The Lens of Indirect Control

Every designer has a vision of what they would like the player to do to have an ideal play experience. To help ensure the players do these things of their own free will, ask yourself these questions:

• Ideally, what would I like the players to do?
• Can I set constraints to get players to do it?
• Can I set the goals to get players to do it?
• Can I design my interface to get players to do it?
• Can I use visual design to get players to do it?
• Can I use in-game characters to get the players to do it?
• Can I use music or sound to get players to do it?
• Is there some other method I can use to coerce players towards ideal behavior without impinging on their feeling of freedom?