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耐心的美德:游戏设计如何重现等待

发布时间:2013-06-14 15:51:04 Tags:,,,,

作者:Keith Stuart

一直以来,游戏总是提供给我们一些匆匆忙忙的体验;现在,新一代游戏终于给我们喘息思考的机会了。

Dishonored(from guardian)

Dishonored(from guardian)

《耻辱》向我们展示了一个精彩的反馈循环:追踪,攻击,躲藏。

《耻辱》是一款关于耐心的游戏。当然,其主题是血腥的报复,但还是与耐心有关。作为被出卖的保镖Corvo,玩家必须执行一系列刺杀任务、在衰落的城市Dunwall中潜行,神不知鬼不觉地干掉守卫。如果玩家不想引起太大的骚动,最好避免杀人;但如果不杀人,那么玩家就只能四处闲逛,研究哨岗的分布,观察周边环境……还有等待。

啊,等待。似乎很久以前AAA级游戏就已经抛弃这个怪异的概念了。军事FPS如《使命召唤》和《战地》让玩家经历一系列紧凑的活动如劫持等,基本上不给玩家时间思考或反省。无限刷怪的概念可能是游戏中最卑鄙的设计,其作用就是迫使玩家保持进展,一直朝着下一个场景前进(游戏邦注:以免玩家东张西望,而最终发现所有栩栩如生的建筑不过是像西部电影中的场景一样形同摆设。)

同时,随着电影常规开始入侵动作冒险游戏,设计师也开始在游戏中制造相同的紧迫感。例如《神秘海域》,尽管向我们展示了一些绝美的场景,但极少允许我们进行真正的探索活动;相反地,游戏不停地催促我们进入下一个有谜题的区域,仅在提示出现前给我们几分钟解决问题。构建如此精致复杂的脑筋急转弯的时间和努力,却只是为了催促玩家快点想出答案。

当然,时间管理是游戏中不可分割的一部分。在街机时代,游戏的设定显然就是为了加快玩家的游戏进展:有限的命数、有限的时间、迅速耗竭的增益道具—-一切都为了让玩家慌张。因为慌张意味着犯错,犯错意味着花钱。当然,早期的RPG给予玩家更多探索和思考游戏世界的自由,但随机怪物遭遇战意味着玩家从来没有真正放松过;玩家从来没有找到真正的安全区。

90年代诞生了伟大的潜行冒险游戏。《盗贼》、《合金装备》、《分裂细胞》、《杀手》等等,突然之间,我们有时间停下来思考了,可以仔细考虑可能性并权衡优劣了。这使得动作游戏的强调重点从本能反应转向了深思熟虑。因为,寻找和掌握模式是人类的天性,所以我们会主动(许多时候是下意识地)寻找重复性;这是我们了解世界的方式。因此,如果某款电子游戏能允许我们停下来观察、研究敌人行动的模式、对复杂的环境形成自己的心理地图,那么它就会唤起我们学习和探索的原始本能。

今年圣诞,设计师们似乎再一次领悟到了这些可能性。紧随《耻辱》之后的是《孤岛惊魂3》,这款剧情射击游戏让玩家自由地探索美丽的热带小岛,实验并最终形成自己的行为和奖励系统。观察环境以及与自然环境互动是一大乐趣;一定程度上,设计师在放松游戏节奏的同时,仍然使游戏充满危机感和紧迫感—-这是空间庞大、情节模糊的《孤岛惊魂2》偶尔缺失的东西。

又例如经典的《ZombiU》,这是一款真正的生存恐怖游戏。因为有限的弹药和笨拙的混战系统,小心谨慎便成为了玩家生存的关键。玩家每一次遭遇不死怪物都必须仔细计划、记住逃生路线、准备好医疗包。表面上令人失望的元素—-繁杂的道具、漫长的加载时间、肮脏的画面,虽然让某些玩家觉得恼火,但其实却带来了不亚于早期的《生化危机》和《寂静岭》的恐惧感和效果;代价仅仅是混乱。

在游戏设计中,实现自由和紧迫感之间的平衡是至关重要的。但我更乐意等待和思考。我喜欢《黄金眼》中的“Surface”关卡,因为你可以在雪地上潜行,慢慢地逼近守卫。我花了很多天玩现在已忘记大半的即时策略游戏《Commandos: Behind Enemy Lines》,我记得要朝巡逻中的德军准确地射击,然后躲藏起来。当我发现《耻辱》中的进攻反馈循环是追踪,攻击,躲藏时,真的觉得很有意思。而这主要是因为它包含了两个关键的游戏机制:杀戮和清理。

我希望游戏设计的新时代正在来临,那到时,游戏的剧情不再是一连串的活动,玩家能真正对故事发展产生影响。我们已经被时光之车推搡得够久了;在下一代游戏中,处理器已经能够生成充满脚本敌人和动态事件的游戏世界,我们应该有时间和空间寻找我们自己的游戏节奏。如果你的游戏是一个漂亮精致的世界,里面充满狡猾的敌人,那么你必须给玩家机会细细欣赏这样的世界。耐心是生活的美德,也应该体现在游戏设计中。

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 virtue of patience: how game design has rediscovered waiting

by Keith Stuart

For a while there, games were constantly hurrying us through the experience; now, finally, a new generation is letting us breath and think again.

