Game Development Reference
In-Depth Information
Positive feedback
occurs when a player's achievement causes changes to the state of
the game that make a subsequent achievement easier, which in turn makes further
achievements easier still, and so on. The term does not refer to the effect of increas-
ing experience but to a phenomenon of the core mechanics that occurs even if the
player's performance does not improve with experience. The core mechanics often
reward achievements with assets that the player can convert into power to make
further achievements easier.
Figure 11.6
shows a feedback relationship diagram.
earns…
FIGURE 11.6
The positive feedback
relationship among
achievements,
rewards, and power
Achievement
Reward
eases…
next…
can be traded
for more…
Power
Monopoly
, as usual, provides a classic example. When a player achieves a monopoly
by buying a group of related properties, the player may charge higher rents to any
opponent who lands on these properties—the owner's reward for the achievement.
The player may then use the money to purchase more property and collect more
monopolies, thus producing a better chance of earning still more money.
Some games feature an even closer relationship between achievement and power in
which the player's reward for achievement
is
power. The reward doesn't come in an
intermediate form, such as money, that must be converted into power by buying a
weapon or a spell. Whichever side loses a piece in a game of chess then plays with a
depleted force, so the player who takes the piece obtains more power relative to his
opponent. In PvP games such as chess, achieving the lead often confers some
advantage upon the leader that makes it easy for her to stay in the lead and difficult
for the others to overtake her.
Not all games include positive feedback. If overcoming challenges does not produce
a reward that the player can use to help him overcome further challenges, no feed-
back cycle exists. In a javelin competition, a good throw of the javelin does not
produce additional power that influences subsequent throws.
