游戏邦注：本文原作者是Connor Cleary，他在文中举例强调了游戏激发玩家创造力的重要性。

我曾多次赞扬游戏沉浸感，即让玩家忘我投入游戏这种特点的美妙之处，但游戏实际上还为玩家带来了另一种互动性，它的目标并非让玩家感觉自己与游戏融为一体，而是鼓励玩家通过发挥自己的创造力来增强游戏体验。

当然，已有不少游戏体现出了这种激发玩家创造性的特点，它们或是让玩家通过组合工具、技能或魔法，制定一个第一人称射击游戏或即时战略游戏的战术，或是鼓励玩家想方设法解开谜题，总而言之，游戏总会通过有别于其他媒介的途径吸引用户。

电子游戏的核心要义是“玩”，最近出现的创意型游戏的确深谙此道，并将这个基本理念推向了更高层次。实际上有些游戏已经超出了一般物理游戏的范畴，例如《Garry’s Mod》。虽然这些游戏已经有一些预先设定的目标，但有不少创意型游戏却拥有独一无二的风格。

Scribblenauts

《涂鸦冒险家》（Scribblenauts）就是一个典型，它支持你写下一个名词，并由此召唤任何你能想到的物品（但涉及商标、暴力及情色的内容除外）来解开一系列谜题。

玩家在游戏中可使用2万多种物品，并有不少破解之道可应对每个关卡的谜题。但如果你只想匆匆闯关，达到游戏终点，那就很可能错过游戏的核心要素。当然，玩家几乎在每个关卡都可以使用“背包”或者“ROFLCopter”这些词语一路向前闯关，但该游戏的真正亮点在于，玩家重返自己原来闯过的关卡。

为了“精通掌握”一个关卡，玩家得返回游戏，在不重复使用同一件物品的情况下，完成三次任务，假如你第一轮使用的是“背包”，在随后的第二、第三轮中就只能使用其他物品。这种游戏机制有助于玩家尽情发挥想象，形成各种疯狂的组合。

即使玩家的尝试失败了，也可以从这种试验中获得无穷乐趣，玩家在《涂鸦冒险家》中可以想出“teleporters”、“portal”，甚至是“时光机器”之类的物品，该游戏开发商5th Cell总会想法为玩家创造更多乐趣，而当玩家的创意成为这种乐趣的催化剂时，用户的游戏体验就能达到最佳状态。

《Crayon Physics》也属于这种典型，我已记不清自己在这款游戏上投入了多少时间去体验其中的物理效果。作为一款游戏，《3D点阵英雄》对我来说并无多大吸引力，但我使用其中的自定义人物编辑器设计了个性化的MegaMan角色，亲眼看他成型，然后又设计了一个Samus角色作为他的朋友，我在这个过程中获得了许多成就感。

即使是《愤怒的小鸟》和《粘粘世界》这类简单的游戏，也会要求玩家发挥创意，天马行空地想出可行的方案，因为它们并没有明确定义完成关卡任务的标准。

甚至连《Trine》这种三位一体的横板过关游戏都是绝好的例子，如果你以单人模式体验该游戏，就很可能错过多人模式环境中的那些更为无厘头的谜题挑战。

在单人模式中，玩家可以较为容易地切换到盗贼角色并跃过多数无底洞，或者切换成法师变出一座桥梁，但如果是在多人模式中，一名玩家一次只能扮演一个角色，所以大家就得绞尽脑汁让所有人都轮流体验所有角色。如果是在只有两名玩家的情况下，你们就总有机会切换到法师或者盗贼。

讨论这个话题，我们当然就不能不提到最近极为风靡的《挖矿争霸》，我个人认为，这款游戏在单人模式中唯一“已设定的目标”就是：生存下来并做出一番成就。

该游戏的玩家每天看到自己建造的坚固堡垒，回想起自己当初蜷缩在一个小洞穴中，不堪蜘蛛叮咬，耳闻僵尸怪吟，眼见身被骷髅包围的惨状，就会由衷产生一种成就感和满足感。玩家站在固若金汤的堡垒之上俯视下面曾令自己胆寒的怪物，就可以开始得意地鄙视它们。玩家知道在这个游戏世界中，自己就是这橦建筑独一无二的主人，其他玩家不可能创造出一模一样的堡垒。

《挖矿争霸》的创意模式也很让人大开眼界，最近我就通过reddit创意服务器看到用户创造的不少令人叫绝的内容。游戏行业的这种创新也许并无“新意”——我在十几年前就创造了《半条命》的定制玩家模式，以及原版《星际争霸》的定制地图，但还是不得不承认，现在的游戏已将玩家创意推向了一个新高峰。

我常被玩家群体的创造性所折服，他们通过关卡编辑器（或者与此相似的自定义内容创建功能）产生的内容总让人大为惊叹。就算我们只拿《挖矿争霸》、《小小大星球》和暴雪的争霸系列游戏来举例，也已经足以证明开发者通过为玩家提供可自主创建内容的工具，可以极大扩展游戏的生命力。人人都喜欢发挥创造力，这种爱好是我们的天性。

游戏行业在这一点上还有许多可挖掘的潜力，我很乐见这种趋势的发展，并相信这种鼓励用户发挥创造力的游戏一定会带来意想不到的好结果。

首先，这类游戏有可能吸引更多用户群体，扩大游戏玩家规模；其次，我认为它们最终会有助于开发儿童的批判性思维和技巧——而且它们多为老少皆宜的游戏。最后也是最重要的一点，这些游戏无疑将把游戏媒介引向一个尚不可知的佳境。（本文为游戏邦/gamerboom.com编译，转载请注明来源：游戏邦）

Analysis: The Era Of Player Creativity

[Gamasutra columnist Connor Cleary applauds the rise to prominence of games that emphasize player creativity, points out some of the more notable examples, and mentions the benefits of player-created content capabilities.]

