Gain Competence

The goal of being able to perform an ability to a certain level of competence within a game.

Part of the charm with playing games is the possibility of becoming better at doing so. This can be because one has become better as a player or because the avatar, character, or units one control have become more powerful. Gain Competence describes the goal of the latter.

This is the goal to gain the ability to perform a certain action, either by enabling a game element to perform that action or by gaining control of a game element that can perform that action. Typical examples of games using Gain Competence goals are roleplaying games where the players' characters gain skills and real-time strategy games with research.

Note: Gain Competence is not the ability for a player to perform an action skillfully, see Game Mastery and patterns regarding specific actions for this.

Examples

Quake and Unreal Tournament have Gain Competences goals that are linked to acquiring weapons, since the different weapons have radically different abilities.

Computer-based roleplaying games, such as Neverwinter Nights and Morrowind, have many abilities, most commonly spells, that are not available to the players initially. Learning these abilities provides significant help in completing the games, and gaining them may become explicit goals that are the focus of player actions on the expense of the main goal.

Using the pattern

Gain Competence goals are basically about wanting New or Improved Abilities. A special case of this is regaining Abilities

Rewards,

event as a Reward. 

However, this may only be from the perspective of the current game state: regaining abilities to counter Ability Losses is also a Gain Competence goal and probably has stronger Emotional Immersion.

The Gain Competence goal can be achieved by completing other goals, typically Gain Ownership or Overcome, but can also be the result of Investment or gaining Resources.

The Rewards from Gain Competence are commonly to give players advantages by providing Privileged Abilities or Improved Abilities (often through Skills) that allow for alternative tactics or make the fulfillment of goals easier. If the Gain Competence goal is a Symmetric Goal so other players also can gain the same competence, this can provide a Race or a Red Queen Dilemma.

The actions made possible by a Gain Competence goal can either be associated directly with the player or with a game element. In the latter case, this can either be modeled as skills of Avatar s or Units that usually cannot be lost except by elimination of the game element itself, or as actions made possible by Tools or Pick-Ups that can be lost, traded, or disappear after a certain number of uses due to Limited Resources. Similarly, Power-Ups and Chargers can be used to give an Avatar or Unit a new form of action for a set Time Limit or numbers of uses.

Can Be Instantiated By

Character Defining Actions, Chargers, Factions, Player/Character Skill Composites, Power-Ups, Tools

Skills Powers Technology Trees Attributes

Narrative Aspects

Gain Competence goals can quite easily be incorporated into Predetermined Story Structures, e.g. having to develop a Power or Skill to be able to defeat a Boss Monster or hinder a developing catastrophe. This makes them candidates for the goals of Quests.

Consequences

Gain Competence goals give players offers of Empowerment due to better Abilities and can be motivated by Limited Set of Actions or Asymmetric Abilities where the players feel disadvantaged. While it is not necessary for players to have them for Abstract Player Construct Development or Character Development to occur, players who have adopted such goals can have more Anticipation. For these reasons they easy emerge when players can do Player-Planned Development due to having a Freedom of Choice regarding what competences to improve.

Gain Competence can provide players with Smooth Learning Curves, as players do not have to have all possible actions but can prepare for which actions will be possible.

Relations

Can Instantiate

Anticipation, Empowerment, Quests, Smooth Learning Curves

with Freedom of Choice

Player-Planned Development

Can Modulate

Abilities, Abstract Player Construct Development, Character Development

Can Be Instantiated By

Character Defining Actions, Chargers, Factions, Improved Abilities, New Abilities, Player/Character Skill Composites, Power-Ups, Rewards, Tools

Can Be Modulated By

Asymmetric Abilities, Limited Set of Actions, Predetermined Story Structures

Possible Closure Effects

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Potentially Conflicting With

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History

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

Acknowledgements

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