作者：Michael Parker

扑克是一种很有趣的游戏。我们可以与许多不同类型的玩家一起玩扑克游戏。去年夏天，当我与家人去度假时，就用扑克消磨了几个无所事事的夜晚。我们中有些人玩过在线扑克游戏，有些则只是略知游戏规则，但是不管游戏体验或者熟练程度如何，我们都很开心地猜测着其他人会出什么牌，会下什么赌注，拥有好牌还是差牌，或者谁对此感到厌烦以及谁仍然兴致勃勃等。这种游戏不仅能够推动社交互动，而且通过揣摩玩家的心理从而创造出吸引人的游戏机制。

psychology(from momschips.com)

在游戏中添加心理元素首先便是因为它的内在理解性。人与人之间总是能够相互理解。就像是你不用看规则手册就知道什么是欺骗，你也不用花数月时间去练习如何欺骗别人。如果这是你的游戏机制，那么你不用为此担心，你的玩家肯定知道如何玩！这是一种可理解的直觉型游戏机制。

关于心理元素的另外一大优势便是其跨度广，既能够作用于初级游戏，也能够影响高级别的游戏。在最高级别的扑克游戏中，玩家总是努力去猜测对方隐藏在心里的“秘密”。当一方玩家变得越来越擅于找寻“玄机”之时，对手也越来越擅于隐藏这种“玄机”。就像那些资深的玩家有时候也会模仿新玩家常犯的错误，而将自己伪装成新玩家。你会反反复复地进行欺骗行为。即使你只有一手小牌，你却能够假装自己拥有满手的好牌。而当你真正拥有一手好牌时，你又可以伪装自己“真正”拥有这些好牌，这时候对方将会说：“我知道你现在又在假装了！”而这时你便可以正大光明地秀出自己的一手好牌了。说实在的，比起单纯猜测对手手上的纸牌，这种“欺骗”方法确实有趣多了。

心理元素的第三大优势便是它经常会发生变化。玩家在劳累，饥饿，口渴，喝了许多咖啡，厌倦或生气时玩扑克游戏都会出现不同的结果。如果每一位玩家都能将这些因素用于分析游戏对手中，那么他们在游戏中的每一步选择将会深受影响，从而让游戏更加“高深莫测”。

心理元素的第四大优势是它从来不会过时。预测玩家的心理并不是那种会过时的游戏机制，所以如果一款游戏包含心理元素，那么它就能够经受时间的考验。如果你希望玩家能够一直玩你的游戏，那么就将心理元素带到游戏中去吧！

心理元素的第五大优势，即乐趣。我记得很早之前玩过的一款游戏《军团要塞》。在游戏中我需要控制火箭发射器与敌人进行对抗，而敌人将会尝试着躲避我的火箭攻击。因为我的火箭发射速度较慢，所以我必须在开火前准确地预算对方的逃跑方位。这时候，敌人关于逃跑路线也拥有一些选择：他可以躲到一些遮掩物后面（但是火箭有可能射穿这些遮掩物）；跑到露天空地中（但是在今后的袭击中将会让他变得更危险）；或者跳进篝火中（但是他也许会因此被烧伤而损失一定的生命值）。最后，我选择将火箭射向最不可能的地方——篝火，而与此同时敌人刚好跳进篝火中，因此受到了火箭和篝火的二重重击而最终身亡。

我之所以对此印象深刻是因为那时候我真的笑到不行了，你说对于一个旁观者来说这该是多么可笑的画面啊，哪有一个玩家愚蠢到会去射击那个极不可能的地方，并且竟然真有人蠢到选择跳进篝火里自焚？但是正因为如此你才会记得这款游戏，才会愿意谈论这款游戏不是吗？正是因为在游戏中经历过如此有趣的心理互动才让我深深记住这种体验。在这里你并不是与一些沉默的机器人进行交流，而是在接触一个真实的人类，你们猜测着彼此是谁，会做些什么。而如果你是因为看到了对方的人性并就此进行思考判断而最终获胜，你便能够感受到在普通电脑游戏所无法给予的特殊体验。（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）

Adding Psychology to Multiplayer Games – Why?

by Michael Parker

Poker is a great game. I can have a fun game of poker with a lot of different types of people. Last summer, I went on holiday with my family, and some of the best moments were spent us all sitting around in the evening drinking beer and playing poker. Some of us have played lots of online poker, some of us barely knew the rules, but regardless of experience or skill level, it’s still fantastic fun trying to figure out how each person plays, what they bet when they have good or bad cards, who is getting bored, who has the more obvious tells, etc. The game not only encourages social interaction, but creates some brilliant gameplay mechanics by utilising psychology of the players.

The great thing about using psychology as part of your game, is that firstly it’s inherently accessible. People understand people. You don’t need to read a rulebook to understand what a bluff is, you don’t need months of practice to learn you can scare people by playing aggressively. If it’s the main mechanic in your game, anyone can play! It’s the ultimate in accessible, intuitive depth.

The second great thing about psychology is that it scales tremendously well – it’s relevant at low level play, and equally relevant at high level play. Even at the highest levels of poker, players are still struggling to work each other out underneath the hats and the sunglasses. As players get better at noticing ‘tells’, their opponents get better at hiding them. Typical new players mistakes can be emulated by experienced players, pretending they are a new player. You have a bluff, then a double bluff, then a triple bluff. You pretend you have a strong hand when you have a weak hand. Then when the opponent works this out, you pretend to be pretending to have a strong hand, when you really do have a strong hand. When your opponent says “I KNOW you’re bluffing this time!” and you turn over a hand full of aces, it’s brilliantly fun in a way much more rewarding than simply calculating some odds.

The third great thing about psychology is that it’s different every day. The way a player plays poker could be different when he’s tired, when he’s hungry, when he’s drunk, when he’s had a lot of coffee, when he’s bored, when he’s angry after a recent loss, etc. If all these things should be factored into your analysis of your opponent, and that analysis affects the choices you make in the game, this creates an incredibly deep game!

The fourth great thing about psychology is that it doesn’t get old. Predicting your opponent is not a mechanic which becomes out of date, and so games which involve psychology have an inbuilt resistance to time. Do you want players to continue playing your game for years and years? Add psychology.

The fifth great thing about psychology is that it’s funny. I remember playing an old game of Team Fortress, and I was fighting an enemy with my rocket launcher, and he was trying to dodge my rockets, and because my rockets were a bit slow, I had to try to predict where he was going to go before I fired. At this particular time, he had a few options: there was some cover he could hide behind (but an accurate rocket might hit behind the cover), there was some open ground he could move into (staying vunerable to future attacks), and there was a bonfire that he could jump onto (but he’d get burnt and lose some health). It turns out, I shot a rocket at seemingly the most unlikely place – the bonfire, and at the same time, he jumped onto the bonfire and died from both the rocket and the burn effects of the fire.

I remember this moment because I laughed out loud at how ridiculous it would seem to a bystander, why would I fire there when only the stupidest of players would go there, and why would he go there, deliberately burning himself? That’s something you remember, something you talk about, something you put on youtube. It’s lodged in my memory as another brilliant psychology interaction in games. Where you’re not interacting with some dumb robot, it’s a real person, making real decisions, trying to work out who YOU are and what YOU’RE likely to do. And if you win because you saw their humanity, and emphasised with it, it makes you feel connected in a way that most computer games don’t achieve.（source：gamasutra）