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简述电子游戏所运用的激励理念

发布时间:2015-04-15 16:28:47 Tags:,,,

作者:Tim Eckert

引言

如果你是游戏开发者,你在开发游戏之前多半就已经很喜欢玩游戏。不幸的是,身处游戏开发领域的时候,我们发现单纯为了有趣而玩游戏的人数日益下降,有时候大家甚至根本就不喜欢玩游戏了。

我和朋友玩游戏的时候,总会发现一些自己几乎可以穷尽一生去玩的游戏。但与此同时,你的库存中总有一些根本就没玩过的游戏。这些游戏其实也没有那么糟糕。

我曾把大量时间投入《使命召唤》或《英雄联盟》中,但在《上古卷轴:天际》中却只投入了一周的时间。这可能会让人很不解,其实这主要取决于玩家本身的喜好及其对游戏内容的需求。

那么,有些游戏究竟利用了什么不同的激励理念,令年轻时的我为了玩游戏而不惜逃课?

请注意本文主旨并非进行一系列动机理念的用户调查,只想通过游戏机制而非故事环节探索动机的可能性。例如,像书籍一样创造一个极具吸引力的“故事体验”可能就会提供一种内在动机。

学习型游戏

这是数年前就出现的一个词,它也促成了“游戏化”一词的普及。游戏化的过程是将游戏机制嵌入一个与游戏根本不相关的情境中。所以,游戏中的关键动机元素就可以转变为学习型游戏,向学生传达寓教于乐的信息。

尽量要让人们在玩《刺客信条》的时候不要让他们将游戏与真实历史事件联系起来。爱因斯坦就曾说过:“玩乐是最高形式的研究”。

Jane McGonigal在《破碎的现实》一书中曾提出,我们在奖励他人的过程中要具备4个要素,这样才能激励对方。这4个要素分别是:

1.令人满意的工作

2.成功的观念

3.社会性

4.重要性

我们由此可得结论,你应该利用人们“天生的”欲望令他们体验你的游戏。这包括竞争、成就、精通或者说在一个积极环境中的地位。

某天我下载了《Papers,please!》之后连续数小时爱不释手。我为什么对它如此着迷?

papers please(from chiphell.com)

papers please(from chiphell.com)

这款游戏的要点就是检查文件和信息的有效性。

对我来说,它就是在短时间内吃透大量数据和信息的概念。

在体验了数天之后,我开始得心应手,技能也突飞猛进,而在游戏中我得做出的一些道德选择也让我留连忘返。

游戏具有挑战,我得应对挑战。

当横亘在你面前,阻碍你达成开发者所设置的目标只是自己的游戏能力以及对游戏机制的理解时,就说明你遇到了一款极具竞争性的游戏。在开发此类游戏时,平衡游戏的不同元素就显得极为重要,因为玩家需要能够持续对其形成挑战的对手,即使他已经逐渐精通掌握了一个又一个的游戏元素。

人人都爱学习。但我们喜欢的并非学习的过程,而是觉得自己比之前更聪明的那种感觉。

创造成功

让我们以塔防游戏为例。它们利用了不同的敌人类型,游戏每次引进敌人时,玩家就要应对新挑战。敌人会做何举动?我该如何对付它?

玩家必须对付敌人并想出御敌的新招术。如果达成了这个目标,玩家就会在之后几个关卡中觉得自己更聪明了,因为此时的敌人已经构不成真正的威胁。玩家已经开发出了游戏挑战的解决方案。

在多人游戏的情境中,你的敌人就是其他玩家。你可以编写一个公平的配对算法来支持玩家挑战。这方面的例子包括CS及《赛道狂飙》,大家在游戏中的起点都一样。无论你经验是否丰富,游戏本身都不会让你享有特权。

与这种情况对立的则是RPG游戏,玩家在游戏中成功的关键是让自己的角色获得更棒(或者更漂亮)的元素。游戏本身会不断奖励你的游戏行为。你利用收集到的道具来应对不断增长的难度。

