Functional Roles
Gameplay where responsibility for different types of game actions can be divided between participants.
Games where not all actions can be done by one game entity have Functional Roles - a division of who can do what according to their functional capabilities. These Functional Roles can be present from the beginning of game instances or develop over time, and can be voluntary or forced upon players.
Contents
Examples
Sports such as Ice Hockey and Soccer have Functional Roles defined both by rules - goalies - and by tactics, e.g. forwards and defense players.
Class-based Tabletop Roleplaying Games such as Dungeons & Dragons provide different sets of abilities for each class and thereby have Functional Roles. This has carried over to computer-based version such as the Dragon Age, Neverwinter Nights series, and the World of Warcraft. Similarly, class-based First-Person Shooters such as the Battlefield and Team Fortress series force teams into various classes so all needed Functional Roles are filled; the First-Person Shooter in the Left 4 Dead series accomplishes Functional Roles by only letting players have one type of main weapon so the four-player teams need to diversify themselves to have a good mix of firepower.
Using the pattern
Supporting Functional Roles requires both vary that entities can or need to specialize into different roles, and that several entities exist to fill these roles. Privileged Abilities is the simplest solution to this in games that has Teams that can have different Competence Areas; New Abilities lets this develop over time and according to needs. Parties, as special cases of Teams, naturally have players develop different Competence Areas and Privileged Abilities and are therefore especially suited to achieving Functional Roles. Beyond that, specific ways of allowing specialization include Sidegrades, Skills, Tools, and Weapons while Equipment Slots can force specialization since each entity cannot carry Tools or Weapons for each situation (the Left 4 Dead series is an example where Equipment Slots has this consequence). Typically Functional Roles are split between players, but this can be complemented by use of Companions and the pattern can be used in Single-Player Games if the player has control over many Characters or Units. Role Selection is a specific type of Functional Roles where players in turn have to select from a limited number of Functional Roles (see Puerto Rico for an example).
Functional Roles in games with Teams create need for player Coordination. Beyond all other ways of supporting Coordination that exist, one way appropriate in conjunction with Functional Roles is to let players distinguish themselves with Cosmetic Game Items according to their roles.
Consequences
Novice players can ease into a game when Functional Roles require different levels of expertise in Teams, so the pattern can support Smooth Learning Curves in these types of games; an example of this is playing engineers or medics in Team Fortress 2.
In Multiplayer Games, Functional Roles let players have Varied Gameplay and thereby provides Replayability in that players can have different gameplay experiences by testing different roles. When roles are limited, this can lead to Internal Rivalry between the players - especially in games with persistent social organizations such as Guilds. These Internal Rivalries can in turn lead to Role Reversals during gameplay.
Relations
Can Instantiate
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with Teams
with Cosmetic Game Items
with Internal Rivalry
with Multiplayer Games
Internal Rivalry, Replayability, Varied Gameplay
Can Modulate
Can Be Instantiated By
Companions, Equipment Slots, Parties, Role Selection, Sidegrades, Skills, Tools, Weapons
New Abilities with Competence Areas and Teams
Privileged Abilities with Competence Areas and Teams
Can Be Modulated By
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Possible Closure Effects
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Potentially Conflicting With
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History
New pattern created in this wiki. However, it was first introduced as a concept to support socially adaptable games by Björk et al (2004)[1].
References
- ↑ Björk, S., Eriksson, D., Holopainen, J. & Peitz, J. (2004). Guidelines for Socially Adaptable Games, Deliverable D9.1 of the EU project "Integrated Project on Pervasive Gaming" (FP6 - 004457).
