作者：Leigh Alexander

Firaxis创始人Sid Meier表示：“游戏是一系列有趣选择的结合体。”这是他过去所做出的陈述，并且他自己也意识到这一观点引起了各种争论。但是他始终坚持这是形容游戏设计的最佳方式，所以他在2012游戏开发者大会上进一步解释了这一观点，即什么样的游戏决策才能够吸引玩家，以及设计师需要明确那些内容。

这位《文明》系列之父表示：“我们总是能够很容易发现哪些决策不够有趣。”如果玩家总是选择3者中的第一个，那么这就不是一种有趣的选择；或者也不能算是一种随机选择。虽然某些游戏类型（游戏邦注：例如有赖于不同输入方式的韵律游戏或益智游戏）的关注重点并非有趣决策，但是不管怎样，Meier都相信自己最初的这一理念能够帮助我们更好地理解游戏这种媒体。

Meier继续说道：“在设计阶段这一理念非常重要。我发现许多游戏设计都是将其它游戏中的某些内容组合在一起。”大家可能会认为，如果那些游戏是有趣的，那么其游戏元素的组合体也必然是有趣的。

“但是很不幸的是，这种做法却并不总是奏效。相反，我认为如果游戏设计师能够仔细思考自己该为玩家呈现何种决策，玩家真正感兴趣的内容是什么，并围绕这些想法设计新游戏，也就是从玩家的角度进行抉择，他们肯定能够设计出更棒的游戏。”

文明(from c-evo.org)

哪种选择才算有趣？

一般来说，有趣的决策常需要玩家进行一番权衡，如获得一把强大的剑需要耗费500个金币，或者在赛车游戏中跑得最快的汽车往往更难以操作。而在Meier的《文明》中，创建一个防御单位建筑则需要玩家付出一定的资源才能发挥作用。

Meier解释道：“好决策要视游戏情境而定。当设计师在向玩家呈现游戏决策时他们必须清楚，决策必须符合游戏当前的情境。”《文明》中有一些复杂系统便呈现给玩家一些情境式选择，即何处呈现这些选择，以及玩家需考虑这些选择将对游戏进程产生的影响。

也有一些较为个性化的决策，它们取决于玩家的游戏玩法。例如，谨慎的玩家会选择创建一座安全的基地并慢慢扩展；而好斗型玩家则会投入更多精力去创建攻击型建筑。Meier表示：“这种有趣的决策设置必须让玩家能够表现出自己独特的游戏玩法。”

一般来说有趣的决策将能够长时间影响游戏（只要玩家总是能够拥有足够的信息并做出决策），而当早期选择在一段时间后开始破坏玩家的游戏体验时，开发者就需要对其做出适当调整而更好地匹配当前的游戏形式。

一种经典的决策类型是关于风险与奖励的权衡，即让玩家判断获得一定奖励前将会面临怎样的潜在风险。Meier说道：“我们几乎可以在任何游戏中发现这种决策类型。”而另外一种决策类型则是关于长期决策与短期决策的衡量，就像在《文明》中创造一个奇迹虽然需要花费玩家许多时间，但是却能为游戏的发展带来长远的影响，而创造一架二轮战车虽然不需要太长时间，但却不足以影响整体的游戏发展。

当提到如何让游戏设计适应不同玩家的游戏玩法时，Meier说道：“设计师很容易想当然地将自己的游戏玩法贯穿于游戏中，并且整个设计团队或开发团队也很容易从自己的角度去思考玩家的想法。”这就是为什么好游戏设计需要尽可能顾及更多选择和各种类型的游戏玩法。

Meier表示，《文明》的一大优势就是在短期，中期和长期事件中会同时发生多种情况。而玩家在游戏中的任务则是区分不同事件的重要性，为近期和长期目标制定相关策略，并努力让短期目标辅助实现长期目标。

定制功能也能够创造出有趣的决策，即使有时候这种功能只是让玩家为自己的城市命名或决定车子的颜色。Meier说道：“这种设置能够让玩家深度融入到游戏中。通过让玩家在游戏中做决策去表达出自己的个性，或表现自己独特的游戏玩法，这能够进一步吸引他们玩游戏。”

明智的选择

设计一个有意义的决策便需要确保玩家清楚自己所做出的任何选择；如果玩家做出选择但却因为不知道结果而陷入恐慌中，他们肯定不会认为游戏是有趣的。Meier建议：“如此看来如果能够提供给玩家大量信息反而更好，或者至少你应该让玩家清楚自己为何要做出这个选择。”