Dishonored presents us with a brilliant feedback loop: stalk, strike, stash.

Dishonored is a game about patience. Well, bloody revenge, of course. But also patience. As the betrayed bodyguard Corvo, you must carry out a series of assassination missions, creeping about the decaying city of Dunwall, silently disposing of guards. But if you want to finish with a low chaos score, you need to avoid killing, and that means a lot of hanging around, working out sentry patterns, studying the environment… waiting.

Ah, waiting. For so long it seemed that Triple A games had moved on from this quaint notion. Military first-person shooters like Call of Duty and Battlefield bundle you through their narrow corridors of action like hostages, rarely allowing you a pause for thought or reflection. The whole concept of infinitely spawning baddies, possibly the most wretched design trope ever inflicted on games, was brought into being to keep us moving, keep us progressing on the relentless forward march toward the next cut-scene (lest we look about and discover there is nowhere to go and all the lovely buildings are mere facades, like a Western movie set).

Meanwhile, as cinematic conventions started to inform action adventure games, the same sense of urgency took over. The Uncharted games, though presenting us with some supremely beautiful vistas, rarely allow us the luxury of true exploration; instead we’re pushed and shoved into puzzle areas where, by default, we’re given a few minutes to solve everything before a hint is proffered. All that time and effort to construct wonderfully elaborate brain teasers, only to benevolently bully players into a quick answer.

Of course, the management of time is written into the very DNA of games. In the arcade era, titles were specifically constructed to process players as quickly as possible: limited lives, limited timers, power-ups that would blink and fade if not grabbed quickly enough – everything was conceived to instil a sense of panic. Because panic meant mistakes and mistakes meant money. Of course, the early RPGs allowed players more freedom to explore and consider worlds, but the tyranny of the random monster encounter meant that you could never fully relax; that no domain was truly yours.

The nineties, however, brought the great stealth adventures. Thief, Metal Gear, Splinter Cell, Hitman… Suddenly we were allowed time to stop and think, to mull over the possibilities, to weigh the pros and cons. It took action gaming out of the instinctive and into the cerebral space. Or did it? Because, as a race, humans are predisposed to seek and enjoy patterns, we actively (if unconsciously a lot of the time) look for repetition; it helps us make sense of the world. So video games that allow us to stop and watch, to work out patterns of enemy movement, to make our own mental maps of complex environments, are appealing to very primal instincts of learning and navigation.

And this Christmas, it seems that designers have woken up to these possibilities once again. Alongside Dishonored there is Far Cry 3, a narrative shooter set on a luscious tropical island that affords the player freedom to explore, to experiment and ultimately to carve out their own systems of behaviour and reward. Watching and interacting with the natural environment is a great joy; and somehow the designers have loosened the leash while still instilling a sense of threat and urgency – something that Far Cry 2 lost at times with its vast spaces and unclear plotting.

Then there’s ZombiU, a true survival horror game in the classic sense of the phrase. With limited ammo and a unwieldy melee system, being wary is a survival essential. Every encounter with the undead needs to be meticulously planned, escape routes memorised, health packs at the ready. Ostensibly frustrating elements of the game that have annoyed some reviewers – the clunky inventory, the long loading times, the smeary visuals – all help to conjure the feel of the early Resident Evil and Silent Hill titles, that sense of dread and consequence; the sheer cost of fucking up.

The balance between freedom and urgency is a vital one in game design – it is so hard to get right. But I love to wait and to think. I loved the the Surface level in GoldenEye, when you got to creep through the snow, slowly edging toward the guards. I spent many days playing the now largely forgotten real-time strategy title Commandos: Behind Enemy Lines, plotting precise strikes on patrolling German troops and then hiding the bodies. It has been fun to discover that feedback loop of surreptitious violence in Dishonored: stalk, strike, stash. It is satisfying because it encompasses two vital gaming mechanics: killing and tidying.

I hope we’re on the verge of a new era of game design, in which narrative isn’t about corridors of action, and in which players truly contribute to the story as agents of change. Time’s winged chariot has hurried us long enough; in the next generation, with processors big enough to generate worlds filled with procedural enemies and dynamic events, we should be given time and space to find our own rhythms of play. If you take the time to build a beautiful and elaborate domain filled with clever enemies, the player must be given the chance to drink it all in. Patience is a virtue in life and in game design.(source:guardian)


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