Find an example of a game with dynamic difficulty adjustment or other techniques that reduce resistance for players who are struggling, falling behind, or losing and increase resistance for successful players. Although A Game Design Vocabulary focuses primarily on single-player digital games, these techniques can be found in multiplayer digital games and board games as well. Some competitive

games involve rules that benefit players who are behind, while penalizing or handicapping players who are ahead. (Digital racing games often include interesting examples of this, from the "slipstream" effect that allows skilled players to overtake those in the lead, or the power-ups of games like Super Mario Kart that let players in the rear fire weapons at racers ahead of them.) For the game you chose, describe how the dynamic difficulty adjustment or catch-up mechanics work.

How did these aspects of the game influence your experience? Did you find these kinds of systems encouraging or frustrating? Were you aware of how the rules of the game were shaping your experience and responding to your skill (or lack of skill) as you played? Do you think these rules helped you reach a "flow state" where you could lose yourself in a zone of "blissful concentration" on the game?

Create and document a game concept based on events from your own life. Choose something difficult or meaningful that you experienced, something that changed you or made you who you are today. What were the significant choices and challenges in this experience? Where did the resistance come from? Were there moments in which your experience felt more open to possibility or more constricted and constrained by what was happening around you? When did this experience get harder or easier? Describe how you would represent these things through a game system, and go into detail about how the rules of your game work and what various scenes might look like. Present and discuss your process with the class, talking about what various elements of the system represent and why you chose them.