When I first broached this topic I had originally thought to name this post A Brief Look at Video Game Theory. What I soon realized was there was not a specific theory around video games in themselves but more of an application of game theory to video games. A more broad topic that encompasses game theory along with many more is called game design. In this case there is the very specific area of video game design. The marriage between motivations and actions of the player mixed with the required structure in order for said player to perform the given action. It's simple enough to say you can't be motivated to do something if there is no place within to be motivated or act on said motivations.
Game design is the art of applying design and aesthetics to create a game for entertainment or for educational, exercise, or experimental purposes.(Wikipedia) It's taking into account not only what the player will see but what they will do and experience in the game itself. The gameplay if you will.
One way of doing this is as Richard Rouse wrote "Understanding game design, as with any art form, is very much an internalized understanding, a "gut" reaction, a "feeling" you might have." (If you don't already know Gamasutra is full of old and new articles that really great for learning about developing games.) Experience mixed with talent is really what can be considered important in designing a game that is good. If you believe that games design is an art form, which I very much do, that talent needs to be crafted and worked upon to reach its full realization.
Take a game like Stardew Valley for instance. I would argue that although the creator Eric Barone took the idea from one of his favorite games he had the talent to understand what made Harvest Moon good. Something that I sometimes think the original creators lost sight of. Even still it took him five years and several iterations of the game to finally release it. Each time he honed his tallent a little more until we got the final product, which is one of the most successful indie games of today.
Gameplay is important but the developers must also plan out the game. For example, on what platform they will develop and what the timeline will be. They must think about what they can accomplish within the budget and what they can do to make the gameplay complete. This side of game design is the less sexy side but still takes some consideration when designing a game.
While game design employees many theories and techniques there is one I find the most interesting and that is game theory. Game theory is the mathematical models of conflict and co-operation between intelligent rational decision makers.(Roger Myerson) (Yes, this applies to everyone on the internet.) While game theory is usually between at least two players a game designer can use the game itself to substitute for another person. Using what has been learned from the various models in game theory a developer can design games around the hypothesized decisions of a player. In fact, game theory assumes that each player's objective is to maximize the value of their own payoff.(Roger Myerson) That extra time you took in Grand Theft Auto to invest in a business, the time you spend grinding in Final Fantasy, the 500th attempt at a level in Super Meat Boy can all be linked to this value proposition. If you want to take a look at a really cool application of game theory in an interactive game check out The Evolution of Trust by Nicky Case.
This post only briefly touches on the vastness that both theory and design entail. When I first thought of writing not only about video games but their underlying structure I was a little worried I would soon run dry on topics. The more I read and explore the more I am finding the vastness of what games are and how many ideas there are out there. While a single theory called video game theory does not exist in itself, there are several ideas that when married could be considered just that.
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