作者：Andreas Tsiapis

想象你正在玩一款政治策略游戏，你将与NPC组织会议，然后讹诈他们并行刺他们（游戏邦注：或者至少你尝试着这么做）。

我正在创造一款这样的游戏。多么让人兴奋啊！通过释放对象主义去创造所有特别的互动，类别和等级等等。角色属性，行动，实体属性，空间位置，定位，系统树等等内容都能让作为游戏开发者的我们喜欢这一作品。

尽管我一直在玩我的游戏，但还是觉得它有点呆板。的确，我有一些很优秀的资产以及华丽外观的角色。它们还拥有非常突出的家系背景，他们的祖先是骁勇善战的武士，他们还带着各种骇人听闻的秘密，包括作为私生子或进行各种贿赂行为。但不管我添加了什么内容，游戏还是让人觉得有点呆板。

显然我在行动和决策中添加了随机性（基于特定属性），但这似乎也没有多大帮助。我甚至未能触及问题。然后我将游戏呈现给一个有经验的朋友看看。一周后他给了我3个列表：

1.我喜欢的内容。这一列表是最长的一个！

2.我不喜欢的内容。

3.你需要完善的内容。“你的角色缺少特性。”这一列表中只有一项内容。

对于最后一项内容我感到非常纳闷。缺少特性到底意味着什么？他们能够做出决定，采取行动，也拥有非常棒的背景！为什么还说他们缺少特性？

不幸的是，事实真的如此。

所以在经过漫长的讨论，喝了无数杯咖啡并进行了许多次测试后，我想出了一个简单的解决方法。即情绪。

突然间我比之前对自己的游戏更加充满兴奋感了！我之前怎么就没注意到这点呢！

如果一个角色想要行刺其他人，那么其他人便会倍感压力与不适。如果这时候你叫他/她来开会，并遭到对方的拒绝，你也没什么好惊讶了。

如果一个角色遭遇分手，他/她便会很受伤，很失望。所以他们很有可能与你联手去对抗前任。

另一方面，如果一个角色只是维系起一个新关系，他/她便会很高兴，充满幻想，甚至会产生一些大胆的想法！

这一列表不断延伸。它甚至会开启了许多独特的游戏功能！

–我是否该尝试着贿赂这个人？如果他感到失落怎么办？

–我是否该尝试着行刺这个人？我是否该等到会议结束？也许他会感到失落，并因此更有可能犯错。

–我是否该尝试着撞击这个角色？我将等到他/她心碎为止。

character(from gamasutra)

这让我不禁开始思考。为什么我们不能在策略游戏中添加更多这样的内容？我的意思是，很明显虚拟角色并不会让人觉得是真人，但是在不断进化的过程中，我们始终拥有一件机器所不具有的东西，那便是情绪。那么为什么我们不能尝试着去模拟人类这一必不可少的行为呢？

（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）

Mood Swings & Character development

by Andreas Tsiapis

Imagine you are playing a political strategy game where you set up meetings with NPCs, you blackmail them, assassinate them (or at least you try to!) you make partnerships and so on.

Well I am making a game like that. Oh the excitement! Unleashing Object Orientism to create all the marvelous interactions and classes, hierarchies and whatnot. Character attributes, actions, physical attributes, places in space, positioning, genealogical trees… All the things that make us game developers love our work even if it is 5 in the morning! (P.S. At 5:15 I hate it.)

Whilst I was playing my game though, it felt kinda… wooden. Yeah sure, I have some great assets and my characters look great. They even have a nice genealogical background, with warrior ancestors and vibrant secrets that vary from bastard children to bribing and embezzlement. No matter what I was adding, they kept feeling wooden.

Obviously I was adding randomness in the actions and the decisions (based on attributes etc.) but they did not help much. I could not put a finger on the problem at all. Then I gave the game to an experienced friend of mine. After a week, he gave me 3 lists:

1. Things that I loved. This list (to my surprise!) was the longest one!

2. Things that I did not like. Booo!

3. Things that you need to improve on. “Your characters, lack … character”. That’s it. One single item in the list.

I battled with this last item. What do you mean they lack character?? I said. They make decisions, they take actions, they have a nice background! How can you say that??

But unfortunately, I knew.

So after long discussions, copious amounts of coffee and a lot of try and error, I came up with a simple solution. Moods.

I was suddenly more excited about my game than I have ever been! How could I have not seen that?

If one of my characters had an assassination attempt against him/her (and survived(!) No zombie mode in my game :p), he/she is stressed, uncomfortable, panicked etc. So no, if you call him/her into a meeting, do not be surprised if they turn you down!

If a character had a romantic breakdown, they are heartbroken, disappointed and maybe enraged! So, they are good candidates for partnering up with you against their ex lover!

On the other hand, if a character just made a new relationship, well, he/she is happy, quixotic and maybe even feel adventurous!

The list goes on and on and on. It opens up so many unique gameplay features!

- Should I try to bribe this man? What if he get’s upset?

- Should I try to assassinate this man? What If I wait to come out of this meeting? Maybe he will be upset, hence more prone to errors…

- Should I try to hit on this character? Well, I am going to wait until he/she gets hearbroken (because this is what all good sports do right?!)

That got me thinking… Why can’t we have more of that in strategy games? I mean, virtual characters are far, far, far from feeling like real humans obviously, but evolutionary, one thing that we have that machines do not, is … a mood. Why can’t we try to simulate (even crudely) this very essence of human behavior?(source:gamasutra)