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Chapter 14: Games as Emergent Systems

Imagine a billiard table populated by semi-intelligent, motorized billiard balls that have been programmed to explore the space of the table and alter their movement patterns based on specific interactions with other balls. For the most part, the table is in permanent motion, with balls colliding constantly, switching directions and speed every second…. Such a system would define the most elemental form of complex behavior: a system with multiple agents dynamically interacting in multiple ways, following local rules and oblivious to any higher-level instructions. But it wouldn't truly be considered emergent until those local interactions resulted in some kind of discernable macro behavior. Say the local rules of behavior followed by the balls ended up dividing the table into two clusters of even-numbered and odd-numbered balls. That would mark the beginnings of emergence, a higher-level pattern arising out of parallel complex interactions between local agents. The balls aren't programmed explicitly to cluster in two groups; they're programmed to follow much more random rules: swerve left when they collide with a solid-colored; accelerate after contact with the three ball; stop dead in their tracks when they hit the eight ball; and so on. Yet out of those low-level routines, a coherent shape emerges.-Steven Johnson, Emergence

Introducing Emergent Systems

Welcome to the first game design schema, Games as Emergent Systems. The preceding chapters have defined some of the core concepts relating to games, design, and rules. This chapter offers something a bit different. A schema is a conceptual framework that focuses on a particular aspect of game design. Any particular schema will highlight certain aspects of games and de-emphasize other aspects. Although a given game design schema can be applied to any game, some schemas are more useful for solving certain design problems and less useful for others. The purpose of a game design schema is to facilitate the design of meaningful play.

The schema Games as Emergent Systems builds directly on the discussion of systems in chapter 4. As a system, a game is a set of parts that interrelate to form a whole. Being able to identify and analyze each part of a system, its attributes, and its relations to other parts of the system assists in understanding how a game system adds up to a larger experience of play. In this schema, we deepen our appreciation of games as systems by looking at them in terms of complexity and emergence. As Steven Johnson illustrates in the quote that opens this chapter, emergence arises out of complexity. It is the phenomenon of unplanned patterns appearing from within a system. Emergence is a crucial aspect of games, linking their intrinsically systemic nature to the space of possibility and meaningful play.