Rollercoaster Tycoon Summary

Hany Kim
WR150 Paper 1 Final Draft
Report: 7/17/2012

Rollercoaster Tycoon: Enjoyment from the Mixture of Challenges

Abstract: Jesper Juul wrote the book Half Real: Video Games between Real Rules and Fictional Worlds (2005), which discusses game structures and explains the related impact to the players. In the chapter three of the book, Juul emphasizes that different rule structures provide different kinds of challenges in games. Accordingly, there are two distinctive ways of categorizing games: “games of progression that directly set up each consecutive challenge in a game, and games of emergence that set up challenges indirectly because the rules of the game interact” (67). Further, he claims, “[m]any games can be found on a scale
For instance, the goals might be given to fill a required number of the visitors or to exceed a certain amount of profit. These required missions are in sequence and become more difficult as the level rises. The players should complete the consecutive missions in time, and if they fail, they cannot unlock the next scenario. Corresponding to this, Juul poses that “[i]n the progression game, the challenges presented can be explicitly designed on a case-by-case bases, and the designer can work with the players current expectation and current repertoire” (97). Consider Rollercoaster Tycoon, for example. The game designers develop the pre-defined order of progressive challenges in Rollercoaster Tycoon to make the game more challenging as the level of scenario goes up, and they are able to match the difficulty of the missions as well as possible to fit the players’ standards of repertoire. This effort to offer gradual complication keeps the players from getting bored, but motivates them to complete the challenges with towering ambitions. Hence, the progressive missions encourage the players to truly enjoy the game in parallel with their enthusiastic completion of the
They realize the faster ways to complete the goals and make fewer mistakes. This means, the players actually learn effective ways to perform their gameplays during playing the game. In respond to this phenomena, Juul says, “[i]f games are challenging, they are also challenging in a way that players often learn to surmount” “To play a game is essentially a learning experience where the player acquires the skills needed to overcome the challenges of the game” (95). In other words, Juul believes that challenges in games enable the players to advance their performance by “expanding and refining the repertoire” (96). In short, Rollercoaster Tycoon not only satisfies entertaining objective, but also it provides exhilarating “learning experience” to the