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2004-2005年
The Perils of Bottom-up Game Design
摘要
I've been guilty of it myself，back when I was a young programmer
and still thought that making computer games was about writing cool software.
Your head is fizzing along with data structures for representing this
and that，and algorithms for computing this and that，and the very
first thing you want to do is code it up and watch it go. But this isn't
a column to tell you "design your code before you write it" - that's been
said a million times already. The problem with bottom-up game design，
even if you don't write a line of code for months，is that you don't
know if it's any fun while it's just a simulation.
This was one of the weaknesses of Black and White，as I think Peter
Molyneux himself would admit. Molyneux is famous for creating amazing，
hugely innovative game engines，and only then figuring out how to turn
them into a game. If the gossip is right，he did it with Populous，then
with Dungeon Keeper，and again with Black and White. Despite their success，
all show signs of having been written as a simulation first，and only
then having been turned into games.
URL：http://www.gamasutra.com/features/20041018/adams_01.shtml
Game Design：Theory & Practice Second Edition："Not All Game Design
Documents Are Created Equal"
摘要
For example，suppose that the game being documented has a number
of characters that perform certain actions in the game-world. Say the
game has townspeople，and they need to walk around，sit down and stand
up，talk to each other，and sleep. The document should describe these
behaviors in the AI section. A truly thorough document might break this
down into separate animations：stand from sitting，sit from standing，
idle sitting，idle standing，walk，converse with hand gestures，and
so on. Probably this is not necessary，since good animators and artists
will be able to break this down better than a designer can. But some designers
may go overboard and actually sketch or list the individual animation
frames. This is absurd. There is no way to know in the design document
stage how many animation frames will be required for a given animation.
This sort of decision can only be made and adjusted during the game ?s
production. Not to mention that listing animation frames is insulting
to the animator who will only feel demoralized by this degree of micro-management.
Furthermore，the design document should stick to gameplay design，and
not veer into the territory of the art bible or other art documentation.
URL：http://www.gamasutra.com/features/20041101/rouse_01.shtml
Soapbox：Why Virtual Worlds are Designed By Newbies - No，Really！
摘要
Newbies come to virtual worlds with a set of preconceptions acquired
from other virtual worlds ； or，failing that，from other computer
games ； or，failing that，from gut instinct. They will not consider
virtual worlds that confront these expectations if there are others around
that don't.
Put another way，if a virtual world has a feature that offends newbies，
the developers will have to remove that feature or they won't get any
newbies. This is irrespective of what the oldbies think：they may adore
a feature，but if newbies don't like it then（under point #1） eventually
there won't be anyone left to adore it.
URL：http://www.gamasutra.com/features/20041103/bartle_01.shtml
Natural Funativity
摘要
When LucasArts Entertainment Company was still known as Lucasfilm
Games，our boss was Steve Arnold，who had been drawn into the games
industry at Atari after years as a child psychologist. This made him uniquely
qualified not only to understand the audience for our games，but also
to manage and motivate a bunch of young game developers. One of the first
things he would ask us when we presented a new game concept was："What
is the Funativity Quotient？" It was a question that encouraged us to
think about just what aspects of the idea would make it fun，and I was
always intrigued by the implication that fun could be categorized，defined，
perhaps even measured. But how do we get at the underlying roots of fun？
URL：http://www.gamasutra.com/features/20041110/falstein_01.shtml
Dramatic Novelty in Games and Stories
摘要
If we，as game designers，think of ourselves as creating interactive
narratives（and many of us do not，of course），then we are either
explicitly or implicitly buying into this analogy：the notion that gameplay
tension is like dramatic tension and perhaps interchangeable with it.
However，as Rimmer's Risk story illustrates，this doesn't always work.
Risk is a terrible basis for a story. For one thing，it has no characters
apart from the players themselves，and the players' personal qualities
as human beings have almost nothing to do with the course of events in
the game. Worse，however，is the fact that those events are all alike.
