Game Design Principles Part 2 : Challenge and Conflict

1. Game Design PrinciplesPart 2 : Challenge and Conflict Jehee Lee Seoul National University

2. Challenge Necessitates Rules • All challenges take place in some sort of defined context, setting the conditions (rules) under which the challenge is presented • Most challenges are voluntary

3. Goal vs. Challenge • The goal of mountain climbing is to get to the top of the mountain • Mountain climbing would be so much easier with a helicopter, but that would remove all the challenge • Most climbers have a set of self-imposed rules that limit their utilization of such aides • The point is the challenge, not the goal

4. Rules and Challenges • The primary purpose of rules is to prevent strategies that subvert the challenge • In most sports games, there is some sort of boundary and any play that goes “out of bounds” is forbidden by the rules • It is possible to ruin a good challenge by exploiting loopholes in the rules • “Lock on victory”: A strategy or technique that guarantees success • Eg) MazeWar (one of the earliest multiplayer games)

5. Rules and Challenges • A good game design ensures that only the challenging ways are possible • What constitutes a challenging strategy?

6. Dimensions of Challenge • Cerebellar challenges • Sensorimotor challenges • Spatial reasoning • Pattern recognition • Sequential reasoning • Numerical reasoning • Resource management • Social reasoning

7. Cerebellar Challenges • The cerebellum is the control module for motor functions • Motor control procedure • High-level brain decisions are passed to the cerebellum • Breaks each command down into smaller, precisely timed commands to trigger particular muscle bundles • These commands go down the brain stem to the spinal cord and thence to the muscles

8. Cerebellar Challenges • There are only a few sports that are exclusively cerebellar in nature • Eg) Discus, shot-put and javelin • Do not involve much sensory input • Do not require accuracy of aim

9. Sensorimotor Challenges • Most cerebellar challenges include a sensory element • You don’t just trigger muscles in some predetermined sequence • You must use your senses (most often vision) to direct and control the muscular activity • Even a simple human behavior require very accurate sensory-motor coordination • A single neuron takes a few milliseconds to fire • How do we attain the accuracy?

10. Sensorimotor Challenges • Most sensorimotor challenges require the integration of visual information with motor response • Eg) Hand-eye coordination • Sport vs videogames • Full-body exercise vs. swift thumbs

11. Sensorimotor Challenges • The neural pathways utilized in sensorimotor challenges are complex • Visual data passes from the retina to the visual cortex • Processed into visually meaningful components • Travels to the cerebral cortex • Decide what to do (high-level processing) • Decisions are passed down to cerebellum • Muscle action

12. Pushing the Pathways Down • Any process that we concentrate on repetitively can develop its own custom neural pathways that render its operation faster and smoother • By moving the pathways lower into the brain, the player reduces the amount of processing required to react to events in the game or sports • Decision making is no longer conscious or deliberate • Often described as “instinctive” • The brain can learn different tasks with different degrees of facility

13. Altered States of Consciousness • Human are programmed to learn, and successful learning is intrinsically pleasurable • Some players devote the entire mental resource to the learning process and shut conscious processing down • Similar to altered states of consciousness induced by drug

14. Analogy between Videogame and Drug • Pleasure • “videogamer’s high” attained at a certain level of proficiency • The sense of power and invulnerability • Drug users report the feeling that they are smarter, more creative, and able to see more deeply into their souls • Some videogamers report similar experience • The loss of awareness of the real world • Addiction

15. Higher-level Reasoning • Spatial reasoning • Eg) Identifying a bad guy popping up • Pattern recognition • Eg) a puzzle game in which the player was presented with a random pattern of colored dots that slowly dissolved into a recognizable image • Eg) Boardgames • Sequential reasoning • Eg) Baduk, Chess • Programmers tend to overemphasize sequential reasoning because it comes so easily to them

16. Higher-level Reasoning • Numerical reasoning • Usually a tedious challenge • Resource management • Eg) In strategy games, the player must carefully marshal a limited supply of scarce resources • Eg) ammunition and health in shooters • Some of the best game designers argue that resource management is central to game design

17. Higher-level Reasoning • Social reasoning • Less developed source of challenge • Eg) The sims • Eg) Ms. Pac-Man • Eg) Redmango tycoon (mobile game serviced by SKT, LG, KT)

18. Conflict • Conflict makes challenge personal • Challenge without conflict is usually predictable • Eg) A cliff waiting to be climbed • Eg) A puzzle waiting to be solved • Conflict enlivens and animates challenge

19. Dimension of Conflict • Physical • Dominance and deadly conflict • Typically, dominance conflict is applied to members of one’s own species, where deadly conflict is applied to other species • Verbal • “Insult battle” vs “boasting battle” • Narrative assault • The attacker tells a fascinating story to audience, but the story contains elements inimical to the opponent

20. Dimension of Conflict • Political • Recruit allies and undermine their opponent’s alliances • Eg) back-stabbing, bad-mouthing, insinuation, false accusation, falsely informing the victim’s allies that he has betrayed them, and so on • Economic • Primary form of conflict in business environment • You can financially ruin your adversary

21. Directness of Conflict • Conflict can be prosecuted with varying degree of directness • Two combatants face to face at arm’s length • Using guns: increase physical distance • Using rockets to destroy distant opponents • Tossing a grenade through a window • Time bomb, booby trap • Recoursing to indirection can often yield more interesting possibilities and satisfaction

22. Directness of Conflict • Various forms of indirectness • Using agents • Shoot the rope holding the big weight to kill the enemy • Spatial and temporal dimensions • Eg) trading embargo, financial offensive • Indirect approaches tend to be less violent • More subtle and often take longer to achieve the goal

23. Intensity of Conflict • Conflict is carried out with varying degree of intensity • can be concentrated into a short time • can be spread out over a longer time • The duration of gameplay is related to the intensity of conflict • A well-pace game design will rely on more indirect, less intense forms of conflict if it is to last a long time

24. Violence • Violence is the most intense, direct, physical form of conflict • The objection to extreme violence is not so much moral as aesthetic

25. Intensity and the Evolution of Taste • Candy vs sophisticated foods • Children tend to positively respond to direct conflict • Adults can enjoy subtlety, variety and indirectness • Are there many videogames that appeal to adult taste ?