Game master (game)

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Under a director (or a GM ) are understood in the range of playing a person with differently defined management tasks. These differ according to the type of game, the objective of the game or the methodical approach. Accordingly, there are different types of game masters with different tasks and skill requirements in different areas of the game .

Game director roles

The role of the game master depends in detail on his specific assignment, his personal understanding of the nature of the game and the expectations of the players.

Game masters can be found in the following roles and functions:

  • As organizers of play festivals, they ensure the necessary play opportunities and play materials as well as the trouble-free organization of play.
  • As animators , they set game impulses and initiate attractive game ideas.
  • As referees in sports games, as croupiers in gaming salons or as role-play leaders in pen & paper role-playing games , they have the task of impartially monitoring codified rules of the game.
  • As a game supervisor, they help the players to freely solve any game problems that arise amicably.
  • As game moderators , they serve the presentation of games and the corresponding audience entertainment in the media.
  • As play therapists , they use play as a curative educational measure.
  • As teachers and / or educators , they use play methodically as a motivating learning aid in teaching processes.
  • As game educators , they allow people to discover the meaning and diversity of play as a human enrichment.

The game director's role varies and is modified in each of these areas of responsibility.

The game master as the game organizer

Large public game festivals, but also private game afternoons such as a children's birthday party or a party, require a game director who develops ideas about the design of the game event, the desired rooms and game arrangements, who provides them and who accompanies and evaluates the processes of the game festival. The game master as the game organizer fulfills the functions of an initiator, designer, commentator who takes on the main responsibility for the creation and success of the game. At least at the start of the game, he also has the role of entertainer.

The game master as an animator

In the tourism sector , in holiday clubs in the hotel complexes of holiday centers, health resorts or on cruise ships , the activities or the profession of "has animator " or "entertainer" emerged. The task of entertainers is to entertain the guests with attractive games, to bring them into contact with one another and to organize corresponding activities, competitions and entertainment programs. They should ensure a positive mood, variety and sociability. The function of the animator is often carried out as a vacation job by students, but also professionally. Tour operators prepare their staff in special courses to be able to work on multiple assignments ( sideline jobs ). There is often a specialization in certain target groups (children, senior citizens, disabled people, individual guests, etc.). Animators themselves have to have a lot of joy in playing, educational skills, ingenuity, flexibility, social interest, friendly manners and commitment in order to be successful.

The referee as referee

As a referee , the game master is particularly prominent at the major sports games. He has the function of a referee between the game parties. As such, he oversees the course of the game, including time control, compliance with the rules and the principle of fair play . To ensure proper game mechanics it may impose disciplinary measures such caution or expulsion grant, suspend the game or even break off. In soccer or handball, his decisions as factual decisions cannot be challenged. In a certain way, this gives him authoritarian powers that are not always accepted by viewers and players, especially since they can also be subject to errors of perception and misjudgments. Linesmen act as assistant referees. The authoritarian powers are based on the set of rules, the need for smooth game play, strict compliance with the rules of the game, the avoidance of accidents, and decision-making in disputed cases.

In order to be able to be used as a referee, a qualification is required in the form of a secure mastery of the rules, quick determination, and self-confident assertiveness. The regulations of the associations prescribe special training, regular training and a revocable license acquired through examinations.

The game master as moderator

Game moderators nowadays mainly appear in the media gaming landscape. Their job is entertainment ( bet that ..? Who's going to be a millionaire? Etc.). The big game programs of the television stations reach an audience of millions and are inconceivable without a game master who controls all the activities. Without the game master, no games would take place, neither by the actors nor for the spectators. It is the moderator's task to announce, link, explain, discuss and praise the prepared game performances.

The game master as a croupier

The casino is about winning money as part of a commercially oriented business enterprise. A specially trained, licensed game director, who usually performs his function professionally, is required for the proper process. The game manager, known as the croupier , is responsible for the technical implementation and the correct sequence of the game, for example at the roulette table or card games such as poker .

The game master as a therapist

As a rule, play therapists have a therapeutic and play pedagogical training that is tailored to the illnesses of their clientele . It can be physical, but also mental or socio-psychological problem areas that they deal with professionally. Therapeutically active game leaders can be found both in childcare and in action with young people who have committed criminal offenses . Their work usually takes place individually or in small groups in which patients with similar symptoms are cared for.

The game master as a teacher

The philanthropist J.CF Guts Muths assigns the game master a decisive role from an educational point of view in the design of the game. Above all, he has the social bond and the learning effect of playing (= learning games) in mind. In the foreword to his collection of games, he emphasizes: Games are flower ribbons that are used to tie young people to oneself; therefore I would rather hand them over to their tutors than to themselves

The Swiss pedagogue Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi also uses the example of Gertrud to demonstrate the paramount importance of the game master for raising children through play.

With Friedrich Fröbel and Maria Montessori , the play material selected by the game masters plays a key role in stimulating creativity and triggering the child's self-discovery.

The game pedagogues Siegbert Warwitz and Anita Rudolf distinguish three different character and behavior types of pedagogically oriented game leaders. A questionnaire and interpretation aids offer the game master the opportunity to self-analyze his personality profile. This shows him whether he is more inclined to the idea of ​​free play, teaching and learning or a creative interest in promoting his ambitions as a game director.

The game master in role play

Pen & paper role-playing games

The game master ( SL for short ) in a role-playing game controls events and non-player characters (NPC). He presents the players with situations, events and problems. He reacts to the actions of the players and thus guides the players through the story and the world of the game. Often times, the game master developed the story that is being played himself. But he can also fall back on ready-made role-play adventures. A role-play master is expected to know the game and the rules in order to avoid looking up during the game as much as possible. However, a good game master in role-playing games should be able to do more than master the rules. It is also useful to have a sure instinct and psychological empathy for conflicts that go beyond the rules, but also a good talent for improvising with surprising player actions.

