Ойын механикасы: Қағидалар мен өзара әрекеттесулер

Construct, rule, or method designed for interaction with a game's state

In tabletop games and video games, game mechanics are the rules or ludemes that govern and guide the player's actions, as well as the game's response to them. A rule is an instruction on how to play, a ludeme is an element of play like the L shaped move of the knight in chess. A game's mechanics thus effectively specify how the game will work for the people who play it. There are no accepted definitions of game mechanics. Some competing definitions include the opinion that game mechanics are "systems of interactions between the player and the game", that they "are more than what the player may recognize, they are only those things that impact the play experience", and "In tabletop games and video games, 'game mechanics' are the rules and procedures that guide the player and the game response to the player's moves or actions". All games use mechanics; however, there are different theories as to their ultimate importance to the game. In general, the process and study of game design are efforts to come up with game mechanics that allow for people playing a game to have an engaging, but not necessarily fun, experience. The interaction of various game mechanics in a game determines the complexity and level of player interaction in the game, and in conjunction with the game's environment and resources determine game balance. Some forms of game mechanics have been used in games for centuries, while others are relatively new, having been invented within the past decade.

Some games are 'abstract'—that is, the action is not intended to represent anything; Go is one famous example. Other games have a 'theme'—some element of representation. Monopoly is a famous example where the events of the game are intended to represent another activity, in this case, the buying and selling of properties. Games that are mechanically similar can vary widely in theme. Eurogames often feature relatively simple systems, and stress the mechanics, with the theme merely being a context to place the mechanics in. Some wargames, at the other extreme, are known for complex rules and for attempts at detailed simulation.

Game mechanics fall into several more or less well defined categories, which (along with basic gameplay and theme) are sometimes used as a basis to classify games. Geoffrey Engelstein and Isaac Shalev in their book, Building Blocks of Tabletop Game Design, classify game mechanisms into categories as they relate to game structure, turn order, actions, resolution, victory conditions, uncertainty, economics, auctions, worker placement, movement, area control, set collection, and card mechanisms.

A game mode is a distinct configuration that varies gameplay and affects how other game mechanics behave. A game with several modes will present different settings in each one, changing how a particular element of the game is played. One of the most common examples of game mode is the single player versus multiplayer choice in video games, where multiplayer can further be cooperative or competitive. Common game modes include a Time Attack Mode, in which the player tries to score, progress or clear levels in a limited amount of time. In Marathon Mode the goal is to clear a certain number of levels or challenges in a continuous streak without losing. Changing modes while the game is ongoing can be used as a means to increase difficulty and provide additional challenge, or as a reward for player success. Power ups are modes that last for a few moments or that change only one or a few game rules; for example power pellets in Pac Man give the temporary ability to eat the enemies for a few seconds. Other examples include the availability of a sandbox mode without predefined goals or progression. The division of game content in stages or chapters, where each stage expands the rules that a player can use with respect to the previous stage, increases game complexity, and variety. If the game advances through these stages by moving through different areas, these areas are called levels or maps; if the character unlocks new abilities through activities or rewards, they receive a currency called experience points. These points can be used to upgrade or augment various pre determined abilities. A game mode may restrict or change the behavior of the available tools ( e. g. play with limited/unlimited ammo, new weapons, obstacles or enemies, a timer, etc. ), establish different rules and game mechanics (e. g. altered gravity; win at first touch in a fighting game; play with some cards face up in a poker game) or even change the overall game goals (following a campaign, story or character's career vs. playing a limited deathmatch or capture the flag set).

A game turn is an important fundamental concept to almost all non computer games, and many video games as well (although in video games, various real time genres have become much more popular). In general, a turn is a segment of the game set aside for certain actions to happen before moving on to the next turn, where the sequence of events can largely repeat. In a truly abstract game (backgammon) turns are nothing more than a means to regulate play. In less abstract games (Risk), turns obviously denote the passage of time, but the amount of time is not clear, nor important. In simulation games, time is generally more concrete. Wargames usually specify the amount of time each turn represents, and in sports games a turn is usually distinctly one 'play', although the amount of time a play or turn takes can vary. Some games use player turns where one player gets to perform their actions before another player can perform any on their turn (Monopoly and chess would be classic examples). Some use game turns, where all players contribute to the actions of a single turn (board game simulations of American football tend to have both players pick plays and then determine the outcome; each 'play' or 'down' can be considered a turn). Some games have 'game turns' that consist of a round of player turns, possibly with other actions added in (Civilization plays with a series of player turns followed by a trading round in which all players participate). In games that are meant to be some sort of simulation, the on/off nature of player turns can cause problems and has led to a few extra variations on the theme. The semi simultaneous turn allows for some reactions to be done during the other player's turn. The impulse based turn divides the turn into smaller segments or impulses where everyone does some of their actions at one time, and then reacts to the current situation before moving on to the next impulse (as seen in Star Fleet Battles or Car Wars). In some games, not all turns are alike. Usually, this is a difference in what phases (or different portions of the turn) happen. Imperium Romanum II for instance, features a "Taxation and Mobilization Phase" in every third turn (month), which does not occur in the other turns. Napoleon has an unusual variation on the idea, where every third player turn is 'night turn' where combat is not allowed. Even in real time computer games, there are often certain periodic effects. For instance, a wounded character in World of Warcraft will gradually recover health while out of combat. The rate of recovery is calculated from the character's statistics and applied per "tick" as a lump sum, so a character would gain ten health per tick, instead of one every tenth of a tick. These periodic effects can be considered the vestigial remnants of the concept of turns.

