Have you ever loaded a game for the first time and, after playing for a few minutes, felt that it was like something you already knew?
It may be that the characters are different, the picture new, the playing surface entirely different, but the underlying logic you recognize at once, you can feel the rough outlines of what you’re to do. Almost without realizing it, you’ve gone on to playing instead of trying to make sense of the instructions.
How Game Design Leverages What We Already Know
This recognition happens a lot in digital entertainment, and there are many reasons why, but the main one is that we are creatures of habit and our brain has an interesting relationship with things that are familiar. Psychology actually calls part of this the mere-exposure effect, the idea that prior exposure makes us view something more favorably. Part of the explanation also ties into processing fluency, meaning how easily the brain processes information, since anything we recognize takes less mental effort to interpret.
Especially in the digital games this is of special use, for the learning curve is reduced. Developers have relied on that familiarity for decades. A working mechanic is repeated in new versions; the universe changes, the presentation changes, new rules are added, but a structure which the player can recognize remains.
Traditional casino games are among the clearest examples of this. Cards, dice, roulette wheels, and board games were around long before the era of the cell phone. When they were transported to the screen, no one thought of inventing new fundamentals. A deck of cards is still recognizable as a deck of cards, even when the cards feature animations, sound effects, and they are dealt directly from a screen.
Technology can completely change the outer form. Familiar principles form the bridge under the outer structure.
From Traditional Games to Digital Platforms
Before the time of the screen, people had spent hours and hours at the board, and so, when people began to seek their amusement on screens, it was only natural that they should start with those that were already familiar to them.
For one: less friction. One has already learned to move a rook in chess, why go and learn again from the beginning?
Chess—Digital chess—The board, the pieces, their movements, and almost every rule are the same. The only difference is that it is easier to find a partner and to play it from any point.
Card Games—Digital Card Games—Hands, decks, plays, combinations, and so forth can be readily transferred to a digital medium. Adding new characters, animations, and new mechanics does not obliterate this familiar core.
Board Games—Mobile and Internet Versions—The boards and rules of many carry over directly into the virtual world. No one needs to relearn Monopoly, Scrabble, or Risk in order to understand the digital version.
Arcade Games—Modern Digital Games—Simple controls, high scores, levels, and short, sharp goals have long since ceased to be based on coins tossed into a machine; these games are still very much in evidence, and the players who played these games in the arcades remember them in the latest titles.
Traditional Casino Games—Online Casino Games—Poker, blackjack, roulette, and slots kept their core rules and symbols intact once they arrived on computers and phones, shortening the learning curve for anyone who already knew the physical versions.
This evolution of games, from the material to the virtual, had been a natural and organic process, and it was precisely this naturalness of continuity that made it work.
Familiar Rules Make Digital Games Easier to Explore
In a game few things are more irksome than losing and not understanding why. Familiar rules save much of this before it has an opportunity to come to a point.
Less Time Learning, More Time Playing
Again chess, to take an example, does not require you to learn what the knight does or why the king must be protected; it requires you to know where the controls are, how the clock works, where the game is, and where you can find an opponent.
Similarly, if we are to explore the digital version of the casino games, the game aims, scoring, terminology and decisions all retain their originality and are therefore not learned from scratch. Instead, we can get right down to the play itself.
Familiarity Creates a Sense of Continuity
But a digital version need not be a mere copy of the physical game to succeed in giving it this same sense of continuity and familiarity. What is important is to keep enough points of contact which serve as a bridge between the two experiences.
The advantages of this familiarity in the digital environment are, in a word, to be able to make use of the new technology without being completely at a loss.
How Technology Changes the Experience Without Changing the Rules
Across a table, a hand passes the cards over a board; we sit round a game-board; we play chess at a person; and in each of these activities there is a physical element that cannot be reproduced on the screen. But, on the other hand, digitizing a pastime need not mean its reconstruction; in most cases it involves the introduction of new possibilities within the frame of rules already known.
These rules, so long as they are recognizable, still create a sense of security in the players, and they stand on familiar ground.
Technology can even eliminate some of the less interesting aspects of this experience. No need to set up the board; navigation moves faster, and the system can automatically handle plenty of the administrative busywork.
Then there are possibilities that are not even present in the physical format at all. The Internet connection lets you play with your opponents without needing to be in the same room. Live features can simulate the same social atmosphere, personalization is a way of making adjustments to sound, appearance, difficulty.
And the most important thing is probably mobility, because the online game now makes it possible to enter from anywhere and at any time.
Casino Games Show Why Familiarity Still Matters
Casino games are perhaps the clearest examples of what has been described so far. Some of them are quite simple, and it is a rare occasion when a man first encounters them in a gambling house.
One could learn to play blackjack in the family, have seen a roulette wheel in motion long before he ever placed a bet, and generally be familiar with cards, chips, dice, and fruit machines from films, video games, and popular culture.
Going digital has not involved a stripping away of all those rules, in the name of a more modern experience.
If anything, they let the game makers build on them, creating a new digital gaming experience on top of an old one that hasn’t changed in a century. The games now can have better graphics, animations, sounds, a special control system for mobile phones, even live dealers attempting to replicate part of the interaction at the table.
Anyone who wants to find out what forms these familiar formats take in today’s digitized guise can explore casino games at BetUS, where all kinds of popular games are lined up side by side, from roulette to baccarat, from slots to poker.
Why Familiar Rules May Continue to Matter
For all that, familiarity is likely to remain one of the most powerful weapons in the entertainment industry and the evolution of gaming. It enables the player to get into the game faster, understand what to do, and be able to concentrate on the experience itself, instead of the game starting all over again every time.
But this does not imply that innovation must be sacrificed. New platforms, smart phones, touch screens, future technology – all these may change how the game is presented without having to sacrifice that which made it recognizable in the first place.
The developer can change the presentation, add new features, and experiment with the overall experience, but they will always have a foundation that players will always recognize at once.
At the end, most of what we love is, in a way, a re-composition.
FAQ
Why are familiar rules important in digital entertainment?
Known rules shorten the learning curve, so people understand a new experience at once instead of stumbling over the basic rules for the first time.
How do traditional games adapt to digital platforms?
Generally, the fundamental rules are retained while the graphic part, the interface, the accessibility, the sound, and the way players interact with the game and with each other are altered.
Are online casino games based on traditional games?
Yes. The majority of the games that constitute the basis of digital casinos are derived directly from established games like blackjack, roulette or baccarat, albeit that digital versions can present a different layout and introduce variations of the rules.
Why do people still enjoy classic games in digital formats?
Familiarity gives a starting point for the player, but on top of it the digital format adds ease, convenience, and interactivity that the original analog version couldn’t have offered.
