During my ongoing literature review I often discover interesting facts about things I’ve never thought about. Sometimes I can connect these facts with my own observations: The result is mostly a completely new idea why things are as they are. Maybe these ideas are new to you, too. Therefore I’ll share my new science based knowledge with you!
This week: This time, I think about how computer games, movies and other forms of mass media could change the world by discussing and presenting the effects of the climate change.
Although this year’s summer has just begun, it already resulted in several temperature records and heat waves all across the globe. In addition, not only the local temperatures often reached a level which is normal for July and August, but also many regions experienced an unusual lack of rain and hence the risk of a drought. Furthermore, due to the high temperatures, many regions are also threatened by a high chance of strong storms. In the end, all of those unusual weather phenomena are a strong indication for the ongoing climate change.
Unfortunately, this is just the beginning as the average global temperature continues to rise and, as a result of this, even stronger and more devastating effects can be expected in the near future. For the purpose of limiting the effects of the climate change, the Paris Agreement was ratified all around the world and entered into force last year. However, the agreement is just an early incentive to pave the way for even more effective methods to reduce man-made emissions and to limit the average global temperature rise.
Now, policy-makers are challenged to create an environment that supports those who want to provide and implement innovative technologies that reduce the emissions and hence limit the climate change. However, it is also important to rise the general awareness about the climate change to achieve a rethinking and a potential higher demand for ecofriendly technologies and solutions.
A probably very effective solution would be to discuss the climate change and to present innovative technologies in movies, computer games and other forms of media that easily reach a wide audience. Especially computer games have a great potential to rise the general awareness as they can easily demonstrate the effects as well as underlying principles and allow players to experience innovative technologies. Also, computer games can provide immediate feedback which allows players to develop an understanding of the resulting effects of certain measurements or pure ignorance and business as usual.
This week: This time, I think about the necessity of a good User Interface to achieve a good usability.
Like any other system, computer games need a good usability and user interface to ensure a good playability and to provide players with relevant information they need in order to make correct decisions. This especially is critical when the game is a complex strategy game that challenges players to develop a good long-term strategy and make important decisions that can have a significant impact on the progress of their game. If, in the case of such a complex game, important rules and information that are encoded in the game mechanics are hidden or not shown at all, players are having a hard time to develop an understanding for the game’s gameplay and can even experience a high degree of frustration as they do not receive enough feedback to analyze their mistakes.
The transport simulation game Transport Fever (TF) puts players into the role of a manager of a transport agency. During the gameplay, a player can set up transport lines by building railroad tracks, roads, harbors as well as airports and subsequently buying transport vehicles that operate on those lines. However, TF does not communicate all of the underlying principles to the player and, as a result of this, the player often can merely guess what steps are needed to establish a successful transport business.
For instance, some of the products, such as tools and machines, that can be transported to the virtual cities in TF are the end products of complex supply chains. Hence, in order to produce these advanced goods, a player has to fulfill the requirements of all the factories that are involved in this process. In addition, each factory changes the production rate based on the demands for the produced goods. As a result of this, players are challenged to ship the end product to several cities to increase the demand for the required materials in order to increase the production of a facility in the middle of a supply chain. Subsequently, this intermediate factory will increase its demand for materials produced in a different factory. Unfortunately, this dependence is never communicated in the game thus causing a high degree of confusion as a natural approach might be to start at the start of the supply chain and not at the end of it.
In the end, designing a complex game that challenges a player’s decision-making and strategy-planning abilities not only requires good and well designed game mechanics, but also a good usability and, more importantly, user interface that communicates all relevant variables and information to the players for the purpose of allowing them to make the right decisions by analyzing all potential consequences. Generally, computer games need to inform players about the underlying rules directly inside of the game to avoid any confusion, facilitate the gameplay and achieve a great entertainment value.
This week: This time, I think about the critical phase at the start of a game when players need to get immersed in the gameplay and being taught how to successfully play the game.
The start of a game is a very critical phase as players need to get immersed in the gameplay while simultaneously learning the general game controls. Hence, game developers are challenged to design a game’s beginning in such a way that it informs players about the underlying game mechanics while already providing them with clear goals and a constant feedback thus creating the potential for game flow.
