作者：Josh Bycer

虽然游戏中带有秘密是非常必要的，但是正是因为一些太过隐秘的元素而让我们不得不寻求一些攻略的帮助。而我今天就要在此分析使用攻略的优缺点。

如果说有哪两种东西的搭配像花生酱和果冻那样，我必然会最先想到角色扮演游戏和秘密。如果你在过去十年里玩过各种角色扮演游戏，那么你可能会发现（或许没有）有一些支线任务非常隐蔽，一般玩家很难发现它们的存在。这便是继需要帮助之后，游戏需要攻略或者到gamefags（游戏邦注：一个电子游戏流行网站）找对策的另外一大原因。然而这里也存在着一个设计问题，这也是设计者犯下的一个错误，即玩家需要知道游戏之外的内容才能理解游戏设置。

如果一款游戏的内容并不能体现游戏中的任何信息，那么这便是设计者的偷懒行为，并且会让玩家感到不自在。而好的游戏设计则能够给予玩家任何他们所需要的东西，并且无需向外界寻求帮助。比起让玩家在游戏中寻找秘密，反倒是游戏中突然出现一些NPC角色出来捣蛋更加有趣。一款最能够体现这种模式的游戏是《最终幻想12》，在这款游戏中有许多隐秘的道具，而玩家可以按照一些特殊的顺序打开宝库而找到这些道具。但是在这款游戏中却没有任何地方或者线索能够指明这些顺序的所在，所有的这些信息都留给了攻略。我认为关于游戏设计有一些有益的规则存在，而我将在下文与你们进行分享，首先我们来看看：

玩家不需要任何外部信息以帮助他们赢得游戏。

定义如何完成游戏其实很简单，只要明确游戏中的基本内容便可。不论你的游戏是像《Sonic The Hedgehog》那般简单还是像《忍者龙剑传》那般高深莫测，这个规则都是成立的。游戏应该通过指南或者其它游戏内部方式提供给玩家必要的信息，以帮助他们赢得游戏。而关于玩家是否能理解这些信息的内容，我将在本文的后部分加以讨论。

对于《黑暗之魂》这款游戏我最大的不满便是游戏中缺少足够的“篝火”让玩家能够有效地“检查”自己的进程。根据网上的攻略我们发现其实游戏中的很多篝火都隐藏在墙壁后面。对于我来说这简直就是个大禁忌，这么做无疑大大加重了玩家的游戏难度。没有理由将这些篝火隐藏起来，将一些篝火藏在墙壁后面会让玩家误以为所有的墙壁后面都藏有篝火，而这无疑会导致游戏设置变得越来越糟。。

你的游戏核心机制和系统都非常重要，并且你需要尽可能明确地向玩家解释这些机制和系统，否则将导致：

如果玩家不能从游戏或者指南中掌握游戏的基本机制——那么作为游戏设计者的你便大大失职了。

如果玩家阅读了你的游戏指南但却仍然对于游戏疑惑连连，那么你便要想想是哪里出了问题。显然，在今天这个时代里我们已经不再使用印刷版的指南手册，反倒是游戏教程和小窍门更加普遍。而有了这些教程，玩家应该是不用再依赖于攻略或者网上的教程了。但是《黑暗之魂》的两个新的基本机制，即人性观点以及篝火安置都未在指南或者游戏中详细说明。很久以前我一直认为是人类对掉宝率造成了影响，但是后来通过接触一系列游戏，我发现这个想法是错的。

黑暗之魂(from vg247.com)

在这里我们可以看到上述内容都是对于攻略的负面描写，但 并不代表玩家不需要任何攻略。虽然如此，攻略并不是毫无效益，有一些攻略也能够让玩家从中受益。

1.辅助：让我们正视这个问题，在游戏中我们总能够找到一个点，即使我们对于游戏再迷茫，也能通过多次玩游戏而解决任何问题。而正是这些点的存在让下一个步骤变得不重要了。有时候我只是需要一股力量能够推动我们朝着正确的方向发展罢了，而这时候游戏攻略就很有帮助。就像我前面提到的下一步，即游戏需要给予玩家足够的信息以帮助他们取得成功，但是有时候我们却找不到这些信息，而这时候就只能依赖攻略的帮助了。