除此之外,你角色所完成的每个关卡都是你在游戏中整体地位的证明。

在游戏过程中,玩家总能看到显示自己进度的反馈。这通常可用于掩饰无聊的游戏机制。

我曾试玩过魔兽,在刚开始时接到了一个类似于“抓100条银鱼”的任务。它真的花费了我太多时间。但我并没有“我究竟在干什么,这也能叫游戏?”这种念头,而是在想“哦,我只要再抓90只就完成任务了!”“还剩50只!”因为游戏总能持续提供信息,反馈我的成就。

即便我抓到的是其他鱼类(你并不总能抓到银鱼)也能得到奖励:“我可以把这条鱼卖了!”这是一种极大的成就感。我并非一无是处!

除了进度条,游戏中的状态数值也要一直保持可视性,越多越好。成就也是让某些玩家类型逗留游戏之中的关键。

它们可以提示你游戏中可能存在的内容,或者显示你必须掌握的挑战,比如《反恐精英:全球攻势》:

“用HE手榴弹炸死这名调解人。”

“你在空降的时候要杀死一名空降敌人。”

除非你所取得是像《斯丹利的寓言》中一样毫无用处的成就:

“走出去:5年内不要再玩游戏。”或者“任务:每周二都要玩一天的《斯丹利的寓言》”。

这些长期机制可以让你随着时间发展推动进程,极适用于游戏化内容,也是许多手机游戏所采用的元素。

停止游戏,走向户外!

还记得《Flappy Bird》吗?我所有的朋友,包括我自己都很讨厌这款游戏。

flappy bird(from game.china)

flappy bird(from game.china)

但我们还是玩了这款游戏,并在其中相互竞争。

《Flappy Bird》具有简单性,这也正是许多人玩这款游戏的原因。

该游戏没有什么神秘之处,玩家无需教程,在5分钟内就可以清楚理解游戏的目标以及掌握达成目标所需的工具。

但这并非我玩这款游戏的动机。我是因为它的目标极易理解而产生动力。

我究竟为何无法打破5分的纪录?这种挑战促使我一直玩下去,直到打破纪录为止。

正如Nolan Bushnell“所有最棒的游戏都很易于掌握但难以精通”。

鉴于当前的市场现状和其他层次的因素,许多手机游戏设计方法都与盈利性绑定。这通常会带来我们体验游戏的一个新障碍:等待时间。

有些开发者会利用的一种动机理念就是,限制玩家的游戏时间。这种设计之所以令人讨厌,就是你才刚开始玩游戏,就会被告知:“您现在无法游戏,请等待10分钟,或者寻求好友帮助。也中以考虑花钱继续玩游戏。”

还有一些其他机制,如收集资源,就是想让你体验更短暂的回合,更经常回到手机游戏中。

多数时候,你还需要其他元素让玩家保持对游戏的兴趣,即便他们不在玩游戏。社交机制就可以发挥作用了。你向好友发送的游戏机制可以保持玩家的忙碌状态,这样玩家才能保持游戏进度。游戏还能为玩家提供一些可向好友展示的新定制功能。

那些已有多年游戏经验的玩家知道电子街机的游戏难度。只要一招不慎你和好友就要重新来过。

没错这可能是一种“盈利策略”,但即使是像《超越光速》这种现代复古游戏也使用了“挫败性激励法”。其理念就在于培养玩家失败,学习,失败再学习这种越挫越勇的精神。

这听起来更像是扼杀动力的方法。但重要的是,游戏是公平的,并且会给予相应的反馈。

这种反馈可以触发玩家“下次我得早点射击这些火箭”这种思考。这可以促使玩家为下次尝试进行更多反思,让玩家不断尝试直到成功为止。

如果玩家终于好不容易克服了困难,他们就会对游戏更满意。

总结

Raph Koster在《游戏设计趣味理论》中曾提出,“游戏乐趣来自精通,它起源于理解。解决谜题这一行为正是令游戏富有趣味性的因素。换句话说,学习的过程就是游戏的麻醉剂。”

如果你理解McGonigal所说的:令人满意的工作,重要性和成功观念,你就能够将其与Ralph Koster的引言准确对号入座。

如果你日渐得心应手,那么工作就是令人满意的任务。积极环境中的学习过程可以让你的任务更具成功感。

游戏开发者应该为玩家提供应对挑战的工具,你的游戏应该是一个充满思考和保持玩家睿智感的旅程。(本文由游戏邦编译,转载请注明来源,或咨询微信zhengjintiao)

Motivational Concepts in Video Games

by Tim Eckert

Introduction

If you are developing games, then you surely loved playing them before you started creating them.

