Fundamentals of Game Design, Third Edition

Chapter 9. Creative and Expressive Play

Playing any game involves an element of self-expression because the decisions a player makes reflect his play style: cautious or reckless, aggressive or defensive, and so on. Video games can let players express themselves in the ways traditional games always have and in a variety of other ways as well. This chapter examines several types of creative and expressive play that you can build into a game: self-defining play, in which players modify the avatar that represents them in the game; constrained creative play, in which players may exercise their creativity but only within certain limits; freeform, or unconstrained, creative play; and storytelling and role-playing, in which players interact with other ...