Main Goals
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Main Goals are goals that give players motivation and information about what they should do in a game, and often how they may complete it. Due to this fact, Main Goals are typically Predefined Goals although smaller or more exact details concerning them may be determined later. While from a design perspective a goal is typically created as a Main Goal and then by necessity needs to be predefined, from a structural perspective being a Main Goal is a characteristics of some Predefined Goals.
A game can have one or many Main Goals and a basic design consideration for a game is if should have zero, one, or many Main Goals - and if it has many Main Goals if all or just some (or one) of these need to be completed to complete the game. Games without Main Goals that allow the completion of a game are in most cases Unwinnable Games, but these games still typically have Main Goals to indicate what players should strive for while playing, e.g. to Survive for as long as possible. Main Goals often make use of Goal Hierarchies, where the Main Goals can either be seen as the top goal or the hierarchy as a whole. Individual nodes in such Goal Hierarchies can consist of Mandatory Goals or Supporting Goals or a mixture of both (to complicate things, Mandatory Goals may also be defined as completing one or a few goals from a larger pool of goals). In games with Game Worlds, Main Goals are typically created through having Main Quests since this strongly links the Main Goals with the Game Worlds.
While Main Goals often make use of Goal Hierarchies, Polyathlons and Tournaments are Goal Hierarchies that make use of Main Goals. This since each game or game instance in Polyathlons and Tournaments have clear Main Goals so there outcomes can be used in determining the outcome in general for Polyathlons and Tournaments. In this sense Main Goals are functionally more necessary in games which are part of other games than those which are played on their own.
Main Goals are typically natural ending points for gameplay since the other players or the game has been "beat". This is not always the case, e.g. Fallout 3 and Minecraft allow gameplay to continue after the Main Goals of these games have been completed. These games have large open Game Worlds which invites gameplay beyond the Main Goals and it may thereby seem wasteful not allowing players the possibility of continuing playing if they wish (Fallout 3 for example has many independent Quests that may be wished to be explored after the Main Goal has been achieved). World of Warcraft takes this one step further with Endgame Quests which are designed to be played after reaching the maximum Character Levels with a Character; the presence of these can be used to argue that World of Warcraft does not actually have a Main Goal or that it has one in name only.
By definition, Unwinnable Games cannot have Main Goals that allow the completion of the game. However, Unwinnable Games typically do have Main Goals that set up what players should strive for and how well players have succeeded when comparing different play instances. A common way of providing this feature for these types of Main Goals is to connect it to Scores.
Narration Aspects
Narration Structures and Main Goals represent two different approaches to motivating players to want to play a game: experiencing a narrative and being motivated to perform gameplay actions. Because of this, they can be, are often are, designed to support each other with the intension of providing a combined motivation that is stronger that the individual parts and that isn't as affected by players' preferences regarding what motivated them more of the two approaches. One way of combining the two are through Main Quests.
Games with Main Goals that make use of Goal Hierarchies often present many goals as Main Goals for narration reasons (e.g., first the rampaging of evil forces needs to be contained, then the source of the evil needs to be identified, and finally the evil needs to be vanquished) and players may only become aware of Main Goals as the narration progresses to align with the diegetic information Player Characters gain.
Consequences
By definition, Main Goals are Mandatory Goals although implicit Win the game or End the game goals may need to be assumed for games allowing many ways of winning or ending the game.
Relations
Can Instantiate
Can Modulate
Goal Hierarchies, Narration Structures, Predefined Goals, Unwinnable Games
Goal Hierarchies in games with Polyathlons or Tournaments
Can Be Instantiated By
Can Be Modulated By
Dynamic Goal Characteristic, Endgame Quests, Goal Hierarchies, Narration Structures, Scores, Supporting Goals
Possible Closure Effects
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Potentially Conflicting With
History
New pattern created in this wiki.
References
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Acknowledgements
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