4. Types of Social Interaction
Conflict
Competition
Direct vs. Indirect
Player Killing
Betrayal
Cooperation
Player-Decided Results
Alliances
Team Play
10. Game State
A snapshot of the game. The "game state" changes if any
of the objects or values in the game changes: life values,
info is revealed, cards moving zones, counters on objects.
16. Perfect Information
The player has full and reliable access to current or past
information about a game component, or that the total
current or past game state is known to the player.
25. Imperfect Information
When one aspect of the total game situation is not fully
known to a player, the information known to the player is
totally wrong, or the accuracy of the information is limited.
30. Why Designers Use Imperfect
Information
Encourages:
Surprises
Leaps of Faith
Memorization
Experimenting
Risk/Reward Decisions
Replayability
Limits:
Strategic Planning
Warning
Imperfect Information about Rules can lead to arguments
Can encourage or discourage Analysis Paralysis
31. Imperfect Information Design
Considerations
What parts of the game state are not
revealed?
Is information limited or faulty?
How can missing information be revealed?
What are the incentives gain the missing
information?
33. What Is The Difference Between Imperfect
Information And Uncertain Information?
34. Direct vs. Indirect Information
Uncertainty
Indirect Information
Information is
interpreted
incorrectly
Direct Information
Information might
be tampered with!
35. Sources of Uncertain Information
Imperfect Information
Indirect Information
Negotiation with Asymmetric Information
Gain Information or Exploration Goals
36. Why Designers Use Uncertain
Information
Secret Alliances
Secret Resources
Unknown Goals
37. Uncertainty of Information Design
Considerations
Can players choose actions and goals without
consuming game elements?
Do actions have a delayed effect?
Is there unmediated social interaction?
Do communication channels pass along
imperfect information?
Are game elements that collect information
unreliable?
Are there any red herrings?
40. Why Designers Use Symmetric
Information
Encourages:
Strategic Planning
Discourages:
Bluffing
Secret Tactics
Warning!
Analysis Paralysis
41. Symmetric Information Design
Considerations
Do players have the same information
about the entire game state or just part of
the game state?
Is the symmetric information enforced or
potential?
50. Why Designers Use Alarms
Provide Game State Change Information
Disrupt Focused Attention
Signify Failure Of:
Stealth
Rescue
Reconnaissance
51. Alarms Design Considerations
How are alarms tripped?
What happens when they are tripped?
Can tools or controllers can manipulate
alarms?
52. Clues
Game elements that give the players information
about how the goals of the game can be
reached.
53. Types of Clues
Direct Information Helper
Indirect Information
about Goal
Warning
Indirect Information
about Danger
54. Why Designers Use Clues
Balance Difficulty
Provide Smooth Learning Curves
Assist Game World Navigation
Encourage Exploration
Inform Completion of Low-Level Goals
Support Narrative Structure
Increase Tension
Provide Red Herrings
Warning! May Break With
Emotional Immersion
In-Game Reality
58. Why Designers Use Extra-Game
Information
Provide Information on Controls or Strategic
Information
Ensure Smooth Learning Curves
Balance Difficulty and Complexity
Promote Memorization
Provide Illusionary Rewards
Warning! May impact:
Immersion
59. Extra-Game Information Design
Considerations
What information about the controls or
interface does it provide?
How does it provide that information?
Does it provide any strategic knowledge?
63. Gain Information Design
Considerations
What information does the player need to
gain?
How is the information gain verified?
Is the information gained direct or indirect?
65. Why Designers Use Conceal Information
Goals
Prevent other player’s Gain Information
Goals
Support Limited Set of Actions
Promotes:
Tension
Trade-Offs
66. Conceal Design Considerations
Is the hidden information provided to a
player, or does a player choose or create
it?
Where is the information hidden?
When can the action of hiding be
performed?
Are there “red herrings”?
