Crafting the Language of Fun: In Conversation with Malay Dhamelia

Introduction & Academic Background

Malay Dhamelia pursued his Ph.D. within the Industrial Design Centre at IIT Bombay from 2019 to 2024. Within the IITB community, Malay held the unique role of being the institute’s resident board games custodian, orchestrating regular game nights at IDC. This is how the Insight community initially became acquainted with him. Malay’s Ph.D. research centres around the concept of FUN – yes, you read that correctly! The intriguing nature of his topic captured our attention, prompting us to engage with him further. Malay’s academic background is rooted in engineering; he earned his B.Tech in Electrical Engineering in 2014. However, during this period, he discovered his fascination with creating unconventional, interactive, and humorous experiences. In 2015, he participated in the MIT Media Lab workshop, where he contributed to the development of whimsical devices, such as a remote tickling device and a method to play drums on clothing. It was at this juncture that Malay resolved to transform his fascination with understanding human interaction with objects into a full-fledged profession, leading him into the realm of “interaction design.”

Why choose Design at IIT Bombay?

In his search for schools offering interaction design programs, Malay initially aimed for admission to the MIT Media Labs. However, he soon realised that an emphasis solely on quirkiness wasn’t enough for him. Malay desired to incorporate the human element into his study of interaction design, and he discovered that IIT Bombay was actively engaged in this aspect, prompting his decision to enrol there.

At IIT Bombay, Malay focused on Human-Computer Interaction, guided by Prof Girish Dalvi, Professor Anirudha Joshi and Prof Venkatesh Rajamanickam, whose work greatly resonated with him. During his master’s studies, Malay established a strong connection with Professor Girish. Prof. Girish creates an egalitarian space for his PhD students which is an important condition for thriving novel approaches in research. Beyond these qualities, Prof. Girish’s unique approach to find the unfamiliar in the familiar fosters a sense of fascination and curiosity towards the world. So, when Prof. Girish and Dr. Sandeep (Malay’s PhD senior) floated the idea of fun in games, Malay developed a sense of curiosity towards the topic and motivated him to pursue his PhD in ludology — the study of games — under his mentorship.

What is FUN?

When asked to define “Fun” in the context of his research, Malay told us it is a challenging task. He says, “The moment we start trying to define fun, there are objections to it because FUN is a very subjective concept.” Everyone has their own definition of fun. For instance, sharing our day with our parents might be enjoyable for them but boring for us. Therefore, defining fun becomes tricky, but Malay suggests that what we can do is characterise it. The key is not whether talking to our parents is fun or not; instead, it’s the act of interaction between the parties that embodies fun. Malay sees fun as an “interactional concept,” not something passively gained. For example, watching Netflix may not involve giving or having fun, but the pleasures of hanging out with friends late at night would be fun because it involves interactions with friends. One can enjoy watching Netflix, but one needs the presence of the other being and interactions with them to have fun. Think about it — the difference between enjoyment and fun! Malay also introduces the “Theory of Prohibition” as a simple way to understand fun. When we are restricted from doing something, like going to Vihar Lake at night, our curiosity is piqued, and we become more inclined to engage in the prohibited activity.

Studying Fun

Defining fun in the context of games, as stated before, poses unique challenges, and Malay’s thesis contributes by addressing this gap in research methods. While existing psychological perspectives examine fun, Malay’s focus is on understanding how players derive fun during gameplay. Contrary to the conventional belief that games inherently provide fun, Malay proposes that players actively work to extract fun from games by engaging with their rules.

In his research, Malay introduces the concept that games themselves don’t give fun; instead, players must exert effort to derive enjoyment. This perspective aligns with the “theory of prohibition”, where rules and constraints within games contribute to the emergence of fun. Malay’s innovative approach involves studying fun in relation to design, emphasising that designers don’t directly create fun but provide the framework for players in the form of rules to design their own fun. Scientifically, it’s established that playing games leads to a decrease in glucose levels, indicating mental fatigue post-game, highlighting the effort required to derive fun. There is no escape from working in order to gain something, not even fun. Malay’s unique method addresses the lack of established approaches for understanding how players extract enjoyment from games.

Challenges in Studying Fun

Challenges arise in studying fun through various methods, particularly when attempting to comprehend it as a concept. From a psychological perspective, while there are ways to measure different emotions, defining fun as a collection of emotions poses a limitation in understanding how individuals experience those emotions. For game designers, the challenge lies in identifying the precise triggers for specific emotions—like happiness, frustration, or jealousy—within the unique context of games. In Ludo, for example, the frustration and excitement come from having a piece sent back to the start by an opponent, creating both challenge and fun. If players simply passed each other without consequence, the game would lack that essential tension. Even though these mechanics might seem simple in hindsight, figuring out exactly what sparks these emotions in games is no easy task. Thus, the difficulty lies in examining emotions concerning their evocation in the specific context of games.

