Communication Channels

Specific 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

BatMud

Battlefield 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

Per its definition, Communication Channels only makes sense as a way to modify Multiplayer Games (they are more of less ubiquitous in Massively Multiplayer Online Games) and is typically used for games with Mediated Gameplay. There are several reasons why designers of a game might want to have Communication Channels in a game. The first is that it is typically required for players to be able to have Coordination with each other, and more specifically support Timing issues in Real-Time Games. Another is that the existence and use of Communication Channels is a prerequisite for any game with Mediated Gameplay if it is to have Social Interaction on any higher level. The pattern is equally useful in Asynchronous as Synchronous Gameplay. A third reason is that they may be the only medium through which players can do Enactment, and even if this can be done through other means as well it can be used to augmented players' possibility to engage in Roleplaying. While they can be used for games in general, specific Communication Channels can also provided to players based on Friend Lists, Game Lobbies, or Guilds.

Chat Channels and Dialogues are two basic forms of Communication Channels that can be used in games, but Dedicated Game Facilitators (such as Game Masters for example) can be Communication Channels in themselves. Meta-Techniques are Communication Channels used primarily to modify Unmediated Social Interaction in games. By giving players a Game-Defined Vocabulary or Asymmetric Abilities regarding how they can communicate, designers can create more specific types of Communication Channels. A design choice when constructing Communication Channels is if players should be able to transmit Direct or Indirect Information to each other. The latter is typically enforced by Limited Communication Abilities.

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 Gameplay depends on the pace of the game time.

While Communication Channels may seem unnecessary for game with Unmediated Social Interaction, it can be used to provide Secret Communication in these.

Diegetic Aspects

Communication Channels open up the possibility for Diegetic Communication between players and thereby Diegetic Consistency. However, players may also use these channels to break the Diegetic Consistency by initiating Non-Diegetic Communication so this design solution puts the players in power and responsibility of determined if this should be maintained. When there are several types of Communication Channels, or when Communication Channels complement Unmediated Social Interaction, this provides ways to modulate Diegetic and Non-Diegetic Communication so that different channels can be used for different types of communication.

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

Communication Channels allow players to interact with each other, and through this can heavily influence how Social Organizations and Social Roles emerge or are maintained in games. By doing this it can provide Community Functionality. The Social Interaction that Communication Channels support can give rise to many more specific types of interaction, e.g. Bragging and Negotiation, and significantly change how Helplessness functions in Multiplayer Games by giving rise to Guilting and addition types of Negotiation. Games where Social Dilemmas can be debated over Communication Channels is even more likely to have Negotiation and Social Interaction. All these aspects help make Communication Channels give players of a game a feeling of Togetherness.

Many other types of actions may be possible without Communication Channels but become more easy, more interesting, or more well grounded when they are discussed through the Communication Channels. Examples include Asynchronous Collaborative Actions, Cooperation, Player Kicking, Team Combos, Trading, and Voting.

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.

Regardless of quality, Communication Channels does not provide Unmediated Social Interaction.

Communication Channels provide a basic requirement for players to have a Possibility of Anonymity, but since players may be reveal things about themselves to other players, Enforced Player Anonymity may be impossible and the pattern may work against Actor Detachment. As mentioned above, they may also choose to break the Diegetic Consistency.

Can Instantiate

Extra-Game Actions, Trans-Game Information, Uncertainty of Information

Can Modulate

Public Information, Social Dilemmas,

Relations

Can Instantiate

Bragging, Community Functionality, Coordination, Diegetic Communication, Diegetic Consistency, Direct Information, Enactment, Extra-Game Actions, Indirect Information, Non-Diegetic Communication, Negotiation, Possibility of Anonymity, Social Roles, Togetherness, Trans-Game Information, Uncertainty of Information

with Helplessness

Guilting, Negotiation

with Mediated Gameplay

Social Interaction

with Social Dilemmas

Negotiation, Social Interaction

with Unmediated Social Interaction

Secret Communication

Can Modulate

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

Helplessness in Multiplayer Games

Can Be Instantiated By

Chat Channels, Dedicated Game Facilitators, Dialogues, Meta-Techniques

Can Be Modulated By

Asymmetric Abilities, Game-Defined Vocabulary, Limited Communication Abilities

Possible Closure Effects

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Potentially Conflicting With

Actor Detachment, Enforced Player Anonymity, Diegetic Consistency, 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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