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分析现代RPG的难度下降以及DPS问题

发布时间:2013-01-03 08:21:18 Tags:,,

作者:Eric Schwarz

与老式RPG相比,现代RPG并不太吸引我。原因是多方面的,但最重要的一个是开发者开始采用新的呈现信息的机制和方法,这降低了我认为好RPG应具有的难度。《魔兽世界》等对其他游戏的影响深入而广泛—-这有时候是好事,如在界面设计方面;但在许多时候,也不是好事。

在本文中,我想要探讨的是,与80年代至90年代的RPG相比,现代RPG中存在的一个最大的问题—-DPS(游戏邦注:DPS即Damage Per Second,意味每秒输出伤害)这个游戏玩法概念。

DPS(from teamliquid.net)

DPS(from teamliquid.net)

为什么要有DPS?

我个人认为DPS对RPG来说不算是好东西。为了回答上述问题,我认为我们有必要更详尽地查看DPS试图完成的目标。有些目标是很明显的,有些作为原因和后果,则不那么明显:

1、以数字统一多种伤害类型,便于作对比。许多现代RPG,特别是采用MMO模式的,往往比老式RPG更看重掉落物品。玩家的动机不在于揭示游戏剧情,而是“看,我得到的东西很牛逼吧。”DPS大大地缩短了比较掉落物品的时间和努力—-不用计算伤害范围、不用估计平均伤害、不用考虑你是否想要这种或那种伤害输出的变体(如更高的最大伤害或更小的伤害范围)。

2、增加了实际游戏的一致性,这让玩家更容易预测结果。类似于上一点,大多数现代RPG并不是围绕着致命一击、突破敌人防御等概念设计的。相反地,现代RPG往往更注意针对敌人的挑衅或“仇恨”管理(即迫使玩家以某种方式进攻某类敌人,以便更高效地分配引入的伤害)。战斗不再是为了找到更有效的方式击败敌人,而是能够在一定的时间内不死。这就导致敌人的设计更具可控制性—-现在你知道为什么当你玩一款MMO时,击败敌人好像总是需要30秒左右的时间。这与战斗的质量无关,与游戏节奏有关,因为玩家在某个活动中花费的时间量都被事前确定了(在MMO中,人为地膨胀游戏时间是希望从玩家手中得到更多利润)。

3、更容易平衡和标准化角色。近几年来,RPG的游戏平衡概念已经成为某种神圣的事,通常可以说这促进了MMO的崛起。MMO模式的主要特点是社交性、互动性、竞争性和合作性,一方面,玩家希望自己对团队和游戏世界是有用的,另一方面,又不想感到其他人都比自己更有效率。通过DPS实现伤害输出的标准化,使开发者能更轻易对为玩家营造一种大家都一样有效率的感觉。在单人模式下,根据装备和等级,玩家在几乎所有游戏阶段中产生的伤害输出,都在你的意料之中。

4、取消了命中机会的机制。在老式RPG中,角色可能会完全错过进攻,这通常取决于概率和命中机会。在现代RPG中,命中机会几乎已经完全消失了,原因有二。第一个是因为动画——所有动画的制作目的都是,玩家都能确实地与进攻产生联系,制作一系列完全分离的、能正确显示错过进攻、看起来又不错的动画相当困难。第二个是为了抚慰玩家的情绪。没人想错过进攻,因为这减少了游戏玩法的可预测性,会使玩家觉得自己效率不高。DPS使玩家依靠恒定的伤害输出,“解决”了这些“问题”。这也让开发者得以将错过进攻作为某种技能或魔法效果,如“结界”魔法,让玩家在50%的时间里错过进攻,否则就没有其他时间能这么做了。

