Difference between revisions of "Dedicated Game Facilitators"

Revision as of 13:28, 4 January 2011

Programs, machines, or people who perform book-keeping actions and/or control various agents to provide gameplay to players.

All games require some effort to maintain and update the game state. This may be as easy as tallying scores but may also require extensive preparing, the management of information that should be hidden from all players, the impartial judging or performing of actions, and resolving complex algorithms during gameplay. Since letting players perform these may distract from the gameplay and may be difficult or impossible to do (e.g. managing secret information) a common solution is to assign these activities to other people, giving them roles as umpires, referees, judges, or game masters. With the advent of computers, these have also been

Examples

The umpire or referees of sports are all examples of people acting as Dedicated Game Facilitators. In many cases (e.g. Soccer and Ice Hockey) these referees are supposed to ensure that the rules are being followed, but for others (e.g. Boxing and Figure Skating) the referees also have to grade performances to determine winners. Although not part of the definitions of board games and card games such as Chess, Go, Contract Bridge, the Pokémon Trading Card Game, and Magic: The Gathering, referees are used in tournaments and organizations take responsibilities of maintaining 'official' tournament rules and providing referees.

All computer or console based games have the computer as a Dedicated Game Facilitators (see the categories of computer and console games on this wiki for examples). For computerized versions of existing card or board games, these Dedicated Game Facilitators show the trans-medial nature of games^[1]. The work load is shared between many computers in the case of online games, typically with one server in control of maintaining and updating the game state and many clients showing the game state to the players and collecting input from them to pass on to the server (e.g. Ultima Online and World of Warcraft]. Although this seems to put the main workload on the server (except for the graphical presentation), clients used for real-time online games such as the Counter-Strike series, the Quake series, and the Left 4 Dead series include advance prediction systems to be able to show where opponents are predicted to be in order to avoid having lag^[2]. The AI and Music directors used in the Left 4 Dead series can be seen as a Dedicated Game Facilitators distinct from the game system itself even if it is part of the same code since it acts upon the game system as if it is another system.

Game masters in roleplaying games such as Dungeons & Dragons, GURPS, Basic Role-Playing, and the Storytelling System are another type of Dedicated Game Facilitators. These need to be knowledgeable in both the rules of the game and the fictive world in which the gameplay occurs, as well as handle all characters and monsters not under the players' control. Computer-based roleplaying games such as The Witcher or the Fallout series replace people with computers (quite logical since the computer already needs to be a Dedicated Game Facilitator for the underlying support such as maintaining the game state). For the complex events that can occur in massively multiplayer online games such as Ultima Online and World of Warcraft, it is typical to have both computers and people involved in the game facilitation so their are human game masters to help handle rare exceptions or social conflicts.

Using the pattern

The primary choices when designing Dedicated Game Facilitators is what functionality these should facilitate and whom should be the facilitators.

One common task for Dedicated Game Facilitators is to handle as much Excise as possible. This may be all the updates that need to be made as a new turn, phase, or round begins in Turn-Based Games but it may also be keeping track of when those update should be made as is needed in Real-Time Games and Tick-Based Games.

Both computers and humans can used as Dedicated Game Facilitators. Additionally, the workload can be shared between many computers (as for example in online games such as the Quake series and World of Warcraft), many humans (most common for Live Action Roleplaying games such as Prosopopeia), or a combination (as for Ultima Online or World of Warcraft). While computers can easily handle large data amounts and complex calculations, the use of humans can allow Evolving Rule Sets, improvised Storytelling and Never Ending Stories. Human game facilitators are also a way of providing Creative Control to people who are not players.

Game Masters are one specific form of Dedicated Game Facilitators. These are used in Roleplaying games to describe the Game Worlds as the Player Characters can perceive them, to decide the actions of Enemies and Non-Player Characters, and to resolve all Agents' actions and provide Effect Descriptions for these.

For computer-based Roleplaying games, the distinction between these tasks and the others common to any computer-based game is typically not done and therefore the mention of Game Masters becomes redundant for them. The exception is when people and computer share responsibility of facilitating the games (e.g. DragonMud, Kingdoms, the Neverwinter Nights series, Ultima Online and World of Warcraft), in these cases Game Masters are people responsible for adapting the Narration Structures to unforeseen events and resolving conflicts regarding rules or social interactions.

Surprises, , Unknown Goals, Smooth Learning Curves, Ultra-Powerful Events, Narration Structures, Imperfect Information, Asynchronous Games, Persistent Game Worlds, Communication Channels, Balancing Effects, Cut Scenes, Turn Taking, The Show Must Go On, Save-Load Cycles, Enemies, Agents

Conflict, Combat, , Multiplayer Games, Experimenting, Downtime, Game World, Synchronous Games, Betting, Characters, Single-Player Games, Replayability

Game Masters

Downtime, Self-Facilitated Games, Public Information

Zero-Player Games

Real-Time Games

Randomness

Agents

Turn-Based Games

Excise

Diegetic Aspects

Interface Aspects

Narrative Aspects

Consequences

Relations

Can Instantiate

Can Modulate

Can Be Instantiated By

Can Be Modulated By

Possible Closure Effects

Potentially Conflicting With

History

A revised version of the pattern Dedicated Game Facilitators that was part of the original collection in the book Patterns in Game Design^[3].

References

1. ↑ Juul, J. (2005). Half-Real: Video Games between Real Rules and Fictional Worlds. The MIT Press. ISBN 0262101106.
2. ↑ Wikipedia entry for Lag.
3. ↑ Björk, S. & Holopainen, J. (2004) Patterns in Game Design. Charles River Media. ISBN1-58450-354-8.

Acknowledgements

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