Game Development Reference
In-Depth Information
A few games, such as
Age of Wonders II
or
Civilization IV
, allow all the players to take
their turns simultaneously—that is, they each choose their next move at the same
time, without knowing what the others are doing. Once they have all chosen (or a
timer runs out), the turn ends, and the computer processes and displays the results
of all of the moves.
Note that some turn-based games permit very long turns in which players make
only one move every 24 hours or exchange their moves by e-mail. This can allow
novices to compete against more advanced players. However, such games are rare.
This chapter is concerned with players who are online in real time, even if the
game itself is turn-based.
Chat
Every multiplayer game for machines that use keyboards should include a chat
feature—a mechanism that enables players to send messages to one another. Voice
chat, implemented with microphones, is now a common feature of online console
games and many PC games as well. Depending on the nature of the game, players
should be able to send private messages to one other individual, messages only to
members of their own team (if any), or general broadcast messages to all other play-
ers who might reasonably be interested. In a game played by thousands of players,
any one player should be able to broadcast messages only to those in his vicinity or
on his team, whatever that might mean in the context of the game—the players at
his table, the players in the same room of a dungeon, and so on.
Unfortunately, chat brings a new set of problems: the potential for rude, abusive, or
harassing behavior. People who pay to play your game expect that others will meet
certain minimum standards of civility. This is particularly important for games that
will be played by children; parents rightfully want to protect their kids from abusive
or offensive behavior. In a sporting event, the referee enforces rules that maintain
these standards, or if there is no referee, then the collective authority of the other
players must suffice. Online, it's much more difficult to police players' behavior.
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The surest solution is to restrict what players may say to each other.
Mario Kart
for
the Nintendo Wii offers no voice chat and only allows players to choose remarks
from a fixed list of phrases. This guarantees that they can't say anything offensive,
but it doesn't really meet the social need that chat supplies.
PROFANITY FILTERS
Designers have tried profanity filters, but they aren't fully reliable, and they sometimes
produce laughable results. Words such as
damn
and
hell
are perfectly legitimate when
talking about religion, even if they're considered swearing in another context—
and don't think that people won't talk about religion when they're in your dungeon;
they'll talk about everything under the sun. In any case, people can easily get around
