Communication Channels

Specifically design support for players to send messages to other players through the game.

This pattern is a still a stub.

While players can in theory use any part of a game which they can affect and other players can perceived as a way to communicate, Communication Channels signify parts of a game design that is dedicated to communication.

Examples

MMORPGs usually provide many different kinds of Communication Channels for the players, from chat channels to predefined gestures for the players' Avatars. Players can, of course, use Communication Channels, such as IRC and even telephones, which are not part of the game system itself.

Left 4 Dead series

Anti-Examples

In Pictionary, teams score points when members of the team guess correctly the words that one of the members tries to draw within a time limit. The player drawing is not allowed to speak so all communication needs to be through the drawing (and some gestures). While this means the game has a very specific communication channel, being able to communicated through that channel is a central part of the game's gameplay.

Using the pattern

In the context of this pattern, communication methods are classified in terms of three rather crude and slightly interdependent dichotomies: face to face versus mediated, synchronous versus asynchronous, and verbal versus non-verbal. All these also use a simple model of communication based on the sender sending a message through a channel to the (potential) receiver.

Face-to-face situations occur when players share the same physical location. This is the case for almost all traditional and more current games from Hide & Seek to Chess to Pictionary. In face-to-face situations, players use natural non-verbal cues, such as gestures and facial expressions---in many cases unconsciously---as Indirect Information to determine the current situation. Poker is perhaps the best example of a game where these natural social cues present only in face-to-face situations have an extremely strong impact on the game play experience. Mediated communication is the opposite: the players are not (necessarily) sharing the same physical location, and the communication between the players is mediated by, for example, semaphores, telephone lines, or computer networks, which all can be considered part of a Dedicated Game Facilitator.

The communication between players can be either synchronous or asynchronous. In synchronous communication players share the situation as there is no significant delay in communication, and the situation usually requires attention from all the participants. Asynchronous communication can have time delays of hours, days, or in extreme cases, millennia between sending the message and receiving it. Asynchronous communication always has to be mediated, in contrast to face-to-face communication where there cannot be time delays between sending and receiving the message. It is possible, however, to devise a situation where there is an enforced time delay in responding to the message in face-to-face situations using, for example, one-directional mirrors, but this area might remain marginal in commercial games.

Verbal communication is based on using a shared language for messages. The simplest case, of course, is physically talking to other players. Forms of non-verbal communication range from gestures and facial expressions in face-to-face situations to visual messages such as drawings, diagrams, and animations. As the Pictionary example demonstrated, it is possible to base a whole game on requiring players to communicate by using Asymmetric Abilities. Game systems, as Dedicated Game Facilitators, often provide and control the Communication Channels available to the players as in most current MMORPGs. In these cases, the game system can even manipulate the characteristics of the Communication Channels to cause, for example, even more Uncertainty of Information by garbling the messages. The nature of Communication Channels used in Real-Time Games and Synchronous Games depends on the pace of the game time.

Interface Aspects

Since Communication Channels focuses on communication between players rather than gameplay action, it is a Interface Pattern. It is however still a gameplay pattern since Communication Channels can support actual gameplay actions in addition to the communication.

Consequences

Existence and use of Communication Channels is a prerequisite for any Social Interaction between players and can heavily influence how Social Organizations emerge or are maintained. As Indirect Information requires that information is first translated and then transmitted to players, it also naturally requires that there are Communication Channels available to transmit the information. Communication Channels can also cause Uncertainty of Information for the receiver, if they have disturbances (called noise in technical contexts) or if the sender can intentionally send false messages. However, Communication Channels can also be used to ensure that players only get Direct Information about the game state, without any chance of information being hidden or changed.

Many cases of Public Information also require that the game state is compressed and translated and then broadcast or otherwise transmitted to the Spectators. Free use of Communication Channels can also cause social problems within the game in situations where communication is mediated. In order to alleviate this problem, many games that provide chat systems allow players to ban, mute, or otherwise ignore players who use the Communication Channels inappropriately.

Relations

Can Instantiate

Bragging, Community Functionality, Diegetic Consistency, Direct Information, Enactment, Extra-Game Actions, Indirect Information, Limited Communication Abilities, Negotiation, Possibility of Anonymity, Social Interaction, Togetherness, Trans-Game Information, Uncertainty of Information

with Helplessness

Guilting

Can Modulate

Asynchronous Games, Cooperation, Friend Lists, Game Lobbies, Guilds, Massively Multiplayer Online Games, Mediated Gameplay, Multiplayer Games, Player Kicking, Public Information, Real-Time Games, Roleplaying, Social Dilemmas, Social Organizations, Synchronous Games, Team Combos, Trading, Voting

Helplessness in Multiplayer Games

Can Be Instantiated By

Dedicated Game Facilitators

Can Be Modulated By

Asymmetric Abilities, Game-Defined Vocabulary

Potentially Conflicting With

Enforced Player Anonymity, Unmediated Social Interaction

History

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

Acknowledgements

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