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SOCIAL MECHANICSLevel 5
David MullichGame MechanicsThe Los Angeles Film School
Social Interaction and Games
Games are social in nature.
Even single-player ones.
Social Interaction
When two or more players have two-way communication between each other.
Social Interaction Design Considerations What reasons do players have for
communicating with each other? What is the communication channel
between players? What is the pace of the game?
Non-Combat Gaming
Extra Credits: How to make social mechanics fun
What Was The Main Message Of This Video?
COMPETITION
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.
Forms Of Competition Enemies Incompatible Goals Preventing Goals Rewards
Direct vs. Indirect Competition
Direct Overcome King of the Hill
Indirect Races without Interference Last Man Standing
Why Designers Use CompetitionEncourages: Conflict Tension Social Status
Discourages: Cooperation Alliances Experimenting
Competition Design Considerations Is the competition direct or indirect? Are the players’ goals symmetric,
asymmetric, or unknown? What is the outcome of the competition?
Balancing CompetitionMore Competition Symmetric Goals Tiebreakers
Less Competition Asymmetric Goals Mutual Goals Unknown Goals Shared Rewards Collaborative Actions Alliances Cooperation
Conflict
One or more parties, often players or players against the game system, have goals that cannot be satisfied together.
Sources of Conflict Transfer of Control Interferable Goals Preventing Goals Enemies Competition Betrayal Combat Player Elimination Overcome Goals
Why Designers Use ConflictEncourages: Emotional Immersion Tension Attention Swapping Tournaments
Discourages: Cooperation Collaborative Actions Mutual Goals
Conflict Design Considerations In which situations does conflict appear? How severe is the conflict? Does the conflict exist outside of the
game?
Balancing ConflictIncreased by: Symmetric Goals Symmetric Information Individual Rewards
Reduced by: Shared Rewards Mutual Goals Lives, Spawning Ability Losses/Decreases Penalties for Player Killers
Player Killing
When players can intentionally or unintentionally remove players from the game for at least a period of time.
Why Designers Use Player KillingMain Uses: Player Elimination (but with Respawning) Team Elimination Score Keeping
Encourages: Tension Risk/Reward Decisions Social Status
Affects: Ownership Team Balance Team Play
Player Killing Design Considerations What penalties does a player incur for
being killed? When and were does the player respawn
after being killed? Can players kill members of their own
team? Are players rewarded for killing other
players?
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.
Betrayal Elements Cooperation Between Players Commitment To A Goal Incentive For Breaking Commitment
Where Betrayal Can Occur Mutual Goals Collaborative Actions Player-Decided Rewards
Why Designers Use BetrayalPromotes: Emotional Immersion Surprise Role-Reversal Tension Leap Of Faith
Balances: Anticipation Negotiation Trading Alliances Narrative Structure
Betrayal Design Considerations What collaborative actions have a delayed
effect? What are players’ perceived chance of individual
rewards for betraying another player? Do players have asymmetric information about
other player’s actions? Can bluffing be used to conceal betrayal? Do players have uncommitted alliances or stable
ones?
Balancing Betrayal
Encouraging Rewards For Betrayal
Discouraging Penalties For Betrayal
COLLABORATION
Cooperation
Player cooperate; i.e., coordinate their actions and share resources, in order to reach goals or subgoals of the game.
Ways To Achieve Cooperation Team Play Mutual Goals With Shared Results Shared Rewards Collaborative Actions
Why Designers Use CollaborationEncourages: Social Interaction Alliances Betrayal Constructive Play
Reduces: Competition Tension
Collaboration Design Considerations What mutual goals do players have? What rewards do players share? What resources do players share?
Balancing Cooperation
Encouraged By: Competency Areas
Discouraged By: Competition Conflict Betrayal
Team Play
Players in a group or team coordinate their actions, abilities and roles in order to reach a common goal.
Ways To Use Team Play Avatars In Multiplayer Games Units in Single Player Games
Why Designers Use Team Play
Encourages: Social Interaction Cooperation Collaborative Actions Constructive Play
Discourages: Betrayal
Team Play Design Considerations What is the mutual goal and its rewards? What are the shared resources? Do teams form at the beginning of the play
session, or dynamically during gameplay? Does team play occur between players or is
it simulated through units? How does each team member feel
important and significant?
Balancing Team Play Encouraged By: Asymmetric Abilities Privileged Abilities Social Organizations Alliances Role-Playing
Discouraged By: Betrayals Individual Rewards Individual Penalties
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.
Why Designers Use Alliances
Encourages: Team Play Social Organizations
Discourages: Competition
Alliances Design Considerations What are players’ mutual goals or common
enemies? What are the rules of conduct that players
can agree to?
Balancing AlliancesEncouraged By: Interferable Goals Player-Decided Results Shared Rewards Shared Penalties
Discouraged By: Shared Resources Individual Penalties Betrayals
GROUP ACTIVITIES
Constructive Play
Based on putting game elements together to construct new kinds of game element configurations, which might have different emergent characteristics.
Why Designers Use Constructive PlayEncourages: Cognitive Immersion Sensory-Motor Immersion Experimenting Player-Constructed Worlds
Constructive Play Design Considerations How complex are the possible
constructions? Do the relationships between game
elements create dynamic systems?
Balancing Constructive Play
Encouraged By: Player-Decided Results
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.
