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举例论述游戏机制意识形态理论

发布时间:2012-04-28 11:47:07 Tags:,,

作者:Aaron Trammell

在游戏设计师和玩家看来,游戏机制一词的运用非常普遍。它充斥电子游戏新闻业,是资深玩家的常见讨论话题。问题是在此双重表面之外,这一词汇依然相当晦涩,其社交和技术引申意义依然有待我们深入挖掘。若游戏研究领域能够更好地将业内术语同其他领域结合起来,那么我们就能够就游戏机制进行跨学科交流和评论。

sketch from selectstart.rutgers.edu

sketch from selectstart.rutgers.edu

设计游戏是件难事。首先其中存在叙述元素——游戏叙述什么故事?游戏角色?什么是参数?游戏设计的政纲是什么?游戏设计的另一要素是设定具体规则集合。在电子游戏中,这些规则通常处于静态模式,通常只能通过随机“选项”页面进行调节。桌面、棋盘和纸牌游戏的规则通常出现在规则手册中,能够供玩家进行口头传播。在游戏表格中,“内部规则”很常见,还有就是“规则法庭”——游戏玩家就书面游戏规则的诠释进行辩论。

设计师的游戏机制观念

设计师的游戏机制观念

优秀游戏设计师知晓通过稳固的直观规则集合平衡主题紧张感非常重要。这一平衡关系的关键是,把握规则所代表的含义。掌握规则的落实方式也非常重要。游戏规则的执行通常被称作游戏机制。若干协助游戏机制的推拉作用定义了玩家在游戏中的操作空间。

台球游戏的主要游戏机制是玩家如何通过台球杆撞击桌球。事件的连锁反应带来这样的游戏状态:同玩家操作存在因果关系但同游戏设计师的最终计划存在动态关系。虽然游戏设计师无法预测桌球会散落在什么位置,但可以确定的是,小球的运作方式会和实际物理原理保持一致。小球的运作会基于重力学理论,受运动和力量理论限制。关于游戏世界物理状态会保持一致的假设隐含体现在台球游戏的设计上。

西洋棋

西洋棋

另一例子是西洋棋。在西洋棋中,玩家的目标是将对手的所有棋子移除棋盘。和台球游戏一样,游戏非常抽象;其中包含相当少的叙述元素。西洋棋有两个关键游戏机制:1)玩家能够将棋子向前移动一格;2)玩家可以通过“跳过”对手的棋子,将他们的棋子移除棋盘。虽然相比台球,西洋棋属于更具预测性的游戏,但这主要由于其机制更多着眼于策略空间(游戏邦注:而不是物理空间)。游戏的紧张感由游戏的机制要求带来:玩家每轮必须向前移动自己的棋子,他们起初的最佳防御位置会逐步恶化。西洋棋中的冲突性无法避免。玩家自主选择进攻、防御或者中立状态。

意识形态是国家在主体中维持文化控制地位的方式。以美国的言论自由为例。言论自由是个国家工具,是项宪法权利。它深深融入美国公民的日常生活中,所以它已变成常识性文化信仰。它随后被运用至关键冲突时刻,旨在强化国家的主权。在游戏机制的意识形态中,这一关系变得更加具体。设计师制定的规则和规则在游戏世界的视觉和数学执行方式存在直接的关系。

设计师在游戏机制中融入故事元素

设计师在游戏机制中融入故事元素

游戏机制作为社交和技术装置在设计层面属于意识形态。它们主要用于强化游戏世界的社交控制地位。打破规则的玩家将无法继续体验游戏。在很多情况下,他或她也被游戏伙伴视作作弊者。就像美国宪法设立系列由公民共同达成协议的意识形态标准一样,规则手册也设定系列受游戏团体认可的意识形态标准。这些规则的因果关系和技术关系就是所谓的游戏机制。正是通过这些机制,思想体系才变得颇为透明。(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 Ideology of Game Mechanics

by Aaron Trammell

To game designers and players, the common use of the phrase game mechanic is quite common. It saturates video game journalism and is common in-talk amongst experienced players. The problem is that outside these dual spheres, the terms remain relatively arcane, and their social and technical implications mostly unexplored. If game studies is to better integrate its vocabulary with other fields, the phrase game mechanic must be unpacked to allow for interdisciplinary conversation and critique.

Designing a game is hard work. First there is the narrative element – what story (or stories, or environment) – does the game portray? Are there characters? What are the parameters? What are the politics of the game world? Another component of game design is the development of a concrete rule set. In video games these rules are fairly static, generally only tweakable through the occasional “Options” screen (God Mode anyone?). Tabletop, board, and card games’ rules are published in a rule book and transmitted orally between players. At the game table “house rules” are fairly common, as is “rules lawyering” – a practice of debate between game players over the interpretation of printed game rules.

Good game designers know how important it is to balance thematic tension with a solid and intuitive rule set. The key to this balance is understanding what rules themselves represent. It is also important to understand how rules are implemented. The implementation of a games rules is referred to as a game mechanic. The push and pull of several game mechanics working together define a player’s potential for action in a game.

watch?v=VKVMwKwENK4

The primary game mechanic of pool is how a player leverages the billiard stick against the cue ball. The resulting chain of events produces a game state that is causally related to the player’s action yet dynamically related to the game designer’s ultimate plan. Although the game designer cannot predict where all the pool balls may scatter, they can assume that the balls will act in a way that is consistent with real-world physics. The pool balls will act according to the theory of gravity and within the parameters of theories relating to motion and force. The assumption that the physical conditions of the world will remain consistent is ideologically implicit within the design of pool.

Another example is checkers. In checkers a player’s goal is to remove all of their opponent’s pieces from the board. Like pool the game is very abstract; there are very few narrative elements.  There are two key game mechanics in checkers: 1) a player’s ability to move a piece forward one square; and 2) a player’s ability to remove their opponent’s pieces from the board by “leaping” over them. Although checkers is a more predictable game than pool (it has been “solved” by a super-computer), this is mostly due to the game’s mechanical focus on strategic – not physical – space. The tension of the game is produced by the game’s mechanical demand that players must move their pieces forward every turn, and that every time a player moves a piece forward, they deteriorate what is from start a perfect defensive position. Conflict in checkers is inevitable. It is up to players to choose an offensive, defensive, or middle-ground.

Ideology (for thinkers like Antonio Gramsci) is the way that the state maintains cultural hegemony over it’s subjects. Take freedom of speech in America as an example. Freedom of speech is a tool of the state, it is a constitutional right. It is so integrated into the everyday life of the American citizen that it has become a common-sense cultural belief. It is then used during key moments of conflict and struggle to reinforce the sovereignty of the state. Imagine the absurdity of a presidential candidate running under a platform which opposed free-speech. While this candidate would never be elected in the United States, their platform might seem to be common-sense in Germany (where anti-semitic speech is a prosecutable crime). In thinking through the ideology of game mechanics, this relationship is even more concrete. There is a direct relationship between the designers inscription of a rule (law), and the way it is visually and mathematically implemented in the game world.

Game mechanics as social and technical apparatuses are ideological in design. They serve primarily to reinforce the social hegemony of the game-world. A player who breaks the rules ceases to play the game. In many cases he or she is also shunned as a cheater by their gaming group. Just as the United States Constitution establishes a set of ideological standards which are generally (but certainly not always) agreed on by the citizen body, the rule book also establishes a set of ideological standards which are generally agreed on by a gaming group. The causal implications and technical relationships between these rules are a game’s mechanics. It is within these mechanics that ideological systems, are most transparent.(Source:rutgers


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