5. Socialize(2) 6/21/09. 6. Escape from other people ..

1
What players want

• Game Design
• Vishnu Kotrajaras, Ph.D.

2
Challenge

• Especially for single player

Super Mario Bros. 3 by Nintendo
3
Challenge(2)?

• Player ultimately wants game to force her to
  think
• Player wants to invent ways of solving problems,
  to discover things by himself.

Tetris Attack by Nintendo
4
Socialize

• People want to be around families and friends
• Evidence
• You can see people chatting aggressively while
  playing LAN game
• Thus, chat function is worth considered
• Human opponent is more clever
• This adds more challenge

5
Socialize(2)?
Ragnarok by Gravity
6
Escape from other people

• Players of this type want to be in complete
  control when playing

Final Fantasy X-2 by Square-Enix
7
Players want to show that they are good

• Players want to win respect from other players
• This is true for both single and multi player
  game
• Therefore, a high score is a very important
  feature
• Street fighter arcade, remember entering name?
• Even if no one else knows, players can be happy
  anyway

8
Players want to show that they are good(2)?
9
Players want to show that they are good(3)?
10
Players want to show that they are good(4)?
Marvel VS Capcom 2 by Capcom
11
Emotional Experience

• Adrenaline rush Doom, Resident Evil

Doom
12
Emotional Experience(2)?

• Sad Final Fantasy VII by SquareSoft

13
Emotional Experience(3)?

• Despair due to failure
• But players learn to live with defeat
• Sense of accomplishment When finish a game or a
  level

14
Fantasy

• People want to escape from real life
• Control exciting characters
• Better than books
• In books, we are the watchers
• In game, we are the characters
• No tedious real-life detail eat, sleep, toilet

15
Fantasy(2)?

• Can do bad things in a safe environment
• GTA kill innocent bystanders
• this game is rated 18 in England, children of
  younger age may not be mature enough to separate
  this from real life
• Like news of 15-year-old killing other people

16
Fantasy(3)?
Grand Theft Auto
17
Fantasy(4)?

• Driver escape from police
• Thief -gt

18
Fantasy(5)?

• Players want to try to change history
• Red Alert

19
Gender Preferences

• Male
• Mastery
• Competition
• Destruction
• Spatial Puzzles
• Trial and Error

• Female
• Emotion
• Real World
• Nurturing
• Dialog and Verbal Puzzles
• Learning by Example

20
Bartles Taxonomy of Player Types

• ACTING
• Killers
  Achievers
• PLAYERS -------------------------------------
  - WORLD
• Socialisers
  Explorers
• INTERACTING

21
What players expect

• This is a bit different from what players want
• This is what players want from every game

22
Consistent world

• A control action should only do limited amount of
  things
• Fighting game
• Player should see clearly that her hit fails in
  order to accept it
• Similar kick must produce similar outcome

23
Consistent world(2)?
Tekken by Namco
24
Understand game limitation

• Players must know which actions are possible and
  which are not
• Example player learns to know that she cannot
  talk to monsters
• So there should be no future monster that we can
  talk to

25
Reasonable solution must work

• Ways to solve rock puzzle
• Designer must figure out every way of solving
  puzzle
• Or design the game using mechanics that allow
  flexible solutions.

Legend of Zelda A Link to The Past
26
Example putting stuff over a switch

• Putting weights onto a switch?
• Many things in the game seems to have weight.
• Stones, weapons, or even monsters.
• So we cannot hard code all of these.
• A better solution is to implement the game such
  that all objects have weights.
• Then we can detect weight on a switch without
  worrying about specific objects not being taken
  into account.

27
Direction

• Players need to know what is needed to pass a
  level or what is needed to play
• Vagrant Story combat system cannot be learnt by
  players easily

Vagrant Story by SquareSoft
28
Direction(2)?

• If you have mini games
• Teach players how to play

Final Fantasy 7
29
Accomplish a task incrementally

• Subgoal, level, town in RPG
• Players expected to know that she is progressing

30
Immerse

• GUI design must allow easy play and not
  obstructing view

Final Fantasy 12
Final Fantasy 7
31
Immerse(2)?
Final Fantasy 8

• The illusion must not have weak spot
• Walk on air (in many student games)?
• The illusion shatters
• A character a player plays must be likable by her
• Squall Leonheart (FF VIII)?
• Too much character in him
• Mario
• Not much personality, player can easily impose
  herself

Super Mario 64
32
Fail, or feel the incompleteness

• If a player fails at some point
• She should know right away what she should have
  done, for example
• Do some jump at other positions
• Choose to make another choice or go to another
  location in RPG game
• Difficulty from easy to hard
• With faster rate of difficulty
• Secret in games

33
No repeat

• Players dont like repeat goals
• Exploring the world the first time is better than
  the second time
• Sports, Tetris
• Looks repeat, but in fact not
• Save point is therefore important
• Auto-save helps player who forgets to save
• But should have both controlled and auto-save

34
No repeat(2)?
Tetris
Winning 11
35
No hopelessly stuck in the game

• Many early adventures are bad
• Need an item in the 1st stage to pass the 5th
  stage, and there is no way to go back
• Dying is better than getting stuck
• If Mario falls into a deep pit, if the pit is not
  escapable, kill him

A typical adventure game
36
Not want to watch

• Players want to do things
• Minimize cut scenes

Vagrant Story