作者：Tom Kail

我玩了好久的《马里奥赛车8》，但直到最近我才发现近期再次出现在这系列游戏中的可收集货币的作用。在我在谷歌上搜索它之前，我询问了周边的一些人想知道他们是否真的了解它。但是我却发现大多数人都不知道这一货币是干嘛用的，即使有人认为自己知道，但是给出的答案却是不正确的。

mario kart 8(from gamasutra)

收集货币去提升速度并获得速度推进器是专业玩家所使用的一种航向修正方式。在特定位置上每隔几秒货币便会重新出现，在被敌人去掉3个后，你也可以使用货币道具去获取另外2个。

一开始我认为人们对于货币作用的常见误解是因为糟糕的交流所导致，但现在我开始认为这一点并不重要，因为货币将能够进一步完善游戏。

1.添加货币作为一种可收集的内容能够鼓励玩家去收集它们。定期设置货币能够不断提供给玩家一些短期目标。它们的设计是为了凸显轨道曲线，这在该系列最新几款游戏中都特别有效，能够从视觉上分散玩家的注意力。你会发现轨道被分割成2条以上的不同路线，而货币总是出现在入口处，如此便能够帮助玩家更快做出选择。

2.在一场比赛中，赛车手所拥有的平均货币数量会不断增加，即随着比赛的进行这也将提高他们的平均速度和紧张感。结合轨道的难点与源自比赛系统的自然紧张感，我们将看到一个典型的步速曲线。在赛车过程中紧张感会不断增加，而在每一圈的起点处会有所下降，并在比赛最后进一步下降。

3.货币道具能够提升道具价值的传播。香蕉是作为价值最低的道具，但是它却能有效扶持你的赛车以避免其他人的攻击；而比起香蕉，较高级别的玩家将获得货币。这让玩家在一开始会较不稳定，并且最终玩家也会觉得香蕉变得更有价值。

4.奖励（游戏邦注：角色，赛车，标贴）的呈现是基于玩家在游戏中收集到的货币总数。这等同于玩家花费在游戏中的时间，如此设计师便能够确定玩家在特定时间是否收到任何奖励；但因为这是一种主动参数，所以玩家会觉得奖励更加理所当然。

5.当玩家受伤时货币便会消失。对于《马里奥赛车》常出现的抱怨是，因为AI所提供的橡皮圈以及玩家背上所负担的沉重道具，专业玩家甚至有可能输给一名新手。《马里奥赛车8》中将道具及其传播变得更具竞争性，所以给予玩家的货币也是基于他们的技能。更优秀的玩家会发现自己损失的货币数较少，从而能够弥补他们所拥有的较弱的道具；如此他们便能够更加专注于赛车中。游戏将会奖励玩家坚持不懈的赛车技能。而缺少经验的玩家将拥有较少的货币与较厉害的道具，如此他们便能够体验到更加传统的“马里奥赛车”，并能够利用道具去弥补自己的赛车技能。从这层意义上来说，你可以认为货币在不同类型的玩家身上具有不同的作用，而这是隐藏在系统复杂性背后，即为了让玩家能够更轻松地享受游戏的乐趣。

在这一列表中你会发现没有一点是关于货币对于赛车新手的影响，因为我们只要理解货币在游戏中是真正有价值的存在就够了。专家们会将货币的影响纳入自己的计划中，而设计师们则会通过添加货币去创造既适合新手也适合专业玩家，同时拓宽他们之间差距的更具乐趣的游戏。

（本文为游戏邦/gamerboom.com编译，拒绝任何不保留版权的转发，如需转载请联系：游戏邦）

Mario Kart 8 players don’t need to know what the coins do.

by Tom Kail on

I’ve played many, many, many hours of Mario Kart 8, but it’s only recently that I learned the effect of the collectable coins that have been recently reintroduced into the series. Before I Googled it, I asked around to see if anybody else knew exactly what they did. I found most people didn’t, and those who did had a pretty sketchy, often incorrect answer.

Collecting coins (up to a maximum of 10) raises your top speed and grants you a tiny speed boost which can be leveraged by expert players as a form of course correction. Coins respawn in specific locations on the track every few seconds, three are dropped by damaged opponents, and two are obtained via the coin item when used (inexplicably, the icon only shows a single coin).

At first I believed the common misunderstanding of the coin’s effects was a failure of communication, but I’ve started to believe that it isn’t important, and arguably even improves the game.

1.Simply including coins as collectables encourages players to collect them. Their placement at regular intervals provides a constant short-term goal, which lends itself to flow. Their layout is designed to highlight the curve of the track, which is especially useful in the latest games in the series, which tend to have a lot visual distraction. You’ll find that wherever the track splits into two or more different routes, coins are always placed at their entrances, making it easy for players to pick a side early.

2.The average total number of coins held by a racer increases over a single race, which raises the average speed and the tension as the race progresses. Combined with the difficulty ordering of tracks in a cup and the natural tension which emerges from the tournament system, we end up with a typical pacing curve. Tension increases during a lap, decreases slightly at the start of each lap, and decreases a little more at the end of a race.

3.The coin item increases the spread of item value. Where the banana used to be the least valuable item, and was very effective at holding behind your kart in order to stay safe from attacks, the coin now is; meaning that players in high ranks are likely to receive a coin rather than a banana. This makes the players at the head of the pack a little less stable than they had been in past iterations of the series (although the inverted question box once had a similar role), and the banana feels more valuable in the same as a result.

4.Rewards (characters, karts, stickers) are presented based on the total number of coins collected in the game. This will be roughly equivalent to time spent playing the game, which allows designers to ensure that a player receives any reward at a particular time; but because it’s an active metric rather than a passive one, rewards feel more deserved.

5.Coins are lost when a player falls of the map or is injured. A common complaint with Mario Kart as a series is that an expert player can lose to a novice due to the rubber-banding provided by the AI and the incredibly powerful items handed to players at the back of the pack. As well as simply making the items and their spread more contest-orientated in Mario Kart 8 (which is another article for another time), the coins divide players based on skill. Better players will find themselves losing less coins on average, making up for worse items with a higher top speed; making it easier for them to get ahead of the pack and concentrate more on racing. The game rewards consistent racing skill as a means of staying ahead. Less experienced players will tend to have less coins, but better items, allowing them to experience the more traditional Mario Kart experience, leveraging items to more than racing skill to get ahead. In this sense, you could argue that simply learning about what coins actually do is a key distinction between these two types of player, and that hiding the complexities of the system to entry level players makes it easier for them to simply enjoy the game.

What you’ll notice about this list is that none of them require an understanding of the coin’s effects on the novice racer, so long as there is an understanding that coins are generally desirable. While an expert will factor the effects of the coin into their plan, the mere inclusion of the coin allows the designers to craft a more enjoyable game that better accommodates beginners and experts, and widens the gap between them. (source:gamasutra)