Focus Loci

Game elements that allow players to perform actions in game worlds.

This pattern is a still a stub.

Focus Loci, the locations of thefocus, are the game elements through which players can affect the game state. The most obvious Focus Loci are the game elements that can be moved by the player, and the actions they provide are the possibility of moving them.

Examples

Example: Each piece in Chess acts as a Focus Loci for the players by providing a number of potential actions.

Example: The stones used in Go are only Focus Loci when they are being placed on the board, since players cannot perform any other actions through them later.

Example: The Avatar that a player controls in a first-person shooter is the Focus Loci they have in the game.

Example: Various types of mouse cursors used in real-time strategy games and Sims games are Focus Loci that allow players to move between units and characters, which in their turn are also Focus Loci.

The units under players command in Warhammer 40K, the Starcraft series, and the Hearts of Iron series are all examples of Focus Loci for players.

Using the pattern

Focus Loci are ways to locate players' abilities to affect gameplay in Game Worlds. The four main options for this is Avatars, Characters, Units, and God Fingers (primarily Player Characters in the case of Characters). The first three can maintain a Diegetic Consistency, but only as long as the actions they provide are restricted by the Alternative Realities of the games in question. While Characters may be unnecessary in Game Worlds that have consistent representations, they can provide Focus Loci in the mainly implied Game Worlds of Tabletop Roleplaying Games and provide support for actions that are smaller than the granularity of explicit action presentation in Game Worlds.

Units naturally provide players with several Focus Loci but this can also be supported by allowing players to switch between different Avatars or Characters. God Fingers are quite often combined with these other types of Focus Loci in these situations since God Fingers provide a way easily switching between the other Focus Loci; they may also allow actions otherwise not possible (e.g. activating production of Units in buildings in Real-Time Strategy Games such as the Starcraft series). Such use of several Focus Loci can allows single players to control Parties or Teams at high levels of granularity but requires Attention Swapping. This type of Attention Swapping can be removed by allowing players to activate actions for several Focus Loci at once - something present in both Real-Time Strategy Games such the Starcraft series and other computer-based Strategy Games such as the Hearts of Iron series. This solution is however unlikely to remove Attention Swapping completely from games since those that have this type of gameplay are likely to create situations where the various Focus Loci cannot effectively be used by making them all do the same thing.

Although not as common as the four options mention above, Cards can, especially in Collectible Card Games, be Focus Loci either when being played or by being in play and giving a player New Abilities. This of course assumes that Game Worlds that can be affected are at least implied, but examples of games that do this include Magic: the Gathering, Dominion, and Race for the Galaxy. Bookkeeping Tokens whose presences indicate that a player has New Abilities are another form of more unusual Focus Loci. Dice are seldom Focus Loci except in pure dice games, since using them is not usually an activity affecting the game directly but rather a way of determining how actions are to be performed.

Can Be Instantiated By

Agents, ,

Can Be Modulated By

Clickability, Geospatial Game Widgets, Line of Sight, Mini-maps, New Abilities

While different Focus Loci can of course affect Game Worlds is vastly different ways, one way that most Focus Loci can affect Game Worlds is to give Area Control by being present in specific part of them (God Fingers are the typical exception).

Diegetic Aspects

The diegetic aspects of Focus Loci depend primarily on what type of Focus Loci they are, so refer to the patterns that instantiate Focus Loci for more details.

Interface Aspects

Focus Loci is an Interface Pattern.

Game State Indicators can be used to provide players with abstract information pertaining to their Focus Loci (e.g. Health or presenting their Handle) but can also be used to show which Focus Loci is or are selected when several are available. One example of this is the signature green icon above selected Sims in the Sims series.

The various Focus Loci do have relations to what views players are given in Computer-Based Games, e.g. God Fingers not being possible to combine with First-Person Views. For this reason, considering various Focus Loci should be done in conjunction with First-Person, Third-Person, and God Views.

Narrative Aspects

The specific choice of Focus Loci used in a game can affect which type of Narration Structures are suitable. For example, Detective Structures is difficult to use with God Fingers or Units since they allow players information from a non-diegetic perspective or from several different diegetic individuals.

Consequences

Focus Loci are game elements that provide methods for players to affect Game Worlds, and are in many cases diegetically present in the Game Worlds themselves. These Focus Loci can support Engrossment in various ways depending on their specific characteristics, but very often Spatial Engrossment since they make players focus to specific parts of Game Worlds at a time and quite likely Movement or relations between parts of Game Worlds. They also create natural elements within games for players to Identify their gameplay experiences and efforts with.

Providing multiple Focus Loci can support Attention Swapping but may also create it by the individual Focus Loci being Attention Demanding. This may also affects Risk/Reward trade-offs that have to be made when initiating Extended Actions.

The choice of Focus Loci in games dictate which game elements players have direct control over and which they have Indirect Control over.

Relations

Can Instantiate

Attention Demanding, Attention Swapping, Engrossment, Identification, Indirect Control, Spatial Engrossment

Can Modulate

Area Control, Attention Swapping, Game Worlds, Parties, Teams

Can Be Instantiated By

Agents, Avatars, Bookkeeping Tokens, Cards, Characters, God Fingers, Player Characters, Units

Can Be Modulated By

Clickability, Game State Indicators, Geospatial Game Widgets, Line of Sight, Mini-maps, New Abilities

Possible Closure Effects

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Potentially Conflicting With

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History

An updated version of the pattern Focus Loci that was part of the original collection in the book Patterns in Game Design.

Acknowledgements

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