Difference between revisions of "Ephemeral Goals"

Revision as of 18:34, 23 May 2011

Goals that have a temporary existence, that is, they can appear and disappear during the gameplay; their appearance not exactly known at the beginning of games and automatically failing after a certain amount of time.

Not all goals in games are active at all points of gameplay. One category of such goals are Ephemeral Goals, whose defining characteristics are that they become available to players during gameplay and can become unavailable independent of players' actions. These goals do not have to be linked to the main goals of a game, and when they are not linked they let players choose between concentrating on one form or the others depending on their own preferences and the current requirements posed by the game state and other players.

Examples

Grand Theft Auto 3 allows players to perform certain missions when they have acquired certain vehicles, e. g. taking taxi assignments when driving a taxi. The time limited goals do not exist otherwise during gameplay and do not influence the main game except through rewards that change the amount of money the player has in the game.

Many Tabletop and Computer-based Roleplaying Games use random encounters during the gameplay, e.g. early editions of Dungeons & Dragons and the Elder Scrolls series. These encounters are, as the name suggests, created randomly usually from a predefined set of characteristics. The archetypical random encounter is to defeat a group of wandering monsters or enemies.

Games such as FarmVille, CityVille, and World of Warcraft have quests and achievements that are thematically tied to holidays and other big events in the real world, e.g. Christmas, Valentine's day, world cups in Soccer, etc. These only become possible active around the time of the corresponding events in the real world and have to be completed not too long after the real world events end. CityVille also starts "combo counters" as soon as rewards have been retrieved, and collected several of these without any longer interruption between each retrieval results in additional rewards - this is found in Zombie Lane as well.

Many First-Person Shooters create Ephemeral Goals when gameplay requires that one tries to hindering players in other teams from achieving certain goals. Examples of this include intercepting briefcase carriers in Team Fortress 2, likewise intercepting flag carriers in some variants of multiplayer matches in the Quake series, and making survivors drop fuel tanks in some levels of Left 4 Dead 2.

Using the pattern

Ephemeral Goals are often also Preventing Goals in Multiplayer Games, simply because players striving towards such goals present themselves as targets from when they are first observed trying to reach the goal until the goal is reached or not longer possible to reach. In these cases where it may be difficult to provide specific Rewards related to the ephemeral aspect of the goal (except that preventing the other goal may be its own Reward). Games that want to acknowledge the possible Game Mastery required to succeed with these types of goals may use specific Achievements - the Level a Charge and Fuel Crisis Achievements in Left 4 Dead 2 are both examples of this^[1].

The two main structural design choices to be made about Ephemeral Goals are first, when they should be introduced and, secondly, when they should disappear. The introduction of these goals can either be by using Randomness or by observing the current game state. The latter is especially used to catch pacing problems and most common in roleplaying games moderated by Game Masters since they can easily notice Downtime for players. In both cases the Ephemeral Goals are usually Unknown Goals, either because their existence is unknown to players at the beginning of gameplay or because the exact nature of the goals, including when they will become known, is unknown.

Many Ephemeral Goals disappear after a certain Time Limit with no penalty to the players except missing the reward. This makes them Optional Goals but other Ephemeral Goals can also be optional, for example those which do impose a Penalty (and thus are Committed Goals) but allow players to ignore them in order to concentrate on the main goals of the game.

A common way to introduce random Ephemeral Goals into gameplay is to have a selection of Predefined Goals which are modified randomly using certain templates. The principle is often used in games with Power-Ups which appear during gameplay, Resource Generators that produce game elements, and random encounters in roleplaying game, where the exact characteristics of a goal of defeating the wandering monsters are generated randomly from a predefined encounter table.

In order not to make Ephemeral Goals requirements for the main goals of games, the Rewards and Penalties of them have to be tied to game statistics that have a general meaning, e. g. money, health or experience points. This makes the introduction of high-level Ephemeral Goals during gameplay generally more difficult as they risk having negative affect on Right Level of Difficulty, Player Balance, and the Narrative Structure. Even the minor dynamic subgoals, such as random encounters in roleplaying games, have to be carefully balanced in order to keep the gameplay seemingly fair. For example, it is usually not a good idea to throw in a random ancient dragon against new player characters in a roleplaying game.

Ephemeral Goals can be supported in games by allowing Player Defined Goals to be defined during gameplay. These can either be encoded in the game system through explicit rules or be constructed outside the game system. In the latter case these goals automatically become Optional Goals as the definition then lies solely in the hands of the players.

A way to vary Selectable Sets of Goals during gameplay is to have some of the goals in the sets be Ephemeral Goals that are only available at certain times.

Can Be Instantiated By

Interruptible Actions, Evolving Rule Sets, Quick Time Events, Power-Ups, Repeat Combos

Can Be Modulated By

Time Limits

Diegetic Aspects

Interface Aspects

Narrative Aspects

Consequences

If not common, Ephemeral Goals can create Surprises when they occur, and if they are generated through Randomness they may also increase the Replayability of a game. Depending on their structure, they can be used to increase the plausibility of an Alternative Reality or to insert Red Herrings in a Narrative Structure. In the first case they insert elements into the reality that does not specifically have to with the players and in the second they introduce elements that can be misinterpreted by players.

Having Ephemeral Goals that do not tie into the Narrative Structure of a game risks irritating players as strategies can be made obsolete and expectations of the immediate gameplay may be ruined. This problem can be mitigated if the rules for the appearance or disappearance of the goals are explicit and clear, even if the knowledge the players have about these goals is only that they may occur. Another way can be to make Ephemeral Goals into Optional Goals or packaging each of them as Games within Games, as for example the taxi missions in Grand Theft Auto 3.

Ephemeral Goals that are also Optional Goals offer a more Varied Gameplay as players can choose how many goals they want to try to complete. Ephemeral Goals that are not optional can be seen as subgoals of a goal with Dynamic Goal Characteristics.

As mentioned above, Ephemeral Goals often give rise to Preventing Goals for others in Multiplayer Games.

Can Instantiate

Achievements, Ephemeral Events, Surprises

with Multiplayer Games

Preventing Goals

with Randomness

Replayability

Can Modulate

Unwinnable Games

Relations

Can Instantiate

Achievements, Ephemeral Events

with Multiplayer Games

Preventing Goals

Can Modulate

Unwinnable Games

Can Be Instantiated By

Interruptible Actions, Evolving Rule Sets, Quick Time Events, Power-Ups, Repeat Combos

Can Be Modulated By

Time Limits

Possible Closure Effects

-

Potentially Conflicting With

-

History

An updated version of the pattern Ephemeral Goals that was part of the original collection in the book Patterns in Game Design^[2].

References

1. ↑ List of Left 4 Dead 2 achievements in the Steam Achievements system and percentages of gamers receiving them.
2. ↑ Björk, S. & Holopainen, J. (2004) Patterns in Game Design. Charles River Media. ISBN1-58450-354-8.