Late Arriving Players
The designed support to allow players to join play sessions of a game independently of when other players' play sessions start.
It is not always possible to synchronize so that all players wishing to play a game can start simultaneously, most often because people are not willing to wait long enough. To avoid this problem, games can support Late Arriving Players to give players more flexibility in when they have to be present to be part of a game. For asynchronous games or games where you don't know all the people that are playing, it this may be necessary for gameplay to be able to begin at all.
Examples
Gambling games such as Poker and Roulette can quite easily accommodate Late Arriving Players since these consists of many rounds with only one resource changing between them. Similar games but with more complex structures, e.g. Texas Hold'em have difficulties doing so since the gameplay is designed to structure the flow of resources more precisely.
Roleplaying games such as Dungeons & Dragons, Basic Roleplaying, and the Storytelling System implicitly supports players joining the game late since game masters can easily write them into the fictive realities of the games. This is usually necessary for practical reasons since the games span play sessions with breaks of weeks or longer between, and the players willing to play change during periods.
Online games that strive for rather short rounds and many players support Late Arriving Players. Exactly when one can join varies as does the penalties for arriving late: the Left 4 Dead series allows players to join whenever while the Counter-Strike series only allows new players at the start of rounds, before then they can only chat with those players that have been killed; players in the Battlefield series have no penalties compared to existing players respawning while newly arriving players to Return to Castle Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory or Enemy Territory: Quake Wars can be penalized by not having amassed experience points).
For online games such as Ultima Online and World of Warcraft, which supporting persistent game world, Late Arriving Players is necessary since players need to be able to come and go from the gameplay. Even those with few players, e.g. multiplayer servers of Minecraft have this need. Games on social media sites, e.g. FarmVille and Mafia Wars on Facebook, need to provide the same functionality to support the movement from the game and other functionality provided on the sites.
Using the pattern
Considering to use of Late Arriving Players is only meaningful for Multiplayer Games for obvious reasons, and the pattern is for practical purposes needed in Massively Multiplayer Online Games or those with Persistent Game Worlds. Massively Single-Player Online Games also needs players to be able to start at different times, but if this really means supporting Late Arriving Players depends on how much players can help each other, i.e. how much the games support Non-Player Help since all players see themselves as being the sole player and the other people present are playing their own game.
The support of Late Arriving Players may be in conflict with Player Balance, Team Balance, and individual players sense of Value of Effort. The problems may be caused both because new players can have advantages, e.g. having a full set of Resources in games with Steadily Decreasing Resources, or disadvantages ,e.g. not having received New and Improved Abilities as part of Character Development or other Rewards existing players have received. While this can be mitigated by Balancing Effects or adjusting power level for Player-Created Characters it can simply be part of the game play to reward Player Time Investments. Another
Self-Facilitated Games and those using human Game Masters can often quite easily support Late Arriving Players by introducing or modifying rules slightly. Computer-based Dedicated Game Facilitators can support this as well if proper attention to the gameplay design (e.g. FarmVille and World of Warcraft) or technology (e.g. (the Left 4 Dead series) have been given.
The use of Private Game Spaces (as done in FarmVille but also for Roulette) can make it easier to support Late Arriving Players since other players will not directly be disadvantaged or threatened by newly arrived players.
Diegetic Aspects
Interface Aspects
Narrative Aspects
Consequences
Supporting Late Arriving Players provides one half of the necessary functionality to have Drop-In/Drop-Out in a game.
As mentioned in the previous section, the support of Late Arriving Players may cause problems concerning Player Balance, Team Balance, and Value of Effort unless countered by other means.
Late Arriving Players hinders Downtime before game instances have started.
Relations
Can Instantiate
with ...
Can Modulate
Massively Multiplayer Online Games Massively Single-Player Online Games Multiplayer Games Player Time Investments
Can Be Instantiated By
Game Masters Dedicated Game Facilitators Self-Facilitated Games
Can Be Modulated By
Balancing Effects Player-Created Characters Private Game Spaces
Possible Closure Effects
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Potentially Conflicting With
Downtime Player Balance, Team Balance, Value of Effort
History
New pattern created in this wiki.
References
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