Grokking

Introduction

See the related Wikipedia article.

Grokking is the act of coming to fully understand an element, feature, or mechanic, to the point where interacting with it becomes second nature, requiring almost no thought. It's a phenomenon that naturally happens over time in games, and there are many important points to consider revolving around grokking.

Advantages of Grokking

When a player has grokked a game or portion of a game, the player ceases to have to consciously think about these elements, performing them almost as if by instinct. In many skill-based games, and to a lesser extent in pretty much any game, it's desirable to have a player grok the basic controls. For example, a player who has grokked the controls of a fighting game won't consciously think about the buttons they're pressing, but instead will feel as if they are translating their thought of what move they want to use directly into an action in the game. The point when a player groks an element or mechanic can provide a very fluid experience that can be very satisfying for the player.

Besides the functional benefit of grokking, there is also the fact that a player can simply feel good about themselves for having grokked a complex or difficult element, such as when someone learns to pull off a complex combo in a fighting game, or masters subconsciously timing their cooldowns in a MOBA.

Disadvantages of Grokking

On the other hand, every element a player has grokked is an element less the player has to be concerned with. An element that has been grokked is functionally exhausted on its own. While this is fine for things that aren't interesting but are necessary to make way for more important parts of the game (such as the raw button pressing element), grokking can be bad if it occurs with an important or macro-level element or mechanic. If a player is made to perform an action they've grokked without any substantial macro-context, the player will feel that what they are doing is tedious, or simply not fresh, due to the fact that they've already mentally conquered the action. Shortly after the player groks an entire game is usually when they burn out and stop playing.

#Some Examples of Good and Bad Uses of Grokking (CONTROVERSIAL)

• In some games, such as Street Fighter or DOTA, basic gameplay is put behind a very steep wall of (often unnecessary) complex input and understanding of strange and intuitive behavior. Fans of these games often cite it as a benefit, saying things like "Get gud scrub" and calling other games "unskilled" or "casual". This makes the games incredibly unsatisfying and frustrating to play at a lower level, however, and they can feel very clunky and uncomfortable until the player has grokked the basic mechanics.
• That's it, Street Fighter and DOTA are bad.