The Encyclopedia of Interactive Performance

When people go through a Halloween haunt, they have different responses. Some scream, cower, cling to their friends, and when it’s over, exclaim, “That was awesome!” Others scream, cower, cling to their friends, but when it’s over, they’re not happy. Not happy at all. Some like being scared and some don’t. Their initial behaviors may be similar, but the subtext is different. If you’re paying attention, you can tell who enjoys being scared and who doesn’t.

How spects enjoy playing is their play style. It affects everything—how they play as characters, the goals they pursue, even how they want the story to end. The spect’s play style should guide every aspect of the story.

The word “enjoy” doesn’t just refer to things that are nice and pleasant. It also refers to challenges and struggles. In fiction, success and compliments can be enjoyable, but so can failure and angst. It all depends on the spect’s personal inclinations.

Identifying the spect’s play style

To identify spects’ play styles, look for two things—what they initiate and how they respond. These behaviors help you deduce how they enjoy playing. Here are some things to look for.

Strengths – Spects enjoy playing with their skills and knowledge. Look for their strengths. Are they skilled at negotiation? Do they know about history? Are they all about fashion? When you identify what spects are good at, you can play to their strengths.

Default modes – Spects have ways that they tend to engage. Some like to think. Others like to feel. Some like to be wild. Others like to be cautious. When you see a spect’s preferred mode of engagement, create opportunities for them to do that even more.

Values and priorities – To understand spects’ motivations, you need to know what matters to them. You can infer spects’ values and priorities from their behaviors. The character who won’t lie to the boss might value honesty. One who spends more on clothing than food might consider the approval of others a priority. When you know what matters to them, you can get spects invested.

Spect archetypes – Every spect is unique, but they also tend to fall into categories. Does the spect prefer to play as a director, a follower, or a rebel? Participants never fit a spect archetype perfectly, but the categories are useful broad strokes when considering how spects enjoy playing.

When you have a guess about the spect’s play style, test your hypothesis. Anticipate how they’ll respond to a particular stimulus, then see what they do. If the response is different than you expected, adjust your hypothesis. If they respond as you predicted, continue to play using that hypothesis until something causes you to revise it further.

The more you cater to their play style, the more spects find their stride as co-creators. Give them plenty of opportunities to play in ways that they enjoy. It builds their confidence and boosts their investment. As spects grow in confidence, you can also design challenges that are informed by their play styles. Spects are more motivated to face obstacles that engage their strengths, values, and natural tendencies.

Identifying play styles is essential to interactive performance. If spects don’t enjoy the process of play, they don’t become invested. By catering to their play style, you’re connecting to spects’ strengths, values, and methods of engagement which frees them to become playful and powerful co-creators.