说到如何让玩家轻松地作决策就不得不提到游戏类型的相关惯例—–例如大多数射击游戏都带有标准界面，让玩家能够更加安心地做出选择。Meier提醒道，如果你的玩家在游戏中按压了一个按钮（与同类型其它游戏的设置一样），但是却出现完全不同的结果，“玩家定会对此感到不安。”

Firaxis的游戏中之所以会包含许多历史主题是因为这么做能够让玩家面对更多熟悉的信息。“你应该为玩家呈现他们所了解的信息，就像在《文明》中如果玩家碰到了成吉思汗，那么他就一定是个暴躁且好斗的形象；而如果你创造的是一款与铁路或海盗有关的游戏，你也可以将玩家所熟知的主题添加到游戏中。”

僵尸类游戏之所以如此受欢迎便是因为这类游戏的主题非常明确，不管是游戏动机还是僵尸本身的属性都是玩家再熟悉不过的内容了。“在这种类型的决策中你不需要为玩家呈现过多信息，因为他们本身就了解这些内容了。”

另一方面，当玩家做出决策后，游戏的反馈也很重要：“最糟糕的游戏反馈是对玩家的决策置之不理而继续前进。对于玩家来说，没有什么比自己做出决策却遭到游戏忽视更让人厌烦了。游戏至少应该提示玩家：‘我知道你的选择了，我会执行这个任务。’”就像在《文明变革》中，玩家很高兴能够在与其它区域首领协商时移动一些单位时获得游戏反馈。

反馈信息能够让玩家在游戏世界中的更有存在感。Meier解释道：“你必须让玩家感受到你知道他们的存在，你在游戏中始终陪伴着他们，支持着他们。你可以告诉玩家‘你是一个伟大文明中最优秀的首领’或者‘你是一名伟大的赛车手’之类的话语。不论是用声音，文本还是图像表达形式，这些内容都能够更加坚定玩家的游戏信念并让他们深刻感受到游戏的乐趣。”

玩家类型

为了为玩家创造出更多有趣的决策，设计师必须进一步理解各种不同的玩家类型。看重胜负的玩家希望游戏能够提供更高级别的内容；而看重类型的玩家则喜欢一些特定的游戏类型，追求那些自己所钟爱的内容，并讨厌各种偏差。这些玩家的反馈能够帮助设计师更好地理解类型惯例，但希望这不会因此束缚他们创造新内容。

有一些玩家希望能够理解所有的游戏法则，并引导出最佳的游戏结果。这种类型的玩家能够帮助你平衡游戏，因为他们的游戏目的是揭开并明确游戏系统。还有一些偏执型玩家总是认为游戏中的一切内容都对自己不利，就像他们会认为掷骰子永远都是不公平的一样。还有些历史迷们会不断批评游戏中的背景元素，并抱怨各种不符合原始资料的内容，或任何偏离历史背景的设定。

还一些总是纠结于自己遇到的任何不幸游戏体验的玩家。“你需要明确地指出他们所遇到的任何挫折，让他们知道为何会发生这些事以及他们下次该如何面对。因为对于这类型玩家来说，任何一件偶然事件都可能影响到他们的整个游戏体验。”同样也有一些带有评论性观点的设计师玩家，他们便更加关注于游戏中的任何细节问题，并琢磨为何这些内容与自己的创造有所差别。

设计师必须深刻理解各种类型的游戏玩家，从他们的反馈中寻找有价值的内容，并落实行动。

更有趣的决策

当你的游戏执行了一次有趣的决策之后，你该思考如何做才能让这些决策更加有趣。通过平衡风险与奖励选择；调整选择让它们更具有效力，提供给玩家适当的信息，或者给予玩家一定的时间范围做决定；以及整合游戏中的选择数量等行为都有利于优化游戏设计。当然了，你还可以为游戏添加一些不同的“调味料”，Meier表示：“这是游戏的呈现方式。要善于利用美术人员或文案人员的才华为游戏添加不一样的特色。”

Meier继续说道：“我们应该谨慎地处理决策的平衡问题。如果你在游戏中接二连三地设置复杂决策，这会让玩家感觉难以招架。而反之，如果你总是慢条斯理地给予玩家一些过于简单的决策，他们也会很容易对此感到厌烦。”

