Natural Funativity

Natural Funativity

~ Noah Falstein ~

The Natural Funativity article written by Noah Falstein found here explores what makes a game fun by means of researching into how fun has developed throughout human evolution, technological and social advancements.

We begin by looking back to our evolutionary history and how we today still share our survival and reproductive natures with are ancestors, along side our need for social interactions. All these natural instincts establish and maintain our place in our community and the human race. It is widely agreed that most of our underlying instincts were shaped during the time of our hunter-gatherer ancestors and their predecessors.

Understanding the basic instincts of humans might sounds far fetched from what makes a game fun but they can be closely linked with one another at a deeper level than simply enjoyment, entertainment or pass time. Play goes deep into our human history and in other species, for example dogs and cats play fight at a young age to prepare themselves for hunting and fighting later in life. Maybe not a skill they need anymore as most dogs and cats are domesticated these days but it was a important skill to learn for their ancestors that would have to hunt and fight in order to survive.

Its this natural instincts to play to learn that humans and other species share which develop us and prepare us for later life. Due to the human brain and complex social structures we have, this causes us to extend that play well into our maturity.

"Anyone who thinks there is a difference between education and entertainment doesn't
know the first thing about either."
- Marshall McLuhan, Communications Theorist

Learning in the fashion of play has been long thought to be the safest and most efficient way to learn. When we put it into the context of our hunter-gather ancestors its fairly simple to see that by going out and hunting is very dangerous and if you have not prepared yourself prior you can easily be injured or worse. By play fighting or simply practice throwing or tracking in a safe environment (and usually in forms of simple games) it will enhance you hunting skills without ever putting you into the danger of actually going out to hunt in the wild.

Physical Fun

The simplest place to see a connection between our evolutionary heritage and games and entertainment is in the physical arena. Our primary urge is the survival instinct. Anything that directly threatens our survival automatically commands out full attention. Its not surprising that games, and in fac most of entertainment use themes of survival to similarly capture the attention of players.

Physical fun also covers the instincts to gather, there are a huge number of popular entertainment that involve gathering. Casinos (money), collecting items E.g cards, art, cars. In video games, ever since Pac-Man started gobbling little dots, we've moved on to collecting hearts, coins, stars and Pokemon.

Exploration and use of tools or mastering our tools is another instinct humans have inherited from our ancestors. The desire to see exotic places or a more local exploration, finding the best places to get specific resources (food, shelter etc). Mastering out tools which we now associate with keyboard and mouse, controllers and hardware. Learning to use a bow & arrow or a fishing net to our hunter-gather ancestors hold the same value but in a different form.

Social Fun

Evolution focuses not just on the survival of individuals, but also the issue of reproduction and all the associated matters of meeting and attracting mates. Online multiplayer games and the persistent popularity of playing single-player games in group settings have brought about a new social aspect to games and reinforce our natural instinct to socialize, form groups and interact with each other.

Humans are tribal in nature and and use the skill of language to not only socialize but to learn from one another. Either it be through straight forward information or through storytelling, its a key factor in our need to survive. The uniquely human ability to pass on stories and thereby learning important practical, moral and social lessons has been invaluable to us.

Mental Fun

Our intelligence is what links all of the physical and social instincts together and has made us evolve over time through learning. Its what makes us capable of learning and understanding what we just learnt, its what seperates us from all the other animals and makes us human.

Learning patterns within games and then mastering them is linked to our need to survive. This is because we are using our brains and working them out to better understand the task or problem at hand. It helps us solve problems, differentiate one thing from another and then act upon our understanding.

The more you know and understand within a game the better chance you have of beating it, this holds true to our hunter-gatherer ancestors when applied to their need to survive by hunting, tracking and mating.

My Thoughts

 I'm a big fan of psychology and human nature. I don't think a day goes by when I don't think about what makes us all the way we are and more specifically myself or the people around me. Either it be what we say, do or act I find it really interesting. This article does a great job of explaining how our natural instincts have a direct affect on out concept of fun and the need to play to learn, or in other words having fun to survive. Even though we live in an age that we don't necessarily have to go out and hunt deer with a bow & arrow anymore, its plain to see how our need to learn patterns in a game and the tools we use in and out of them creates the state of play and learning.

I know we touched on patterns within games and how we can use them to influence the player within the game and I though it was great how the two articles linked together like this. The Space of Possibility and Pacing in Casual Game Design paper can be found here (last paragraph).