作者：Dan Andrei Carp

游戏体验最不协调的一个时刻就是要求玩家重新加载。就本质来说，此娱乐活动需要用户具有一定的投入性——更准确地说，需要玩家活跃参与，完全融入眼前的世界。当此状态进入巅峰，玩家就会感受到持续的“心流状态”。这令我们在体验过程中忘记时间，忘却周遭世界。但当玩家需要重新加载内容或出现“Game Over”画面（这只会雪上加霜）时，这种心流感受就会遭受破坏。

本文列举若干热门游戏所采用的“死亡”处理方式的实际范例，以便开发者借鉴其做法，以免玩家丧命后重复操作之前接触过的内容。

《暗黑破坏神 II》

暴雪的《暗黑破坏神 II》最先出现在我的脑海中，因为这款游戏的开发者偏好创造流畅体验。游戏存在非常直白的关卡机制和战斗玩法，因此开发者选择移除传统的“保存”功能。

这意味着某些功能就会变得具有可行性：赌博、随机秘诀或降落物。这也意味着玩家角色不会简单死去。

解决方案

但为保留一定挑战元素，死亡需受到一定惩罚——它足以促使玩家回避这种情况，但又不至于接近“Game Over”。暴雪在此给出的方案是结合“城镇重生”机制的体验和黄金惩罚。从根本来说，游戏会惩罚玩家向后撤退，但不会迫使他们重新进行任何操作。

失败的负面影响依然存在于《暗黑破坏神 II》中，但程度降低很多。《黑暗史诗》或《火炬之光》通过给予玩家就地复活权利进一步降低此方面的影响。当然每种选择都需要付出一定代价。

《虚幻竞技场》

另一代表类型就是《虚幻竞技场》之类的射击游戏。游戏中，玩家的目标是抢在他人前面达到一定数量的杀敌数——典型的死亡模式场景。

解决方案

死亡惩罚看似简单——但参与者死去，他/她的对手就会离胜利更近一步。快节奏的战斗加上即时重生确保体验呈动态模式，同时保持流畅性。消极影响几乎完全消失，因为失败构成游戏的玩法基础：玩法依赖于失败，失败推动玩法向前发展。这类题材的风靡就足以证明简化玩家体验是明智之举。

《Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver》

Crystal Dynamics在其1999年的作品《Soul Reaver》中采取其他举措克服死亡问题，游戏允许主角Raziel在两个空间中穿梭（游戏邦注：实体空间和精神空间）。

解决方案

Raziel以敌人的灵魂作为能量，这些灵魂是它的生命力量。当角色在实体空间中被打败时，它就会转移到精神空间中。若它在那里也被打败，它就会被带到特定的地点，从中它就能够回到自己的死亡地点。

有点令人讨厌的是回到实体空间需要入口——这就涉及一定程度的原路返回。但事实证明此“精神国度”方法非常受欢迎，已被运用多次—–最近的一个例子就是Deck 13 Interactive推出的《女死神》。

除此之外的另一个选择就是让玩家角色在每次死亡后更深入于持续发展的精神世界。角色会在每次下降中而变得更强大，或者是敌人变得更弱。角色返回能够立即实现，或在相同层面呈现渐进模式；这取决于死去的对手或经验、灵魂集合之类的游戏货币。

《波斯王子》

育碧2008年的热门游戏系列采用另一方式将主角从死亡中救出。游戏融合特技、战斗及神秘背景，让选择看起来颇清晰自然。

解决方案

由A.I.控制的角色Elika在游戏进程中会陪伴主角，扮演“保护者”的角色。她帮助主角实施其特技，还让死去的主角立即重返稳固地面。

这让玩家得以从“失败”的地方继续游戏，丝毫没有破坏沉浸性。Elika不只是在主角死去后出现，这有效将体验融入正常玩法中，而不是将二者区分开来。

《边境之地》

《边境之地》是款快节奏的FPS/RPG混合游戏，这款作品之所以能够脱颖而出要归功于游戏的独特艺术效果及稳固而富有沉浸性的玩法。当玩家控制的角色死去时，他/她会立即在附近关卡重生，同时遭受现金惩罚。《边境之地》值得关注的地方在于死亡前发生的事件。

解决方案

在单人模式中，角色会预先进入死亡状态，其中他/她的视线会逐渐模糊，玩家有机会重新“恢复元气”。这意味着玩家会就地站起，继续战斗——他/她只需在屏幕完全变黑前顺利消灭一个敌人。