A Unique Experiment

Malay devised a unique and widely appreciated method in the game design research community and that helped him find a crack to his difficulties. He conducted an experiment involving four simple games – Jenga, Scrabble, Ludo, and Chinese Checkers – with students from KV, the IIT campus school. After playing, he initially asked them about the most fun part, but the diverse and inconclusive responses led him to seek more precise indicators. This led to a creative idea: asking students to change one rule in each game to eliminate the fun. This method, known as “Design by Elimination” or Malay’s term, “rule modification,” proved profound. The students’ adjustments provided valuable insights into how players perceive fun and revealed the fundamental aspects contributing to the enjoyment of games. Malay derived principles from this approach, contributing to a deeper understanding of the relationship between game rules and fun.

Approaching Fun Differently

In his Ph.D. research, Malay takes a unique perspective by considering events as “fundamental units”. He dedicates daily efforts to identifying different types of events to understand how players derive fun, experience gameplay, and organise these experiences. Some events he identifies include anticipation, hope, and ruin. Malay notes that fun is often trivialised in our everyday lives, making it overlooked in academic circles. Typically, studies on fun may substitute it with terms like enjoyment or link it to a burst of dopamine, rather than examining it as pure fun.

Fun, being diverse, encompasses exploration, achievement, and various chunks, yet it hasn’t been thoroughly studied in its entirety. Malay’s dissatisfaction with existing studies stems from their focus on positive experiences, neglecting the non-binary nature of positives and negatives in this field. He advocates for understanding the grey area where fun resides. To capture this, Malay delves into the “Tension Achievement Cycle,” exploring how individuals form hypotheses, experience tension when these fail, and then strive for achievement. He analyses their approaches, coping mechanisms, and strategies to make a comeback in the game as crucial events.

Malay introduces a novel, unexplored approach by studying games in terms of progressions, unraveling the journey from start to end. Despite the everyday and seemingly trivial nature of fun, Malay is driven by its understudied complexity and intriguing aspects, challenging conventional binary perspectives and contributing to a more comprehensive understanding of fun in games.

The Final Aim

As a result of his thesis, Malay’s objective is to create a notational language akin to sheet music. This language, embodied in a tangible device, will encompass a set of guiding principles for various player events. Similar to sheet music recording musical notes, this sheet will document player experiences at specific game moments, amalgamating inputs to provide valuable insights to game designers. The goal is to assist designers in analysing their game designs effectively, identifying areas where the game excels in creating fun and where improvements may be needed. Malay aims to establish a troubleshooting language for game design that can be practically applied to enhance the gaming experience.

Challenges while pursuing PhD

Reflecting on his Ph.D. journey, Malay highlights two significant challenges he encountered. The first major challenge involved creating his own method to comprehend fun. He acknowledges that not all ideas are easily demonstrated or theoretically proven. To address this, Malay engaged in extensive discussions with various individuals, including professors, game designers, and players. He emphasises the importance of placing oneself within the ecosystem, as a Ph.D. cannot be pursued in isolation. Interacting with different stakeholders is essential to ground the research in reality.

The second major challenge Malay faced was articulation. He emphasises the need to effectively communicate why one’s work is important, emphasising the unique nuances only the researcher understands. Communication, though a distinct skill, improves through ongoing conversations with stakeholders. Malay notes that Ph.D. scholars often exist in a world where everything makes sense to them, but they must articulate their work in a way that is understandable to others.

A Word for Aspiring Researchers

Malay suggests that while games have a longer history than culture, academic studies on games only started about two decades ago. Games are considered as a sure shot structure of creating fun. In other words, games are designed in such a way that they aim to create fun. And games are as ancient as, if not more than, the culture itself. Yet, the idea of fun and the game’s ways of creating fun have been trivialised as fun is considered to be a frivolous and unproductive human experience. Malay finds this area fascinating as it provides an opportunity to understand the interplay between culture, humans, and their designed artefacts, with games serving as a catalyst. Given the limited attention this field has received, Malay encourages anyone interested to explore it further. He is always open to discussions with individuals eager to delve into this underexplored domain.

Editorial Credits: Anisha Basumatary, Gautam Khona, Nistha Agarwal