Game Development Reference
In-Depth Information
Another example of analogous simulation is the way most games handle health.
The health of characters and units is often represented by a simple metric: a single
percentage or a discrete number of hit points. Obviously, in real life, the physical
health of a person or the structural integrity of a vehicle is a complex matter to
which many different aspects contribute. By using a generic health value for a char-
acter, most games bundle all these aspects into one convenient mechanism. Both
players and computers can easily work and understand the numerical metric to
represent the bundle.
Symbolic Simulation
Analogous simulations are based on a relationship between their source system
and their simulation mechanics, as in our example of the
Diablo
inventory mecha-
nism described earlier. They make use of a similarity between the two systems: not
a sensory, iconic similarity but a causal, indexical one. (In other words, the shape
of a real sword bears a causal relationship to the shape of the sword in the game.)
Symbolic
simulation goes one step further. The relationship between the original
system and the simulation's mechanics is not causal but arbitrary and based on
convention. The use of dice in many board games tends to be symbolic. For exam-
ple, the roll of a few dice can stand for the outcome of a complete battle in a game
of
Risk
. In this case, the relation between rolling dice and fighting is arbitrary, and
one simple action well-known from other games is used to simulate a multitude of
actions for which most players would lack expertise. Dice can replace these battles
because, for the purposes of the game, the player should have little influence over
the outcome of these battles.
Risk
is about global strategy, not about tactical maneu-
vers on the field of battle. A player cannot control the result of dice just as a supreme
army commander cannot conduct every battle personally. (He does have the power
to decide how many troops he will commit to the battle and when to withdraw.)
Something similar occurs in
Kriegsspiel
and many later war games. In contrast to
Risk
, these other games
are
all about tactical maneuvering on a battlefield. As a
result, their rules are quite elaborate, but the rules covering individual combat are
left to dice and attrition tables. Again, these games were designed to train tactical
skills, not how to use a gun.
Dice are wonderful devices to create a nondeterministic effect without the need for
detailed rules. At a suitably high level of abstraction, a complex and nondetermin-
istic system, such as individual combat, has a similar effect as rolling a few dice: a
complex system whose outcome is hard to predict and control. This is exactly the
same sort of abstraction that we described earlier in the section “Abstraction” when
we discussed aircraft landing gear. Especially when the player is not supposed to
have much influence over this system, dice mechanics can be used to replace the
more complex system. The characteristic randomness of different dice mechanics
can be used to match many superficial, nondeterministic patterns created by more
complex systems.
