Game Development Reference
In-Depth Information
implementation
Whether or not to use experience points is an important decision when imple-
menting play style reinforcement. When using experience points, there is no direct
coupling between growth and action, allowing the player to harvest experience
with one strategy to develop the skills to excel in another strategy. On the other
hand, if you do not use experience points, you have to make sure that the feedback
is balanced for the frequency of the actions; actions that are performed more often
should have weaker feedback than actions that can be practiced infrequently.
Role-playing games are the quintessential example of games built around the play
style reinforcement pattern. In these games, the feedback loops are generally quite
slow and balanced by an
escalating challenge, dynamic friction,
or a
stopping mechanism
to make sure avatars do not progress too fast. In fact, most of these games are balanced
in such a way that progression is initially fast and gradually slows down, usually
because the required investment of experience points increases exponentially.
You must also decide whether the action needs to be executed successfully to gener-
ate the feedback. How you decide this issue can dramatically affect player behavior.
When success is required, the feedback loop gains influence. In that case, it is proba-
bly best to have the difficulty of the player's tasks also affect the success of an action
and to challenge the player with tasks of varying difficulty levels, thus allowing
them to train their avatars. When success is
not
required to earn experience points,
players have more options to improve neglected abilities during later and more dif-
ficult stages. However, it might also encourage players to perform a particular action
at every conceivable opportunity, which could lead to some unintended, unrealistic,
or comic results, especially when the action involves little risk.
examples
Many pen-and-paper role-playing games implement playing-style reinforcement.
For example, in
Warhammer Fantasy Role-Play
and
Va m p i re : T h e M a s q u e r a d e
, play-
ers are awarded experience points for achieving goals in the game. They can spend
experience points on improving their character's abilities. Curiously, the original
role-playing game
Dungeons & Dragons
doesn't have playing-style reinforcement. In
Dungeons & Dragons
, players are awarded experience points that they need to accu-
mulate to advance to the next level. However, the player has no influence over how
her character's abilities improve when she levels up; the character's abilities do not
adapt to the playing style or preferences of the player.
In the computer role-playing game
The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion
, the avatar's progress
is directly tied to her actions. The avatar's ability corresponds directly to the number
of times she has performed the associated actions.
Oblivion
implements playing-style
reinforcement without experience points.