Conquering one country in Risk is just like conquering any other country.
Because it's a board game for the general public（as opposed to hardcore
board gamers），it has simple，easy-to-learn rules，and that makes
it repetitious. This repetition is bearable - even exciting - to the players
of the game because they are personally involved and every move affects
their progress towards victory or defeat.
The reader of a story，on the other hand，is entertained by ongoing
novelty. A story should never contain two identical events. Rather，things
should happen that the reader didn't anticipate. Characters should express
their personalities through their words and actions. This can happen in
a big way （melodrama ） or in a subtle way （drama ）。 Even if a story
takes place between only two characters in one room，it can still contain
novelty，as the characters converse and reveal things about themselves，
their pasts，and their relationships with each other and third parties.
（See the J.D. Salinger short story，"Uncle Wiggly in Connecticut，
" for a classic example.） Many stage plays，especially modern ones
in which there is little change of scenery，work on exactly this principle.
URL：http://www.gamasutra.com/features/20041115/adams_01.shtml
The State Of Church：Doug Church on the Death of PC Gaming and the
Future of Defining Gameplay
摘要
"It's natural that design improvement often comes bottom-up，but
here in particular jumpstarting it from the other direction，i.e. on
the bigger picture，of player agency on a larger scale，would be a
huge help. Even if they don't work spectacularly，these experiments would
still be a big win because they would give us all a better understanding
of how it might work，and what there is to gain，as opposed to sort
of bubbling around down there and seeing where we end up. And I think
a few titles that have tried to go that direction，allowing agency in
player task focus，character definition （not just "what weapon do i
kill with" in the stats based RPG way，but a bit more character oriented），
that sort of thing，and these have resonated with a lot of players."
But giving over more agency involves taking bigger risks； a difficult
bet at a time when budgets are growing and established entertainment models
seem more immediately profitable than experimental play innovation（games
like Katamari Damacy notwithstanding）。 "In most console，mass-market
entertainment products at the moment，I think there is some interest
in providing more agency in the small and providing more control for the
player in how they go about doing things，but there's not a lot of time
and risk available to go after the bigger agency. As I say，a few games
have gone after some of it and succeeded well，but we aren't to the
point where it is easy to explain why that risk is worth taking compared
to other things you could spend time on."
URL：http://www.gamasutra.com/features/20041123/hall_01.shtml
Manager In A Strange Land：Dependencies，Part Two
摘要
Fred can't work on task B because he's working on task A. Usually
you just live with this，unless task B is on the critical path，in
which case Fred task switches and you live with the fact that now task
A is coming in late. If both task A and task B are on the critical path，
you can bring in another employee to replace Fred on task B. What if Fred's
the only one that can do task A and task B？ Then you have a bottleneck.
It's time to train another employee to do Fred's job. Even if it takes
this new employee many times longer to accomplish the same thing that
Fred could do，it's worth it，because it will bring your project in
sooner.
URL：http://www.gamasutra.com/features/20041129/fristrom_01.shtml
Soapbox：On Girls and Video Games
摘要
I have to speak up，because I'm sick of the drivel. When the men
making video games for males occasionally look up from their passion to
realize that they are missing 50% of the population market. Then we hear
the whine of why we can't get more girls to play games，and why women，
who can seem to find time for innumerable interests，should be playing
video games，but they don't.
And the excuses are trotted out，that women have more demands on
their time than men，or at least they choose to spend that time differently，
or that they might be interested if they could learn something in the
process，or build or understand relationships with the game or something
besides hacking enemies into pieces. And then the men making video games
go back to their passion，because there is the pervasive notion that
you must be passionate about games in order to make them. And the passion
of males in games is very different from that of females.
