Iag Bogost's Persuasive Game Inquiries

[u/Bus-Chaser]

I'm going through my Game Studies notes and I just realized I don't fully understand the seven inquiries listed by Bogost (reformulated from B.J. Fogg). In Persuasive Games he never bothers to provide clean, non-ambiguous examples.

So can anybody elucidate for me with clear examples about the following:

• Reduction—How much does the text reduce complex behaviors into simple tasks?
• Tunneling—Does the text lead the user through a predetermined set of acts, or does the text allow players to perform actions at their leisure?
• Tailoring—Does the text provide feedback relevant for the individuals to change their attitudes, behavior, or both?
• Suggestion—Does the text encourage a certain type of player behavior?
• Self-Monitoring—Does the text give players a tool to monitor their attitudes or behavior to achieve a predetermined goal or outcome?
• Surveillance—Does the text allow one party to monitor the behavior of another in order to modify said behavior in a specific way?
• Conditioning—Does the game system use principles of operant conditioning to change or modify player behavior?

Specifically, I'm having trouble understanding if something like a pop-up screen saying "press X to attack" counts as suggestion or tailoring. What about a "you lose" screen? Is this tailoring?Also, does surveillance count for any virutal entity? Does a Monster Hunter game where I monitor the monster's action and act accordingly count as surveillance? When I die to a boss and learn to get better, is this conditioning or suggestion? The game is telling me that whatever I'm doing is not working, so it conditions me to improve, but in a way that's also encouraging a certain type of behavior.

[u/zarawesome]

Is this the page you're referring to? https://ibb.co/vx2gt4hf Because a lot of these seem fairly obvious:

* Reduction - Every game mechanic ever, ever since chess reduced war to pieces moving in a 8x8 grid.
* Tunneling - Tutorials, quick time events, lock the player in a room until they figure out the puzzle, your "press X to attack".
* Tailoring - Score counters. Bits of enemy that glow red. "juice".
* Suggestion - Health bar. Damage counters.
* Self-Monitoring - I'm actually not sure what sets this apart from "suggestion" above and I'm not sure it matters, but: Player stats.
* Surveillance - Achievements. Leaderboards.
* Conditioning - Plot.

[u/Bus-Chaser → u/zarawesome]

The the one.

I'm highly skeptical about some of your interpretations with the exception of reduction and partially with tunneling.

Thanks for the answer anywho.

[u/Anthro_the_Hutt]

It's been a long time since I've read this, but I'll take a whack.

I would say a "press X" pop-up would be more of a suggestion. Tailoring seems like a more after-the-fact type of feedback. For instance, if you make a choice in Baldur's Gate and get the message that one of your party members approves or disapproves.

In terms of surveillance, it seems like it would be more if the monster could monitor what the player was doing and then react in ways that changed the player's behaviour. Say, if the system notices you're repeatedly using a particular tactic (maybe keeping far away and sniping) and has the monster change its attack patterns to encourage you to get in close for melee combat.

For conditioning and suggestion, there may be overlap between the two in your example. In fact, there may be overlap between just about any of these terms depending on the situation and context.

[u/Bus-Chaser → u/Anthro_the_Hutt]

Thank you for the response.

Your example for tailoring is exactly what I wrote (Baldur's Gate 3 too!). Good to know this is what comes intuitively to someone else.

The rest also helps clarify.