创造出更有趣决策的另外一种方法便是抛弃那些无效的决策。Meier说道：“如果你在反复尝试后发现自己所面临的是一些无效的内容，请果断地抛弃它们。也许有三分之一的内容是你应该删除的，但是不要对此感到心软，因为即使你现在不这么做，这些决策也会因为无趣而最终遭到淘汰。”

最后Meier还强调道：“要记住游戏并不只是关于各种决策。”我们不能因为过分强调决策的开发细节而忽视了为玩家创造一个有趣生动的游戏世界。将强大的游戏世界与有趣的决策设置结合在一起，我们才能有效且长期地维系玩家与游戏之间的关系。

Meier总结道：“将你所创造的神奇游戏世界与玩家其中所做出的各种有趣决策结合在一起，这才是一款真正的优质游戏。”（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）

GDC 2012: Sid Meier on how to see games as sets of interesting decisions

by Leigh Alexander

“Games are a series of interesting decisions,” says Firaxis’ Sid Meier. It’s a statement he’s made in the past – and he’s noticed (by Googling himself) that viewpoint of his has been a source of some debate. But it’s one of his favorite ways of thinking about game design, so in his packed GDC 2012 lecture, he explained the idea in depth – what makes decisions in gameplay interesting for players, and what do designers need to know?

“It’s easier to look at it as what is not an interesting decision,” says the legendary creator of Civilization. If a player always chooses the first from among a set of three choices, it’s probably not an interesting choice; nor is a random selection. While there are some types of games where the idea of interesting decisions isn’t the best way to look at things – say rhythm games or puzzle games based on different sorts of inputs — he generally believes the idea is a helpful way to look at the medium.

“It’s a useful concept during the design phase. One of the things I see often is that designs are kind of about putting together pieces of other games,” says Meier. There’s the idea that if some games are fun, then combinations of their elements will also be fun.

“Unfortunately, that doesn’t always work out,” he says. “And I think it’s a more useful way to look at a new game design in terms of, what are the decisions I’m presenting the player, and are they interesting?… Put yourself in the player’s chair.”

What Makes An Interesting Decision?

One common characteristic of interesting decisions is that they involve some kind of tradeoff – say, the opportunity to get a big sword costs 500 gold, or in a racing game the fastest car may have poorer handling. In Meier’s Civilization, the act of building a defensive unit has complex resource costs in exchange for protection.

“Good decisions are situational. There’s a very key idea that when the decision is presented to the player, ideally it acts in an interesting way with the game situation,” Meier explains. Civ contains complex systems that provide a number of situational choices, where the options presented to players and the factors therein depend heavily on what’s happening in the game world.

Some of these decisions are personal and tied to the player’s gaming style. A cautious player would choose to build a very secure base from which to expand; an aggressive player invests in its offensive units. “This interesting decision would allow you to express your personal play style,” he says.

Interesting decisions are persistent and affect the game for a certain amount of time, as long as the player has enough information to make the decision – when early choices can ruin the game experience down the road, developers need to present them in a fashion appropriate to that. “

One classic decision type is a risk-versus-reward scenario that asks the player to weigh potential penalties against the possibilities of rewards. “In almost any kind of game you’ll find opportunities for these decisions,” he says. Another decision category is short versus long-term decisions – like building a wonder in Civilization, which takes a long time but has a significant long-term impact – versus building a chariot, which is finished much more quickly but has much less effect on the overall landscape of the game.

When it comes to accommodating the player’s play style, “it’s very tempting as a designer to imagine that everybody plays a game the same way that you do, and it’s very tempting as a design and development group to feel that you represent all players,” he says. That’s why he finds it essential to good design to allow for as many choices and play styles as possible.

One of the strengths of Civilization in Meier’s own view, is that it has things happening on multiple levels at once in terms of short-, medium- and long-term events. The player’s task is to prioritize and to manage strategies for both near-term and long-term goals, and evolve the short-term goals to make the long-term goal more accessible.

Customization functions also create interesting decisions, even if it’s as simple as choosing a name for your city or a color for your vehicle. “It makes [the player] more connected to the game that they’re playing,” Meier says. “Think about ways of investing the player in your game by inviting them to make decisions that let them to express their personality or their gaming style.

Informed Choices

Key to making decision meaningful is to ensure players understand the full scope of their choices; it’s not fun for the player to be in a situation where they have to pick something, and then marinate in that gnawing feeling of wondering what might happen as a result of their choice or how severe the impact might be. “It’s almost worth erring on the side of providing the player with too much information, or at least enough that they’re comfortable with understanding the choices,” Meier advises.

