Just an Ordinary Day - Game Invaders: The Theory and Understanding of Computer Games - page 96

In Figure 7.5 we have now reached a vantage point and have a great view of
many of the POs that we have been discussing: attractors, connectors, and sureties.
The only highlight in this view is the opponent, the center highlight. In Figure 7.6
we are using the telescopic sight on the gun, Figure 7.5, to target our opponent: no
need for highlights now. We're into a fi re fi ght, retainer, or mini-mission; we can
frag that opponent with, maybe, the element of surprise on our side. That is the
reward for our tenacity. So we have now come full cycle, from attractor to intention
to perceivable consequence to reward. A series of such cycles makes up the fi re fi ght,
retainer, or mini-mission. In a complete game we may go through this cycle thou-
sands, even tens of thousands of times: that's the basis of narrative potential.
GETTING IT ALL TOGETHER IN SINCITY
In SinCity we can see attractors, connectors and rewards all functioning together to
deliver the aesthetic pleasures of a death match level. Surprises should work together
in patterns to form possible temporal orders or rewards and thus the coherent set of
experiences that are intended to deliver the purpose of the world. Some general
principles apply:
• Players should usually be rewarded if they follow attractors.
• Rewards do not have to have attractors.
• Rewards can be their own attractors.
• Rewards can have multiple attractors.
Such patterns of surprises are called perceptual maps. The aim of perceptual mapping
is to take the basic instances of attractor, connector, and reward triples and compose
them to build up a picture of the perceptual content of the game as a whole. We can
identify a number of larger structures:
• Choice points: Present the player with a choice of competing attractors or a
choice of alternative intentions for the same attractor. Murray (1997) identifi es
such choices as a major source of dramatic potential in VEs. They can arise
from the simultaneous perception of competing attractors or as a result of
multiple possible intentions suggested by a single attractor.
• Retainers: Groupings of surprises that constitute major sites of interest and/
or interaction that seek to deliver the purpose of the VE as identifi ed by
requirements and conceptual modeling. Fire fi ghts in SinCity are good exam-
ples of retainers.
• Challenge points: Can be as much conceptual as locational and are obstacles
which have to be overcome in order to progress further in the VE. They are
obstacles which if unresolved prevent further progress in the game. Not all
games have challenge points. Classic challenge points are level bosses in
games such as Rez and Star Fox.
• Routes, implicit or explicit: Draw visitors round a VE and seek to make sure
that all major content is found and made use of.