URL：http://www.gamasutra.com/features/20041130/bates_01.shtml
Book Excerpt："A Theory of Fun for Game Design" - What Games Aren't
摘要
I don't think anyone would quarrel with the notion that stories are
one of our chief teaching tools. They might quarrel with the notion that
play is the other and that mere lecturing runs a distant third. I also
don't think that many would quarrel with the notion that stories have
achieved far greater artistic heights than games have，despite the fact
that play probably predates story （after all，even animals play，whereas
stories require some form of language ）。
Are stories superior？ We often speak of wanting to make a game that
makes players cry. The classic example is the text adventure game Planetfall，
where Floyd the robot sacrifices himself for you. But it happens outside
of player control，so it isn't a challenge to overcome. It?s grafted
on，not part of the game. What does it say about games that the peak
emotional moment usually cited actually involves cheating？
Games do better at emotions that relate to mastery. Stories can get
these too，however. Getting emotional effects out of games may be the
wrong approach - perhaps a better question is whether stories can be fun
in the way games can.
URL：http://www.gamasutra.com/features/20041203/koster_01.shtml
The Theory of Game Relativity and its Link to Design Innovation，
Predicting Emergent Gameplay
摘要
Unintentional appeal is not always a bad thing. For example，take
the OPPORTUNIST appeal of Everquest. It is unlikely that the designers
of the game fully anticipated how much of a real-world economy would develop
out of the game （selling of game items for real-world dollars，so much
so that Everquest ranks registers on the list of world economies）。 However，
the OPPORTUNIST saw through the pattern of the game and figured out that
real-world gain could be seized through the game experience （and thereby
achieving the goal of that player archetype ）。 It cannot be denied that
this functioning real-world economy only added to Everquest's popularity，
financial success，and overall "buzz".
URL：http://www.gamasutra.com/features/20041208/sigman_01.shtml
How Many Endings Does a Game Need？
摘要
Some time back a company hired me to consult on the design of a large
shooter game that was planned to have several different endings. On reading
the design document，I discovered that they were all uniformly grim.
I told the designers that commercial shooters are not Kafka novels and
that players who had made it through to the end of such a game will feel
entitled to at least one moderately positive ending. They took my point.
Artistically，my position was wrong：designers should certainly
create the videogame equivalent of Kafka novels if they want to. But commercially，
I think it's sound. This company had asked me for my opinion about a commercial
game，and it's my opinion that the game-buying public is not yet ready
to spend $50 on a triple-A shooter in which every possible ending is a
downer. Winning and losing is a matter of definition，but a bad ending
feels like a loss，and a happy ending feels like a victory. Over the
years we have trained our players to assume that they will eventually
win a long game sometime，though they may have to try repeatedly to do
so. The longer a game lasts，and the more a player has invested in it，
the less likely she'll be to tolerate an unhappy ending，as I told my
clients. Adventure games or mysteries might get away with it，but if
a game about survival doesn't end with the player surviving，she's going
to be annoyed.
URL：http://www.gamasutra.com/features/20041222/adams_01.shtml
Game Design：Theory & Practice Second Edition："Interview with
Jordan Mechner"
摘要
There are a couple of game models which I wanted to steer away from，
one of which is where you have to do a certain thing to get to the next
cut-scene or the story doesn't progress. Another is the kind of branching-tree，
"Choose Your Own Adventure" style，where there's ten ways the story
can end，and if you try all ten options you get to all ten of them.
