Difference between revisions of "Always Vulnerable"

Revision as of 14:50, 21 July 2011

The situation where players resources in game instances can be threatened even when they are not playing.

This pattern is a still a stub.

Examples

Players resource in Eve Online and their villages in Travian can be attacked even if the players themselves are not logged onto these games. This can also happen in Empires & Allies but the effects are less severe and can be avoided through having declared "neutrality."

Always Vulnerable may occur in Tabletop Roleplaying Games. This is however not so much a question of which particular game system is being used as how game masters handle the question of how to treat the characters of players who are missing a session. Some game masters fudge events so that they cannot die (but perhaps do not get as much rewards as the others) while others let them be in the same amount of danger as the characters of present players.

Using the pattern

games where a player's character, country, etc. is possible to attack even when the player is not playing, e.g. Eve Online

There are two versions of this pattern. One is that players Characters, Units, Investments, etc. can be threaten when other players have play sessions in the game instance. The other is that all players have their Characters, Units, Investments, etc. threatened regardless of if anybody else is playing at all.

Diegetic Aspects

Interface Aspects

Narrative Aspects

Consequences

Relations

Can Instantiate

Encouraged Return Visits, Tension

with ...

Can Modulate

Combat, Massively Multiplayer Online Games, Multiplayer Games, Tick-Based Games

Can Be Instantiated By

The Show Must Go On

Can Be Modulated By

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Possible Closure Effects

Potentially Conflicting With

History

New pattern created in this wiki.

References

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Acknowledgements