Knowledge Evolution in Game Design – Just for Fun Klaus P. Jantke Technical University of Ilmenau Institute for Media and Communication Science Am Eichicht 1, 98693 Ilmenau, Germany jantke@fit-leipzig.de jantke@meme.hokudai.ac.jp ABSTRACT There is, naturally, a lot of knowledge in games. Those who mostly win some game may have more knowledge about the game than their opponents. Sometimes, they have just more luck. There is a lot of knowledge in game design; and game AI, in particular, addresses the problem of making computers playing games intelligently. These are not the knowledge issues discussed in the present paper. Instead, we ask for knowledge to make playing more enjoyable for the human player. The task is not so much to make computers play stronger, but to create more fun. This may not be reduced to the problem of offering different levels of strength. The question for fun is considerably more involved. What makes fun, especially in games? The present research aims at a systematic approach to knowledge identification and knowledge utilization for more pleasant computer games. This is not only fun, but also research and business. Key Words: Computer Games, Knowledge Representation, Game Strategy, Game Tactics, Game AI 1. Computer/Internet Games: Marketing Fun The investigations of the present paper are not restricted to digital games. Some of the insights have a pedagogical value and adults may possibly use them when playing with their children. But within the setting of an IT conference, it seems appropriate to focus knowledge in computer systems. Moreover, digital games constitute a highly interesting market with enormous economic potentials as indicated by figure 1. Though these figures are already impressive, other markets (China, USA) are even larger. The author understands game playing as an application domain such as bookkeeping, though most readers might, most probably, consider bookkeeping not as being fun. Bookkeeping did exist already for centuries before the rise of the computer age. So does game playing. With computers, the practice of bookkeeping has changed. So did game playing. In our current networked knowl- edge society, bookkeeping is integrated in enterprise resource planning. Bookkeeping has altered its appearance quite remarkably. And so did game playing as well. Turnover 2004 2008 PC Games 301 255 Console Games 1191 1597 Online Games 92 784 Mobile Games 63 543 Total 1647 3161 Figure 1: Turnover (in Mill. Euro) in Game Software (Hardware excluded) in Germany extracted from Pricewaterhouse Coopers, German Entertainment and Media Outlook However, a sufficiently deep understanding of enterprise resource planning, in general, and of bookkeeping, in particular, requires some understanding of principles which are independent of computer technologies. This does apply to digital games similarly.