Game Development Reference
In-Depth Information
metarule that the players can use to pass judgment on the rules themselves. Players
sometimes spontaneously decide to change the rules of a game during play if they
perceive that the rules are unfair or that the rules are permitting unfair behavior.
For all the players to enjoy a game, they must all be in general agreement about
what constitutes fair play.
CHANGING THE RULES
Whether the rules can be changed during play is usually determined by an often-unwritten
social convention, but in some cases, the rules themselves describe the procedure for
changing the rules. Games in which rules can be changed usually define two types of
rules: the
mutable
(changeable) and the
immutable.
The immutable rules include instruc-
tions about when and how the mutable rules may be changed.
Nomic,
created by
philosopher Peter Suber, is such a game.
It is particularly important that the players perceive a video game to be fair because,
unlike conventional games, video games seldom give the players any way to change
the rules if the players don't like them. One widely accepted definition of fairness is
that all the players in a multiplayer game must have an equal chance of winning at
the beginning of the game. The simplest way to achieve this is to make the game
symmetric, as you'll see in the next section. In single-player video games, fairness
is a complex issue that has to do with balance and with meeting players' expecta-
tions. Chapter 11, “Game Balancing,” discusses this at much greater length.
Symmetry and Asymmetry
In a
symmetric
game, all the players play by the same rules and try to achieve the
same victory condition. Basketball is a symmetric game. The initial conditions, the
actions allowed, and the victory condition are identical for both teams. Many tradi-
tional games such as chess and backgammon are symmetric in every respect except
for the fact that one player must move first.
WHO GOES FIRST?
In turn-based games, the fact that one player moves first can confer an advantage to one
side or the other. For example, in tic-tac-toe among experienced players,
only
the person
who goes first can win. However, if a game is designed in such a way that the advantage
of going first is slight or nonexistent, this asymmetry can be ignored. In chess, only the
weakest pieces on the board, pawns or knights, can move on the first turn, and they
cannot move very far or establish a dominant position. The asymmetry of going first is
considered irrelevant, so for practical purposes chess is a symmetric game.