These control what players may do on their turns in the game by allocating each player a budget of "action points" each turn. These points may be spent on various actions according to the game rules, such as moving pieces, drawing cards, collecting money, etc. This type of mechanism is common in many "German style board games".

Worker placement is a game mechanism where players allocate a limited number of tokens ("workers") to multiple stations that provide various defined actions. The worker placement mechanism originates with board games. Stewart Woods identifies Keydom (1998; later remade and updated as Aladdin's Dragons) as the first game to implement the mechanic. Worker placement was popularized by Caylus (2005) and became a staple of the Eurogame genre in the wake of the game's success. Other popular board games that use this mechanism include Stone Age and Agricola.

Some games include a mechanism designed to make progress towards victory more difficult the closer a player gets to it. The idea behind this is to allow trailing players a chance to catch up and potentially still win the game, rather than suffer an inevitable loss once they fall behind. This may be desirable in games such as racing games that have a fixed finish line. An example is from The Settlers of Catan. This game contains a neutral piece (the robber), which debilitates the resource generation of players whose territories it is near. Players occasionally get to move the robber, and frequently choose to position it where it will cause maximal disruption to the player currently winning the game. Another example, often seen in racing games, such as Chutes and Ladders is by requiring rolling or spinning the exact number needed to reach the finish line; e. g., if a player is only four spaces from the finish line then they must roll a four on the die or land on the four with the spinner. If more than four is rolled, then the turn is forfeited to the next player. Other games do the reverse, making the player in the lead more capable of winning, such as in Monopoly, and thus the game is drawn to an end sooner. This may be desirable in zero sum games.

These involve the use of dice, usually as randomisers. Most dice used in games are the standard cubical dice numbered from 1 to 6, though games with polyhedral dice or those marked with symbols other than numbers exist. The most common use of dice is to randomly determine the outcome of an interaction in a game. An example is a player rolling a die or dice to determine how many board spaces to move a game token. Dice often determine the outcomes of in game conflict between players, with different outcomes of the die/dice roll of different benefit (or adverse effect) to each player involved. This is useful in games that simulate direct conflicts of interest.

Different dice formulas are used to generate different probability curves. A single die has equal probability of landing on any particular side, and consequently produces a linear probability distribution curve. The sum of two or more dice, however, results in a bell curve shaped probability distribution, with the addition of further dice resulting in a steeper bell curve, decreasing the likelihood of an extreme result. A linear curve is generally perceived by players as being more "swingy", whereas a bell curve is perceived as being more "fair".

Some games include situations where players can "press their luck" in optional actions where the danger of a risk must be weighed against the chance of reward. For example, in Beowulf: The Legend, players may elect to take a "Risk", with success yielding cards and failure weakening the player's ultimate chance of victory.

These involve the use of cards similar to playing cards to act as a randomizer and/or to act as tokens to keep track of states in the game. A common use is for a deck of cards to be shuffled and placed face down on or near the game playing area. When a random result is called for, a player draws a card and what is printed on the card determines the outcome of the result. Another use of cards occurs when players draw cards and retain them for later use in the game, without revealing them to other players. When used in this fashion, cards form a game resource.

Role playing games often rely on mechanics that determine the effectiveness of in game actions by how well the player acts out the role of a fictional character. While early role playing games such as Dungeons & Dragons relied heavily on either group consensus or the judgement of a single player (deemed the Dungeon Master or Game Master) or on randomizers such as dice, later generations of narrativist games use more structured and integrated systems to allow role playing to influence the creative input and output of the players, so both acting out roles and employing rules take part in shaping the gameplay.