Sadly, when working on games, we can observe that the number of those playing for the sake of fun alone is declining and sometimes people  don’t even like playing video games at all.

When I, or my friends, play games there are always some special ones that you spend nearly your whole life playing.

However, at the same time there are games in your library you didn’t played at all. These games do not even have to be bad necessarily.

I played the second Call of Duty or League of Legends over a ridiculously long time.

But, I only spent about a week, and some of you will hate me for that, in the nearly endless worlds that are offered by The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim.

This depends on you as a player and what kind of things you like to see in a game.

So what are the different kinds of motivational concepts that some games utilize, which resulted in a younger me playing these games all the time and missing important lessons in school in the process?

Please note that this article aims at giving a short survey of a selection of motivational concepts, and will only examine the possibilities of motivation through game mechanics and not through narratives. Creating an appealing ‘story experience’ potentially offers an intrinsic kind of motivation, like books do, for example.

Learning Games

A word that was coined a few years ago and came into common use is ‘gamification’.

The process of gamification sets game mechanics in a context that doesn’t relate to games at all. So, the key elements of motivation in games is transferred to e.g. learning games, to convey information to students in a way that generates more fun than more orthodox forms of learning can.

Try to let people play Assassin’s Creed without them drawing connections to real historic events.

Albert Einstein: “Play is the highest form of research”.

Jane McGonigal wrote in Reality is Broken, that we need four elements in the process of rewarding someone, and through it, motivate the individual.

These include:

satisfying work

perspective of success

socialising

significance

To break this down further, we can assess that you should always want to use people’s “natural” desires to get them play your games. These include things like competition, achievement, mastery or even status, experienced in a positive environment.

What am I doing?!

One day, I downloaded Papers, please! and could not stop playing for several hours.

But why was I so engaged in it?

The whole point of the game is to check documents and information for their validity.

For me, it was this concept of working through massive amounts of data and information and getting better at it by the minute!

After several in-game days I had become so fast at picking up stuff and validating it that the fact that my skills were increasing rapidly, and the fact that I also had to make few but sensible moral decisions, kept me going.

The challenge was real and I had to take it.

When your capability of playing a game and understanding its mechanics are the only things that stand between you and the goals the developers set for you, you have got a very competitive game.

When creating such a game, the act of balancing its different components becomes very important, because the player needs a worthy opponent that will constantly challenge him, even as he gradually masters the game’s elements one after the other.

Everyone likes learning. No wait, it is not the process of learning we love, but the feeling of being smarter now than we were just a few moments ago.

Create your success!

Let’s take Tower Defense games. They take great advantage of different enemy types.

Every time they are introduced, the player needs to adapt to the new challenge.

What does it do? How do I fight it?

The player needs to adapt to it and think of new ways to counter their attacks.

And if this is achieved, the player will feel much smarter when negotiating the next few levels, as the enemy isn’t a real threat anymore. The player has developed a solution to the game’s challenges.

In the context of multiplayer games, the other players do that for you.

You can support the quality of the challenge by writing a fair matchmaking algorithm.

Examples are games like Counter Strike or Trackmania, where the starting point is the exact same for everyone joining the game. No matter how experienced, the game itself, does not give you an advantage.

The exact opposite of that scenario would be RPGs, where the strive for always better (or more beautiful) elements for your character is the key to success. The game itself constantly rewards you for playing it. You collect level ups or items that help you adapt to the constantly growing difficulty, the game offers.

In addition, every level your character accomplishes, documents your overall status of completing the game.

And while playing, there always will be feedback available which will show your progress.

This is all too often used to cover up rather boring game mechanics.

