The Problem of Other Players

In-game collaboration as collective action

Jonas Heide Smith (smith@itu.dk)Center for Compyter Games ResearchIT University of Copenhagen

LARGER PROJECT

Apply theories of conflict to video games- Economic game theory

Testing these theories against reality- Examining the relationship between game structure and player behaviour

TODAY

Here: Studying game design history through the lense of game theory (collective action)

The problem (the challenge) is usually the other player(s)

HISTORY OF CONFLICT

Spacewar (1962): Zero-sum game in which one player wins (fully) and the other player loses (fully).

Players will not cooperate in any way. Trust is not an issue.

HISTORY OF CONFLICT

Fire Truck (1978): Non-conflictual (organic relationship)

Players will cooperate fully and communicate to coordinate/syncronize.

HISTORY OF CONFLICTJoust (1982): Non-zero sum

- Players can kill each other (for points)- Cooperation prudent unless one fears aggression- Risk of misemplementation

Cooperation (but unstable)

Player 2

Cooperate

Defect

Player 1

Cooperate

Great Bad

Defect Good Mediocre

HISTORY OF CONFLICTGauntlet (1985): Non-zero

sum.- Players cannot kill each other- Players compete for resources

Cooperation (but unstable)

Wizard

Cooperate

Defect

Valkyrie

Cooperate

Valkyrie=2

Wizard=2

Valkyrie=0

Wizard=3

Defect Valkyrie=3

Wizard=0

Valkyrie=1

Wizard=1

TYPOLOGY OF CONFLICTType Player interests Challenge Sum

typeExamples

Cooperative

Exactly aligned Game environment or other team

Any Fire Truck (1978), co-op mode in Halo (2001)

Semi-cooperative

Collective goal shared but individual goals differ somewhat.

Game environment or other team and to a lesser extent the allied player(s.

Non-zero-sum game with allies, any type against game environment or other team

Joust (1982), Gauntlet (1985)

Competitive

Directly opposed. Competitive two-player games will never inspire in-game cooperative behavior while games with more players may inspire temporary coalitions between players.

The other player(s)

Zero-sum Pong (1972), Tekken 4 (2002)

CONCLUSIONS

Players are engaged in continuous experiments with ”collective action”

Game design is political philosophy

Gameplaying is experimental economics

CONCLUSIONS

Game design history amounts to a continuous experiment with relationships

We can choose an entirely formalist approach, as long as- We know what we’re doing- We test the predictions

CONCLUSIONS

Thank you

smith@itu.dk