When it comes to making players comfortable and happy as they make decisions, genre conventions help – the fact that most shooters have something of a standard interface help players feel assured. When a player presses a button that in every other game in its genre does a certain thing and receives an unfamiliar result, “there’s nothing more disconcerting,” he warns.

One reason that many of Firaxis’ games involve historical topics is that the player can come to the experience with a lot of information that they already know. “It’s important to reinforce that information for the player – if you run into Genghis Khan in a Civilization game, you’re going to expect him to be kinda angry and aggressive… if you’re building a game about railroads or pirates, there’s a lot that the player can bring to a topic like that that they already know.”

Zombies are popular because they’re very clear – their motivation is basic and their nature is obvious and well understood. “It’s an example of a decision where you don’t have to add a lot of information for the player; they pretty much know what to do.”

On the other hand, once the player makes a decision the response from the game is enormously important: “The worst thing you can do is just move on. There’s nothing more paranoia-inducing than having made a decision and the game just kind of goes on. At least have a sound effect that says, ‘I’ve heard what you said and I’m going to do it.’” In Civilization Revolution, players were so pleased to get feedback on some of their unit moves when they negotiated with leaders from other areas, for example.

Feedback helps players feel responsible and meaningful within the game world. “It’s really important to let the player know that you know that they’re there, that you’re a partner with them, that you’re right there next to them all the way,” Meier explains. “That yes, ‘you are the leader of a great civilization’, or ‘you are a great race car driver’. Whether it’s a sound or text, a visual or graphic… really reinforce the fantasy the player is creating in their mind and really allow them to enjoy that.”

The Player Types

In order to create lots of interesting decisions for players, it’s important for designers to understand the many types of players there are. There’s the player that cares mainly about winning, who can offer feedback on tuning the game’s higher levels. There’s the genre fan, who is a fan of the specific genre and loves anything that resembles things they love already – and resents deviations. This player’s feedback is useful for understanding how to use the genre conventions, but hopefully doesn’t constrain new developments.

There’s the player the one who wants to understand all of the game’s algorithm and calculate the best possible scenarios. This player can help with game balance – within reason, as the player really just wants to unravel and own the systems. Then, there’s the paranoid player, who feels that everything is stacked against him or her, assuming that dice rolls are rigged or unfair. The history buff will criticize elements of the setting and complain about loyalty to source material or accuracy of a historical setting.

The player who Meier calls “Mr. Bubble Boy” is the one who dwells on the one unfortunate game experience he or she had. “You need to prevent setbacks in a very sensitive way, where the player understands why it’s happening and what they can do next time… one incident colors their entire experience.” And there’ll always be that armchair designer who focuses on every detail of why a given game isn’t like the one he or she creates.

It’s useful to understand all of these player types and to benefit from their feedback, but all of them can cause consequences if their views are too highly prized.

More Interesting Decisions

Once a game implements interesting decisions, what makes them more interesting? A strong balance of risk-reward choices; adjusting how impactful choices are, giving the player more or less information, providing time frame within which to make decisions, or adjusting how many choices there are in the game can all completely define and refine a design. There’s a flavor slider, too: “This is really a presentation issue,” he says. “Take advantage of those artists, those writers that are working on your game to really add flavor.”

“Be careful to manage that balance,” he says. “If you’re playing a game with complicated decisions that come at you one after the other the player is going to feel out of control. On the other hand, if you give your player some very simple decisions at a very slow place, they’re kind of bored.”

The last way to make a game more interesting through decisions? Get rid of ones that are not working. “You’ve tried all these things and they don’t work. Maybe the decision is just one you should take out of your game.,” says Meier. “Be ruthless in terms of cutting things out… probably a third of the things that we try, if not more, end up getting taken out of the game because they’re not fun and interesting enough.”

“You don’t want to forget that your game is more than just decisions,” he emphasizes. The detailed minutiae of developing interesting decisions ought not to take away from the production of a rich, vivid world that feels real and fun for the player. A strong fantasy environment coupled with empowering and interesting decisions is a key coupling that creates a long-term relationship between a player and a game, he believes.

“It’s the combination of this wonderful fantasy world that you create and the interesting decisions that the player gets to make in that world that really is the sum total of the quality of your game,” Meier concludes. (source:GAMASUTRA)