在合作模式中，此机制依然存在，但依然存在团队成员互相帮助的选择——例如，恢复他/她的健康状态。

关于这点，我要补充的是，建议设计师给予玩家一定的紧急道具或技能，方便他们凭此拯救自己。若玩家未能享受到这些内容，或此过程耗时过久，常规重生机制将是很好的失败防范举措。

《时空幻境》

Number None的这款平台游戏堪称独立领域的杰出成就，这很大程度要归功于游戏富有挑战性和独创性的玩法机制。

解决方案

通过操控时间“消除”失误是最符合直觉的操作方式。游戏中玩家能够撤销他们的操作，退到必要的位置，然后流畅地从此继续前进。此机制还允许玩家修正细小失误（游戏邦注：例如从平台上掉落）。和《波斯王子》一样，围绕死亡的机制也是常规玩法的组成部分。

此外，设计师可以考虑创造额外生存空间，或者将角色从一个平面移到另一平面。这也能够提供某些有趣的玩法选择，因为主角的过去无需和角色的经历完全相同。具体来说，进行这样的转变后，角色的统计数据和技能就会发生改变，或者他们完成某些关卡的方式会发生改变。

《第3个生日》

《第3个生日》由Square Enix于2011年在西方国家发行。游戏融合射击和RPG元素，采用有趣机制保护主角Aya Brea免于遭遇死亡情况。此机制更早前出现在Shiny Entertainment 2000年的作品《Messiah》。

解决方案

Aya能够同NPC交换身体，避免死亡情况，同时控制这些角色，通过他们完成各种任务。在战斗中，此能力能够“指引”团队集中火力、防御或运用其他策略。

根据机制执行情况的不同——例如交换实际躯体或交换灵魂，我们还能够进行相应延伸。当将玩家的灵魂植入他人躯壳时，根据新躯壳能力的不同，玩家的技能和能力也会出现某些转变。强大躯体让玩家得以完成脆弱躯体所无法实现的操作，当置身巫师躯壳中，玩家就能够接触到普通人类所无法接触到的魔法。

《EVE Online》

CCP的这款大型多人游戏2011年依然蓬勃发展。虽然游戏凭借众多创意内容脱颖而出，让开发者得到大批粉丝的支持，但本文主要谈论的是CCP在EVE空间中处理玩家死亡的方式。

解决方案

玩家能够在当前所处躯壳背后接触到两种克隆躯体。所有玩家都有Medical Clone，这是角色死后玩家的去处。此Medical Clone能够进行更新，从而确保具有足够空间存储技术点数。此外，躯体能够装载若干植入元素，当身体遭到破坏，这些元素就会消失。

第二种克隆模式Jump Clone是传输渠道，能够让玩家在不丧失克隆形态新植入元素的情况下进入危险情境。

此外，此机制能够让玩家在创造新克隆内容或预先在替换内容中添加实体更新内容（例如，植入元素）时重新分配其技能点数。此外，通过让玩家选择重生躯体，游戏还能融入额外策略推理元素——选择地点，选择技能组合，选择实体更新内容。

根据游戏类型的不同，选择飞机空投或远距传送等方式都能够有效免去玩家重返死亡地点的成本。

《Rage》

Id Software的最新作品令简化玩家体验变成一个设计目标和哲学理念。菜单导航和HUD元素降至最少，游戏通过借助迷你游戏有效避免玩家死亡情况。

解决方案

当角色健康值降至最低水平，玩家就会看到迷你游戏截屏，提醒玩家采用“除纤颤器”。根据反应速度和时机的不同，角色会得到不同程度的健康值，然后重返游戏，但无论如何，这让他们免于遭受死亡。

迷你游戏模式非常有效，总是行得通，能够顺利排除重生模式或其他死亡拯救机制。

下面是补充解决方案：在玩家技能之外引入运气元素能够有效缩短玩家各种能力所存在的隔阂。虽然这不是单人模式中的必要元素，但确保游戏体验不会相差太多依然很重要。

总结

虽然本文不是非常详尽，但依然列举出此常见问题的若干实际解决方案。将体验过程分成若干环节是非常糟糕的举措——没有人想要看到一连串熟悉的场景和确认框。开发者显然对此非常感兴趣，有越来越多人开始尝试简化用户体验，降低其中涉及的成本。

此外，我觉得有必要移除或调整传统的保存/加载机制。我的看法是在游戏情境中处理玩家失败的做法要比在游戏情境之外更胜一筹。（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）

Dealing With Death: Streamlining The Player Experience

by Dan Andrei Carp

One of the most jarring aspects of playing a game is the reload sequence. Through its nature, this form of entertainment requires a certain level of investment from its consumers — more specifically, that they actively take part and immerse themselves in the world set before them. When it reaches its peak, this creates a feeling of “flow”, of continuity. It’s what makes us lose track of time and become oblivious to our surroundings when playing. However, this flow can be broken when users are faced with a reload or a “Game Over” screen that only serves to add insult to injury.