67. Choose one of the following games to play:
*Clans (2-4p, 30m)
*Igloo Pop (2-6p, 15-20m)
*Mr. Jack (2p, 30m)
Mykerinos (2-4p, 30-60m)
|Mystery of the Abbey (3-6p, 60-90m)
+Stratego (2p, 30-60+m)
68. Group Quest
Design an analog game prototype using
mechanics supporting one of the following goals:
Gain Information
Conceal
71. Why Designers Use Communication
Channels
Source of:
Direct Information
Indirect Information
Uncertain Information
Encourages:
Social Interaction
Social Organizations
Balances
Public Information
73. Game State Overview
Players are provided with information that
extends beyond the observational abilities
provided by the game elements.
74. Forms Of Game State Overviews
God Views
Maps
Score Indicators
Progress Indicators
Near Miss Indicators
Goal Indicators
Book-Keeping Tokens
Cut Scenes
75. Why Designers Use Game State
Overviews
Provides:
Strategic Information
Supports:
Game World Navigation
Attention Swapping
Puzzle Solving
Strategic Planning
Player-Defined Goals
Cognitive Immersion
Discourages:
Attention Swapping
Surprise
Leaps of Faith
Warning! Can Cause:
Analysis Paralysis
76. Game State Overview Design
Considerations
What game state information is provided?
How is the game state overview provided?
77. Use the LMS to analyze information quality
and distribution in several games of your
choosing.
Notas del editor
REASONS FOR COMMUNICATING: 1) Get something, 2) Coordinate Actions, 3) Cooperation
COMMUNICATION CHANNELS: 1) Natural, 2) Stimulated
TURN-BASED: Slow; REAL-TIME: Fast
SOCIAL INTERACTIONS: When two or more players have two-way communication between each other.
CONFLICT: One or more parties, often players or players against the game system, have goals that cannot be satisfied together.
COMPETITION: The struggle between players or against the game system to achieve a goal where the performance of the players can be measured at least relatively.
DIRECT: Players can engage with each other.
PLAYER KILLING: When players can intentionally or unintentionally remove players from the game for at least a period of time.
BETRAYAL: One or several players that have an agreement with other players intentionally fail to do as agreed or otherwise hinder the fulfillment of the agreement.
COOPERATION: Player cooperate; i.e., coordinate their actions and share resources, in order to reach goals or subgoals of the game.
PLAYER-DECIDED RESULTS: Players are responsible for deciding at least some of the results of player actions, and their decisions are not necessarily based on the rules of the game.
ALLIANCES: A group of players who have agreed to obey particular and specific rules of conduct toward each other and who, usually, have a shared agenda.
TEAM PLAY: Players in a group or team coordinate their actions, abilities and roles in order to reach a common goal.
NEGOTIATIONS: A situation where the players confer with each other in order to reach an agreement or settlement.
SOCIAL DILEMMAS: Players tend to compete against each other even though cooperation would be best for all involved.
TRADING: Players exchange a resource, whether it is information, actions, or game elements, between each other or the game system.
BIDDING: Players invest resources, usually some kind of currency, for an uncertain outcome in order to get a reward of some kind.
BLUFFING: Players have a possibility to convey FALSE INFORMATION to other players in order to benefit from their situation.
What information is made available to a single player, as well as the quality and reliability of that information.
This lecture focuses on how information about the Game State – including other Players’ actions and goals – are made available to players or kept hidden from them.
LESS GAME STATE INFORMATION = FEWER DECISIONS = LESS COMPLEXITY
What information is made available to a single player, as well as the quality and reliability of that information.
EXAMPLE: CHESS: Game State is stored as physical game components that are visible to all Players.
EXAMPLE: YAHTZEE: All dice rolls are public and recorded on a common score track.
Perfect information can be applied to a subset of the Game State or the Game State as a whole.
Goal Prevention: Helps deduce or guess other player’s Goals and Tactics
Strategic Planning: Encouraged by Strategic Knowledge.