I talk a lot about the desirability of immersion in gaming – about losing yourself entirely in a game. But there is another side of gaming which takes almost the opposite approach to player interaction, and it seems to be gaining a lot of ground lately.

In this alternate realm the goal is not to make the player feel like they are entirely inside the game, but rather to acknowledge the player as such and utilize their creativity to enhance the gaming experience.

Of course player-creativity has long been an aspect of gaming, whether you’re trying to come up with an inventive combination of equipment and/or skills and/or magic, devising a tactical plan of attack in an FPS or an RTS, or trying to find a new way to think about a puzzle that’s stumping you, games engage you in a way that few other mediums can.

When you boil it down though, video games are based on the idea of “play,” and the recent wave of creativity-games really embody that basic idea and take it to the next level. In fact some games are little more than physics playgrounds, like the popular Source-based Garry’s Mod. But even when there are predefined goals (generally agreed to be a defining characteristic of a game) many of these creativity-centered games have a distinctively “playground” feel to them.

Look at Scribblenauts for a great example. If you’ve never heard of it: the game allows you to write a noun and and summon nearly any object you can come up with (exceptions include anything trademarked, offensive or vulgar) in order to solve a variety of puzzles.

With over 20,000 objects available for use in-game, every level has at least a handful of solutions. But if all you do is rush through each puzzle and get to the end, you’re missing the point of the game. Sure, you could use a “jetpack” or the “ROFLCopter” on nearly every level and never look back, but the real brilliance of the game is to be found in returning to the levels you’ve already completed.

In order to “Master” a level in Scribblenauts, you have to go back in and complete it three more times without using the same object twice. So if you use the “jetpack” in your first round, you’ll have to find another way to reach that ledge in both of the following rounds. This mechanic pushes the player to think of some really crazy combinations.

But even when your attempts fail, just experimenting can be extremely fun for its own sake. From “teleporters” to “portals” to “time machines,” Scribblenauts developer 5th Cell went all-out to add some serious hilarity to their game, and when the player’s creativity is the catalyst for that hilarity, it is so much more satisfying

Some other notable examples include: Crayon Physics, I don’t want to think about how much time I spent just playing and experimenting with the physics in that game.

Although, 3D Dot Game Heroes failed to draw me in as a game, I had a great time designing my personalized MegaMan character in the custom character editor and watching him come to life, then designing a Samus character for a friend.

Even games like Angry Birds and World of Goo force the player to engage their creative mind to come up with one of many possible solutions, since neither of those games have rigidly defined parameters on how to complete a given level

Even the fairly linear Trine is a good example. If you’re playing Trine single-player you’ll miss out on a lot of the more mind-bending puzzles that you’re forced to contend with when you’re playing multiplayer.

In single player, it’s a relatively simple matter to swap in the Thief and swing over most bottomless pits, or swap in the Wizard and draw yourself a bridge, but when you have multiple players and only one player can occupy a given role at a time, you’re forced to find ways of getting everyone across. This often requires – if you’ll excuse the unavoidable pun – thinking outside the box and getting really creative. If there are only two of you, there is always the option of switching to the Thief or Wizard one at a time, but that is kind of missing the point and I would suggest it only as a last resort to avoid frustration.

Of course, how could I talk about the Era of Player Creativity without mentioning the current reigning champion, Minecraft? As far as I can tell, the only “predefined goals” of Minecraft’s single-player experience are these: survive and be awesome.

There is something so deeply satisfying about looking up at your impenetrable fortress each day, and remembering its humble beginnings as little more than a hole in the ground where you cowered in the dark while spiders hissed and zombies groaned and skeletons clanked around above you. Now you look down upon them from atop your unscalable battlements and scoff. To add a further level to that satisfaction, you know that this world and this building are uniquely yours, you know that no one else in the world could possibly have the exact same fortress as you.

I couldn’t close this piece without also mentioning Minecraft’s Creative Mode; a friend recently took me on a tour of the reddit creative server and it absolutely blew my mind what people are building in there. Which leads into a quick point about player-created content (a topic that could easily occupy its own column altogether).

This aspect of the game industry may not be “new” per se – I was creating custom player-models for the original Half-Life and custom maps for the original StarCraft over ten years ago – but it seems to have risen to a new level of prominence in the past few years.

I am consistently impressed with the gaming community, whenever they are given access to a level editor (or any similar custom-content capacity) it is just incredible what the community is able to produce. Even if we only took Minecraft, LittleBigPlanet, and Blizzard’s ‘Craft games as evidence, there is clear proof that developers can vastly extend the shelf life of their games by giving gamers the tools they need to create custom content. People simply love to create, it must be in our nature.

There are so many possibilities for the gaming industry in this direction, and personally I’m happy to see this trend gaining so much momentum. I believe the rise of creativity-games has the potential to produce a variety of desirable consequences.

First, they will probably appeal to a much broader audience than just the average gamer. Second, I think they will eventually be proven to be good for the development

of critical thinking skills in kids – especially since many of the current incarnations are family-friendly games. Finally, and perhaps most importantly, they will expand the gaming medium into previously unforeseen realms. （source:gamasutra）