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游戏设计理论的应用:内在价值

发布时间:2013-12-31 15:19:03 Tags:,,,,

作者:Toni Sala

本文是“游戏设计理论的应用”系列文章的第三篇。(请点击此处阅读本系列第12篇

在之前的两篇文章中我们谈论了《New Sokoban》中有效的游戏设计元素。而今天我们将谈论一些应该更好地应用到《New Sokoban》的较复杂的内容,即游戏中的内在价值。

endogenous value(from gamasutra)

endogenous value(from gamasutra)

什么是内在价值?

“endogenous(内在)这一词是源于希腊语ενδογεν??,即代表“从内部触发”(ενδο=内部,γεν??=来自)”——维基百科

“有关内在原因或起源”——Wordreference.com

“从内部出发;由内部而来。”——Dictionary.com

“拥有一个内因或起源。”——牛津英语词典

所以,游戏的内在价值是指源于游戏或游戏的某些部分中对于玩家有某种价值的目标是诞生于游戏内部并且只通过游戏设计手段获得。

为我们的游戏创造内在价值

所以,就像你所想的那样,为我们的游戏创造内在价值是非常有趣且有价值的。有趣的游戏固然很棒,但是带有内在价值的有趣游戏会更加出色。我们很难忘记一款带有内在价值的游戏,如此便能更轻松地吸引玩家回到游戏中反复游戏从而创造出更多价值。即使这并不是游戏最有趣的点。

所以,依我看来,我们可以采取两种方法为游戏创造内在价值:非常困难的任务与内部经济。

你是否还记得玩一款很难完成的游戏?想象你在前进过程中失败了。多么戏剧化啊。通常情况下,那些很难获得的事物总是比简单的事物更有价值。

内部经济是获得内在价值的更强大工具。然而,在游戏中创造一个平衡的经济系统却是一项艰巨的任务。当说道“经济系统”时我并不是刻意涉及虚拟货币或贸易操作。像《星际争霸》这样经典的RTS游戏便带有基于资源的经济系统,能够在内在价值角度上发挥有效作用。

不过我认为对于这种内在价值的最佳例子应该是MMO游戏,就像《魔兽世界。这类游戏通过设置了许多目标,任务和升级等等内容而为玩家创造了许多内在价值。

玩家一直在完成任务,杀死怪物和boss,甚至有时候这种行动还一点都不好玩!然而,奖励的价值却非常巨大,并且努力也是有价值的。

谨记:游戏中的内在价值与乐趣并没有关系。实际上,玩家是从难以获得的目标上察觉到内在价值,并且这些目标通常都不是很有趣。不幸的是,我们似乎不能察觉到乐趣的价值。我猜这是一个游戏悖论。

强制性内在价值

强制性内在价值的结果便是不可能创造出任何内在价值,而只剩下一些常规价值。所有免费游戏都包含于这一类别中。作为设计师的你正在为游戏的目标和消费品定价。这并不是源自内在。这只能算作常规价值。

所以我认为,将真钱带到谈论内在价值的等式中是没有意义的。

结论

不幸的是,《New Sokoban》是一款非常简单的游戏。我们很难将所有这些机制带入这样的小游戏中。我尝试着通过提高某些任务的难度而提升游戏的内在价值。完成所有的3星谜题并不困难,但是找到游戏中所有低于标准杆的解决方法却非常困难。我希望做到这点的玩家能够认为他们的进程是有价值的。

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

Game Design Theory Applied: Endogenous Value

by Toni Sala

Today’s article is the third one in the series “Game Design Theory Applied”. You have the previous two here:

Game Design Theory Applied: The Flow Channel

Game Design Theory Applied: A Layered Rewards System

In the previous two articles I talked about game design aspects that I think that were well addressed in New Sokoban. However, today I’m going to talk about a very difficult and tricky topic that should be better applied to New Sokoban: endogenous value in games.

What’s endogenous value?

“The word endogenous derives from the Greek: ενδογεν??, meaning “proceeding from within” (“ενδο”=inside “-γεν??”=coming from)” – Wikipedia

“Relating to an internal cause or origin” – Wordreference.com

“Proceeding from within; derived internally.” – Dictionary.com

“Having an internal cause or origin.” – Oxford Dictionary of English

So, endogenous value in games is achieved when some objects in the game or some part of the game have some kind of value to the player generated inside the game and only by game design means.

Giving endogenous value to our games

So, as you can imagine, giving endogenous value to our games is very interesting and desirable. Fun games are great, but fun games with endogenous value are better. It is more difficult to forget a game that has endogenous value, so it is easier for the player to come back and play again to increase that value. Even if it is not the funniest of the games.

So, from my point of view, there are two ways of giving endogenous value to our games:very difficult tasks and internal economies.

Do you remember playing a game that was extremely difficult to complete? Imagine that you lose your progress. That would be dramatic… In general, things that are hard to achieve have more value than easier ones. No fancy science here I guess.

Internal economics are a more powerful mechanic to gain endogenous value. However, creating a well balanced economics system in a game is a titanic task. When saying “economics system” I don’t necessarily mean involving virtual money or trading operations. Classic RTS games like Starcraft have resources based economy systems that works great from the endogenous value point of view.

However, I think that the best example for this kind of endogenous value are MMO games like World of Warcraft (no, I’m not working for Blizzard, but I like their games :p ). These kind of games generate an incredibly amount of endogenous value to players by having lots of objects, tasks, power-ups, etc, that have value in the game for players.

Players complete quests, kill monsters and bosses all the time, even when it is not fun! However, the value of the reward is so huge that the effort is worthwhile.

Mental note: endogenous value in games is not related with fun. Actually, in general, players perceive endogenous value from things that are hard to achieve and often not so fun to do. Unfortunately, it seems that we don’t perceive the value of fun. It’s a gaming paradox I guess. Or maybe a human one…

Forcing endogenous value

The result of forcing endogenous value is having no endogenous value at all but regularvalue. All FreeToPlay games are included to this category. You, as the designer, are pricing the objects and consumables of your game. That’s not endogenous. That’s just regular value.

So from my point of view, when real money is introduced to the equation talking about endogenous value has no sense.

Conclusion

Unfortunately, New Sokoban is a very simple game. It is very difficult (at lest for me) to introduce all these mechanics to a little game like this one. I tried to increase the endogenous value of the game by means of increasing the difficulty of some tasks. Completing all the puzzles with 3 stars is not that difficult but finding all the under par solutions in the game is very, very difficult. I hope that players that achieve it consider their progress valuable.(source:gamasutra)


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