Examples of Player-Decided Results Player-Decided Distribution Of Resources,
Rewards or Penalties Voting To Kick Out A Player Negotiations Story-Telling Player-Constructed Worlds
Why Designers Use Player-Decided ResultsEncourages: Empowerment Limited Planning Player Balance Betrayal Secret Alliances
Not Useful With: Team Balance
Player-Decided Results Design Considerations What results do players decide? How do players decide the results? Can players form alliances?
Role-Playing
Players having characters with somewhat fleshed-out personalities. The play is centered on making decisions on how the characters would react in staged imaginary situations.
Why Designers Use Role-PlayingEncourages: Social Interaction Emotional Immersion Story Telling Alternative Reality
Affects: Team Play Narrative Structures
Role-Playing Design Considerations What control do players have over their
characters? How to characters affect the game world?
Balancing Role-Playing
Encouraged By: Character Creative Control Character Development Player-Constructed Worlds
What Makes Us Role-Play?
Extra Credits: Why game worlds feel real
What Was The Main Message Of This Video?
SOCIAL INTERACTION MECHANICS
Negotiation
A situation where the players confer with each other in order to reach an agreement or settlement.
Examples of Negotiations Collaborate Actions Players Exchanging Resources Deciding When To Use Asymmetric Abilities Deciding When To Use Shared Resources Player-Decided Results Deciding On Handicaps For Balancing
Why Designers Use NegotiationsEncourages: Social Interaction Transfer of Control Alliances Game Mastery Engagement During Downtime
Balances: Players
Negotiation Design Considerations
Are negotiations strictly extra-game actions?
How are negotiations initiated? How does bargaining occur? How are agreements reached? Can third parties interrupt the negotiation? How are agreement breaches handled?
Trading
Players exchange a resource, whether it is information, actions, or game elements, between each other or the game system.
Trading Phases
1. Initiating a trade by making an OFFER2. BARGAINING (Optional)3. Resolving the EXCHANCE OF
RESOURCES
Special Forms Ransom Gifts
Why Designers Use TradingEncourages: Social Interaction Cooperation Freedom Of Choice Transfer Of Control Alternate Strategies For Progression Avoiding Strategies For Blocking Player Progression
Balances: Resources
Trading Design Considerations What resources can be traded? What is the incentive for trading? What are the exact mechanisms for
initiating, bargaining, and resolving a trade?
Balancing TradingEncouraged By: Asymmetric Resource Distribution
Discouraged By: Symmetric Resource Distribution
Made More Complex By: Time Limits Bluffing Betrayal Delivery
Bidding
Players invest resources, usually some kind of currency, for an uncertain outcome in order to get a reward of some kind.
Special Cases Of Bidding Auctions Voting
Why Designers Use Bidding
Encourages: Competition For Resources Player-Defined Goals Transfer Of Control Of Resources Conversion Of Resources Trade-Offs Alternate Strategy To Combat
Bidding Design Considerations Are player bids known to other players? What order do players bid in? Can players negotiate during bidding? Can players be eliminated during bidding? How does bidding end? How is outcome determined?
Balancing Bidding
More Complex: Negotiation Betting Bluffing
Bluffing
Players have a possibility to convey false information to other players in order to benefit from their situation.
Why Designers Use Bluffing
Encourages: Social Skills To Random Situations Makes Trading, Betting, Bidding More
Complex Risk/Reward Emotional Immersion Betrayal Tension
Bluffing Design Considerations What asymmetric information can be the
basis for bluffing? How is false information indirectly
communicated from one player to another? What are the rewards and penalties for
bluffing?
Social Dilemma
Players tend to compete against each other even though cooperation would be best for all involved.
Why Designers Use Social DilemmasEncourages: Emotional Immersion Betrayal Tension Risk/Reward Decisions Social Organizations
Balances: Alliances
Social Dilemma Design Considerations What are the shared penalties for
cooperating? What are the individual rewards for
betrayal?
MORE GOALS
Eliminate
Remove a game element from its location in the game space.
Examples Of Elimination Remove An Element That Hinders Player
Actions Remove A Threat To The Player’s Goals Removal Is A Goal Itself
Why Designers Use Elimination Goals Turn Player Into A Consumer Of Game Elements Prevent Opponent’s Survive Or Evade Goals Speed Up And Simplify End Game
Encourages: Conflict Tension High-Level Closures
Eliminate Design Considerations
What game element is eliminated? How is the elimination achieved? Is the elimination permanent?
Rescue
The goal of freeing someone or something that is guarded.
Why Designers Use Rescue Goals Prevents Guard Goals Narrative Structure
Encourages: Conflict
Rescue Design Considerations What/who must be rescued? What obstacles must be overcome? Does the hostage need to be moved to a
safe area? Do the players have other goals besides
rescuing?
Choose one of the following games to play:
Boomtown (3-5p, 30m) *Cartagena the Escape (2-5p, 30m) Colossal Arena (2-5p, 40-60m) For Sale (3-6p, 20-30m) Forbidden Island (2-4p, 30m)
Money (3-5p, 20-30m) *Pandemic (2-4p, 45m) *Quo Vadis (3-5p, 45m) Space Alert (1-5p, 30m) |The Downfall of Pompeii (2-4p, 45)
Group Quest
Design an analog game prototype using mechanics supporting one of the following goals: Eliminate Rescue
Research and use the LMS to report on games using group activities discussed in class.