Exaggerated Perception of Influence

Players perceive that they can influence the outcome of the game, regardless of whether this is correct or not.

One of the appeals of games is arguable that players can influence what happens while playing, and feel that they have various possible ways in how exert that influence. However, that influence cannot be to powerful since then reaching any goal in any given game would become too easy and lose whatever potential for appeal it could otherwise have. This line of thought can both be found in the common advice on game design attributed to Sid Meier, “a [good] game is a series of interesting choices,” but also in how definitions of games mention goals, conflicts and uncertainty (e.g. Suit, Salen & Zimmerman, Costikyan, Juul). Typically players' influence are limited through lack of information or skill in executing actions, through active opposition or through randomness in the outcome of actions.

Although it may see strange that designers would like to trick players they may wish to make players believe that the have more influence on the game than they do for two reasons. First, the designers have limited resources and may want the world to feel more open than it actually is by giving the players the illusion that they can explore or interact with more of the deigetic game world than they actually can. Second, the designers may wish to tell a story in a certain way or stage encounters in special ways without making the players realize that they are being guiding into a certain situation.

Some games allow actions that do not actually make players come closer to achieving goals, or even changing the game state. When these actions appear meaningful, including being meaningful to the player but not within a game state perspective, the players have an Exaggerated Perception of Influence within the game.

Examples

Games with well-developed stories, such as the Final Fantasy or Zelda Series, do not let players experience the stories unless they complete the goals. Since these stories are more or less linear the actual effect of players' actions on how the story finally ends is very limited (what the players' do control is if they get to experience it). Even in games where several branches in the story exists (e.g. Dragon Age: Origins or the Fallout Series) the variations have also been created before the game sessions began. This does not mean that players of these types of games do not have any influence: locally the gameplay can give players high levels of influences and on a meta level players can have concrete choices of which achievements to collect and which strategies to try.

In September 12th players are given the impression that they can free the world of terrorism by killing individual terrorist but learn through gameplay that their own actions create more terrorists. By thus providing players with an Exaggerated Perception of Influence they unknowingly engage in a futile activity designed to make them reflect on approaches to combating terrorism.

Using the pattern

Giving players an Exaggerated Perception of Influence can mainly be done in three ways. First, through affecting how strongly they can control the gameplay and, second, how many options they have when trying to affect it. These do not have to be strongly related but can of course be combined. In addition to this, players can be given much influence on one level of interaction within the game without being able to change the way the game develops on overall.

For providing control over gameplay, letting players have a Determinable Chance to Succeed can be a basis for Exaggerated Perception of Influence. Even if this may seem paradoxical since they know exactly how big chance they have to complete some action or goal, the figure shown to them may not be the actual chance succeeding. For the chance of single actions, Interruptible Actions may add extra uncertainty and thereby make the figure not accurate of the real chance of success. For goals that require many actions the chances shown may not take into considerations of actions taken by Enemies or other players in Multiplayer Games, and simply adding up the probabilities may skew players' expectations to be to great. Grinding may be another way achieve the same effect, since even if one has a small chance of succeeding one may believe that one can after many actions reach a goal. Randomness can achieved Exaggerated Perception of Influence but this is a volatile solutions since it depends on players feeling that they have Luck, and it they do not the Randomness counters the effect rather than supports it.

Presenting many options to players is quite easily done with Freedom of Choice. It is a usually an requirement for Exaggerated Perception of Influence since even if the players' actions could affect the game world in significant ways the players' contribution is diminished if there was no other choice. However, it is not always necessary. Games that test players' skills in performing certain tasks, e.g. through Timing, Aim & Shoot, Maneuvering, let players have a possibility to influence the outcome of the gameplay.

Having many options is most interesting when one has enough time to consider them. Since this can be difficult to provide in games with Limited Planning Abilities, e.g. through requiring Attention Swapping or having Time Pressure, these patterns counter Exaggerated Perception of Influence. In contrast, games with Tactical Planning provide these as do Turn-Based Games and Tick-Based Games when there is enough time between each tick.

