ABSTRACT
To have a useful guideline for our testing process, we can at least determine why we want our games to be fun. Games are voluntary activities; they require player participation-a high level of participation. Unlike movies or television, the show does not go on if players cease to play. So if your game has no emotional appeal, players are apt to stop playing or never pick it up in the fi rst place. So fun appeals to the emotions. All of the emotional and dramatic elements that drive a player to pick up your game, to try it out, and to continue to play it, are usually what players cite when asked about what makes a game fun. Nicole Lazzaro discusses four very diff erent types of fun in her sidebar, “Why We Play Games,” on page 258. They are Easy Fun, Hard Fun, Serious Fun, and People Fun. Qualities such as these are what we will look for when testing your games during this next stage.
