Defending Out of the Fun

Kelsey Dionne, the creator of Shadowdark, was on the Dungeon Master Diaries podcast and mentioned something that clicked in my head in a way I had never considered. Kelsey mentioned that she can tell when a player designed a character class instead of a gamemaster because the player-built custom classes almost always include ways to get rid of the things that make Shadowdark challenging in the first place – encumbrance, light, rations, and so on. There's an oft cited quote about game design from Raph Coster's book, a Theory of Fun. The quote is summarized by Soren Johnson on the Designer Notes blog from way back in 2011. "Given the opportunity, players will optimize the fun out of a game." If we consider this quote and Kelsey's insights as a lens, we might notice these behaviors in some players focusing particularly on defense. Focusing on defense is textbook loss aversion. Anything players can do to further protect their characters, they'll do, even if it leads to the game becoming…