This often is achieved with action-packed tutorial missions that put players into a precarious situation and subsequently guide them through the mission by explaining important game mechanics and requiring their execution. Thus, players already get introduced to the game’s story while simulatenous being taught how to successfully play the game. In order to increase the immersive effectivity of these tutorial missions, some computer games already start with a tutorial before even showing the game’s main menu. As a result of this, players are immersed in the gameplay right from the moment they have loaded the game for the first time.
While this approach works for most games that implement traditional game controls, e.g., using the mouse to look around and pressing the W, A, S, D keys to initiate a movement, it is more complex for games–in particular simulation games–that can be played with additional configurable hardware, such as steering wheels, joysticks and other controllers. Those games often require a customization of the controls for the purpose of matching a player’s personal preferences of using the input devices. This can especially be problematic when specific functions are not mapped to the buttons a player is used to. In such a scenario, an immediate tutorial mission often leads to a high degree of confusion as players are not satisfied with the inputs and their general performance.
Unfortunately, this exactly happened in DiRT4 (it got released yesterday), a game I was really looking forward to as I thoroughly enjoyed its predecessor DiRT Rally. After having played DiRT Rally a lot, I have developed an advanced mental model for the virtual rally racing and I hoped to use this mental model to transfer my knowledge to DiRT4. Hence, I was really surprised as I found myself suddenly at the start of a stage without even being given the chance to adjust the game’s settings and controls. As a result of this, I was not very happy with my first minutes of playing the game as this sudden start just resulted in a high degree of confusion. It would have been much more interesting, if the developers would have experimented with an immersive form of configuring the game than forcing players to race with an unknown setup.
In the end, the way how players are informed about a game’s game mechanics and controls should not always follow the goal of achieving a very immersive and action-packed start, but be aligned with the game’s general gameplay and challenges instead. In the case of simulation games, players are challenged to operate the simulated vehicles in a very realistic way and hence they need to be aware of the controls before even given the chance to control one of the vehicles.
This week: This time, I think about RimWorld’s random event system and general complexity that result in a high replay value of the game.
RimWorld, a colony simulation game, puts the players into control of a small group of colonists who survived a spaceship crash and stranded on the surface of a randomly generated planet. During the gameplay, a player is challenged to build a colony, produce food, research technologies and overcome a variety of random events, such as strong weather phenomena, pirate raids and solar flares that deactivate every electronical device. That way, every time the game is played, a user experiences a unique story and different challenges which results in a high replay value.
RimWorld is played from a bird’s perpective which provides players with a good overview and allows them to make strategic decisions. Normally, a player only gives meta-orders, such as placing markers where a new wall should be built, which are subsequently carried out by the colonists. However, in order to priotize certain activities, colonists can also be given individual tasks they complete before they resume with their regular activities.
Furthermore, RimWorld implements a high amount of variables, such as many character traits, a detailed health system and vast amount of clothes as well as other equipment, thus ultimately providing a very authentic gameplay experience . For instance, colonists can suffer from various illnesses and wear a unique outfit depending on the season.
In sum, RimWorld achieves a very immersive gameplay as players can easily get attached to particular colonists and subsequently start to feel with them when they are in a dangerous situation or suffering from a severe illness. Also, due to the random event system, players often experience very dramatic moments like a short circuit that discharges every battery during an ongoing eclipse in the middle of the winter.
Personally, I am often wary when it comes to a high replay value as most games, despite being complex, rarely surprise me when I play them for a second time. RimWorld, however, has found the sweet spot between allowing me to develop a meta-strategy and surprising me with harsh events that lead to a high degree of drama and anxiety.
Recently, after having stopped playing the game for half-a-year, I began a new playthrough and I am once again as amazed and immersed as I was the first time I played the game. The reason for this comes mainly from the fact that RimWorld’s event system frequently sabotages my strategy and challenges me to adapt to a completely new situation. Moreover, as I have recreated the colonists that escaped the planet at the end of my first playthrough, I was already emotionally attached to them and skipped the phase of establishing a bonding.
As a conclusion, RimWorld’s random event generator, simulation of a large variety of different variables and general emotional aspects lead to a very immersive gameplay with a high replay value.