Game Fun

This week I read the article "Natural Funitivity" by Noah Falstein. The article explored the question of what makes a fun game. He starts off by discussing what fun means as a concept and how it's hard to define. But he says it's linked to our ancestral sense of survival, saying that video games connect to our sense of survival which in turn if fun to us. He also listed the three types of fun we enjoy on a mental level. First is psychical fun, doing psychical activities appeals to our sense of survival. Social fun, where we like to interact with other people since we are social creatures. And finally mental fun, where enjoy challenges that make us think hard.

Link: https://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/130573/natural_funativity.php?page=1

(A drawing of a caveman hunting. Found here.)

Game Elements

I found the main article on the week four reading page quite insightful. It gave a good basic introduction to atomic game elements like players, objectives, rules, resources, game state, information, sequencing, player interaction and theme and how they come together to form a game system. Finding out how these different elements can work together in so many different was, with the slightest change dramatically changing how a game works was fascinating. I also found the information on critical analysis very helpful. I've never really done critical analysis, so with the questions and points listed, it should be easier from now on.
https://view.officeapps.live.com/op/view.aspx?src=https%3A%2F%2Fwww%2Edropbox%2Ecom%3A443%2Fs%2F51gox34zmmjv3t3%2FWhat%2520are%2520the%2520Qualities%2520of%2520Games%2Edocx%3Fraw%3D1&wdAccPdf=0

(A game system. Found here.)

I could not read any other article because the link was not working. 

Game Elements

The first article I read was "Formal Abstract Design Tools" by Doug Church. I found article really hard to read. It had a lot of technical jargon that I had a hard time understanding. But it did given me a bit of an inside look at some tools of game design like intention, perceivable consequence and story and how they can work well together in certain games types and not so in other games types. 
https://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/131764/formal_abstract_design_tools.php

The second article I read was "A Look at Negative Game Mechanics" by Josh Bycer. I quite liked this article. It was much easier to understand and follow. It talked about game mechanics that are designed to force the player to spend money to play the game, from arcade machines in the nineties to free to play and social media games and why such mechanics should be avoided.
https://www.gamasutra.com/blogs/JoshBycer/20120903/177027/A_Look_At_Negative_Game_Mechanics.php

The third and final article I read was "The Paper Chase Saving Money Paper Prototyping" by John Henderson. The article was going over what game designer, Giles Schildt, said to game design students at a talk at the community college. I liked the article and the idea of designing a game prototype on paper before moving onto actually making the game, since it'll make the design easier to understand for everyone and that it's easy to scrap and change.
https://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/2690/the_paper_chase_saving_money_via_.php

(A picture of a designer working on a game. Found here.)