Post by Morreion on Mar 29, 2010 6:52:29 GMT -5
Experience Driven Game Design (Bit Battalion)
Means-Based Game Design (MMORPG.com Forums)
SirBenedict posted:
I like the direction of this idea. Too much of the time, players are oriented towards getting to the end game or level cap as opposed to actually enjoying all of the work-intensive content that was placed in the game for them to enjoy. If what you do at the beginning of the game is as important game-wise as what you do at the endgame, then that would be a good thing. Focus on the process, not the rewards...I'd like to see some MMOs focusing on this to see how they would turn out.
I'm also thinking that this would favor sandbox worlds. You don't need rails if you are where you want to be and there is no pre-determined destination you need to be at.
So to sum up, this paradigm encourages you to design your games with what the user is going to feel when they’re playing it. To get a feel for this, look into other games which have successfully created a similar experience so you know what to aim for, and look at what key mechanics so that you can be influenced by these in the design of your own game. Do this right and you shouldn’t feel limited at all, just inspired.
Means-Based Game Design (MMORPG.com Forums)
SirBenedict posted:
What if there were a game about means rather than ends, the experience rather than the completion. It appears to me that "leveling up" "beating the game" or "killing the monster" are not the inherently rewarding components of a game. Take sports as an example. People don't play sports just because they want to win. Rather, they play sports because the mere experience of engaging in them is rewarding on a level far below the abstractions of status and hierarchy. Sipping hot chocolate or smelling a frangrant flower are engaged in because the experiences themselves are rewarding, not because once you've drunk the cocoa you get "cocoa xp" or because you "leveled up your flower-smelling ability." In short, I think that the whole concept of designing games around "success" or "end" should be exchanged for games which focus on the experience of the game or means to its "end".
I think thatGameCompany has adopted this idea in its purest form with its flOw and Flower games. These focus exclusively and very consciously (on the designer's part) on an experience rather than an end. As one review I read put it, flOw and Flower blur the distinction between the "toy" and the "game". These games are about creating feelings in the player directly rather than handing them "medals". Another game which implements this experience-based model is Shadow of the Colossus. I think this game is more about experiencing the colossi than about "beating" them or achieving the "end" of the game. The sights, sounds, and movements are, in themselves, the essence of what makes the game enjoyable. Also, Age of Conan's combat system is a decent example of this. When I engaged in combat in AoC, I never thought for a moment about how much closer the approaching kill would get me to an objective, I enjoyed the act of battle itself. I could be level 60 or level 1 and still get the exact same enjoyment out of it.
Ultimately, what I'm envisioning: a truly huge "game" that is really just the toy-like experience of stepping into another world and being there, "smelling the roses" as it were. Probably the most perfect encapsulation of this idea is the old story of Alexander the Great in which, upon reaching the Himalayas he cried because there were no more worlds to conquer. He didn't care that he had conquered the world, he cared that he could no longer be conquering one.
I think thatGameCompany has adopted this idea in its purest form with its flOw and Flower games. These focus exclusively and very consciously (on the designer's part) on an experience rather than an end. As one review I read put it, flOw and Flower blur the distinction between the "toy" and the "game". These games are about creating feelings in the player directly rather than handing them "medals". Another game which implements this experience-based model is Shadow of the Colossus. I think this game is more about experiencing the colossi than about "beating" them or achieving the "end" of the game. The sights, sounds, and movements are, in themselves, the essence of what makes the game enjoyable. Also, Age of Conan's combat system is a decent example of this. When I engaged in combat in AoC, I never thought for a moment about how much closer the approaching kill would get me to an objective, I enjoyed the act of battle itself. I could be level 60 or level 1 and still get the exact same enjoyment out of it.
Ultimately, what I'm envisioning: a truly huge "game" that is really just the toy-like experience of stepping into another world and being there, "smelling the roses" as it were. Probably the most perfect encapsulation of this idea is the old story of Alexander the Great in which, upon reaching the Himalayas he cried because there were no more worlds to conquer. He didn't care that he had conquered the world, he cared that he could no longer be conquering one.
I like the direction of this idea. Too much of the time, players are oriented towards getting to the end game or level cap as opposed to actually enjoying all of the work-intensive content that was placed in the game for them to enjoy. If what you do at the beginning of the game is as important game-wise as what you do at the endgame, then that would be a good thing. Focus on the process, not the rewards...I'd like to see some MMOs focusing on this to see how they would turn out.
I'm also thinking that this would favor sandbox worlds. You don't need rails if you are where you want to be and there is no pre-determined destination you need to be at.