Since this hasn’t changed a lot since the beginnings of the industry, one might consider it a necessary evil. The question this feature seeks to answer is whether we can find a way around it, while presenting some practical examples used in popular games over the years.

I feel that this issue needs addressing sooner rather than later, because reloading a game is sensible when we’re resuming our gaming sessions; having to redo something we’ve already done only seconds before is unpleasant. And, of course, this approach encourages players to take the brute force approach by trying everything until they find one that works.

Diablo II

Blizzard’s Diablo II is one of the first games to come to mind, since its developers took a special interest in creating a flow-based experience. Since it has a pretty straightforward quest system and combat-based gameplay, they chose to remove the traditional “Save” function.

This means that certain features became feasible: gambling, random recipes, or drops. It also meant that player characters couldn’t just die (with the exception of Hardcore Mode).

Solution

However, to retain the challenge factor, a certain penalty had to be applied on death — big enough to encourage people to avoid it but small enough not to be synonymous with “Game Over”. Blizzard’s answer to this problem was an experience and gold penalty along with a “respawn in town” mechanic. Basically, the game punishes players in a way that sets them back but doesn’t force them to redo anything.

The jarring effect of loss is still present in Diablo II, but to a much lesser degree. Fate or Torchlight reduces this even further by giving players the option of reviving in the same area or in the very spot where their character has met his or her end. Of course, each option has a steeper price.

Unreal Tournament

Another example can be seen in shooters games, such as Unreal Tournament. The player’s goal is to reach a certain number of kills before the others do — the classical deathmatch scenario.

Solution

The death penalty is deceptively simple — when a participant dies, his or her opponent is one step closer to victory. The fast-paced action coupled with immediate respawning ensures that the experience is very dynamic, but also smooth. The jarring is virtually non-existent because failure (death) constitutes the basis of the gameplay: in fact, it depends on it, and it’s what drives it forward. The popularity of the genre, if nothing else, is proof enough that streamlining player experience is something worth doing.

Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver

Crystal Dynamics took another approach to overcoming death in its 1999 title, Soul Reaver, by allowing Raziel, the the main character, to traverse between two realms — a physical one and a spectral one.

Solution

Raziel feeds on the souls of his enemies, and it is these souls that serve as his life force. When defeated in the physical realm, the character is transported to the spectral one. If he is defeated there as well, he is taken back to a special hub from where he can make his way back to the place of his demise.

There is a small nuisance in that the return to the physical realm requires a portal to be used — and this introduces a certain amount of backtracking. However, this “spirit realm” approach has proven popular, and has been used several times since — a more recent example being Venetica, developed by Deck 13 Interactive.

A possible alternative to this method could involve sinking the player character deeper and deeper into successive spirit worlds with every death. The avatar could either become stronger with every descent or the enemies weaker. Return could be immediate or sequential through the same layers; it could depend on the opponents being dead or some in-game currency such as experience or a soul pool.

Prince of Persia

Ubisoft’s 2008 installment of the popular series used yet another approach to save the main character from certain death. The game’s mix of acrobatics and combat as well as the mystical setting allowed the choice to seem refreshing and natural.

Solution

An A.I. controlled character, Elika, accompanies the hero throughout the game serving as a “guardian” of sorts. She assists the main character in his acrobatics, but she also returns him to solid ground whenever he falls to his death.

This allows players to continue from the exact place where they “fell off” without any sort of break of immersion. The fact that Elika doesn’t appear only when the character dies helps integrate this experience into the normal gameplay instead of setting it apart.

Borderlands

Borderlands is a fast-paced FPS/RPG hybrid that stood apart thanks from its distinctive art and solid, addictive gameplay. When a player-controlled character dies, he or she respawns at a nearby checkpoint while incurring a penalty in cash. But the important thing to note in Borderlands is what happens before death.

Solution

In single player, the character enters a pre-death state, in which his or her vision gradually darkens and the player has a chance to obtain a “second wind”. This effectively means that the character gets up right there and continues fighting — all it takes is scoring a kill before the screen goes completely black.

