Chapter 7: Managing Games

    There were a few points of this week's reading regarding management games that I'll mention in this post.
    Management games are focused on getting the player to take charge of multiple elements at one time, this could be things like resource management or time managent. Trefry mentioned time frequently in this chapter which emphasised to me what the integration of time limitations in management games can do to the overall experience. For example games like Diner Dash and Cake Mania, two examples that Trefry uses in the chapter, both have time management as a constant throughout the game. This adds a level of intensity that cannot be found in other management games such as Insaniqarium, forcing the player to micromanage more frequently, making it further swayed toward the hardcore gamer, however whilst still maintaining its casual elements.
    Another factor of management games that although not mechanic related is important, is a simple means of interaction and navigation. In management games players need the ability to make choices and carry out those decisions quickly, making an easy to use interaction mechanic a fairly essential aspect of these types of games. Management games that implement this well can allow players to concentrate on managing as opposed to exogenous factors like clicking a mouse or pressing buttons on a keyboard.
    Trefry, like in previous chapters, mentioned the intuitiveness that surrounds management games. I got into a slightly side tracked chat with my girlfriend just after I read the chapter about whether she reckoned that playing Diner Dash would help her should she become a waitress. Tayla is a bit of an Diner Dash fan and she studies criminal psychology at Birmingham Uni, so she had some psychological jargen to throw at me about it. Last year I read an article by Costikyan where he established that a game is "...an interactive structure of endogenous meaning that requires players
to struggle toward a goal.” So this point isn't completely unjustified. I argued that having that cognitive strength regarding management/ time management skills or 'plate spinning' ability, would be transferable to a real life scenario as a waitress. Tayla however argued that it wouldn't be the same as in a real life waitressing job you're managing your tasks over a longer period of time as well as managing spontaneous tasks that may throw you off track. For example, once a player has played Diner Dash enough they can begin to learn all of the micromanagement tasks that run seperate to keeping the customers happy, however in real life, there may be variables that differ on a daily basis, a spilt drink or a broken glass. Also a waitress only deals with the customers a few times over the space of an hour/hour and a half, which requires a different type of mental ability to playing Diner Dash as this ventures into the realms of involving your long term memory. Apparently, on average your short term memory lasts between 5-10 seconds and can retain 7 +/- 2 chunks of information, making Diner Dash a good indication of the strength of your short term memory.
    So... I wondered if a possible iteration to Diner Dash would to better simulate the waitressing profession and have the waiting table aspect of the game to play a less central role. So maybe if placing the customers, taking their order, serving them, clearing the plates and giving the bill came into play over a longer period of time and in between carrying out those tasks the player had to micromanage themselves into completing other waitressing related tasks. This could be tasks like washing plates and stacking them away, clearing dust/dirt from the restaurant floor. I'm not sure whether waitresses/waiters actually carry out these jobs during their shifts but I'm sure there are other tasks they are assigned that could be converted into different mechanics in a game. This way players would be demanded to remember and manage their tasks/time not just on a short term basis but also their ability to remember and manage over long periods. It could also break up the repetition of carrying out the same clicking mechanic.
    Although it seems so, the above point isn't completely off on a tangent, Trefry mentiones in the chapter that adding additional tasks on top of core tasks can add additonal layers of complexity to increase difficulty for the player. He also adds that complexity should be gradually introduced allowing players to adjust their pattern of play to adapt to these new challenges.
    I don't have much more to pull out of the chapter, these were the more important points that I found.