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Le Blancs Taxonomy

This document summarizes and analyzes Marc LeBlanc's taxonomy of game pleasures for participants. It identifies the eight aspects in LeBlanc's taxonomy as sensation, fantasy, narrative, challenge, fellowship, discovery, expression, and masochism. It then analyzes how the game Half-Life 2 incorporates elements of fantasy, narrative, sensation, challenge, and discovery. It argues that while Half-Life 2 is immersive and fun to play, it lacks the aspects of fellowship and expression. The document concludes that deconstructing LeBlanc's taxonomy using Half-Life 2 demonstrates crucial game design elements that provide an emotionally compelling gaming experience.

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248 views2 pages

Le Blancs Taxonomy

This document summarizes and analyzes Marc LeBlanc's taxonomy of game pleasures for participants. It identifies the eight aspects in LeBlanc's taxonomy as sensation, fantasy, narrative, challenge, fellowship, discovery, expression, and masochism. It then analyzes how the game Half-Life 2 incorporates elements of fantasy, narrative, sensation, challenge, and discovery. It argues that while Half-Life 2 is immersive and fun to play, it lacks the aspects of fellowship and expression. The document concludes that deconstructing LeBlanc's taxonomy using Half-Life 2 demonstrates crucial game design elements that provide an emotionally compelling gaming experience.

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An essay: LeBlanc’s Taxonomy

Often people describe games they come across as ‘fun’ to play. For any game,

such a loosely defined term can pass off for the occasional participant. However, for the

game designer, who aspires to create the most compelling experience possible, one has to

consider three important factors – aesthetics, dynamics and the mechanics of a game. A

compelling game is one where the designer carefully selects certain aesthetics as goals in

the game and allows participants to realize them via a robust game mechanic and the

resulting interaction with the system.

Marc LeBlanc’s taxonomy of game pleasures for participants identifies 8

fundamental aspects to fulfilling their emotional needs – sensation, fantasy, narrative,

challenge, fellowship, discovery, expression and masochism.

To better understand LeBlanc’s classification, consider the game of Half-life 2:

This game involves elements of fantasy, narrative, sensation, challenge, discovery and

masochism. Note that despite the absence of fellowship and expression on the list, the

game still presents itself as immersive within its own universe and definitely ‘fun’ to

play. The fantastic nature of the game manifests itself not in the form of a futuristic war

zone but rather from the suspension of disbelief generated while posing as Gordon

Freeman on each of his escapades. Dialogue with the numerous NPC’s and covert

operation style communication via radio messaging portray a sense of emergency. This

indirectly reinforces the specific fantasy function this game brings.

Narrative plays a really vital role in the remote manipulation of a player’s mind.

To effectively drive a sense of increasing tension and drama over time warrants riveting

attention from the person immersed. I do feel drama is a strong candidate for aesthetic

requirement. This is where narrative ties in with sensation. Thematic audio-visuals and
the absence of cut-scenes in this case, explain the many a time ‘this feels so right’

response the game evokes. Drama further engenders questions such as “What is the

inherent source of uncertainty and/or inevitability in the game?”. This leads us to the

inclusion of challenge as a fundamental support factor to aesthetic (goal) design.

Challenges dictate the dynamic interaction with the game system. They could be

broken down into mental and physical provers, creativity, bluffing, execution, probability

and memory sometimes. They play the dual role of an obstacle course for the player and

a test for how well the game mechanic serves the purpose of keeping the player

engrossed. The insurmountable urge to triumph over a challenge posed has been observed

to be the hardest to dispense with. Like Tom Robbins once said “ Difficulties illuminate

existence”. For Half-life 2, this could vary from the extremely counter-intuitive physics

based puzzles to the obvious yet skill demanding tasks encountered.

Discovery caters to the element of surprise players look for in a satisfying game-

play experience. This can be described as the feeling one gets when they unlock some

secret power or when they stumble upon a hidden alley and venture into it. LeBlanc

mentions the occurrence of masochism through submission to game structure. I disagree

with the latter, with the argument that the player experience takes precedence over

anything else. As long as the player is not dominated by game structure and can

conceivably conquer challenges set forth, he/she should would find satisfaction and

pleasure. Thus, the deconstruction of LeBlanc’s taxonomy using Half-life 2 as an

example, sheds light on crucial game design elements that go into providing an

emotionally compelling and satisfying interactive game experience.

Game Design: Research Essay #3


Entertainment Technology Center, Carnegie Mellon University
Arnab Basu
10th February, 2005

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