5、给其他系统作为参考点(游戏邦注:如DPS决定了法术伤害,让法术系玩家有理由使用某种装备)。开发一个RPG系统的最大难题之一是,战士和术士解决问题的方式是完全不同的。战士具有相当稳定、一致的伤害输出。如果游戏中存在明显的伤害类型,那么战士的伤害通常是纯“物理”的。与之相反的,术士的基础攻击通常极低,几乎到可以忽略不计的程度,但作为补偿,术士有极大的“爆发性”伤害(如对某个区域有效的火球)和继发性伤害(在一定时间内产生持续性伤害或穿透装备的伤害等)。这种设定在组队型游戏中非常管用,在这类游戏中,不需要所有角色总是达到相同程度的效率。然而,在MMO和单一角色RPG中,这种设定已经成为准则,开发者必须依靠玩家具有非常一致的效率基础等级,而这与系统是不相容的。多亏了DPS机制,让战士和术士穿上各种变体装备,突然之间,不同角色变得非常容易平衡了。

总之,在RPG设计中,DPS代表了一个非常大的范式转移,远远超过我们的想象。这不是单纯地以更加为玩家着想的方式显示数字,而是为了彻底完成现代RPG非常不同的目标,而完全地颠覆了游戏的基本机制。

DPS的问题

作为游戏设计中的一个实践,DPS的发明确实相当别出心裁。当我考虑游戏设计时,我想到的是解决问题,如果你的项目目标与DPS的优势一致,那么你可能为RPG做出了最好的系统设计决定。但是,我也认为DPS从根本上损害了RPG的独特性、机制的深度,通常导致了游戏的乏味。

DPS造成的第一个大问题是最根本的:标准化伤害类型。虽然有些使用DPS的游戏确实保留了伤害的多样性,但大部分游戏是丧失了,因为后者将DPS当作最重要的、最终的目标。甚至前者也往往把不同的伤害类型作为装点。相反地,由Black Isle工作室出品的“无限引擎”游戏是根据《龙与地下城》的规则制作的,每场战斗中都有多种伤害类型。例如,除了“物理”伤害,还有冲击伤害、破碎伤害和穿刺伤害等,这些都受到不同类型武器和不同敌人的影响(如,嘲弄法杖或钉头锤对骷髅伤害最大,冲击和穿刺伤害则不太有效),这就促进了团队成员的多样性,和减少成员效率的差距,因此,甚至是“裸”战士也能在某些战术中起到很大的作用。

第二个大问题几乎就是第一个大问题导致的:标准化角色分类。在以DPS为特征的游戏中,DPS常常完全消除不同角色的玩法独特性。无论你玩的是什么角色都没关系—-事实上,我发现在所有这类游戏中,角色之间的差异基本上不是玩法,而只是外观。选择玩拿双手剑的野蛮人,还是持暗器的苗条刺客,这种乐趣绝对是吸引人的,但最终,玩法中的真正差别不过是远攻vs近攻、肉盾vs输出—-这些区别早就存在于其他系统中,而与DPS的结合,反而使之更加肤浅。对于所有“多样化的”角色分类,我玩过的大多数MMO的分类都大同小异,唯一的例外就是《暗黑3》,但这款游戏的这方面仍然逊色于同系列的前作。

角色分类标准化的最终结果是,游戏的重玩价值降低了,无论是单人模式还是多人模式都不那么有趣了。当我玩单人游戏时,我的角色之间的唯一区别是,我使用的战利品的样子,这无益于丰富玩法体验—-意味着,如果我再次玩这款游戏,我的游戏体验不会有本质上的不同,甚至在单人游戏的过程中,如果DPS是唯一重要的东西,我可能很快就厌烦了。在MMO中,DPS的效果是很大程度上根据角色对团队的支持能力来归类,如仇恨管理、治疗、守护等,这往往使不同角色之间可互换——战士可以代替另一个职业,牧师也可以起到另一个角色的作用等等。这样就过度公式化了,显著地减少了角色的独特性,即使创造独特的角色并根据自己的意愿培养他/她的能力本应该是RPG的最大魅力之一。