2.统计信息：对于一些更为复杂的游戏，如角色扮演游戏，我们就必须追踪一些更为复杂的信息，如装备属性，敌人信息或者每家商店卖的商品等等。一些较好的游戏总是能够完整地提供给玩家这些信息，但是也有一些游戏只是在阐述着设计者需要表达的内容而已，如Nis America公司的战略角色扮演游戏。

通过使用一些攻略而提供给玩家这些信息能够帮助他们节省不必要的搜索时间，并帮助他们更好地做出决策。我阅读了《恶魔之魂》关于装备和敌人信息的部分攻略发现这它并不只是一种辅助工具。

3.后游戏玩法（游戏邦注：亦称后游戏内容）：我喜欢在每次通关后就保存一下游戏，因为这些通关玩法通常很难，所以会受到其他玩家的喜欢，一些游戏就因很特别设计的通关玩法而吸引玩家。看一下以复杂力学系统出名的游戏公司Nis America，这些大量复杂的游戏解析就会非常有用，但是对一般的游戏就没有这个必要了。

然而玩家自身也可以找到相关信息，但如果有玩法指引的话将会大大缩短他们的搜索时间。例如在Nis的战略角色游戏中，其指南里面都会有详细的说明来教你如何实现一个“连续跳”的动作，阅读这些指南将会让你更明白游戏中各种系统之间是如何配合的。

我们必须知道，如果没有任何攻略，游戏也应该让玩家清楚什么是后游戏内容。如果你想要隐藏一整个地牢并要求玩家去解决五个谜题，3道数学题，将一个拉丁文句子翻译成英语或者让游戏角色1分钟内跑到一个指定场所，那么你就必须在游戏中提供一些线索或暗示，让玩家知道他们应该这么做。这是游戏《魔界战记》所忽略的一点；后游戏机制常常包含的一大机制便是游戏都会在你的武器上附加一个“特种”NPC怪物。每个“特种”NPC都会通过不同方法去提高武器的能量，而更好的武器对于后游戏内容体验的帮助更大。然而，在游戏中却很少明确说明不同“特种”NPC间存在着的差异。

就像Sid Meier所说的，游戏一系列有趣决策的合体，而为了让玩家能够做出决策，我们便需要提供他们足够的信息。而这就需要游戏指南的帮助，让玩家获得相关游戏知识，而更好地玩游戏。最好的游戏设计并不会告诉玩家他们需要做出何种选择，而是他们自己找到答案。当玩家想要去寻找关于选择的答案时，游戏攻略就该上场了。即使游戏指南的内容变得越来越少，我们也没有理由去同样压缩攻略。如何判断一款攻略的好坏可以依于你是如何让玩家掌握它，通过《魔界战记2》的“连续跳”攻略中，你可以让玩家明确地感受到怪兽即将带来的冲击。（本文为游戏邦/gamerboom.com编译，拒绝任何不保留版权的转载，如需转载请联系：游戏邦）

The Problems With Strategy Guide Game Design.

by Josh Bycer

Secrets have always been a mainstay of games, but there is such a thing as being too hidden which leads to the requirement of a strategy guide. Today’s post talks about the right and wrong reasons to use a guide.

Two things that go together like peanut butter and jelly would have to be RPGs and secrets. If you have played just about any RPG within the last two decades then you have probably ran into (or not,) hidden side quests so obscure that the average gamer would never find them. This has been one of the reasons to pick up the strategy guide for the game (or go to gamefaqs,) next to needing help to continue. However, this raises a design problem and a major mistake that some designers make: designing content that only people with outside information of the game would know.

Having content that the game gives no information about is just lazy design and feels out of place. Good game design should give the player everything they need without having to resort to help. Even if random NPC #20 casually mentions that throwing a turkey into a fountain will do something good, that is still better than having the player just guess to find any secrets. One of the more infamous examples of this is from Final Fantasy 12, in the game there is a secret item that the player can find by opening treasure chests in a specific order. However, nowhere in the game does it tell you that order or even hints at this side quest, that information is reserved for the strategy guide. I believe in a few rules of design and in this post I’m going to share a few with you, starting with this one:

A player should not require any outside information to finish your game.

