Work (in games)

One of the most basic things to look for when trying to make your game more fun is work. Work is easier to explain through example, but can generally be described as any boring task the player is forced to preform. Work is not all bad though, and can be used to strengthen a reward (we will get to those later).

Examples

Chess

Original chess did not include the rule that pawns can move two spaces on their first move. This resulted in a period before the game started where both players would simply be moving pawns in order to free up other pieces. This was boring, and the new rule was added to make the game faster and more fun.

Pokemon

In pokemon, and other RPG games, you may spend countless hours leveling up your pokemon. While boring, this provides a greater sense of accomplishment later in the game when you use the skills you built up to crush your opponents.

Punishment

Work can also be used as punishment, usually to great a sense of tension in the game. If you have to re-do a lot of boring parts of a game if you die, you are going to be much more tense and focused on the harder parts than if you can just retry it over and over. A game with too little of this may lose the player's interest, but a game with too much may make player's frustrated and quit (and also give your game bad reviews). What adds even more to the problem is that every player has a different tolerance to it.