Summarizing Tom Toynton's Presentation

Last week the guest speaker that came to our class in order to give us more knowledge on the games world was Tom Toynton. Toynton is an Associate Professor of Creative Art and Technology at Bloomfield College, he used to work as a director of Creative Technologies at Centurion Brothers, LLC. Toynton also participated in many games construction projects and design. There were more than 10 points in his presentation that impressed me with things that I did not know about games or that caught my attention, however, I will only summarize the 10 important points.

-       Games are experiences: Toynton started the presentation with this sentence, and also stating that everybody plays games. What matters the most in a game is the player experience and how the audience will interact with the game

-        Board and Card games design started in Germany: after WWI Germany was devastated after the war so no games were on warfare since the population was tired of war

-       Euro-Games: most popular type of game. Another player cannot destroy what you created along the game; they only change your path in the game. You get to choose what you want to do first, always according to the game’s rules.

-       American Games: more competitive than cooperative. These games are random luck since you roll the dices in order to move. The game itself can change the gamer’s path.

-       Monopoly game – it is a poorly designed game, however, many people in the U.S play it. In 30 to 45 minutes within the game you already know the winner. The game usually takes 3-4 hours to finish

-       The Book of Rules – in Germany is normal for the gamer to read the rules before playing so they know what they have to do. In the U.S gamers play the game first then they go to the rules in order to know what to do when a complicated situation in the game arises

-       Theory of Flow – hours go by when you are doing something pleasant. The flow is when you are challenged to the point that you know it is difficult but you know you can do it

-       Games are tools for education – they make education fun, and less boring for the newest generations. Games also help men to socialize

-       Grading and Pointing System – grading had a negative reaction because the student starts with an A and the grade is dropped along the semester according to what you didn’t accomplish or if he didn’t get 100% on a task. Pointing had a positive reaction because you work your way up earning points according to what you accomplish. You end up trying to get better every time rather than getting disappointed by your grade

-       The most difficult task for a game developer: in the end of the presentation I asked Mr. Toyton what was the most difficult task for a game developer and he told me that the design part is the most difficult because it takes a lot of time to design a game for the age range that the company is aiming to sell the game and also make it better than the competition

It was a pleasant and excited experience to have Mr. Toyton as a guest speaker in our classroom once I enjoy a lot to play games when I have free time. He also showed us how games work in the players’ mind and make they think more. Also he showed us the project that he is working on, which will be in the stores soon for the public.