The Anatomy of Fun: FeedBack

Yesterday was the Anatomy of Fun session at Develop.  We've had a couple of good articles written about the session from LazyGamer:

At the Develop Conference, researchers have stated that they’ve been able to measure that magical element that’s missing from some games, fun.

And Beefjack:

In a panel today at the Develop Conference, some really clever sciency research types have been talking about how they can measure the notion of “fun” in a game – and the interesting trends they’ve discovered by doing so.

It also got a good reaction on twitter; here is a flavor of that discussion:

The Anatomy of Fun starts in 1 hour at #Developconf in Room 4 - http://t.co/YvFHrZiA see you there!

— Tomas Rawlings (@TomasRawlings) July 11, 2012

Switched from the Raspberry Pi talk to the fun panel at the last minute. Screwed up @developconf’s system no doubt.

— Jurie Horneman (@jurieongames) July 11, 2012

Fun being linked to 'flow', not surprisingly. Also looking at GSR to identify fun scientifically. #developconf

— Chris Lowthorpe (@chrislowthorpe) July 11, 2012

IMHO we’d need to look at the origins of that single value / dopamine level. Or, at least, I’d find that useful.

— Jurie Horneman (@jurieongames) July 11, 2012

Key in fun is reward prediction errors - gap between expectation and reward. Interesting. #developconf

— Chris Lowthorpe (@chrislowthorpe) July 11, 2012

All rewards are uncertain. #developconf

— Jurie Horneman (@jurieongames) July 11, 2012

fun is the thing that all great games have in common, so look for the barriers to fun and remove them #developconf

— Tomas Rawlings (@TomasRawlings) July 11, 2012

@TomasRawlings But does that prohibit them dealing with serious subjects?

— Chris Lowthorpe (@chrislowthorpe) July 11, 2012

Panel agrees it’s difficult to define fun. #developconf

— Jurie Horneman (@jurieongames) July 11, 2012

'Anatomy of fun' panelists at #developconf highlighted importance of thinking about wider range of gamers, esp. older and disabled #a11y

— Ian Hamilton (@ianhamilton_) July 11, 2012

Panel agrees it’s difficult to define fun. #developconf

— Jurie Horneman (@jurieongames) July 11, 2012