Challenge: Neuropsychology (Decision Making)

Welcome back to my attempt to define how games challenge us by looking at the areas of brain function listed on the Wikipedia entry for Neuropsychology and seeing which ones games test.

I'm skipping consciousness. No game tries to literally knock you unconscious. Some are boring enough or addictive enough to put you to or keep you from sleep, but that's generally not what the game itself is supposed to be testing.

Decision Making
Much like attention, decision making is a broad area of study. But basically, it's about making choices. Sid Meier (of Civilization fame) said, "A game is a series of interesting choices."

Most games give the player a goal, information, and actions they can perform, then let the player make the decision. In a strategy game like Civilization the goal is generally conquest. The information the player receives comes in the form of world maps and city information screens. They have to make decisions like what to build and where to send troops. These decisions are often made minutes apart. In an action game like Devil May Cry, the goal is usually winning in personal combat. The information comes from enemy appearance and animations. Decisions generally revolve around positioning, attacking, and defending. Dozens of decisions must be made in any given minute, without hesitation.

Many games have multiple levels of decision making. Take the average RPG. How should I arrange the characters in my group? What equipment do I buy them? When they gain levels, how do I allocate their skill / attribute points? What spells should they learn? While these decisions all have an impact on combat, they are not the same types of decisions that must be made in combat. Some of these decisions are risk management. Some are economics. Some are aesthetic choices. Some are straight algebra.

Long story short, Sid Meier was right. Games are all about decisions.









P.S. There are definitely more articles worth writing in this space. I kept starting off down tangents and having to rein this thing back in. I'm not particularly happy with the result. I don't feel this article says anything I didn't already know and know well. But the foundation needed to be laid.