RESISTANCE - A Game Design Vocabulary - page 134

with the press of a button. The player can also use an amulet to create a beam of light that
points toward the location of the next encounter with a colossus, so there aren't even signifi-
cant challenges of exploration to figure out which way to go.
Why does Shadow of the Colossus require these lengthy travel times, long enough that some
players (and reviewers writing about the game) think the ride could even become boring? The
contrast between battle and travel feels deliberate: riding across the plains is a relaxation in
the resistance of the system, an opportunity for the player to set the pace—or simply enjoy the
sights and sounds of the world. For some players, this absence of resistance might even offer
a chance to pause and reflect, much as transit times often do in the real world, and perhaps
to consider the larger questions of the game, like why you are hunting these gigantic, solitary,
often peaceful-seeming creatures. When the player is done with her moment of pause, the
goals of the game are right there waiting to be picked up again.
Opening Up Purpose
Games can open up the space of resistance by letting the player decide not only how to play,
but toward what end she's striving—that is, what goal she is trying to achieve in the game. A
game like To mb ed has a single, straightforward goal: survive by descending. REDDER requires
players to pursue a few different goal objects in the form of diamond-shaped objects scat-
tered throughout the game. As a creator, you can add many goals to your game and let players
decide which to pursue first—or at all. On the other hand, even with a long list of goals, a
player's choice of what to pursue is limited to selecting from what's on that list. In games with
complex systems that can produce unexpected possibilities, players can come up with their
own goals—things you may never have dreamed of as the creator.
Open world games like Fallout: New Vegas (2010) take the first route: they open up the space of
play by giving the player many different goals to select from. New Vegas is a huge world, one
that's chock-full of things to find, computer-controlled characters to meet, dangerous encoun-
ters to overcome. As the player wanders across the deserts and highways of this game, numer-
ous points of interest appear, visible both in the player's view of the world and on a map that
fills itself with more and more icons as the player passes nearby or hears about them from other
characters. Games like Fallout: New Vegas can end up with an almost dizzying array of goals as
the player continues to push into and explore the world, accumulating dozens of potential mis-
sions to pursue, and spotting even more potentially interesting places to visit from a distance.
Each location has its own challenges and particular shape of resistance. In one spot, you might
encounter a gas station full of murderous raiders who'll try to kill you, while at another you
might meet a friendly merchant who wants to exchange gossip and trade. Exactly what will
happen is uncertain for any player who's not playing with a gigantic guidebook to accompany
the game, and that's part of the experience of openness and choice: you never know what's
going to happen next.