningsværdi end “godt gameplay”, og hvor forskelligt et spil skal være for at opleves som genspilleligt uden at miste sin genkendelighed. Med udgangspunkt i en strukturel spilforståelse og Michael Apters reversal theory kortlægges, hvordan skift mellem metamotiverende tilstande påvirker motivation, følelser og lysten til at vende tilbage. Specialet foreslår en definition af genspilningsværdi som spændet mellem lighed og forskellighed: en genkendelig kerneoplevelse på tværs af gennemspilninger kombineret med oplevelsen af noget nyt. Det skelner mellem primære og sekundære kernemekanikker for at identificere, hvad der skaber kontinuitet og variation, og analyserer forskellen på emergente og progressionelle spilstrukturer, hvor de første åbner for flere tilgange til samme indhold, mens de sidste i højere grad afhænger af spillerens mestring og tilstandsskift. En tredelt klassifikation—spil som platform, som virtuelt rum og som aktivitet—bruges til at afklare, hvordan lighed og forskellighed opleves på forskellige niveauer. Gennem en kasusorienteret analyse af World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria skitserer specialet en ramme, der kobler spilstrukturer med reversal theory for at vise, hvordan design kan rumme tilstandsskift inden for og på tværs af aktiviteter og derved forlænge et spils levetid.

[This apstract has been generated with the help of AI directly from the project full text]

Replayability ; Computer games

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Thygesen, Lasse Weissenberg:

• Replayability: A Structural Approach to Players and Computer Games (2014)