One of the puzzle sequences that I think worked best in Last Express is
one of the first ones，where you encounter Tyler's body and you have
to figure out what to do to get rid of it. There are several equally valid
solutions，and each one has its own drawbacks，ripple effects down
the line. For example，if you hide the body in the bed，you risk that
when the conductor comes to make the bed he will discover the body there，
so you have to deal with that somehow. You can avoid that problem by throwing
the body out the window，but if you do that，then the body is discovered
by the police. And they board the train at the next stop and you have
to figure out how to hide from the police when they're going compartment
to compartment checking passports. Either way，your actions have consequences
on the people around you. As another example，if you throw the body out
the window，you may overhear Francois，the little boy，saying to his
mom，"Hey，I saw a man being thrown out the window." And she'll say
to him，"Shut up，you little brat，don't tell lies！"
URL：http://www.gamasutra.com/features/20041224/rouse_01.shtml
Ethics of Game Design
摘要
How well a game designer has abided by a code of ethics depends in
part on what the game is trying to achieve. Is it just a fun game？ Does
it try to depict a historical event with accuracy？ Does it purport to
be a self-consistent fiction？ Or does it try to reproduce reality of
some kind？
"Some games are supposed to be fun，" says John Whitmore，director
of design at 2015 Studios in Tulsa，Okla.，and co-creator of the Vietnam
war game Men of Valor. "Some are trying to be more artistic. If you have
the pretension of trying to be more artistic，you have to think about
the ethical decisions that you make. It's hard to call a game like Grand
Theft Auto high art. Some fantastic movies are racy. But porn doesn't
quite make it to the Academy Awards."
Would-be censors have pilloried the game industry for many controversial
games. Violence is always a flashpoint，and to a lesser extent sex and
foul language are as well. From the original Mortal Kombat where you could
rip out the spines of your hand-to-hand combat opponents，to this year's
Def Jam Fight For New York，where 'F'-word spouting rappers can bloody
each other with tire irons，it's easy to find controversial games. In
Grand Theft Auto：Vice City，you can shoot cops and have sex with a
prostitute and then kill her to get your money back.
URL：http://www.gamasutra.com/features/20041227/takahashi_01.shtml
Soapbox：Technoholism - A 12-step Recovery Plan
摘要
Technology is great，isn't it？
In our industry，technology has driven massive progress and financial
returns，the likes of which were undreamt of 20 years ago. From 'rumble
packs' and EyeToy-s to 3DFX cards and analog pads，we are blessed with
the fruits of a golden age of，well，stuff. We have come to rely on
technology. We await new formats，new capabilities and new toys with
something approaching high passion.
But there is a dark side to techno-love. We have come forward leaps
and bounds in hardware，but the software lacks far behind. The industry，
especially in the console and handheld sectors，remains immature and
hardware-led. Games are now much more expensive to develop. Geometric
cost rises are not matched by equally geometric rises in sales. Creative
game content is not evolving，and release schedules increasingly carry
the whiff of déj à vu.
The industry is becoming more the equivalent of an electronic comics
industry rather than the usurper of film that it aspires to be. Technology，
bizarrely，is now part of the problem rather than the solution. We rely
on greater and greater hits，trying to achieve better-than-photo realism
through ever-more complicated graphics technology，massive physics systems，
and ever more complicated consoles. Yet while we seek these new electro-thrills，
we seem increasingly oblivious to our own atrophy，to the arguably failing
state of the games we produce，and to our own future.
We are technoholics.
What are we addicted to？
URL：http://www.gamasutra.com/features/20041229/kelly_01.shtml
Educational Games Don't Have to Stink ！
摘要
My heretical view is simply this：computer games don't teach. I think
the idea that you can teach using computer games is based on a flawed
analogy between gameplay and learning. Here's how the analogy goes. Players
of games have to overcome obstacles in order to achieve victory. They
do this by learning the weaknesses，or limitations，of the opponents
they face. Similarly，students learn knowledge in order to pass tests.
So learning a fact is equivalent to defeating an enemy，and passing a
test is equivalent to achieving victory. And a great many educational
games are created this way.
This is a terrible way of learning！ Why？ Because in playing a game，
the instant an enemy is dead，we forget him. We are only concerned with
him for as long as it takes to beat him. This was，in effect，what
happened to me with the computerized logic course. I passed each lesson，
and remembered its message only insofar as it was necessary to pass another
lesson. When they were all done，I forgot the lot.
URL：http://www.gamasutra.com/features/20050126/adams_01.shtml
总算完了,毕其功于五役。 |
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发表于 2005-2-24 16:31:00