DPS往往阻碍了良好的装备系统。大多数更传统的RPG确实具有非常标准化的武器—-长剑+1显然会比普通长剑更高级。但是,不同的伤害范围和进攻速度使独特的武器类型之间产生了有趣差异。例如,剑的冲击伤害可能是4-8,而弯刀的可能是2-10—-这二者之间的差别是很小,但当与其他机制相结合时,却可以影响你的装备选择和培养角色的方式。例如,也许如果你的命中率更低,你选择的武器可能就与你的命中率更高时不同。如果我们说每回合进攻1次对比每回合进攻2次,道理也一样。装备选择时的小差别,使某些RPG对某些玩家来说难度更高了,需要玩家多动动脑筋,但正是这种有深度的技术和决定让玩家开始有兴趣玩游戏。

换句话说,DPS在很大程度上使RPG变成所谓的动作游戏,而不是具有复杂系统导向的互动性的特殊游戏种类。通过让角色升级更加线性,角色的分类特点就更模糊了,游戏玩法更加可预测,DPS取消了给RPG带来成功的更加仿真的游戏玩法。

总结

我提出DPS的这个话题不是因为我讨厌DPS,认为DPS不应该存在—-相反地,我认为它非常适用于某些游戏。我对DPS有意见,很大程度上是因为它导致了RPG从一类风格独特的、自有微妙系统的游戏变成另一类所谓具有渐进系统的游戏。就市场接受度和主流吸引力而言,DPS绝对是一种恩赐—-就像升级,其存在基本上是安全的,可以轻易地吸引玩家坚持游戏。但通常来说,我认识的所有经典RPG粉丝都充分意识到DPS导致的玩法上的差异。支持DPS的人基本上不属于最初支持经典RPG的那类玩家。

但也不是说只有DPS该为RPG玩法退步负责。DPS的很多负面影响在本质上是继发性的,是可以修改的。例如,DPS并没有强迫开发者使用单一的伤害类型,只是一定程度上鼓励了他们这么做。一旦你开始根据经典系统的微妙和深度,并补充其他修正来创造DPS,那么无论如何,你其实就是兜了个圈把DPS淘汰了。DPS在游戏中的饱和程度与射击游戏中的XP进程相当,是一种受到争议的趋势。我恐怕DPS正在将我们的游戏引向同质化。(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

DPS and the Decline of Complexity in RPGs

by Eric Schwarz

Modern role-playing games really haven’t gripped me in the same way that the older ones have.  The reasons for that are manifold, but one of the biggest is in the way that developers have begun to adapt new mechanics and ways of presenting information which is at odds with the complexity that I expect from a good RPG.  The influence of titles like World of Warcraft is felt far and wide – sometimes for the better, as in the case things like interface design, but also, in many cases, for worse as well.

In this article I’d like to discuss what I think is the single biggest issue with modern RPGs compared to their predecessors from the 80s and 90s – the prevalence of Damage Per Second as a gameplay concept.

Why DPS?

In order to get into why DPS, in my opinion, isn’t a good thing for RPGs, we need to take a closer look and examine what sorts of goals DPS tries to accomplish.  Some of these are obvious, others, less so, as are the reasons and consequences:

Unifies multiple damage types under one number for easy comparison.  Many modern RPGs, especially those built using the MMO model, tend to be very loot-driven compared to older titles.  The motivation for the player isn’t just uncovering the story, it’s “look at all this awesome stuff I got that looks so cool and epic.”  DPS streamlines the time and effort spent comparing loot significantly – no more damage ranges to work out, no more calculating average damage, no more figuring out if you want X or Y variation on your damage output (i.e. higher max damage or smaller damage range).

Is more consistent in actual gameplay, which makes things more predictable for the player.  Similar to the above point, most modern RPGs are not built around the idea of getting critical strikes, knocking down enemy defenses, and so on.  Rather, they tend to be focused more on threat and aggro management between enemies (which forces the player to attack certain enemies in a certain order to distribute incoming damage more effectively).  Combat is less about finding the most efficient ways to defeat your enemies, and more about being able to survive for X amount of time.  This allows for far more controllable encounter design – now you know why for some reason, when you’re playing an MMO, enemy groups always seem to take exactly 30ish seconds to defeat.  It has nothing to do with combat quality and everything to do with making the player spend a pre-determined amount of time on the activity for pacing reasons (and in the case of MMOs, to artificially inflate the gameplay time spent with the hopes of getting additional subscription or cash shop dollars out of the player).