If the Right Level of Complexity is not achieved, this can ruin Illusion of Influence since players then get , for example, when too many Producer-Consumer relationships exist for players to have an overview of how they interact.

Influence can be either to choose between what should happen or exist in the game or to be able to create objects or events in the game. Choosing between what events should occur in the game depends on players' Freedom of Choice as well as the chance of success. Influence, or the Illusion of Influence, can thereby be created through New Abilities and Improved Abilities, and removed by Ability Losses and Decreased Abilities. Affecting abilities in this fashion is most easily done with Tools. Creating objects and events provides a more tangible form of influence and can be done by Creative Control; for example, by creating Characters and allowing Planned Character Development.

Game Masters can provide a strong Illusion of Influence, as anything players may want to influence can be discussed as part of Social Interaction. Randomness can create an Illusion of Influence in two different ways: first, players may feel that they do have influence through Luck; and second, the results can be faked by Game Masters or computers. However, the first form of illusion is brittle, as players do not have any real influence over random results, and players with this form of Strategic Knowledge are unlikely to have any such Illusion of Influence.

Exaggerated Perception of Influence can be difficult on a global level to maintain in Unwinnable Games, or those with Drop-In/Drop-Out. The same also applies to games with Challenging Gameplay. To achieve its' presence in these cases, one instead has to focus on giving players' too strong impressions of their influence on a local level. One way to achieve this is through Smooth Learning Curves, since these can let players have a good chance of success initially and maintain that by slowly increasing the difficulty. This can be complemented by Dynamical Difficulty Adjustment so that the game system behind the scenes makes the game easier at whatever points players happen to have problems.

Diegetic Aspects

To a certain extent Exaggerated Perception of Influence can be achieved through diegetic means by making Enemies look more powerful than players' Avatars if they at the same time know that they have a good chance of succeeding.

Interface Aspects

In games which promote Exaggerated Perception of Influence through the ability of Tactical Planning, Progress Indicators and Status Indicators are interface patterns that can support the planning ability.

Consequences

Perception of Influence can affect Emotional Attachment, as it makes players feel that their actions are important in the game and that there is Value of Effort for these.The possibility to influence encourages Stimulated Planning but this, and the perception of influence, is restricted by Limited Foresight and Limited Planning Abilities in the games.

Narrative Structures due to limitations on possible actions and what order events need to occur naturally limit players' Illusion of Influence, and this is most strongly affected by the presence of Cut Scenes. Indeed, beginning to play a game that one knows has a strong story is done with the Extra-Game Information that one has a limited impact on the possible stories that can develop.

Although players can influence the initiation of Ultra-Powerful Events, they cannot affect their development, and this is one way Illusion of Influences can be destroyed in games. Surprises, since they cannot be anticipated, are likewise events that can destroy the Illusion of Influences, as are Shared Penalties, which players have no control over avoiding.

Unwinnable Games Drop-In/Drop-Out Randomness Challenging Gameplay

Relations

Can Instantiate

Stimulated Planning, Emotional Immersion

Can Modulate

Multiplayer Games, Team Play, Freedom of Choice

Can Be Instantiated By

Player Balance, Planned Character Development, Improved Abilities, Game Masters, Perceived Chance to Succeed, Creative Control, Characters, Luck, Social Interaction, Tools, Right Level of Difficulty, New Abilities

Can Be Modulated By

Limited Foresight, Strategic Knowledge, Ultra-Powerful Events, Extra-Game Information, Smooth Learning Curves, Right Level of Complexity, Randomness

Potentially Conflicting With

Surprises, Shared Penalties, Decreased Abilities, Narrative Structures, Ability Losses, Cut Scenes, Limited Planning Ability

Determinable Chance to Succeed

History

A renamed version of the pattern Illusion of Influence that was part of the original collection in the book Patterns in Game Design.