What players want

1. Game Design Vishnu Kotrajaras, Ph.D. What players want

2. Challenge Especially for single player Super Mario Bros. 3 by Nintendo

3. Challenge(2)‏ Player ultimately wants game to force her to think Player wants to invent ways of solving problems, to discover things by himself. Tetris Attack by Nintendo

4. Socialize People want to be around families and friends Evidence You can see people chatting aggressively while playing LAN game Thus, chat function is worth considered Human opponent is more clever This adds more challenge

5. Socialize(2)‏ Ragnarok by Gravity

6. Escape from other people Players of this type want to be in complete control when playing Final Fantasy X-2 by Square-Enix

7. Players want to show that they are good Players want to win respect from other players This is true for both single and multi player game Therefore, a high score is a very important feature Street fighter arcade, remember entering name? Even if no one else knows, players can be happy anyway

8. Players want toshowthat they are good(2)‏

9. Players want to show that they are good(3)‏

10. Players want to show that they are good(4)‏ Marvel VS Capcom 2 by Capcom

11. Emotional Experience Adrenaline rush: Doom, Resident Evil Doom

12. Emotional Experience(2)‏ • Sad: Final Fantasy VII by SquareSoft

13. Emotional Experience(3)‏ Despair: due to failure But players learn to live with defeat Sense of accomplishment: When finish a game or a level

14. Fantasy People want to escape from real life Control exciting characters Better than books In books, we are the watchers In game, we are the characters No tedious real-life detail: eat, sleep, toilet

15. Fantasy(2)‏ Can do bad things in a safe environment GTA: kill innocent bystanders this game is rated 18 in England, children of younger age may not be mature enough to separate this from real life Like news of 15-year-old killing other people

16. Fantasy(3)‏ Grand Theft Auto

17. Fantasy(4)‏ Driver: escape from police Thief ->

18. Fantasy(5)‏ Players want to try to change history Red Alert

19. Gender Preferences Male Mastery Competition Destruction Spatial Puzzles Trial and Error Female Emotion Real World Nurturing Dialog and Verbal Puzzles Learning by Example

20. Bartle’s Taxonomy of Player Types ACTING Killers Achievers | | | | | PLAYERS -------------------+------------------- WORLD | | | | | Socialisers Explorers INTERACTING

21. What players expect This is a bit different from what players want This is what players want from every game

22. Consistent world A control action should only do limited amount of things Fighting game Player should ‘see’ clearly that her hit fails in order to accept it Similar kick must produce similar outcome

23. Consistent world(2)‏ Tekken by Namco

24. Understand game limitation Players must know which actions are possible and which are not Example: player learns to know that she cannot talk to monsters So there should be no future monster that we can talk to

25. Reasonable solution must work • Ways to solve rock puzzle • Designer must figure out every way of solving puzzle • Or design the game using mechanics that allow flexible solutions. Legend of Zelda: A Link to The Past

26. Example: putting stuff over a switch • Putting weights onto a switch? • Many things in the game seems to have weight. • Stones, weapons, or even monsters. • So we cannot hard code all of these. • A better solution is to implement the game such that all objects have weights. • Then we can detect weight on a switch without worrying about specific objects not being taken into account.

27. Direction • Players need to know what is needed to pass a level or what is needed to play • Vagrant Story combat system cannot be learnt by players easily Vagrant Story by SquareSoft

28. Direction(2)‏ • If you have mini games • Teach players how to play Final Fantasy 7

29. Accomplish a task incrementally Subgoal, level, town in RPG Players expected to know that she is progressing

30. Immerse • GUI design must allow easy play and not obstructing view Final Fantasy 12 Final Fantasy 7

31. Immerse(2)‏ Final Fantasy 8 • The illusion must not have weak spot • Walk on air (in many student games)‏ • The illusion shatters • A character a player plays must be likable by her • Squall Leonheart (FF VIII)‏ • Too much character in him • Mario • Not much personality, player can easily impose herself Super Mario 64

32. Fail, or feel the incompleteness If a player fails at some point She should know ‘right away’ what she should have done, for example Do some jump at other positions Choose to make another choice or go to another location in RPG game Difficulty: from easy to hard With faster rate of difficulty Secret in games

33. No repeat Players don’t like repeat goals Exploring the world the first time is better than the second time Sports, Tetris Looks repeat, but in fact not Save point is therefore important Auto-save helps player who forgets to save But should have both controlled and auto-save

34. No repeat(2)‏ Tetris Winning 11

35. No hopelessly stuck in the game • Many early adventures are bad • Need an item in the 1st stage to pass the 5th stage, and there is no way to go back • Dying is better than getting stuck • If Mario falls into a deep pit, if the pit is not escapable, kill him A typical adventure game

36. Not want to watch • Players want to ‘do’ things • Minimize cut scenes Vagrant Story