I tried World of Warcraft one time. In the beginning you get a Quest that sounds something like this: “Catch 100 silver something fishes”.

It took me way too long, to catch these little time eaters.

But instead of “What the hell am I doing here, do you really call this a game?”, I was thinking “Oh just 90 more!”, “Ha! 50 to go.”, because of the constant informations how I was doing. So they caught me, with feedback.

Even if I would have caught other fishes (yeah you don’t always get the silver ones) I was rewarded: “Wow, I can sell this one for 2000!”.

This commits a very productive feeling. I am not useless!

Besides progress bars, stats are always great to look at, the more the better. Achievements, are also a motivation keeper for some player types.

They give you some kind of suggestion, what is possible within the game, or show you the challenges you have to master, like in Counter­ Strike:Global Offensive :

“Defuse This!:Kill the defuser with an HE grenade.”

“Aerial Necrobatics:Kill an airborne enemy while you are also airborne.”

Unless you have such useless (but funny) achievements like The Stanley Parable .

“Go Outside: Do not play the game for five years.“

Or “Commitment: Play The Stanley Parablefor 24 hours during Tuesday.”

Also these long term mechanics, who let you build progress over time, are perfectly adaptable for gamification, and a lot of mobile games use them too.

Stop playing, and go outside!

Do you remember Flappy Bird? All my friends, including me, hated it.

But we were playing it and competing against each other.

Flappy Bird brought simplicity and thats the reason why so many people played it.

The game has no secrets, after about 5 seconds and without a tutorial, the clear goals of this game are understood and the tools how to achieve them are mastered.

But thats not where my motivation to play came from. I was highly motivated to play because the goal is so easy to understand, and in no way hard to archive.

How can it be, that I can’t beat my highscore of 5? A challenge, that seems so easy soaked me in and made me play to finally beat it.

“All the best games are easy to learn and difficult to master. They should reward the first quarter and the hundredth.” – Nolan Bushnell

Because of the market situation and other aspects sadly many mobile-gamedesign-approaches go hand in hand with monetisation.That often introduces a new dimension in the way we play a game: waiting time.

Some developers are using a motivational concept, where one of the keys is, to limit you in playing their game. That is usually pretty annoying even if you just started playing and then the game tells you: “You can’t play now, wait 10 minutes or ask friends to send you time. Also consider simply paying us to let you play again.”

Also other mechanics, like collecting resources, want you to play in shorter sequences but therefor more regular on your phone.

Most times, you need other things to keep the players interested in the game, even if they are not playing it. Sozial mechanics help out here. Game Elements you can send to your friends, will keep the player busy and he can keep getting level ups. This offers you new customisation functions to show off to your friends.Thats where you try to leverage the strive for social status.

Back in my time, we weren’t playing for fun!

Those of you who started gaming years ago, will know that video arcade machines were really hard to beat. One failure and you and your friend hat to start all over.

Yes that may be a “monetisation strategy” but even modern retro games like Faster Than Light (FTL) use “Motivation through Frustration”.

The concept is Failing, Learning, Failing, Learning and Failing again.

This sounds like more than a motivation killer. Important is that the game is fair and will give you feedback on what went wrong.

This feedback should trigger thoughts like “Damn next time I have to shoot these rockets earlier.”. This will gives more perspective on the next try and you get to player more and more until you succeed.

And if the challenge is finally beaten, you will be more than satisfied with your work. Until the next challenge comes along.

Conclusion

“Fun from games arises out of mastery. It arises out of comprehension. It is the act of solving puzzles that makes games fun. In other words, with games, learning is the drug.”
- Raph Koster, ATheory of Fun for Game Design

If you take the these parts from McGonigal: satisfying work, significance and perspective of success you can perfectly adapt it to the quote of Ralph Koster.

Work is always satisfying if you get better at it and if you gain remarkableness through it.

The process of learning in a positive environment offers a perspective of success to your tasks and because of constant development, new problems fastly open up for results.

A player should always be confronted to the game developers challenges with a toolbox, which can be used to get behind your puzzles.

Your game should be a journey full of thinking of solutions and keeping the player smart. (source:gamasutra


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