Context Dependent Reactions

The one-sentence "definition" that should be in italics.

Gameplay takes places through players making actions and responding to other actions they perceive. When the same type of actions are tailored to be different depending on context, games can be said to have Context Dependent Reactions. This can help create the impression of a richer and more believable game world since it requires more effort to generalize them into their pure gameplay functionality.

Examples

A weak example of Context Dependent Reactions can be to make observations about things in the game world but otherwise not change one's actions. This can for example be found in the Assassin's Creed series where NPCs comment on the presence of dead bodies but without necessarily letting this affect what they are doing.

Using the pattern

Context Dependent Reactions can most easily be made possible by having humans control Agents in games; this means that Game Masters and players that can perform Enactment of actions is the simplest design solution for the pattern but this puts requirements of present facilitators and/or willing players. Algorithmic Agents is an alternative to this but instead creates needs for development of algorithms to handle all possible or reasonable situations they are supposed to handle (see the article Meet The Guy Who Spent Seven Months Killing Everyone In Fallout 3 for examples of issues which can occur in games where players have large degrees of freedom on how they can play).

Context Dependent Dialogues is a specific subsection of actions that provide Context Dependent Reactions in dialogues. Context Dependent Actions provide Context Dependent Reactions by tying a specific interface action (e.g. pressing a certain button) to different actions in Game Worlds depending on what the player is focusing the interaction on.

Consequences

A common reason for wanting Context Dependent Reactions

Awareness of Surroundings, Non-Player Characters

Can Instantiate

Diegetic Consistency, Own Agenda

Relations

Agents, Algorithmic Agents

Can Instantiate

Diegetic Consistency, Own Agenda

Can Modulate

Agents, Awareness of Surroundings, Non-Player Characters

Can Be Instantiated By

Algorithmic Agents, Context Dependent Actions, Context Dependent Dialogues, Enactment, Game Masters

Can Be Modulated By

-

Possible Closure Effects

-

Potentially Conflicting With

-

History

An updated version of the pattern Context Dependent Reactions that was first identified in the paper Gameplay Design Patterns for Believable Non-Player Characters.

Acknowledgements

-