Usability Views Article Details  home | timeline | recent | popular | e-reports | userati | books | about  What's in a game? (20 Oct 2005) I would submit that the primary reason for that mental screenburn is this genuinely unsung fact: today's games are exceptionally difficult. They tax the mind in ways that would amaze anyone who last played a game in the age of Pac-Man. In Black & White, for instance, the player must simultaneously track hundreds of shifting and interconnected variables. Some of these are emotional and metabolic in nature: each worshipper - and there can be thousands of them - has a distinct set of needs you must satisfy or risk losing their devotion. Some are militaristic: other villages, worshipping rival gods, may be building armies to attack your strongholds. Some needs are environmental: build too many villas for your population and you will burn through the supply of forests surrounding your growing town. Crucially, each of these elements connects with the others: protect your forests by building fewer houses, and your villagers won't reproduce at the same clip, thereby limiting the size of the army you can build. Article URL: http://technology.guardian.co.uk/weekly/story/0,16376,1595581,00.html Read 71 more articles from guardian.co.uk sorted by date, popularity, or title. Next Article: Development and Assessment of a Public Discovery and Delivery Interface for a Fedora Repository          Books about Usability | Information Architecture | Information Visualisation | Technology History This site is a labour of love built by Chris McEvoy