Post by Morreion on Jun 7, 2015 7:11:06 GMT -5
How a drinking game was saved by MMO design (Polygon)
When bar-room trivia needed a refresh, an RPG guru stepped in ...
"A bar is one of those third places where you go to escape reality," says Koster. "The fact that Buzztime has been around since the mid-'80s, with people playing networked trivia indicates that people have been gaming at bars all along. Arcade games have always been big in bars, too."
But Buzztime has a big new competitor. "Everybody has a mobile phone in their pocket," says Koster. "It's super common to see somebody at a bar pull out a game and do something for maybe five minutes while they're waiting for somebody to show up. Because of the bite-sized nature of so much mobile and casual gaming, games are everywhere."
Koster works as an independent designer and consultant on gaming projects. Part of his appeal is his sharp perception of gaming trends. Apart from pioneering MMOs, he was also an early mover in design-platforms and social media games.
Part of the Buzztime challenge for Koster was getting his head around the needs of the players while they are in a bar.
"The player wants something to do, usually with their friends, often after work," he explains. "They want a lightweight distraction while they can catch up on the day or complain about their boss or whatever. A friends night out."
..."Anybody who's played a first-person shooter with a bunch of 14-year-olds understands this," says Koster. "14-year-olds have much faster reflexes than I have. But there are other things in the game, such as tactics, that I might be able to do better than them.
"That's what we needed to do to change the trivia game. We needed to give the players who weren't necessarily great at trivia several ways to be good at the game, without necessarily being great at trivia."
Weaker players, Koster decided, needed to have a balancing mechanism to help them out. They also needed more control over the kinds of questions they were being asked. If you know a lot about football, it's not much fun to never get to use your expertise, right when it might have some passing value.
Based on more usable touchscreen controls, Koster introduced a new version of the game called Jackpot Trivia which offered various systems in which players can control some of the incoming topics.
Immediately, this showed a vast difference between the questions previously being asked, and those being demanded. Disney movies and superheroes went straight to the top of the list.
Children (generally, not very strong trivia players) were starting to play, as well as a higher number of young adults. This was entirely in line with Buzztime's stated goals.
When bar-room trivia needed a refresh, an RPG guru stepped in ...
"A bar is one of those third places where you go to escape reality," says Koster. "The fact that Buzztime has been around since the mid-'80s, with people playing networked trivia indicates that people have been gaming at bars all along. Arcade games have always been big in bars, too."
But Buzztime has a big new competitor. "Everybody has a mobile phone in their pocket," says Koster. "It's super common to see somebody at a bar pull out a game and do something for maybe five minutes while they're waiting for somebody to show up. Because of the bite-sized nature of so much mobile and casual gaming, games are everywhere."
Koster works as an independent designer and consultant on gaming projects. Part of his appeal is his sharp perception of gaming trends. Apart from pioneering MMOs, he was also an early mover in design-platforms and social media games.
Part of the Buzztime challenge for Koster was getting his head around the needs of the players while they are in a bar.
"The player wants something to do, usually with their friends, often after work," he explains. "They want a lightweight distraction while they can catch up on the day or complain about their boss or whatever. A friends night out."
..."Anybody who's played a first-person shooter with a bunch of 14-year-olds understands this," says Koster. "14-year-olds have much faster reflexes than I have. But there are other things in the game, such as tactics, that I might be able to do better than them.
"That's what we needed to do to change the trivia game. We needed to give the players who weren't necessarily great at trivia several ways to be good at the game, without necessarily being great at trivia."
Weaker players, Koster decided, needed to have a balancing mechanism to help them out. They also needed more control over the kinds of questions they were being asked. If you know a lot about football, it's not much fun to never get to use your expertise, right when it might have some passing value.
Based on more usable touchscreen controls, Koster introduced a new version of the game called Jackpot Trivia which offered various systems in which players can control some of the incoming topics.
Immediately, this showed a vast difference between the questions previously being asked, and those being demanded. Disney movies and superheroes went straight to the top of the list.
Children (generally, not very strong trivia players) were starting to play, as well as a higher number of young adults. This was entirely in line with Buzztime's stated goals.
