Ability Losses

The event of losing the abilities of performing certain actions in a game.

Games do not have to let players have the same possibility of actions the whole game. This can be done by removing abilities during gameplay. Such Ability Losses may be penalties for failing goals, the effect of enemy actions, the lack of resources, but may also simply be due to different play modes available at different times during the gameplay.

Examples

Respawning in multiplayer First-Person Shooters is typically done without any weapons, and the special abilities they provided, gained in earlier gameplay. Dying in Eve Online can have similar effects if one does not have up-to-date clones in that one loses experience points which can translate into skill losses.

Game masters in Tabletop Roleplaying Games such as Dungeons & Dragons or GURPS can sometimes be forced to invent events that are unavoidable to the players to strip them of equipment that disrupts the game balance. Temporary Ability Losses are however much more common due to combat effects, e.g. being frozen, paralysis, blinded, or knocked unconscious. When done as actions by players or enemies, these effect are called debuffs in World of Warcraft (as is effects that lessen the effectiveness of enemies).

Disasters and attacks by enemies in Space Alert can destroy various components of the ship, which effectively creates Ability Losses since the actions they provide can no longer be done. Being exposed to high levels of ultraviolet radiation in Ursuppe can force players to have to discard gene cards and the abilities they provide; similar Ability Losses can be caused to rockets by solar flares in High Frontier. Taking damage in RoboRally does not make actions impossible, but lock what actions one has to do in particular phases.

Using the pattern

The design of Ability Losses consists of deciding what actions are lost and what the reason for these losses are. While one reason for Ability Losses can simply be to give Penalties for failing goals, Ability Losses may also be the natural closing effect of Temporary Abilities. Other common causes for Ability Losses, which can be seen as specific examples of how Ability Losses can be Penalties, include Spawning as part of Death Consequences or being part of Role Reversals where the losses of some Abilities are usually countered by New Abilities in other Competence Areas. Suffering the effects of a Vulnerability is another cause for Ability Losses. The Penalties of Ability Losses can be mitigated by having Time Limits or by giving players New Abilities within other Competence Areas.

Specific causes for Ability Losses include Environmental Effects and Game Items. The may be Traps, e.g. cursed Game Items, but that these cause Ability Losses may also be known in advance so players can expose themselves to them as part of Trade-Offs or Risk/Reward choices. Another type of cause for Ability Losses is to create Cooldown periods for Abilities - this is simply combining an Ability Loss with a Time Limit after that Ability has been activated. In great enough amounts, Debuffs, Decreased Abilities, and Deterioration can effectively give Ability Losses.

The creation of Safe Havens can be a consequence of combining Ability Losses of aggressive Abilities with Location-Fixed Abilities, i.e. making the aggressive Abilities possible everywhere but within the Safe Havens.

In games with Game Masters, Ability Losses may naturally occur as the outcome of Negotiation with players in order to restore Player Balance. Although not popular, it can also be part of Evolving Rule Sets in order to provide Balancing Effects between different strategies.

Narrative Aspects

Ability Losses are not commonly used to advance Narration Structures unless they are Ultra-Powerful Events, since players may see goals in resisting the loss, especially in games that support Save-Load Cycles. One reason for enforcing these types of Ability Losses in Predefined Story Structures are when they are important parts of Abstract Player Construct or Character Development. When the losses are part of the game story, they do provide a form of Varied Gameplay, as players have to adjust to a Limited Set of Actions, which may be used to maintain Challenging Gameplay. Half-Life has this as it at one point strips players of their equipment and the Dead Money Expansion to Fallout: New Vegas does it through temporarily removing all equipment when the Expansion is played.

Selective Ability Losses may be enforced by a game design as an alternative to Actions Have Diegetically Social Consequences, for example, making it impossible to attack shopkeepers in the Dragon Age series when it is possible to attack monsters or making it impossible to shoot allies in Doom 3. This saves production costs in dealing with unwanted narrative developments, and can from the perspective of Narration Structures as enforcing Thematic Consistency but from the perspective of Roleplaying as breaking Thematic Consistency.

Consequences

Ability Losses are common as Penalties, e.g. those caused by the effects of Damage. Losing Abilities naturally creates or restricts a Limited Set of Actions for players and thereby players' their Freedom of Choice and most likely negatively affect any Exaggerated Perception of Influence they may have. When Ability Losses are temporary in the sense that they somehow can be regained, the pattern creates Gain Competence goals.

The losses can be on an Avatar or Unit level or be applied on a player generally, but regardless of this may cause Competence Areas to be lost. When Ability Losses are related to Abstract Player Constructs or Characters, these loses can be seen as (negative) Abstract Player Construct or Character Development; Ability Losses can also modulate other Character Development, e.g. having some actions being taboo after having joined specific Factions. In extreme cases, Ability Losses may cause players to have Downtime, which is equal to Player Killing if the loss is temporary and equal to Player Elimination if it is permanent. However, Ability Losses may reduce the complexity of a game while increasing the difficulty, thereby being able to modulate both Complex and Challenging Gameplay.

The possibility of Ability Losses for Units can give rise to Continuous Goals of trying to Evade and Survive. This happens when players have some Units with Abilities that other Units under his or her control do not have, and can loss the Units. This can still occur if Units are under Indirect Control, as the loss may not be so severe since control may be possible to regain.

A loss of Abilities can affect Player Balance. If the lost Abilities were possessed by most or all other players or Agents this is a Penalty, but if the Abilities were Privileged Abilities, the losses can affirm Player Balance and be Balancing Effects if explicitly designed into the game. When Ability Losses are combined with New Abilities, this pair can be balanced in itself and require players to consider both the Risk/Reward and the Trade-Offs associated with losing one Ability to gain another.

Relations

Can Instantiate

Abstract Player Construct Development, Balancing Effects, Character Development, Competence Areas, Damage, Downtime, Environmental Effects, Gain Competence, Penalties, Player Elimination, Player Killing, Risk/Reward, Thematic Consistency, Trade-Offs, Traps, Varied Gameplay

with Location-Fixed Abilities

Safe Havens

with New Abilities

Risk/Reward, Trade-Offs

with Time Limits

Cooldown

with Units

Continuous Goals, Evade, Survive

Can Modulate

Abilities, Avatars, Challenging Gameplay, Character Development, Complex Gameplay, Death Consequences, Freedom of Choice, Game Items, Limited Set of Actions, Player Balance, Units

Can Be Instantiated By

Debuffs, Decreased Abilities, Deterioration, Evolving Rule Sets, Game Masters, Role Reversals, Spawning, Temporary Abilities, Vulnerabilities

Can Be Modulated By

Time Limits, Ultra-Powerful Events

Possible Closure Effects

-

Potentially Conflicting With

Competence Areas, Exaggerated Perception of Influence, Thematic Consistency

History

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

Acknowledgements

Marcus Antonsson, Karl Bergström