Natural Funativity

The 3 Types of "Fun"

Physical Fun
- Anything that directly threatens our survival automatically commands our full attention. Themes of survival are effective for this reason.

- physical strength and team cooperation based sports are interesting to men. (due to relevance to survival)

- honing our hunting skill is found interesting for the same reason.

- exploration of exotic places or for finding best places for specific resources. Knowledge of our
surroundings is important for survival.

- weapon/tool usage. (for hand/eye co-ordination skills)

- Moving faster has always been an important skill for survival, that is why we find cars and racing interesting.

Social Fun
- Attracting mates (Think mates is referring to both friends as well as the opposite sex)

- social gathering activities (shopping / trading collectibles / chatting / gossiping / information gathering / social-bonding)

- story telling (leaving us with knowledge and moral values)

- Humor is another form of fun. (it relates to survival as a method of telling others that something is harmless)

Mental Fun
- Music and Poetry are patterned sound and words, our minds enjoy perceiving and manipulating the patterns.

- Games like tetris and bejeweled require pattern solving.

- Problem and pattern solving, training our minds to do it faster and efficiently.

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These types of fun are often blended together in existing games. We find them fun because we evolved through using these skills.

When making games a designer should aim for achieving physical, social and mental fun as it is a reliable method of getting our audience's interest.

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Closing with an interesting quote from Noah Falstein:

" when you really look at not only games, but all human entertainment, you see that at its heart it is all about learning about survival and reproduction and the necessary associated social rules and behaviors. "