Running your own hospital is not that easy.

It came to my attention that throughout this blog I failed to relate the course to the one game I have much experience with, Theme Hospital. A game that although not entirely realistic (Invisibility is NOT a real condition), it does challenge the player with maintaining a hospital, keeping the staff happy, and curing patients to raise money for the hospital. When I play I feel as if I’m in total control and the game is only reacting to how I play, but obviously the structure of the game has already been predetermined. I thought Ian Bogust’s theory on systems being intended to be learned through play could be related to Theme Hospital. The more I played the more I was able to learn errors in my micromanagement and through experimenting was able to see the tolerances of the game. I could loose a level because my staff weren’t being given sufficient raises, too many patients were dying, or the handymen weren’t cleaning up the projectile vomit. By repeating levels I’m able to change anything that had resulted in failure and see if I could improve my strategy. I think success in this game is based entirely on how I respond to the challenges the game presents, and also how agency allows mistakes to be learnt and limits of the game tested. And for me, that never seems to get past level 5.