-
SID MEIER: One of the responsibilities I think
we have as designers is to protect the player…
-
from themselves
-
Whenever a designer makes a game, they‘ll
have certain ideas for what would be the most
-
enjoyable or interesting way for a player
to approach things.
-
For example, Jake Solomon reckons that XCOM
is at its best when the player is taking risks.
-
He told Rock Paper Shotgun: “Risks are what lead to loss and what lead to triumph".
-
But players will often have other ideas, because
many will simply gravitate towards strategies
-
that will most likely lead to success - regardless
of how enjoyable those strategies might actually
-
be - so they grind, they use repetitive tactics,
and they play slowly and cautiously.
-
As Civilization 4 designer Soren Johnson puts
it, “given the opportunity, players will
-
optimise the fun out of a game”.
-
He was talking more about exploits,
but I think the quote still works.
-
And this is kinda what happened in XCOM: players
rarely took risks, because why would you?
-
Instead, they found much more success when
they moved slowly, played cautiously, and
-
overused the overwatch ability - meaning they
often ended up playing each mission in largely
-
the same, risk-averse way.
-
But the awesome thing about design is that
the game’s developers can tweak things,
-
to make sure players approach the game in
the way they think would be most interesting.
-
The question is - what’s the best way to
do this?
-
The most obvious answer would be to
add some kind of system that will stop the
-
unwanted behaviour from occurring.
-
And that’s what exactly Firaxis did when
it decided to introduce turn-limits to standard
-
missions in XCOM 2.
-
Many of the game’s missions will have some
kind of time limit - hack the network in 8
-
turns, destroy the relay in 6 turns, extract
the VIP in 12 turns.
-
And if you don’t finish that objective within
the turn limit, the mission is failed.
-
And this means that inching slowly across
the map like in XCOM 1 is now massively discouraged,
-
and the player is forced to move more quickly
and take more risks.
-
A very similar thing happened in the making
of Spelunky.
-
Creator Derek Yu says “I never intended
Spelunky players to collect every piece of
-
treasure, get every item, or explore every
room each time they play.
-
Instead, I wanted to force them to make difficult
decisions and experience both the satisfaction
-
of choosing correctly and the regret of choosing
poorly.”
-
So, he added the deadly ghost enemy which
appears at about two and a half minutes into
-
every level to put pressure on the player
and discourage them from dawdling around.
-
Now both of these decisions had the intended
effect - but they were also both met with
-
some amount of controversy.
-
Spelunky less so - that’s a long time to
spend in one level.
-
Besides, the ghost doesn’t actually kill
you. You can still run away and finish the stage.
-
But many XCOM 2 players hated the turn limits,
-
and even made mods to rip them out of the
game.
-
“I didn't expect people to have such a strong
reaction to the timers,” says Solomon.
-
And turn limits were greatly reduced in the
game’s expansion, War of the Chosen.
-
So, what went wrong?
-
Well, there’s a bunch of things.
-
Many people simply just enjoyed playing cautiously
in the first game, and expected to do so in
-
the sequel.
-
And Solomon suggests that “maybe there’s
a clumsy thematic wrapper on the turn-timer”.
-
But one thing is clear: some players will
always react negatively to punishment.
-
And, in XCOM 2, the fact that refusing to
speed up and take risks will see you fail
-
the mission at hand, means that these players
felt that the game was punishing them for
-
playing in a certain way.
-
And there’s a famous story about World of
Warcraft - which I’ve never played so excuse
-
me if I screw this up - but in the story,
Blizzard didn’t want people to play the
-
game for too long - so they introduced a system
in the beta where the longer you played, the
-
fewer experience points you’d get for killing
monsters and whatnot.
-
But players hated it.
-
They hated seeing the numbers going down.
-
It felt like a punishment for playing the
game.
-
So Blizzard did something pretty clever: they
flipped the system on its head.
