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简析游戏设计中的行为和认知理论

发布时间:2012-09-08 16:05:03 Tags:,

作者:Adam

为了更好地解释行为和认知理论,我将以《火焰之纹章 晓之女神》作为案例进行说明。

cognitive-theory(from adamrusselldesign)

cognitive-theory(from adamrusselldesign)

当你让别人画出某一个对象时,他们往往只会画出自己脑中关于该对象的标志性特征,而不能真正勾勒出眼前的这一对象。实际上,带着自觉的心态去看待某一对象本来就是一件很困难的事。这便是受到我们所说的“认知理论”的影响,也就是Raph Koster所说的“我们到底是如何看待我们所熟知的内容。”

在游戏术语中,认知是一种识别模式。因为游戏是一种形式系统,所以在这里并不存在任何烦人的细节元素,从而让玩家能够对游戏内容一目了然——各种现实元素只会在玩家的脑中形成“噪音”,从而导致他们分辨不清游戏模式,并最终变得沮丧而放弃游戏。

在《火焰之纹章 晓之女神》中,认知理论是以不同方式呈现在战争环境中。下图便是其中一章节所呈现出的环境,而玩家需要识别的主要功能便是场景中的蓝色和橙色瓷砖。蓝色区域表示被选中的玩家可以在此随意移动,而邻近的橙色砖块则代表玩家可以攻击的最远距离。

fire-emblem-radiant-dawn(from adamrusselldesign)

fire-emblem-radiant-dawn(from adamrusselldesign)

除了这一基本的认知水平,资深玩家还需要识别其它游戏元素,也就是游戏场景中的地形和角色生命值。我们可以在上图的左上方看到地形的类型。有些地形能够带给玩家防御或攻击优势,并且不同地形对于不同角色也具有不同效果;例如弓箭手在悬崖边击中目标的几率便较低。在每个单位下方你将能够看到一个长条(蓝色代表你的单位,黄色代表你的伙伴单位,红色代表敌人单位而绿色则代表其它单位)。从这个长条中我们可以清楚每个单位的生命状况,同时这也能够帮助我们明确敌与友——随着游戏的发展以及战场的扩大(即出现越来越多单位),这种方法将变得更加重要。

在战争屏幕上我们也可以看到玩家已经经历的回合数,以及为了获得最终胜利(即到达特定章节)还需要经历多少回合。

当玩家选择一个个体单位时,他便能够看到更多有关该角色及其装备的细节内容,而这些内容也将有效地帮助玩家判别这一单位是否有攻击价值。下图所呈现的便是武器威力和一些基本的角色信息(游戏邦注:如能量,命中率以及被选中武器的攻击范围等)。

fire_emblem_radiant_dawn(from adamrusselldesign)

fire_emblem_radiant_dawn(from adamrusselldesign)

行为和认知理论是任何游戏设计中一大重要环节,并且我们最不希望看到的便是玩家因为沮丧而放弃游戏。

游戏邦注:原文发表于2011年11月5日,所涉事件和数据均以当时为准。(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

Behavioural and Cognitive Theory

By Adam

This post is an extract from a university assignment I wrote in 2008. Although written three years ago the information is still applicable so I thought I’d share it here. To help explain the theory, I have used Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn as a case study.

‘When you ask someone to draw something, they are far more likely to draw the generalised iconic version of the object that they keep in their head than they are to draw the actual object in front of them. In fact, seeing what is actually there with our conscious mind is really hard to do… These things fall under the rubric of “cognitive theory,” a fancy way of saying “how we think we know what we think we know.” Raph Koster

In gaming terms cognition is the recognition of patterns. As games are formal systems, distracting details are removed so games are seen clearly, reality can produce ‘noise’ and our brains can fail to see patterns, when this happens we get frustrated and give up.

In Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn, cognitive theory is used within the battle environment in a number of different ways. The image below shows an example environment from one of the chapters, the primary features the player needs to recognise are the blue and orange tiles on the board. The blue area shows where the selected player can move and the adjacent orange tiles show the maximum distance in which they can attack.

In addition to this basic level of cognition, there are a number of other aspects that the experienced player will need to recognise; these are the terrain and level of health (HP). In the top left hand corner of the image, the type of terrain is shown. Certain terrain can provide a defensive increase and/or attacking advantage, this is especially evident for units on different levels; an archer firing up a cliff for example has a significantly lower chance of hitting their higher target. Below each unit you will see a bar (blue for your units, yellow for partner units, red for enemy units or green for other units). This shows the remaining health of that particular unit while it also serves to show which units are your allies, this becomes more important as the game progresses and the battlefields become much bigger with more units occupying them.

The battle screen also shows the number of turns that have passed and the requirements for victory for that particular chapter.

When selecting an individual unit, the player is shown more detail on that character and their equipment, this is important to ascertain whether or not it would be wise to attack with that unit or not. The image below shows information regarding weapon strength and basic character information such as strength, hit percentage and the attack range of the selected weapon.

Behavioural and cognitive theory is an important part in the design of any game as the last thing we want is for people to stop playing because of frustration.(source:adamrusselldesign)


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