Meaningful Mechanics - Game Mechanics: Advanced Game Design - page 300

Exercises
1. Choose a serious game (or your instructor will assign one). What message does
it try to convey? Does it convey that message through its mechanics or by some
other means? If it does use the mechanics, analyze them and explain how the
player infers the message from their operation.
2. Choose a game with a strong simulation element (or your instructor will assign
one). What mechanisms in the game are iconic, what mechanisms are indexical or
analogous, and what mechanisms are symbolic? Explain why.
3. Choose a game (or your instructor will assign one). Which aspects of the game
do you feel are truthful about their subject matter, and which ones lie? Be sure to
distinguish simplification from outright falsehood. If the game is a serious game,
do you feel the falsehoods undermine the game's intent, or are they acceptable?
4. We gave Bioshock as an example of a game with multiple layers of meaning that
were not closely related but permitted the player to play and appreciate the game
on several levels. Can you think of another? Explain what the different levels were.
Was the result harmonious?
5. We mentioned September 12 and Train as examples of games whose appearance
contrasts with their mechanics. Can you think of others? What do you think the
designers intended by including such a contrast?
6. The Sims and Grand Theft Auto III both satirize materialism and consumer culture.
The Sims does so gently, Grand Theft Auto III much more harshly. Can you think of
other games that also work as satire? How, and what do they make fun of?