-
Now, players can build up a rest bonus whenever
they’re not playing the game, and then get
-
an experience points boost when they next
log in.
-
It’s essentially the same numbers, says
Blizzard, but making it a reward rather than
-
a penalty made it much more agreeable to fans.
-
So, it’s often better to encourage the behaviour
you want, than discourage the behaviour you don’t.
-
Instead of punishing a player who is too slow,
reward a player who finishes the level quickly.
-
And there are loads of good ways to encourage
player behaviour.
-
It starts with the fundamental, moment-to-moment
gameplay, where designers can tweak the game’s
-
most basic mechanics to push players towards
a certain style of play.
-
Take the latest DOOM, where the designers
wanted to promote an aggressive sort of “push
-
forward combat”.
-
One way id Software achieved this was through
the glory kill mechanic which provided plenty
-
of compelling reasons to close in on your
foes, instead of running away and firing from
-
a safe distance.
-
This move instantly kills an enemy, it doesn’t
use any ammunition, and it showers the player
-
with useful health pick-ups.
-
And so, despite years of FPS games training
players to run away and hide behind cover,
-
in DOOM, players spend much of the game racing
headfirst towards demons.
-
Likewise, Bloodborne encouraged players to
be more aggressive than they were in Dark
-
Souls by adding the rally mechanic which lets
you recover health if you strike an enemy
-
within a few seconds of taking damage.
-
Players are less likely to back off and wait
for an opening if they have a chance to win
-
back some health with a quick, aggressive
attack.
-
Other examples of this sort of immediate encouragement might include the
-
Burnout games, where you gather much-needed boost by doing all sorts
-
of fun things like driving close to other cars and racing into oncoming traffic.
-
You’ve gotta drive dangerously to win.
-
And Hyper Light Drifter, where the only way
to recharge your gun is to slash bad guys
-
with your sword, encouraging you to get up
close and personal with enemies.
-
Encouragement can also be baked into more
abstract, overarching systems like scores.
-
In most character action games, you can finish
the stage even if you’re pretty sloppy and
-
rely on the same few tactics for the whole
game.
-
But you’ll end up with a crappy grade at
the end of the level.
-
To get a better grade, you need to play in
the way that the designers intended.
-
So, for a game like Devil May Cry which is
all about being stylish, you’ll get better
-
grades - plus, some handy items - if you use
varied and more difficult attacks, and use
-
your guns to keep the combo ticking along.
-
Likewise, Tony Hawk’s makes you connect
up different tricks to keep your combo going,
-
and will give fewer points each time you repeat
a move.
-
In all of these games, the only way to get
a high score is to play in the most stylish
-
and interesting way possible, and to use the full extent of the game’s mechanics.
-
Rewards like experience points and achievements
can also be used for this purpose, because
-
the designer gets to choose exactly what sort
of activities or challenges the player must
-
do to earn those points, and can tailor this
to reward players for taking actions that
-
fit the game’s intended experience.
-
GRAYSON HUNT: Ooh, son of a mother. Tech is wild. This cocky leash is grading my performance.
-
Now, this is not to say that games should
never discourage, punish, or penalise people.
-
This will always have a place in games.
-
But for those games that do focus on negative
enforcement, they should be wary of pushing the
-
slider from discouraging a playstyle, to practically
forcing you not to use it.
-
Not to beat a dead horse, but playing fast
in XCOM 2’s timed missions is not just the
-
best way to play - but, basically, the only
way to play.
-
Because forcing a very specific playstyle
is difficult to pull off.
-
I’m sure we’ve all played stealth games
where getting spotted by enemies leads to
-
instant failure.
-
And sure, this makes you play in a stealthy,
ninja-like manner, and doesn’t allow you
-
to just Rambo your way through the game with
superior fire power, but it’s also annoying,
-
and it gets rid of exciting moments like where
you get spotted but manage to escape and go
-
back into hiding.
-
So the goal is not necessarily to shut down
tactics that can lead to uninteresting playstyles.
