lecture 3 - cornell university

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Social Mechanics

Lecture 3

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About Today’s Lecture

� Will assume you saw Koster’s talk � Will use his design terminology � But not his Twitter numbers

� But will go deeper than that � What the heck was he talking about? � How is it present in existing games? � How do I add it to my game?

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REVIEW: Aspects of a Game

� Players: How do humans affect the game?

� Goals: What is the player trying to do?

� Rules: How can the player achieve the goal?

� Challenges: What obstacles block the goal?

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Introducing Social Elements

� Design game to encourage social interaction � Multiplayer => Social � But multiplayer not required

� Goals and Social Activity � Goals have multiplayer aspect

� Challenges and Social Activity � Multiple players adjust the difficulty � Other players can help or hinder

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Trivial: “Single Player” Social

� Parallel symmetric games from Koster’s talk �  Status

�  Leaderboards

� Races

�  Tournaments

� Social aspects are “external” to game � Or are they really?

(my high score) (everyone’s high score) (speed puzzles)

(brackets of races)

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Single-Player Social Design �  Very easy to do with “scoring”

�  Numerical basis for status, comparison

�  Most social games do this

�  Scoring can be multi-dimensional �  Different categories (speed, difficulty, etc…)

�  Can have leaderboard for each category

�  Status messages are non-numerical alternative �  Update my friends on where I am in game

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Status Messages: Sword and Sworcery

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Is this Good Design?

� If this is social, all games are social � But that was Raph’s point

� Bad: can ignore social elements � Don’t care about high score

� Goal: design social game mechanics � Require friends to play the game

� Or at least create strong incentives

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Opposition: Koster’s Basics

�  1 vs 1 �  Tug of War

�  Flower Picking

�  Dot Eating

�  Secrets

�  1 vs 1 vs … vs 1 �  Last Man Standing

�  Bidding

�  Gamemaster Pattern

(combat)

(resource race)

(resource fight)

(deception)

(big fight)

(spectators) (????)

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Key Design Observation

�  In these designs, number of players is fixed �  Traditional multiplayer set-up �  Not really using a “social network”

�  Existing games use asynchronous turn-based gameplay �  Old: Chess, Avalon Hill Wargames �  New: Words with Friends, WarStorm

�  Social Network a variation of play-by-mail �  1990s: Play-by-email �  Now: Play-by-Twitter, Play-by-Facebook �  Design is largely unchanged

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Problem: Downtime

� Next move is blocked on player/gamemaster �  (Pre-internet) real life communication lag �  (Post-internet) player away from keyboard � How long can player take on his/her turn?

� “Swapping in” a big problem � Where are we in the game? � May have been days since last turn

� These problems limit you to core gamers

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Problem: Downtime

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Solution: Keep it Simple

� Classic board game design � Moves are relatively short � State determined at a glance

� Examples: � Chess: Move one piece; small 8x8 board � Word with Friends: Scrabble variant � Collectable Card Game: Cards in play � But not memoryless…

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Complex Games Need a Gamemaster

� Needed if actions non-deterministic � How do we know outcome? � Cannot see your die roll

� Computer serves as gamemaster

� Allows for complex gameplay � Turn sets up action for gamemaster � But now turns take longer to play!

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Example: Warstorm

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Cooperation (Fixed Size)

� Friends help player overcome challenges � Roles � Mentoring � Gifts � Reciprocity

� Why wasn't booing given a number? �  Is it the same as gifts? �  Is it the same as mentoring?

(medic!) (free XP) (free magic items) (item exchange)

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Example: Dragon Age Legends

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� Do not actually fight battles with your friends � Would require coordination after each move �  This would make it a turn-based RPG � Requires constant online with lot of downtime

� In DA: Legends, Friends are resource �  Friends lend characters to your for the battle � You control entire party on your own �  Social coordination is after each battle

But Plays Like Single Player

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Social Games Use Resource Sharing

� Zynga games have money as resource � “Hire” your friends to do tasks � This transfers your money to them

� Works with game specific resources � Farmville: Seeds, energy � Vampire: Blood � DA Legends: Party members

Numeric Resources

Object

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And This Leads to Monetization…

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Opposition & Cooperation

� Opponents, Friends may change dynamically � Ganging Up

� Deception/Bluffing

�  Prisoner’s Dilemma

� Fundamental in 3+ person games � Recall: Kingmaking, Politics

� Very difficult to balance

(king of the hill)

(turncoat) (lesser two evils)

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Is This Truly “Social”?

� Opposition leads to turn-based play � Mechanics derived from board games

� Again, a form of play-by-mail

� Designed for (relatively) small groups � Opposition is still very “personal”

� Adding players unbalances resource sharing

�  Too many players, too long a game

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Leveraging the Social Network

� Support open-ended cooperation/opposition � Want to encourage large personal network � But also allow small-scale (or even solo) play

� Allow time for communication �  Friends not immediately available � Do not “block” on requests � But allow for quick mobilization

� Provide rich communication channels �  “Join our secret group to plot John’s demise”

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Unbounded Resource Sharing

� Example: Mafia Wars � My empire versus your empire

� Opposition is no longer “personal”

� Again, very hard to balance �  Large social networks crucial for survival

� Mobilization is also critical

�  Small networks need much work/money

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Diminishing Returns

�  Friends can only help a limited number of times �  Friends run out of resources to give �  DA Legends: User per day limit on friends

�  Implemented with an “energy” resource �  Social activities require energy use �  Have to wait for friends to recharge �  Energy replenishes over time (or with money)

�  Encourages spreading out friends over time �  Going “all in” makes you vulnerable

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Guilds and Large Economies

� A lot of rich gameplay from the MMOs � Guild vs. Guild �  Trade/Contracts �  Elections/Politics � Arbitrage

� But not really prevalent in social games. � Why not? � Can we create it?

(privacy policies?)

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Why do Guilds Form?

Exclusivity Supply Chains

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Why do Guilds Form?

Exclusivity Supply Chains

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Guild Specialization

� Supply chains lead to specialization �  Each person has different role in chain � Guild structure balances member roles

� Very different from social game design �  Friends are often interchangeable � Actions limited by network size, not organization

� Is this too hardcore for social gamers?

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Summary

�  Social gaming is still not well understood �  Many games are play-by-mail variants �  Downtime prevents a lot of complex gameplay

� Want mechanics that leverage network �  Support open-ended cooperation/opposition �  Provide rich, but asynchronous communication

� Want depth of MMO without complexity �  MMO economies are fantastic for gaming �  Want “guilds” with deep specialization

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