Game Development Reference
In-Depth Information
wait for a new match to begin. In a game that can be played with any number of
players, such as bingo, you can simply start a new match, say, every three minutes,
and whoever is waiting may play. In games requiring a fixed number of players,
such as bridge, you will need to establish a matchmaking service that allows them
to form groups and to wait (more or less patiently) for enough players to join a par-
ticular group; the game begins as soon as the required number of players arrives.
The number of players needed for a game should be small, however, to minimize
waiting times. Any game that requires more than about eight players risks alienat-
ing players who do not want to wait.
In some games, players can join almost immediately without any disadvantage—
poker, for instance. Each hand takes little time, and new players can join at the
end of the current hand. Tournament play, of course, has a definite start, and play-
ers cannot join after the game begins. For games of indefinite duration, such as
persistent worlds, you can't do anything about the fact that some players possess
advantages other players don't. The players who began the earliest and who devote
the most time to play will always have an advantage (unless you allow players to
purchase prebuilt characters for real money on eBay, but that just shifts the advan-
tage from players who have the most time to players who have the most money).
You can, however, prevent those advantages from spoiling the game for other players:
Get rid of the victory condition.
Without winners and losers, an online enter-
tainment ceases to be a game per se and becomes a different kind of amusement.
The player focuses on her own achievements rather than on defeating all the other
players. In this case, the old cliché becomes apt: It's not whether you win or lose,
but how you play the game. Persistent worlds, which are addressed later in the
chapter, work on that basis.
Discourage competition between experienced players and newcomers.
You
can measure the progress of your players and see to it that only those who are fairly
matched come into direct conflict. Tournament chess uses a ranking system to do
just that. A highly ranked player who beats a newcomer gets little or no reward for it.
Mafia Wars
only permits players with similar levels of experience to fight each other.
Be sure that direct competition is consensual.
If experienced players do get the
chance to compete directly with newcomers, you should give the newcomers the
option to refuse to play. No one should be forced to take part in an unfair competition.
Disappearing Players
Just as players can appear at any time, they can log off at any time, or lose their
connection to the game for technical reasons. If possible, your game should deal
with this neatly and with minimal disruption to other players. In many games,
such as racing games, players compete against one another in a free-for-all. If one
player disappears, it doesn't make that much difference—his car vanishes from the
track, and that's all. In effect, the player forfeits the race and the others continue.
On the other hand, if the game requires players to work in teams, the disappear-
ance of one player could put his team at a serious disadvantage. In games that
