When choice is bad: finding the sweet spot for player agency

Gazza_N

Checka dis oot:
http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/197181/When_choice_is_bad_finding_the_sweet_spot_for_player_agency.php

I've become a staunch advocate for emergent gameplay and stronger player agency in recent years, as I've become more and more frustrated with overly-scripted blockbuster offerings (or, as I like to call them - "Super Movie Cameraman in the Script Corridor"). However, the linked article lists some good points and techniques to ensure that the player isn't overwhelmed by too much choice, and is still having fun while remaining engaged with your game.

Tuism

It's quite personal, I think. For me Starcraft (1 and 2) are just WAY too far gone for me, while something like DOTA had a sweet spot for me and then ran away with the variations... Yet they're both some of the toppest games ever.

So it depends on the people playing the game, I thinkg!

Cool article :)

Bensonance

I saw this this last night too and really enjoyed it. I particularly like the reasoning that MOBA's are more popular that RTS's because of that restrained player choice.

Before that thouhgh, I'd struggled to identify why, design wise, MOBAs might be more popular.

Checking Gamasutra daily pays off often it seems :).

EvanGreenwood

Huh, aren't MOBA's more popular mainly due to the much lower dexterity gate, less memorization required to start playing at a vaguely competent level, and the inherent team play?

(Though I'm not saying that a lower granularity of critical choices, and a more funneled experience doesn't play a part. I'm saying that it doesn't play a particularly large part.)

In fact I wouldn't say that there are that many more choices in Starcraft than in DOTA. A lot of the actions taken in Starcraft aren't meaningful choices at all but management tasks designed to drain the players' attention resource <- This sounds absurd but this is a real thing that they do, not just me being critical of Starcraft. (Though, to be fair, turning attention into a resource does improve the competitiveness of the game and in Starcraft's case is probably a good design move)

I do like what he says about offering a limited selection of choices to improve game variety... Reacting to new and interesting constraints and options is a lovely experience. Obviously Broforce does this a little bit and Desktop Dungeons owns that stuff. I'm itching to work on a rogue-like sometime soon and do a lot of choice giving and cunning choice pre-selecting. (And Broforce could be still improved in this area)

Bensonance

That's probably more significant, you're correct.

However, a clarification: by popular, I mean spectatorship. An observation/theory I have about sports generally -and I'll include certain MOBA's and RTS's here for argument's sake- is that the popularity of a sport is closely correlated to the simplicity of its appearance. A lower appearing threshold of a sport may get viewers to play the sport in addition to watching it - both of which reinforce the other's frequency. For example: Soccer looks much simpler than chess, so more people play soccer and thus, more people watch soccer.

I feel with RTS's vs. MOBA's this is similar - the reduced choice in a MOBA makes it appear more simple to viewers than an RTS might - whether this is through UI or actual gameplay occurrences. This is likely why Fighting games are also popular e-sports.

This is just a simplistic and reductionist theory, though - inherent teamplay does appear to be a significantly more culpable reason for MOBAs' popularity.

EvanGreenwood

I don't know enough of the viewership stats to really comment on your theory.

I'd hazard a guess that viewership more closely corresponds to the playership of the sports. And in this case having once played soccer in highschool counts a person as being part of the playership.

I know that MOBA's now far exceed RTS's in terms of player base, and are beginning to exceed Starcraft in competitive play. But as I said, I'm making guesses as to how much the viewership corresponds.

As a purely anecdotal piece of information, I'm played a fair bit of both Starcraft2 and Dota2. I'm kind of average to rubbish at both. But I've watched far more Starcraft.

In particular, I don't like the narrative elements of Dota. I can relate to the Zerg overrunning the puny Terrans in a battle for territory across the galaxy. But one random bunch of both good and evil heroes fighting another random bunch of random good and evil heroes for the other side's chibified castle in what is essentially a box canyon seems daft.

hanli

@bensonance You may find this interesting:
"The Symbolic Dimensions of Spectator Sport"
Margaret Carlisle Duncan
http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00336297.1983.10483780