Difference between revisions of "Player/Character Skill Composites"

Revision as of 14:11, 8 April 2011

Outcomes of player actions that depends both on both player and character characteristics.

Many games make the outcome of actions depend on player skills, but other games make use of the skills and equipment used by the diegetic characters. When games make use of both simultaneously, so both player and character characteristics are merged to for a synthesized skill, the outcome of actions become dependent on Player/Character Skill Composites.

Examples

Tabletop Roleplaying Games such as Dungeons & Dragons and GURPS have Player/Character Skill Composites for two reasons. First, although players may choose the actions performed by the characters, it is their skills, levels, and equipment that determine the outcome (at least for rule-based versions of this type of games). Second, game masters often provide bonuses (or penalties) depending on how well players planned, described, and enacted the characters' actions.

While all FPS Games (e.g. the Quake and Half-Life series) that have different types of weapons have a certain level of Player/Character Skill Composites some games make more explicit use of the pattern. Left 4 Dead 2 lets players find laser sights that upgrade weapons so that they sway less when one aims. This makes shooting a combination of player skill and character equipment. Borderlands allows many different upgrades of weapons and lowers the sway of weapons for skilled characters (the "Aim Assist" option in the game can be seen as a version of the pattern as well).

Zero-Player Games such as C-Robots have a form of Player/Character Skill Composites in that outcomes depend on players' skill in programming the robots that then perform them. Dragon Age II has a limited form of this in that both players' characters and companions can be given tactics, simple rules for how to behave in combat.

Using the pattern

Creating Player/Character Skill Composites consists of designing the outcomes of actions so that they depend both on how (and when) players perform actions and on attributes tied to Characters. Examples of ways players can show personal skills or competences include performing Dexterity-Based Actions, Memorizing, Tactical Planning, or Timing. Examples of how Characters can affect outcomes of actions are by having Skills related to the actions, and by providing Tools and Weapons]. Automated Responses and Enforced Agent Behavior are ways to more directly tie Characters to the actual performing of the actions, and Zero-Player Games (or games such as Dragon Age 2 that allow players to have Creative Control over Automated Responses) make players into the creators of Algorithmic Agents that provide Enforced Agent Behavior. Setting Automated Responses can allow a lesser form of Player/Character Skill Composites to exist when players can influence Non-Player Characters behaviors (done in Dragon Age 2 and more weakly in the Fallout series).

Avatars

Combat is an activity that quite often depends on Player/Character Skill Composites. One example is making hitting depend on player skill while Damage depends on character Skills and Weapons. The difficulty of performing Aim & Shoot actions can more tightly merge the two components through having player do the aiming but let the sway of the aim depend on Weapons and their Upgrades, as well as on Skills.

Player/Character Skill Composites have to balance Character Development with Game Mastery if any of the two are to exist in a game. Those where Game Mastery over time influences outcomes more than Character Development lessen the Value of Effort for the Character Development; this may however be compensated by the Value of Effort having the mastery represents. It may however also make Player Balance difficult to achieve without other Balancing Effects. Dominating influence from Character Development can directly work against Game Mastery occuring (see Linderoth 2010^[1] for a discussion related to this). Note that this is not the same type of balance that needs to be maintained between difficulty and chance to succeed to create Red Queen Dilemmas.

Combos is an alternative way of achieving Player/Character Skill Composites since actions, and even the performance of them, can be attributes of Characters but players decide when they are done. Likewise, the presence of Game Masters can allow Player/Character Skill Composites by letting Enactment and Tactical Planning beyond that possible from the game state modify the chance of success for any action.

Grinding

Smooth Learning Curves

Diegetic Aspects

Interface Aspects

Narrative Aspects

Consequences

Relations

Can Instantiate

Can Modulate

Aim & Shoot, Combat,

Can Be Instantiated By

Automated Responses, Characters, Combos, Dexterity-Based Actions, Damage, Enactment, Enforced Agent Behavior, Game Masters, Memorizing, Skills, Tactical Planning, Timing, Tools, Upgrades, Weapons, Zero-Player Games

Can Be Modulated By

Character Development, Game Mastery

Potentially Conflicting With

Game Mastery when Character Development is present

Player Balance when Game Mastery is present

History

New pattern created in this wiki.

References

1. ↑ Why gamers donʼt learn more - An ecological approach to games as learning environments. In proceedings of Nordic DiGRA 2010.

Acknowledgments