To define finishing the game is simply, beating the normal content in a game. I don’t care if you are designing a game as easy as Sonic The Hedgehog or as hard as Ninja Gaiden, the rule stands. The player should be given all the information they need from either the manual or in game to succeed. The point of contention is if the player can understand the information that they are provided which I’ll be coming back to later on in this post.

One of the complaints I had with Dark Souls was on the lack of bonfires allowing the player to effectively “checkpoint” their progress. Looking at guides online showed several bonfires that are hidden behind walls. That to me is a huge no-no and an arbitrary way of inflating difficulty. There was no reason to explicitly hide these from the player; several of which are behind walls that look like every other wall in the area which is just adding salt to the wound.

The core mechanics and systems of your game are vitally important and should be explained as thoroughly as possible to the player, which leads to this rule:

If the player cannot figure out the base mechanics of your game either through in game or the manual, then you have failed at your job of being a designer.

Something is very wrong if after reading the manual that someone can’t figure out how your game works. Granted, in today’s age the quality of printed manuals have degraded somewhat, but that’s why we have in game tutorials or tips. A player should never have to turn to a guide or the Internet to answer questions about the basics of the game. In Dark Souls, two of the new basic mechanics: humanity points and kindling bonfires are never explained in manual or in game. For the longest time I thought that being human affected the drop rate, but it turns out that I was wrong after having to look it up online.

Now while this post has been largely negative towards guides and saying that you shouldn’t need a guide to play a game, but that doesn’t mean that guides are useless, which leads to several caveats where a guide can be beneficial to the player.

1. Walk-through: Let’s face it, we’ve all had a point in a game where we were hopelessly stuck and no amount of playing the game would fix it. These are the points where the next step is simply giving up and quitting the game. Sometimes we just need that one push in the right direction to get us over the hump and that’s where a game guide can become useful. As I said further up, the game should give the player all the information they need to succeed, but for the times that we can’t find that information, a guide can be useful.

2. Statistical Information: When it comes to more complex titles like RPGs, there is a lot of information to keep track of: equipment attributes, enemy information, what each shop keeper sells and so on. Some games are decent enough to give the player easy access to this information, however there are titles where there is just too much for the designer to catalog in game, case in point, all the information in a Nis America SRPG.

Having a one stop spot for all this information in the use of the guide can be helpful to cut down wasted time scouring for the information and helps players make informed decisions in game. I read the sections in the Demon’s Souls strategy guide about equipment information and enemy drops more than the general walk-through.

3. Advance Play (AKA Post Game Content): I’m a believer in saving post game content for the times when “the gloves come off”. This is where it is best to save all the toughest, game tester mind breaking content for. Some games feature very advance mechanics designed to work with the post game content. Going back to Nis America, their SRPGS are famous for having complex mechanics and systems that aren’t needed for the regular game, but are used for the post game “super grind.”

While the player can find out this information on their own, having a guide nearby can trim a lot of the fat of digging through the mechanics to find what you’re looking for. Each Double Jump guide for Nis’s SRPGs has a section detailing the exact ways to use the mechanics to completely overpower your characters and the formulas for how all this works. Reading these sections gave me a better understanding on how the interplay of the various systems works.

Now there is a caveat to this caveat, post game content should still be accessible without turning to a guide. If you want to hide an entire dungeon requiring the player to solve five puzzles, three math problems, translate a phrase from Latin to English and have the character run in place for one minute, then there better be clues in the game to tell the player to do all that. This is one area where Disgaea slips up; one of the post game mechanics involves attaching NPC monsters called “specialist” to your weapons. Each specialist enhances the weapon in a different way, with the better ones very important for the post game grind. However, nowhere in the game does it mention the difference between the various specialists.

Going back to that famous Sid Meier quote that a game is about a series of interesting decisions, in order to make said decisions, the player must be given adequate information. That is the point of in game help and manuals, to give the player the knowledge they need to play the game. The best game designs don’t tell the player what the choices are, but let them find out for themselves. For the times where the player wants to find out about the choices, that is where strategy guides come into play. While game manuals are getting smaller, there should be no excuse at shrinking strategy guides. A good measure of a strategy guide should be how much damage you can inflict on someone with it, and with the Disgaea 2 guide from Double Jump, you could probably give someone a minor concussion with that beast.（source:gamasutra）