Allows for character builds to be balanced and standardized more easily.  In recent years, the idea of game balance in RPGs has become something of a holy grail, generally as a result of the rise of MMOs.  In the MMO environment, which is predominantly social, interactive, competitive and collaboratory, players both want to feel like they are useful to the team and in the world by themselves, but also don’t want to feel like any one players is significantly more effective than them.  The standardization of damage output through DPS makes it easier for developers to create that sense of every player being equally effective.  In a single-player context it means that you will likely know how much damage output the player has at almost any stage in the game, based on their equipment and level.

Removes chance-to-hit mechanic.  In older RPGs, it was possible for characters to miss attacks completely, usually contingent on a die roll and a to-hit chance.  In modern RPGs, chance-to-hit has almost been completely removed, for two reasons.  The first comes down to animation – all animations are created with the expectation that the player will actually connect with an attack, and creating an entirely separate set of animations that correctly depict misses in a way that looks good is fairly difficult.  The second is more a matter of simple player ego-stroking.  Nobody likes to miss attacks, as it adds a degree of unpredictability to gameplay and makes players feel less effective than they are.  DPS, by giving a constant damage output the player can rely upon, “solves” these “problems.”  It also allows developers to make missed attacks a function of certain skills and spells, like a “Miasma” spell that makes the player miss attacks 50% of the time, but otherwise never any other time.

Gives a reference point for additional systems to base themselves off of (i.e. DPS determining spell damage, to give magic users a reason to use certain gear). One of the biggest challenges of developing an RPG system is that often fighters and wizards had completely different ways of dealing with problems.  Fighters would have a fairly stable, consistent damage output that could be more or less relied upon, and it was usually simple “physical” damage if a game did have distinct damage types.  Wizards, by contrast, usually have extremely low damage output with standard attacks, to the point of being almost totally ineffectual, but made up for it both in huge “burst” damage output (i.e. an area-of-effect fireball), as well as in the secondary effects applied (lingering damage-over-time, fire damage type bypassing armor, etc.).  This worked well in party-based games where it wasn’t imperative for every character to be the same level of effectiveness all the time.  In MMOs and single-character RPGs, however, which have become the norm these days, developers must rely on the player having a very consistent base level of effectiveness which is not compatible with this system.  By effectively making fighters and wizards cosmetic variations of each other and basing each around the DPS mechanic, suddenly, the classes are much easier to balance.

All in all, DPS represents a far more drastic paradigm shift in RPG design than some may realize.  It’s not simply about communicating a number in a more player-friendly way, it’s about completely overhauling the base mechanics of games in order to accomplish fundamentally very different goals from modern RPGs.

The DPS Problem

As an exercise in game design, the development of DPS is actually quite fantastic.  Make no mistake, when I think about game design, I think about problem-solving, and DPS, if your project goals are in line with what it accomplishes, is possibly one of the best systems design decisions you can possibly make for an RPG.  But, I’m also of the opinion that DPS has fundamentally damaged much of the uniqueness of RPGs, the depth of their mechanics, and has in general led to far more boring games.

The first major issue I have with DPS is the most fundamental: standardizing damage types.  While some games using DPS do tend to also maintain multiple damage types, the majority do not, instead treating DPS as a be-all, end-all number.  Even those games that do have those different damage types tend to have only cosmetic effects.  By contrast, the Infinity Engine games made famous by Black Isle were built around the Dungeons & Dragons rules, and as such multiple damage types were in play in any given battle.  For example, instead of “physical” damage, there was slashing damage, crushing damage and piercing damage, all which affected different types of armor and different creatures differently (i.e. quipping staves or maces was critical when fighting skeletons, as slashing and piercing damage were significantly less effective), which promoted diversity in the party and made min-maxing less effective, and meant that even a “simple” fighter had wide utility value and some tactics to consider.

