作者：Lewis Pulsipher

尽管我最喜欢的是“游戏设计”这场游戏，但偶尔也需要努力为这场游戏寻找发行商（游戏邦注：作者这么做的频率并不高，因而这并非必需之举）。然而，设计游戏的理由有很多，这些也是设计师将自己视为游戏设计师的做法。

game designer(from videogamescholarships.com)

游戏是个赚钱的手段。但我不觉得许多人最初是出于赚钱的目的而开始游戏设计生涯。事实上，因这种想法而开始设计游戏的人可能并不会获得成功。部分原因在于，因金钱目的而工作，即便获得成功也不会让人感到满意。然而，最主要得原因在于，游戏设计师确实很难赚到大量的金钱，尤其是桌面游戏设计师。游戏设计师很少受到很大的赞誉。如果你没有得到极大的赞赏，那么工资就不会很高。在视频游戏行业中，程序员的工资要比游戏设计师要高得多。在桌面游戏行业中，游戏设计师的报酬比书籍（游戏邦注：包括小说类和非小说类）的作者少。因而无论在哪个行业，自由设计师都很难维持生计。

但是，有些设计师确实是怀揣着赚钱的想法来设计游戏。许多社交游戏和免费游戏能够获得成功，其中的原因在于玩家从某种程度上被游戏说服，不断返回游戏中，而外人却难以明白其中的吸引力到底是什么，他们就像面对毒瘾者一样一头雾水。尽管这些游戏简单且重复率很高，但却可以带来巨额盈利。这些设计师思考游戏的方式是如何从玩家手中赚取金钱，而不是如何娱乐玩家。

游戏是种表达自我的形式。有些人渴望了解生命的意义，有些人却不这么想。有些设计师只是为了展示自己的想法，选择将游戏作为其展示的手段。从某种程度上来说，这样的游戏便是艺术，因为设计师想要利用游戏来向其他人表达某些有意义的东西。

游戏是种艺术。虽然玩家可能并不关心，但所有的游戏都堪称艺术。然而，游戏很少真正被人当成是艺术。Ian Bogost说过，艺术的目的在于改变世界，而娱乐只是种享受罢了。但是，确实有许多视频游戏设计师把游戏当成艺术（游戏邦注：桌面游戏设计师对此毫不关心）。有些设计师将游戏当成艺术品来创作，这些游戏已不再仅仅是娱乐或商业化产品。

游戏是种控制形式。这种想法更适合视频游戏设计师而并非桌面设计师，前者通常设计的是互动益智而不是人与人玩的游戏。比如，我曾经读过著名视频游戏设计师Warren Spector的评论，他表示自己想要控制玩家所做的所有事情。如果你所设计的是益智游戏，那么带有这种想法是合理的。

游戏是种娱乐方式。这是许多游戏设计师的观点，包括Shigeru Miyamoto（游戏邦注：曾推出多款著名任天堂游戏的设计师）和Reiner Knizia，后者担任自由游戏设计师时每年能拿到100万美元。如果不能让人们沉浸其中，那还能算是游戏吗？游戏并不一定要“有趣”，但一定要让人乐在其中。

上述观点的分支之一是，有些设计师把游戏当成叙述故事的方式。Wannabe故事叙述者曾经是小说家、剧作者或电影制片人。现在有些从事RPG和视频游戏的设计。

游戏是种供玩家解决的趣味问题或供玩家探索的有趣情形。这种想法和我把游戏设计当成一场游戏的想法很相似。每款游戏中都有限制因素。许多设计师规定了这些限制因素，努力解决问题的这个过程便能让目标群体乐在其中。

另一个延伸想法是“游戏是种工艺品”，工匠（游戏邦注：也就是游戏设计师）努力创作某些让目标受众赞同的东西。

游戏设计是场游戏。游戏有着目标和规则。整个游戏设计过程本身就可视为一场游戏。有些人以盈利、销售量、玩家数来衡量自己在这场游戏中的得分。其他人也有其他的得分衡量方式。

我认为人们对此应该还有其他想法，但以上是比较普遍的想法。（本文为游戏邦/gamerboom.com编译，如需转载请联系：游戏邦）

Different ways for designers to think about/approach game design

Lewis Pulsipher

While my favorite game is “the game of designing games”, I do occasionally try to find commercial publishers for them. (Not nearly as often as I “should,” however.) But there are lots of reasons to design games, ways for designers to look at their role as game designers.

Games as a way to make money. Perhaps this is obvious, yet I don’t think many people started to design games because they thought it was a way to make a lot of money. In fact, people who do start that way are probably unsuccessful. That’s partly because choosing a job simply because you think it will make a lot of money is unlikely to be satisfying even if successful. But more because it’s difficult to make a lot of money as a game designer, especially as a tabletop game designer. Game designers don’t get much credit. And if you don’t get much credit you won’t get paid much. In the video game industry programmers are routinely paid much more than game designers. In the tabletop industry game designers are paid less than the authors of books (fiction or non-fiction). In either industry it’s very difficult to make a living as a freelance designer.

A subset of this is games as manipulation of addictive tendencies. Many “social networking” games and free-to-play games succeed because players are somehow persuaded to keep playing even though outsiders cannot figure out what the attraction is–the same kind of reaction sober people (the outsiders) have to drug addicts. Simplistic and repetitive, these games nonetheless can make money, sometimes lots of money. Designers tend to think in terms of ways to extract funds from players who have been conditioned to keep playing, not in terms of entertaining players.

Games as a form of self-expression. Some people have personalities that thirst to derive meaning from life, many others don’t. Some designers just want to express themselves and choose games as one form of self-expression. At some point this melds into “games as art,” as a designer wants to use the game to express something meaningful to others.

Games as Art. All games are art, though the players don’t care. But games are rarely if ever high Art (with a capital A). As Ian Bogost has said “Art is about changing the world; entertainment is about leisure.” Nonetheless, there are many video game designers who desperately wish to believe that games are Art. (Tabletop designers don’t care.) And some will create games as artistic works rather than as entertainment or commercial venture.

Games as a form of control. This is more likely for video game designers (who often design interactive puzzles, not person-to-person games), than for tabletop designers. For example, I once read a comment by Warren Spector, a very well-known video game designer (Deus Ex, Epic Mickey), who said he wants to control everything the player does, and was opposed to the addition of human opponents. (That’s how I remember it, I don’t have it at hand.) If you’re designing a puzzle, then this is not an unreasonable point of view. Even tabletop designers want to control what the player can do, but in relation to other players who provide input that the designer cannot control.

Games as entertainment. This is the viewpoint of many designers including Shigeru Miyamoto (designer of many of the most famous Nintendo games) and Reiner Knizia, who makes more than $1 million a year as a freelance tabletop (and now video) game designer. If people don’t enjoy the game, what’s the point? The game doesn’t have to be “fun”, but has to be enjoyable.

A sub-category of the above is games as storytelling. Wannabe storytellers used to become novelists or playwrights or, more recently, filmakers. Now some go into RPGs and video games.

Games as interesting problems to solve, or interesting situations to explore. This is close to “game design as a game.” Every game involves constraints and limitations. Many designers specify those constraints and limitations, and then try to explore/solve the resulting problem to produce something a target group enjoys playing.

A subcategory of this is “games as craft”, with the craftsman (designer) striving to produce something that the target audience approves of.

Game design as a game. Games involve goals and rules. The whole process of designing games can be seen as a game in itself. Some people use money or unit sales or the number of people who play a game as a way of keeping score. Other people find other ways of keeping score.

I’m sure there are other ways to look at it, these are some of the more common ones. (Source: Gamasutra)