Other names for the game master are master, dungeon master (DM, derived from the name of the role-playing system Dungeons and Dragons ), narrator, storyteller or game master (GM).

LARP

In Live Action Role Playing (LARP) there is usually not just a single game master, but often a whole group that takes on this task. Therefore one speaks here of game management or organization. The above-mentioned tasks of organization, animation, refereeing and support are particularly evident here. Not only the player characters, i.e. players who want to experience an adventure, have to be looked after, but also all non-player characters. These can rarely all be provided by the game management. There are also questions about the location, the process and other social skills that are useful.

Computer role playing games

In some computer role-playing games , attempts have been made to adopt the principle of the game master , especially for multiplayer games. Examples are Vampires: The Masquerade - Redemption and Neverwinter Nights . Analogous to the pen & paper role-playing game , the game master can use ready-made adventures and then intervene in the behavior of the environment and NPC, distribute experience and treasures, etc.

Online role playing games

Role-playing games are also held online in forums and chat rooms. Here the game master has mostly developed the game himself and ensures that the other players behave appropriately. Sanctions in the case of constant violation of netiquette rules also provide for exclusion from the game or even the forum.

Game masters are occasionally represented at MMORPGs . Here, however, they never, or only very rarely, take on the role of the “narrator”, but rather moderate or administer (hence the common term “mod”). They ensure that the (mostly paying) players can play without problems. Moderators should usually players who z. B. stuck in one place due to a technical problem help, provided the engine provides the options. They also ensure that players who insult others or who violate the rules are warned or, if necessary, banned. In some games, mods are also intended to help new players get started with the game. As a rule, they do not fix any errors in the gaming world (so-called bugs ), but instead pass them on to technical support . If feasible within the scope of the technical possibilities, moderators can, however, help to circumvent errors temporarily, for example by creating missing opponents for the solution of a quest through them.

Moderators are also employed professionally by the game provider, for example in the MMORPG World of Warcraft . Here they are also given the English name Game Master.

literature

  • Winfried Böhm , Birgitta Fuchs: Education according to Montessori. Klinkhadt, Bad Heilbrunn 2004, ISBN 3-7815-1309-2 .
  • Wilhelm Flitner: Theory of the Pedagogical Path . 8th edition, Weinheim & Berlin 1968.
  • Johann Christoph Friedrich Guts Muths: Games for exercise and relaxation of body and mind . Schnepfental 1796 (Berlin 1959).
  • Sven Kudszus: Finally animator, the manual for all animators, and everyone who wants to become one . Publisher: ENPUCO ISBN 978-3-940445-03-2 .
  • W. Lange (Ed.): Friedrich Froebel's collected educational writings. Second department: Friedrich Froebel as the founder of the kindergartens. The pedagogy of the kindergarten. Friedrich Froebel's thoughts on play and the children's play objects . Berlin 1862. Facsimile print Osnabrück 1966.
  • Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi: How Gertrud teaches her children . Literary Tradition, 2006, ISBN 978-3-86672-024-4 .
  • Anita Rudolf, Siegbert A. Warwitz: Playing - rediscovered. Basics-suggestions-help. Freiburg 1982.
  • Hans Scheuerl: The game. Investigations into its nature, its pedagogical possibilities and limits . 11th edition, Weinheim and Basel 1990.
  • Siegbert A. Warwitz, Anita Rudolf: From the sense of playing. Reflections and game ideas . 4th edition, Verlag Schneider, Hohengehren 2016, ISBN 978-3-8340-1664-5 .
  • Dominic Laundry: Game management - preparation and implementation of storytelling and role-playing games. A Guide for Game Masters, RedBrick Limited - Auckland, New Zealand 2008.
  • H. Zulliger: Healing powers in children's play . Stuttgart 1979.

Web links

Wiktionary: Game master  - explanations of meanings, word origins, synonyms, translations

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Hans Scheuerl: The game. Investigations into its nature, its pedagogical possibilities and limits . 11th edition, Weinheim and Basel 1990
  2. ^ Wilhelm Flitner: Theory of the pedagogical way . Weinheim & Berlin 1968, 8th edition
  3. ↑ Anita Rudolf, Siegbert A. Warwitz: How one can arrange game situations . In: Dies .: Playing - rediscovered. Basics-suggestions-help . Freiburg 1982. pp. 57-93.
  4. ↑ H. Zulliger: Healing powers in children's play . Stuttgart 1979
  5. ↑ JCF Guts Muths: Games for the exercise and relaxation of the body and mind . Schnepfental 1796 (Berlin 1959)
  6. ^ Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi: How Gertrud teaches her children . Literary tradition, 2006
  7. ↑ W. Lange (Ed.): Friedrich Froebel's collected educational writings. Second department: Friedrich Froebel as the founder of the kindergartens. The pedagogy of the kindergarten. Friedrich Froebel's thoughts on play and the children's play objects . Berlin 1862. Facsimile print Osnabrück 1966
  8. ↑ Winfried Böhm, Birgitta Fuchs: Education according to Montessori . Klinkhadt, Bad Heilbrunn 2004
  9. ^ Siegbert A. Warwitz, Anita Rudolf: Der Spielleiter . In: Dies .: The sense of playing. Reflections and game ideas . 4th edition, Verlag Schneider, Hohengehren 2016, pages 262–270.
  10. ↑ https://worldofwarcraft.com/en-us/news/8501406 Game Masters at World of Warcraft, accessed on October 26, 2016