Gain Information

The goal of performing actions in the game in order to be able to receive information or make deductions.

Gain Information goals are tasks related to gaining more knowledge about something in the game. This can range from discovering where a certain game element is in the game space, knowing what values game elements have, what abilities other players have access to, to what goals exist in the game. The completion of the goal can either be verified by a game state change that does not require the player to actually understand the information or by requiring the player to perform some activity or complete a goal that indicates that the information has been collected and understood by a player. In the first case, this can be by the player gaining an object in the game, e.g., picking up a book, or choosing an action that presents the information to the player, e.g., looking at a sign. In the second case, this can be by observing that the player has done an action that was unlikely to have been performed otherwise, e. g., selecting the right five-digit combination to a safe.

Examples

Hide & Seek, the traditional children's game, is the archetypical example of direct use of this pattern. In the game, one of the players is the seeker whose task is to find out the other players who have had a certain amount of time to hide themselves. Stratego is a strategy game where a player knows the position of the other players pieces but not their type - and given that the type solely determines outcomes in battles it is critical to as efficiently as possible determine how the other player has distributed the various types of pieces.

Gain Information is the typical goal used in mystery games to drive the unfolding of the story, e. g., the Gabriel Knight series.

A weaker examples of Gain Information can be found in Poker-based games like Texas Hold'em where having good suspicions about want hands other players have is very advantageous. This is a weaker example since the goal cannot actual be fulfilled through game actions before the motivation for the Gain Information goal - winning a current hand - has been resolved.

Using the pattern

The basis for constructing Gain Information goals is that players have Imperfect Information.

One way this can be done is through making one or some players not have the same information as others, i.e., having Asymmetric Information, where one special case is when Internal Rivalry exists.

Another way of creating Imperfect Information is that the game system

Can Modulate

Player-Artifact Proximity, Rescue

Can Be Instantiated By

Detective Structures, Enemies, Factions, Fog of War, Gain Ownership, Hands, Helpers, Information Passing, , Limited Foresight, Memorizing, Puzzle Solving, Reconnaissance, Secret Goals, Secret Resources, Stimulated Planning, Strategic Locations Uncertainty of Information, Unknown Goals, Vulnerabilities

Enemies together with Achilles' Heels or Invulnerabilities

Committed Goals together with Secret Goals

Predetermined Story Structures together with Clues

Strategic Knowledge together with Hidden Rules

Tactical Planning together with Imperfect Information

Gain Information goals can be made more difficult through the introduction of false clues or possible answers, i.e., Red Herrings. Indirect Information can be used to either make the Gain Information goals easier of to provide supporting structures that allow the goal to be spread out more over game time or game space.

Perhaps not to surprising, Gain Information goals can be difficult to have in games with Perfect Information.

Narration Aspects

As mentioned above, the narration pattern Detective Structures is one way of structuring gameplay around Gain Information goals.

Consequences

As long as the information that is part of a Gain Information goal is useful, Gain Information becomes a Supporting Goals. The pattern can also be the basis for Quests, Puzzle Solving when the solution is the information, and Conceal when an agent in the game wants to hinder others from gaining the information. Players may engage in Experimenting when players have Imperfect Information regarding if they have the information contained in a Gain Information goal to test options.

System Exploration emerges from Gain Information goals when these can be completed by understanding the systemic properties of a game. In contrast, when players need to visit different parts of Game Worlds by engaging in Traverse them, Gain Information leads to Game World Exploration.

Relations

Can Instantiate

Conceal, Puzzle Solving, Quests, Supporting Goals, System Exploration

with Imperfect Information

Experimenting

with Traverse

Game World Exploration

Can Modulate

Player-Artifact Proximity, Rescue

Can Be Instantiated By

Asymmetric Information, Detective Structures, Enemies, Factions, Fog of War, Gain Ownership, Hands, Helpers, Imperfect Information, Information Passing, Internal Rivalry, Limited Foresight, Memorizing, Puzzle Solving, Reconnaissance, Secret Goals, Secret Resources, Stimulated Planning, Strategic Locations Uncertainty of Information, Unknown Goals, Vulnerabilities

Enemies together with Achilles' Heels or Invulnerabilities

Committed Goals together with Secret Goals

Predetermined Story Structures together with Clues

Strategic Knowledge together with Hidden Rules

Tactical Planning together with Imperfect Information

Can Be Modulated By

Indirect Information, Red Herrings

Possible Closure Effects

-

Potentially Conflicting With

Perfect Information

History

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

Acknowledgements

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