In a deterministic, perfect information game, no cap on the the look ahead possible.
Game space is limited
Calculations are more interesting, such as with long producer-consumer chains
Make it less deterministic: UNPREDICTABILITY
GAME STATE: Chess has large, Poker has smaller. The LARGER the size, the more Decisions
CLOSURE POINTS: The more closure points, the less PREDICTABILITY.
TEMPORARY: Such as using DISCARD PILES in Trick-based games Requires MEMORIZATION for Players if information becomes hidden.
POKER: Perfect Information about everything EXCEPT the other Player’s Hands, which ultimately are revealed.
PANDEMIC: Games of COOPERATION and NEGOTIATION can have Perfect Information DISTRIBUTED among all the Players.
EXAMPLE: DOOM, Gives Players statistics on the number of secrets in a level but does not reveal their location.
EXAMPLE: ZENDO: Rules for stacking colored pyramids are deicide by an umpire, and winning the game is about guessing the rules.
EXAMPLE: CARD HANDS, OVERVIEW MAPS, FOG OF WAR
REQUIRES: Players must KNOW that their Information is Imperfect.
REQUIRES: Information must CHANGE between instances for REPLAYABLITY, although in Single-Player games it can lead to SOCIAL INTERACTION as players compare notes.
.
MAPS, FOG OF WAR give LIMITED INFORMATION.
Can set up GAIN INFORMATION Goals for EXPLORATION.
The term was probably invented in 1807 by English polemicist William Cobbett, referring to one occasion on which he had supposedly used a kipper (a strong-smelling fish) to divert hounds from chasing a hare
Hides Narrative Structure
Secret Resources
Concealment
Red Herrings
Discourages
Predictable Consequences
Perceived Chance to Succeed
WHAT INFORMATION: Is knowledge of the Game State ASYMMETRIC INFORMATION.
LACK INFORMATION: Typically combined with ACCESS TO INFORMATION so Players know something but not everything about a Unit, Card Hand, etc.
FAULTY INFORMATION: Due to Player’s intentional actions or misinterpreting Indirect Information.
HOW REVEALED: In some games not all information is revealed, allowing for REPLAYABILITY.
INCENTIVES
.The player cannot trust the information completely due to the manner in which he or she received the information.
EXAMPLE: DIPLOMACY: Current game state is known to all players, but players don’t know what orders other players have written down.
EXAMPLE: MASTERMIND: Pegs show level of correctness without showing the correct answer.
REQUIREMENT: Decouple the spreading of information from the element that carries the information.
Imperfect IInformation can be caused by Incomplete Information or Uncertain Information
ACTION-/GOALS: Allows for UNKNOWN GOALS and SECRET TACTICS
DELAYED EFFECT: Source of UNCERTAINTY OF INFORMATION
SOCIAL INTERACTION: Source of UNCERTAINTY OF INFORMATION. (POKER/DIPLOMACY)
IMPERFECT INFORMATION: Pegs in MASTERMIND
UNRELIABLE COLLECTION INFORMATION: Made unreliable through use of RANDOMNESS
RED HERRINGS: Tricking player into not relying on correct information.
The relationships between how different players access information.
Gives all players the same amount of information to decide their actions and strategies. Mastery of the game does not rely on Players having specific information.
EXAMPLE: CHESS has all the Information Public. In most cases, the information is simply where all the pieces are and what are their strengths.
EXAMPLE: In CARCASSONNE, all Players have the SAME AMOUNT OF INFORMATION – the configuration of placed tiles and where players have placed their tiles.
PROMOTED BY: PERFECT INFORMATION
PROMOTES: STIMULATED PLANNING, especially when PREDEFINED GOALS are known to all players.
WARNING: Can lead to ANALYSIS PARALYSIS, as Players try to guess what other players are planning.