-
For example, if players are spending too much
time hiding safely behind cover in a shooter,
-
when you’d prefer them to run around the
battlefield, you don’t have to remove cover entirely.
-
It’s more often about keeping this stuff
as a valid tactic for certain situations - but
-
tweaking them so the player will not abuse
or completely rely on them.
-
So, you can discourage players from abusing
cover by having enemies throw in grenades
-
or having cover break over time.
-
Or you could encourage players to stay out
of cover by giving them points for fighting
-
out in the open.
-
And to go back to the stealth example, there
are better ways to encourage stealthy play
-
than just insta-failing players who get spotted.
-
You could discourage direct attacks by making
the player very weak.
-
In the Arkham games, Batman is useless against
enemies with guns, so punching the crap out
-
of guards during the stealth bits is a bad
tactic, but you can stay alive long enough
-
to grapple hook your way back to safety.
-
Or you could encourage stealth by using the
scoring systems mentioned earlier.
-
In Hitman, the only way to get a high score,
or finish many of the challenges like Silent
-
Assassin, is to play in the most sneaky way
possible.
-
Never get seen, hide the bodies, delete the
camera recordings, and so on.
-
Or, one less obvious way to tackle it, is
to make players more aware that direct attacks
-
are not the focus of the game.
-
With Mark of the Ninja, lead designer Nels
Anderson said that the game originally had
-
an in-depth combat system with different stances
and parries and whatnot, but this level of
-
depth signalled to the player that direct
combat was may more important than it actually was.
-
By reducing the combat to something much more
simple, players now understood that direct
-
attacks were not point.
-
Anderson explained this on the podcast Designer
Notes,
-
NELS ANDERSON: People would try to sneak,
they would fail, and then they’d just Rambo
-
through the rest of the level.
-
It’s like: okay, we just need to pair this
down, get rid of as much of it as possible,
-
make it really simple.
-
And once we just kept pairing it down to,
the amount of presence it had in the design
-
was about proportional to how important we
thought it should be, that’s when it sat
-
about right.
-
So, designers should know how they want
players to approach their game.
-
Perhaps stylishly, or stealthily, or while
taking risks, or using the full extent of
-
the mechanics, or just feeling like a demon
murdering machine.
-
Whatever they think is most fun, or interesting, or thematically relevant.
-
But if a player can reach their goals - from
microscopic targets like “get health”
-
or “defeat an enemy”, to longer-term goals
like “reach the end of the level” or “earn
-
a new skill point” - if players can reach
those goals more easily through ways that
-
don’t match that intention, and are actually
pretty boring, then the game might have a problem.
-
Locking off that easier route is certainly
one way of going about it, but forcing players
-
to meet your vision and punishing them for
playing otherwise, is fraught with difficulty.
-
And so while I personally understand and even
appreciate XCOM 2’s turn timers in the broad
-
strokes, I’m not surprised that they were met
with controversy.
-
So, it’s often better to encourage and incentivise
a player to see the game in the best possible light.
-
To allow for other playstyle, but give rewards,
high scores, easy kills, and handy resources
-
when the player is meeting that intended experience.
-
Now, please, this is definitely not as easy as I’m
making it sound.
-
There are plenty of pitfalls to think about
and some of the most controversial and disliked
-
mechanics are those that were initially designed
to encourage or discourage a certain way of playing.
-
But when used really well, this type of design
can subtly push a player towards having the
-
best possible experience, and, like Sid says,
protect players... from themselves.
-
Hey, thanks for watching!
-
I hope you found this one interesting.
-
I love seeing all the differnet ways that designers
try to encourage and discourage different
-
behaviours, and it’s fascinating to see
how successful they end up being.
-
I’d love to hear your examples from games
you’ve played.
-
Or games you’ve made, if you’re a designer.
-
Leave ‘em in the comments below, if you
like.
-
Game Maker's Toolkit is funded on Patreon.com