In co-op, this mechanic is still present, but there is also the option for one teammate to help another — i.e. to restore him or her to health.

As a means of expanding on this idea, I propose giving the players a certain emergency item or skill that they could make use of to save themselves. If they don’t have it, or they take too long, a normal respawn would serve as a failsafe.

Braid

Number None’s platformer is a memorable achievement of the indie scene, its challenging and inventive game mechanics playing no small part in this success.

Solution

Time manipulation is used to “erase” mistakes in a most intuitive manner. Players can rewind their actions in the game, on the fly, as far back as required, and continue seamlessly from there on. This system also allows the correction of minor missteps, such as falling off a platform. As with Prince of Persia, the mechanism that circumvents death is also an integral part of normal gameplay.

An idea to expand on this would involve creating alternative planes of existence or moving the character from one such plane to another. This would also provide some interesting gameplay opportunities since the past of the protagonist isn’t necessarily the same past as the one in the player’s experience. Specifically, after such a shift a character’s statistics and skills might have changed, or the way he completed certain quests might have.

The 3rd Birthday

The 3rd Birthday was developed by Square Enix and released in the West in 2011. It features a blend of shooting and RPG elements, and uses an interesting system for safeguarding the main character, Aya Brea, from death. An earlier iteration of this mechanic can be seen in Shiny Entertainment’s 2000 game, Messiah.

Solution

Aya has the option of swapping bodies with NPCs to avoid death and to gain control of these characters and use them to complete various tasks. During combat, this ability makes it possible to “direct” one’s team to focus fire, defend, or perform other manoeuvres.

Depending on how exactly this mechanic is implemented in a game — i.e. swapping physical bodies or swapping souls, for example, there is the option of expanding upon it. When traversing a character’s essence into another shell, his or her skills and abilities could suffer some transformation based on this new shell’s own abilities. A powerful body would allow the player to perform actions that a flimsy one wouldn’t and when inside the body of a wizard, one would have access to powerful spells unavailable to a mere human.

EVE Online

CCP’s massively multiplayer spacefaring game continues to thrive in 2011. Though it boasts many innovations that have set it apart and helped create an identity which, in turn, ensured the developer’s hold on its player base, of particular interest to this feature is CCP’s approach to handling player death within the EVE universe.

Solution

Players have access to two types of clones beyond their “current clone”, or the body they presently inhabit. Everyone has a Medical Clone, which is where he or she is taken after the avatar’s death. This Medical Clone can be upgraded to ensure that it has enough memory to store the acquired skill points. Additionally, a body can have a number of implants which are lost when it is destroyed.

The second type of clone — the Jump Clone — can serve as a teleportation enabler and it also allows players to enter dangerous situations without the risk of losing an upgraded clone’s implants.

A different take on this mechanic would allow players to redistribute their skill points when they create a new clone or pre-emptively add physical upgrades (such as implants) to the replacements. Also, by giving them the option of choosing the body in which to respawn one would add an extra layer of tactical reasoning — the choice of location, the choice of skill set, and the choice of physical upgrades.

Depending on game type, a shuttle drop or teleportation option could prove beneficial in avoiding the overhead of getting back to where a player met his or her end.

Rage

Id Software’s latest creation made streamlining player experience into a design goal and philosophy statement. Menu navigation and HUD elements are reduced to a minimum and player character death is avoided through the use of a minigame.

Solution

When the character’s health drops to the bottom, the player is faced with a minigame screen for using a “defibrillator”. Depending on reaction speed and timing, the character returns to the fight with more or less health, but is, regardless, saved from demise.

This minigame approach is effective because it always works (the only difference is how well it works), and it effectively removes the need for a respawn or another death-saving mechanic.

As an alternative or complementary solution, the introduction of the luck factor on top of player skill could help close the gap between players of different abilities. While not essential in single player, this is still important to ensure that the gaming experience doesn’t differ too much.

Conclusion

While this list is by no means exhaustive, it provides an overview of practical solutions to a ubiquitous problem. The fact that our playthroughs are split over several sessions is bad enough — no one wants to play through a string a déjà vu moments and confirmation boxes. Developers have clearly taken an interest in this, with more and more titles trying to streamline player experience and reduce overhead.

I also feel that the old save / load system has to either be removed (as was the case with Diablo II, for example) or revamped. The idea is that a system that deals with player failure within the game’s boundaries will always be superior to one that does so outside those boundaries.（Source：gamasutra）