East Coast Game Conference

Frustration in Games

“Much of game design is managing (and causing) frustration” Wikipedia: "Lewis Pulsipher"; "Britannia (board game)"; "Archomental“ 26 April 2012

Note about the slides

 Slides are provided primarily for those who want detailed notes later, not so much as an accompaniment to the talk  Consequently, they are “rather wordy”  Available now at http://pulsipher.net/teaching1.htm

 Or go to pulsiphergames.com and look for teaching material

Frustration

 This is a “philosophical” rather than nuts and-bolts game design topic  The idea is to look at your game designs in a new way that might help you improve them  If you want nuts and bolts about learning to design games, read my book

Who Am I?

 Commercial tabletop game designer  Teacher  Author  Computer networker and programmer

Game Designer

 Designed games from an early age  Began playing commercial wargames in early ‘60s, video games with Atari 2600  Designer of several commercially published board wargames from late 70s   Most well-known, Britannia most recently, second edition of Dragon Rage (originally 1982)  Forthcoming: Law & Chaos (Mayfair)

Teacher

 College teacher for most of the past dozen years: computer networking and later video game design and production  17,000 classroom hours of teaching experience (college and graduate)  First to teach game design in North Carolina as far as I know (Fall ’04)

      

Author

Author of Game Design: How to Create Video and Tabletop Games, Start to Finish, summer 2012   *Practical* advice for game design learners http://www.mcfarlandpub.com/book-2.php?id=978-0 7864-6952-9 Contributor, Tabletop Analog Game Design, Hobby Games: the 100 Best, Family Games: the 100 Best Game design blog: http://pulsiphergamedesign.blogspot.com/ Teach game design blog: http://teachgamedesign.blogspot.com

"Expert blogger", Gamasutra: http://gamasutra.com/blogs/LewisPulsipher/774/ ·former contributing editor, White Dwarf, Dragon, Space Gamer, etc.

·former publisher, Supernova, Blood and Iron, Sweep of History, etc.

Computer networking/programming

 Worked a decade at Womack Medical Center, Ft. Bragg  “Programmer analyst”, then  Chief of PC and Networking Support  Y2K rep as well (yuck!)

Some of my work

Some questions

 How many call themselves “hard core” players  How many like tension when they play a game?

  How many like to play games against human opposition?

Do you expect “opposition” from a puzzle?

 Are modern video games about depth or about variety?

 In terms of entertainment, how closely related are games and films? Games and novels? Games and puzzles?

 Are games about earning something, or about being given something?

Nature of Frustration

          Chess/checkers/go- opposition Monopoly- randomness Charades and other family games Arcade games-system, you're going to die Home-play video games Team Fortress/Left4Dead Justin--frustrated with teammates Settlers of Catan Tabletop D&D--arithmetic Freemium games and CCGs ("free to die") Social networking games —need for “energy”

Frustration in Games

 A natural concomitant of opposition:   "the feeling that accompanies an experience of being thwarted in attaining your goals” (dictionary.com) "Frustration is a common emotional response to opposition. Related to anger and disappointment, it arises from the perceived resistance to the fulfillment of individual will.“ (Wikipedia)  So if you play against someone else, frustration is to be expected  Challenge versus “I’m sick of this”  But what if you’re playing against a computer?

Centuries of Tradition in Games

 Put players on the “horns of a dilemma”  The “agonizing decision”  You don’t have all the information you need  Removed under time-stress —you don’t have time to agonize  Games are (or were) about making decisions  Games were not “experiences” designed to elicit particular feelings, as some video games are

What’s necessary, what isn’t?

 A reviewer (of Shank 2) complained that “Despite some improvements and a fun new co-op mode this sequel packs in too much unnecessary frustration.”  Where does the “deliciously agonizing decision” end and unnecessary frustration begin?

 When does the number of decisions itself become frustrating?

Tension in Games

 From opposition  From uncertainty  From "fiddliness"

Kinds of frustration from player’s point of view

 frustration that produces

desirable

(“good game”) tension  frustration that's

acceptable

perfect”) (“it’s not  frustration that's

unacceptable

game” (“crummy  frustration that's

intolerable

game”) (I’ll quit that

Types of Frustration from Designer’s Point of View

 Frustration with other players  Frustration with the game mechanics  Frustration with the interface  Frustration with extraneous factors

Frustration with opposition

 “PvP” versus “PvE”  Or with the computer  Expected by those who see games as challenges or intellectual tussles  Not desired by those who play games purely as entertainment   Party games Social networking and many other casual games

Opposition related to losing

 How competitive is the game?

 Puzzles not very competitive —you can’t lose     Contests: time how fast players can do something, or how much they can do in a given time Races Puzzle contests (“multi-player solitaire”) Story-based games  Direct versus indirect competition

Frustration with the game mechanics

 “PvE” versus “PvP”  Unnecessary mechanics  “A designer knows he has achieved perfection not when there is nothing left to add, but when there is nothing left to take away.”  Designers need to abstract and automate   Abstract: combine two functions into one Automate: let the game do something instead of making the player do it  Simple game mechanic choices  Memorization, e.g., in

Stratego

Frustration with the interface

 A huge problem in video games  How often do we read about games “ruined” by difficult interfaces  Players would really like to think at the game and have it do what they wish  “Intuitive” is a meaningless word   IF it means anything at all, it means “familiar” Don’t deviate from familiar interface without very good reasons

Frustration with extraneous factors

 Video games automatically take care of many of these problems:  Arithmetic/calculation  Sameness  Color Blindness  Writing things down  Number of choices  Planning ahead

Frustration and Casual Games

 “Entertainment” doesn’t imply frustration  Many players don’t want to be challenged by their entertainment  Some players want to see a story, not fight with the game  The new game players (from Facebook) are equivalent of tabletop mass market

Frustration and “Social Network” games

 Many social network games are very simple puzzles (you can’t lose to a puzzle)  After designing games for centuries to avoid unnecessary frustration, now we deliberately incorporate frustration   “Pain points” to persuade players to spend their money.

“Energy” limitations  Tasks/unlocks that require items that (practically speaking) must be bought

Ethan Levy on F2P game monetization

 Emotion is the key to monetization  Impatience (frustration)   Revenge (frustration)  Dominance (frustration through opposition) Jealousy (frustration)   Accomplishment Exhilaration

21

st

century Lower Tolerance of Frustration

 Age of Instant Gratification  “Patience used to be a virtue” (billboard alcohol advertisement)  Age of Convenience  Generation “Me”  Doing “just enough to get by”  Activity rather than winning and losing (“lose turn” card, downtime)

Comments? Questions?

Copyright 2012 Lewis Pulsipher