Game Development Reference
In-Depth Information
As a designer of a signal-producing machine, you have to be aware of all the pos-
sible signals that the game might produce. Look closely at the player actions that
the mechanics require of the player (as we mentioned earlier, things the player must
do to win) and at other actions that are available but optional. If shooting things is
a core mechanic in a game and required to win, there is no point in denying that
the game sends the message “violence succeeds.” If you want to offer a nonviolent
strategy in the game, it should be a clear and viable option, one that can also lead
to victory. The economic structure of a game will dictate how the game might be
played, and the most effective strategies will send their message more clearly than
less effective ones. If a player can win a game rapidly and easily through violence
but only slowly and with difficulty through nonviolence, that sends a message that
violence is an efficient way to solve problems.
Even though mechanics are a more subtle way of sending your message than pre-
sentation, they can still seem preachy if you aren't careful. If you frequently offer a
player a choice of options (say, violence or negotiation) but always punish one, the
player will quickly realize that it's a false choice. Role-playing games that require
players to behave in conformity with their chosen good or evil character alignment
often make this mistake, producing what's known as the “Jesus/Hitler dichotomy
.
”
Players who choose to be good must be absolute saints, while those who choose
to be evil must be homicidal maniacs. Their mechanics for determining whether a
player is acting according to his alignment lack any subtlety.
PeaceMaker,
the game about Israel/Palestine diplomacy,
avoids this problem by
requiring that the player conciliate the hawks on his own side. You have to make
peace, but it isn't enough simply to be a dove all the time; that will get you thrown
out of office by your own people. No matter which side you play, you must deal
with your own side's religious militants as well as the other side. In effect, to win
the game you have to reconcile two mechanics with different criteria for success:
the need to stay in office and the need to make peace. It requires a nice political
balancing act to pull it off. In the early stages of the game, your own side's militants
are powerful. Later, as your policies begin to succeed, they don't matter as much.
Even abstract mechanics that lack any context or back story can still create a certain
emotional tone. A game produces a different message —and evokes different emo-
tions—when resources accumulate faster and faster because of positive constructive
feedback than when no resources are produced and the players need to survive and
make do with what little they can hang on to. The theory and design methods we
discussed in the previous chapters will help you to understand what messages your
game sends.
