So, for our Week 6 reading (Challenges for Games Designers - Chapters 5 & 6) we were asked to describe why Chance and Skill are important in games, and what sort of tools can we use to set them in play.
I'll start with Chance, using chance to determine certain elements of our game can keep it fresh, and stop the game becoming quickly solvable like Tic-Tac-Toe for example, where you can quickly figure out the winning moves and continue to win every game. Chance prevents us from mastering the game, it also keeps players interested for longer, and the feeling of defeat can be lessened by just blaming bad luck.
By adding chance we can increase the variety of experiences for the player, and increase the replay value of the game. Also, the tension created by adding chance to our games increases in proportion to how much a player has riding on the results of the game. Poker, is a good example of this because it uses chance and the more a player bets on the hand, the bigger the tension created.
To create chance in our games, there are several tools (or mechanics) we can use to do this. Those items being Dice, Cards, Random Number Generators, Hidden Information, Spinners, Game Bits (Tiles, Coin Flipping, etc).
- Dice (An individual roll has a probability of producing certain numbers, not a certainty and previous rolls will never influence future rolls).
- Cards (These are versatile game elements, they can be used as resources, weapons, information, etc).
- Hidden Information (Much like the Fog of War in my previous posts, and used in games like Go Fish and Rock-Paper-Scissors).
I'll move on to Skill now, we can use Skill/Strategy to keep players coming back to games because there are many more ways to win or to lose, the winning strategy and skill is dependant on the player and not chance. We also find that utilizing skill in games, the player is rewarded with immediate feedback, like in Chess, you're either taking a piece, or dwelling over the fact that your move has opened up the opportunity for loss.
To utilize skill in games, and not leave things to chance, we have many mechanics at our disposal. Such as Trade-off's, Dilemmas, Risk vs Reward Trade-off's, etc.
- Trade-off (When a player doesn't have enough of a certain resource to accomplish their goals).
- Dilemma (Similar to a trade-off, this occurs when all choices will affect the player in some way).
- Risk vs Reward Trade-off (This is when a player faces a situation with multiple outcomes, but with differing levels of risk).
- Grand Strategy (Achieving an ultimate long term goal).
- Prisoners Dilemma (Outlined below).
I'll move onto something that thoroughly interested me, the Prisoner's Dilemma. We were given a solid example of this, with the game show Golden Balls. The final challenge of the show is where the contestants have a chance to win, lose or split £100k. The challenge, however, with judging your opponent on a psychological level. Each player was given 2 choices, each one was either Steal or Split. If one player chose to Split, and the other chose to Steal, the "thief would take £100k and the other would take nothing. On the other hand, if both players we're to Split, they would both go away with £50k each. Lastly, if both chose to Steal, each would go home with nothing (Please correct this if I'm mistaken).
To list a small amount of Trade-off mechanics before I conclude, we have Auctions, Purchasing, Limited Use Special Abilities, Explicit Choices, Limited Actions, Trading & Negotiation, etc.
I enjoyed this read, mainly because when I look at a game now, I'm not looking at the aesthetics but I'm finding the core mechanics, and figuring out how best they work with the game itself.
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