Games that include the element of luck are approachable and winnable by a wider audience. Hardcore strategy games may be too serious and require much more concentration compared to games with chance.
Tools for Chance
Delay/Prevention of Solution
- What makes a game: "An uncertain outcome, a struggle toward a goal."
- Adds a random element, "Making the same decisions may lead to different outcomes".
- Pure strategy, the stronger or smarter player will beat the weaker player. "Can't always count on two equally matched players being available at same time and same place."
- Less experienced players can win!
- Similar experiences are boring.
- Each game experience can be different. Changes player strategies.
- More variety means better replay value
- Roll of dice dependent on good or bad creates tense moments.
- Unknown elements create decisions that become more complicated and are compelling.
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| Dice: Photo by James Bowe. Source can be found here. |
Dice
- The roll frequency of multiple dice is similar to a bell curve on a graph. More dice mean the results skew towards the center, lessening the equal or "fair" randomness.
- Greater number of faces on a dice means there will be a greater range and the randomness is increased.
- Each previous roll does not influence future rolls.
- The terms that dice are "hot" or "cold" are fallacies.
- Can be shuffled to randomize order.
- Hide face down to withhold information.
- Revealing a card affects probability of other cards.
- Drawing single cards from decks that are shuffled is equivalent to rolling die with N sides.
- Impossible for most computers to produce a truly random number.
- Pseudo-Random means that a number is not technically random but close enough for purposes of most games.
- Care must be taken to ensure that numbers generated are sufficiently random for games that involve real money.
- Non-random hidden information is random from the players' perspective.
- "Fog of war" conceals information.
- Hidden information that is too random can make players frustrated.
- Spinners,counters, dreidels, bags (similar to deck).
- All randomness does not have to be created equal
- Complete random games means that they are children's games or gambling games.
Most games at least have a little bit of skill involved. Players form strategy based on their understanding of games' dynamics.
Role of Skills
Success of decisions - mental or physical reaction - is a measure of skill.
Good games exercise skills frequently and reward them with immediate and obvious feedback.
The "magic circle", to integrate player and decisions in to the experience, a constant feedback loop.
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| Flow: Image created by benarent. Source can be found here. |
Psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi names "Flow", the optimal play state game designers work hard to achieve. It is their sole purpose to get the "Flow" to a correct balance.
Weight of decisions create the outcome of a game.
A choice that has no effect on game state is pointless.
Obvious decisions:
If player makes an optimal decision to win then the decision is pointless. If a decision is pointless then it should be removed, made automatic or add time pressure.
Meaningless decisions:
A choice with no right or wrong answer. No effect o game's outcome. Game designers should try to ELIMINATE meaningless decisions. Perception of choice for meaningless decisions can make the choices meaningful.
Other role of skills: Blind decisions, trade offs, dilemmas, Risk VS reward.
Anticipation of known pending decisions sustains player with thoughts.
Completely skill based games: Tic Tac Toe.
Trade off mechanics:
Mechanics that lead to interesting decisions by making players' choose between things.
- Auctions - bidding
- Purchases
- Limited-use special abilities
- Explicit choices
- Limited Actions
- Trading and negotiation
Human reaction time can continue to improve over time forever.
Questions Rob set for the discussion
Why is CHANCE an important component in games?
A game with the element of chance makes it approachable, anyone can win, if the player knows they are immediately going to lose then they won't want to play, it's not satisfying losing all the time and knowing what is going to happen next. A game without chance can be predictable to the player, if the player knows the future decisive moves it can make the game boring for players who don't want to spend time calculating the next 10 or so moves in the future.
What TOOLS does the designer have at their disposal to deploy the element of chance?
Game designers can use mechanics such as dice, cards, pseudo-random number generators, and hidden information to create the dynamics of delay, withholding information, creating fair competition, adding variety to the experience, and creating the experience of dramatic moments .
Why is "Strategic" SKILL an important component in games?
"Strategic" skill is the action of making successful decisions, this gives the player some control over the game. By giving the players' control, players' can immerse themselves in to the context of the game. Completely random games can be unfair for players who think themselves skilled at making decisions, this can make the game cause frustration to the player, lowering their interest towards the game.
What TOOLS does the designer have at their disposal to deploy the element of "strategic" skill?
Ways game designers can enhance decision making is by making sure they add weight to the outcome of the game, that they are "meaningful" decisions. A choice that has no effect on the outcome of the game is meaningless and if it is meaningless then the players' interest towards the game dilutes to poor interest value. Designers can fix this by removing obvious decisions, or making them automatic.
Designers can also make sure that the mechanics lead to interesting or enhanced decision making by using trade-off mechanics. A trade off mechanic puts the player in the position of choosing between things.
"Human reaction time can continue to improve over time forever"
I'm not too sure of this, there has to be a limit to how much a person can improve their reaction time by, we as humans are limited by our physical attributes and the time it takes our brain to process the actions. People have overcome certain reaction times by using "macros" or ways to automate their commands in computer games. This is bad in my opinion because in a way I feel that they are cheating, on the other hand if the game enabled them to easily cheat using macros then as a game designer I have failed to do my job because they are not playing it as intended. Possibly I would need to evaluate if there are any obvious decisions that need automating so that there is no need for them to cheat or to change the whole game mechanic so that they play it as intended.
Reference
Brathwaite, B., 2008. Challenges for Game Designers 1st ed., Delmar Publishing, pp:69-91
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