ENFORCED: Actions and events are designed so that all players have access to the same information. Information is symmetric at the start-up phase, but all actions and events need to be made public. (Example: taking cards through a drafting – choosing through a limited set of cards.).
POTENTIAL: Players can deduce information from other players. (Example: let all players know what individual elements of a game object exist, but don’t reveal the distribution among players). (Example: MASTERMIND, where achieving Symmetric Information is the winning condition for one player, while maintaining Asymmetric Information is the goal for the other player).).
Widespread in all types of multiplayer games, especially CARD GAMES. Usually, one player has private information that is hidden from other players.
EXAMPLE: PICTIONARY: One player knows the word or phrase and everyone else has to guess. ONE PLAYER, the Drawer, has PERFECT INFORMATION about the Game State, but can reveal it only through INDIRECT INFORMATION.
EXAMPLE: POKER: Each player has PRIVATE INFORMATION about the cards in their hand.
WHAT INFORMATION: Can apply to other player’s GOALS, ABILITIES, and END CONDITIONS.
IMPERFECT INFORMATION: Needs to be AT LEAST ONE PLAYER. Can be combined with SYMMETRIC INFORMATION in TEAM-BASED GAMES, where one whole team has the same information but the other Team does not. Or a TEAM LEADER has all the information while TEAM MEMBERS have only specific information.
Many games allow people who are not playing that game to have access to the Game State. Sports and board games allow spectators to observe the positions of the players and game elements, others require technological support to provide information to non-players.
EXAMPLE: Spectators at a SOCCER game have information about changes in the Game State during the match.
EXAMPLE: Players killed in COUNTERSTRIKE can watch the other players play.
AFFECTED BY: GAME STATE OVERIVEWS, GOD VIEWS, INDICATORS, THIRD-PERSON VIEWS, FIRST-PERSON VIEWS
AFFECTS: MODULATES: EXTRA-GAME ACTIONS, TRANS-GAME AINFORMATION, SOCIAL STATUS of PLAYERS
Extra Game Consequences: BETTING
WHAT INFORMATION: It is harmless to make SYMMETRIC AND PERFECT INFORMATION Public.
SPECTATORS: Some games forbid it, but other games incorporate it: WHO WANTS TO BE A MILLIONAIRE?
BALANCED BY: GAME MASTERS (UMPIRES) to minimize SPECTATOR influence.
Alarms are ways to pass information about activities and states within a game, but can also alert other players or enemies to your activities.
EXAMPLE: WORLD OF WARCRAFT notifies players when they’ve entered a new region.
EXAMPLE: CALL OF DUTY notification that a new weapon is available.
HOW TRIPPED: Entering area, completing mission, initiating activity.
WHAT HAPPEN: Introduce or call ENEMIES, set off a TIME LIMIT
MANIPULATION TOOLS might DEACTIVATE ALARMS. BLUFFING might be able to cause FALSE ALARMS. Increases FREEDOM OF CHOICE but may increase COMPLEXITY and interfere with NARRATIVE STRUCTURE.
EXAMPLE: In LEGEND OF ZELDA games, an ARROW might point you in the right direction.
EXAMPLE: RACING GAMES have WARNING SIGNS.
DIRECT INFORMATION: Such as arrows showing where to go.
HELPER: Provide INDIRECT INFORMATION on how to reach a GOAL. (OWL in LEGEND OF ZELDA that occasionally steers player in right direction).
WARNING: Provides INDIRECT INFORMATION on how to avoid DEADLY TRAPS and ENEMIES.
Direct Information
Helper: Indirect Information about Goal
Warning: Indirect Information about Danger
NARRATIVE STRUCTURE (if the clues fits within the ALTERNATIVE REALITY).
RED HERRINGS (to TRICK PLAYERS into actions against low-level goals).
DIRECT: Describe exactly how to reach goal.
INDICTT Describing facts and events that need to be interpreted.
ADVICE: Tells players what to do BEFORE they take action.
