Loyalty

The goal of upholding a diegetic agreement to support a person, group, or cause.

The concept of being faithful to other people or abstract causes is often used to explain or initiate actions. In games this can be used to set up the premise for the gameplay so that players have a diegetic motivation for the actions. Loyalty can also become part of gameplay itself if it is possible to go against one's Loyalty, typically because the target of one's Loyalty is perceived as having betrayed oneself or that other goals are more compelling.

Examples

If the PC becomes the member of Thief’s Guild in the Oblivion game of The Elder Scrolls series, being loyal to the guild requires complying with rules that bans stealing from another member, killing while carrying out a task, and stealing from the poor.

In Crusader Kings, dukes and counts need to put their armies under the control of their king when war occurs to prove their loyalty, and failing to do so provides a reason for civil war.

In the Fallout series, the NPCs that accompany the player's character may feel that their Loyalty have been misused if players behave in certain ways and leave the player's character.

Using the pattern

Since Loyalty is a diegetic agreement, it

(Björk, Holopainen, 2005) to maintain membership of a Faction. Maintaining membership g C 68 haracter-Driven Game Desi n may require Social Maintenance and performing quests, which are Predefined Goals. Loyalty include Preventing Goals (Björk, Holopainen, 2005) not to infringe the Social Norms of the Faction. Failure to comply the Social Norms leads to penalty such as declaring a character as an Outcast.

One design choice regarding Loyalty is whom or what to be faithful to. Individual Characters

Factions can also be the

The third option for Causes can from a gameplay perspective be seen as one way of diegetically presenting Quests.

Companions

For example, blood relatives in Crusader Kings have a bonus to their loyalty that depends on how closely related they are to their liege.

There are several ways of introducing challenges to a Loyalty.

Internal Conflicts

Either You are with Me or against Me

Opposing Goals

Risk/Reward

Although Loyalty is here defined as being an agreement it does not have to be an explicitly evoked one, and can be a

Narration Structures

Consequences

Consequences: The membership of a Faction has more value, as maintaining the membership is not automatic. Relations Continuous Goals (Björk, Holopainen, 2005), Preventing Goals (Björk, Holopainen, 2005)

Relations

Can Instantiate

Loyalty to Characters or Fractions are Continuous Goals in the sense that a part of a relation needs to be maintained. However, Loyalty can most of the time be maintained simply by avoiding to do actions that would break the agreement and this is especially common for Loyalty directed to causes in the form of Quests. The exception comes when the gameplay puts

Social Dilemmas

History

An updated version of the pattern Internal Rivalry, first introduced in Lankoski 2010.