This leads into the second major problem, which is almost a direct consequence of the first: standardizing character classes.  In games which feature DPS, that DPS tends to completely remove any uniqueness in gameplay from different types of characters.  It doesn’t matter whatever permutations of a class you are playing – in virtually every game of this sort I have found that almost all of the differences between characters were not in gameplay, but in aesthetics.  The fantasy of playing as a barbarian wielding a two-handed sword, versus the one of a svelte assassin backstabbing foes, is definitely a compelling one, but ultimately the only real difference in gameplay tends to come down to ranged vs. melee, and tank vs. damager – distinctions which already existed in other systems and, by virtue of the inclusion of DPS, have less depth to them than they would otherwise.  For all their “diverse” character classes, most MMOs I’ve played have all classes feel pretty much identical, with the only major exception being Diablo III, which still pales next to earlier games in the series.

The end result of this are games that feel significantly less replayable and also tend to be far more boring, both in single-player and multiplayer contexts.  When I’m playing a single-player game and the only difference between my character is what the loot I use looks like, that is not conducive to a varied gameplay experience – it means that if I ever go back to playing the game a second time, I’m not going to play it significantly differently, and even during the course of a single play-through, if DPS is all that matters, chances are I’m also going to get very bored very quickly.  In an MMO, DPS has the effect of making distinctions between different character classes contingent largely on support abilities, i.e. aggro management vs. healing vs. buffing, and this tends to make different characters interchangeable with one another – one fighter is the same as any other, one cleric is the same as any other, and so on.  This becomes overly formulaic and reduces the uniqueness of your given character significantly, even though creating a unique character and growing him/her in power according to your wishes is supposed to be one of the biggest draws of an RPG.

DPS also tends to get in the way of good equipment systems.  Most more traditional RPGs did have their fair share of very standard weapons – a long sword +1 is obviously going to be a linear upgrade over a standard long sword.  But, interesting distinctions between exotic weapon types were made possible by the differences between damage ranges and attack speeds.  For example, a sword may do 4-8 slashing damage, while a scimitar might do 2-10 slashing damage – it’s a small difference between these two, but it can influence your equipment selection and the way you build your character when combined with other mechanics.  For example, maybe if you have a lower chance-to-hit, your decision to use a weapon will be different than if you have a higher chance-to-hit.  The same applies if we are talking about 1 attack per round vs. 2 attacks per round.  These small distinctions in equipment selection made some RPGs more “fiddly” to play for certain gamers and  added a little more to wrap one’s head around, but it’s this in-depth tinkering and decision-making that made them interesting to play in the first place.

In other words, DPS is very much responsible for the push towards making RPGs glorified action games instead of a distinctive genre with complex systems-driven interactions.  By making character advancement more linear, character classes less distinct, and gameplay more predictable, it robs RPGs of the more simulation-oriented gameplay they became successful for.

Closing Thoughts

The reason I bring this up isn’t because I hate DPS and I think that DPS is something that shouldn’t exist – on the contrary, it has worked very well for certain games.  My problems with it are mostly caused by the way in which it has helped transform RPGs from a unique style of game with their own nuanced rule systems, towards action games with glorified progression systems.  DPS has definitely been a boon as far as marketability and mainstream appeal goes – just like leveling up, it’s an easy carrot for players to follow that is basically foolproof in significance – but generally speaking, all the classic RPG fans I know are very much aware of the differences in gameplay that DPS brings.  The ones who have embraced it are primarily not of the same community that originally supported RPGS in the first place.

That’s not to say that DPS, is solely responsible for this degradation in RPG gameplay, and many of those effects of DPS are secondary in nature and can be altered.  For example, DPS doesn’t force developers to use only one damage type, but it does certainly encourage it, and once you’ve started to create DPS with all the nuance and depth of the older systems by adding additional modifiers on top of it, well, we’ve really just come full circle and made DPS obsolete anyway.  DPS is a trend that’s critically approaching the same level of saturation as XP progression in shooters, and I’m afraid that it’s slowly taking us down the road towards homogenization of genres.(source:gamasutra


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