ENCOURAGEMENT: Provides feedback that action is CORRECT although goal has NOT BEEN COMPLETED.
WARNING: Advice on what NOT to do.
OBJECT: Can be a GOAL OBJECT of GAIN INFORMATION or GAIN OWNERSHIP goals.
Provides instructions on the game or how the user interface works, especially mapping between game controller and player actions, but it can also provide STATEGIC KNOWLEDGE.
EXAMPLE: LEGEND OF ZELDA: THE WIND WALKER provides information about how to perform actions in the game world.
OUTSTANDING FEATURES: Shape, color, or texture may give information to the player.
Breaks of Immersion may be alleviated by STORY-TELLING.
EXAMPLE: HIDE & SEEK, one of the players has to find the location of other players.
EXAMPLE: CLUE, players gather information and make deductions about a murder.
It can be about where an object is in the game space, what attributes objects have, what abilities player’s have, what goals exist.
REQUIRES: IMPERFECT INFORMATION or UNCERTAINTY OF INFORMATION.
.
MEMORIZATION of Information
SIMULATED PLANNING if Information is about Information.
Used to present NARRATIVE STRUCTURE in intended way.
SUPPORTS NARRATIVE STRUCTURE
WHAT
VERIFED
Game state change that does not require player to actually understand the information. (e.g., gaining an object that presents info to the player).
Requiring Player to perform some activity indicating the information has been interpreted correctly (e.g., entering the right combination for a safe).
DIRECT INFORMATION: Refers explicitly to the Game State.
INDIRECT INFORMATION: Can spawn NEW GAIN INFORMATION goals to check correctness of Information.
Trying to prevent other players from finding out information about the game state.
EXAMPLE: HIDE & SEEK, where all children but one hide their location.
EXAMPLE: STRATEGO, player’s know the other player’s unit locations, but not its rank. Moving a piece provides IMPERFECT INFORMATION about it.
.
LIMITED SETS OF ACTIONS, as Players may not have enough information to perform some actions.
TRADEOFFS (Reveal position to kill enemy, promoting SURPRISES
PROVIDED:
CHOOSE/CREATE: Supports FREEDOM OF CHOICE and CREATIVE CONTROL and promotes REPLAYABILITY
WHERE:
WHEN:
RED HERRINGS: Generates ASYMMETRIC INFORMATION, and provides CREATIVE CONTROL.
How information is presented to the players.
The game itself is a Communication Channel. More interesting situations happen when players there is a possibility to communicate about more than just the Game State.
EXAMPLE: In PICTIONARY, Players use drawing and non-verbal signals. (ASSYMETRIC INFORMATION)
EXAMPLE: In WORLD OF WARCRAFT, players can CHAT.
CAUSED BY: DEDICATED GAME FACILITATORS (Game Systems or Game Masters)
FACE-TO-FACE: When players are in the same physical location. (POKER)
MEDIATED: Communication is made through technology or other means. (ONLINE GAMES)
SYNCHRONOUS: No delay in communication, and usually requires attention of all participants.
ASYNCHRONOUS: Time delays of hours, days or more. (Always Mediated). (CHESS BY MAIL).
VERBAL: Talking or writing to other players.
NON-VERBAL: Gestures and facial expressions.
Many games provide overview of information necessary to support the intended gameplay.
EXAMPLE: MARIO KART has an overview of the track.
REQUIRES: THIRD-PERSON VIEW, GOD VIEW or CUT SCENE.
Always IMPERFECT INFORMATION of the whole Game State but may be PERFECT INFORMATION about parts of it.
Usually DIRECT INFORMATION (or INDIRECT with little information loss).
Usually PUBLIC INFORMATION that is safe to show SPECTATORS.
WHAT PROVIDED: SCORE, GAME WORLD STATE, UNIT STATUS and POSITION
HOW PROVIDED: BOOK-KEEPING TOKENS, INDICATORS, MAPS