Today we’re going to take a look at a specific element of the so called gameplay loop. The gameplay loop contains a goal, an action, and a reward. It describes how the player plays the game in a very superficial and basic way but at the same time it is important to know because every game will feature this loop.
Usually the player has a specific goals that he wants to achieve, he has to perform one or multiple actions and when successfully done he gets a reward for doing so. This makes the gameplay loop look like this:
Some games can be finished after one loop. Rock Paper Scissors can be played with only one loop for example. Usually a game is made of a lot more gameplay loops that have different goals, actions and rewards. It may look like this:
When a player has achieved the final goal of the game it is finished. Some games do not have a final goal so players can play as long as they want to. In this situation the loop just continues until the player quits playing and churns.
In this article I want to take a closer look into the “Action” segment of this loop. I will describe the meaning of the action segment and provide a list of the different kinds of actions that can found in a gameplay loop.
The action segment is the link between the goal of the player and the achieving of this goal with a reward. The action segment can have a challenge but doesn’t have to. An action can fall into one of seven different sub-segments:
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Out of Context
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Strategic
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Random
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Twitch
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Strategic Twitch
- Social Actions
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Dull
When a player has achieved the final goal of the game it is finished. Some games do not have a final goal so players can play as long as they want to. In this situation the loop just continues until the player quits playing and churns.
Out of Context
Strategic
Random
Twitch
Strategic Twitch
Dull
Out of Context Actions
This segment describes actions that are out of your game's context but still can be done by the player. They usually don’t involve a challenge and the results do not feel rewarding most of the time. For example using the options menu to adjust the volume or pressing the start button to start the game. You should try to reduce the amount of actions that fall into this form as much as possible as players usually don’t feel rewarded when successfully completing these actions but feel very frustrated if these actions take too much time in their gaming experience. A good UI should be the solution to successfully manage these actions for your players.
Examples:
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Option Menus
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Dialog Boxes
Option Menus
Dialog Boxes
Strategic Actions
These are the actions where the depth of your game comes into play. Making strategic decisions can be very entertaining for a lot players. Turn based strategy games rely almost entirely on these kind of actions. If you strive for a game that features this kind of actions make sure that your players have to think about what kind of actions they have to perform to achieve a specific goal and receive their rewards. Your game needs to have some dynamics so there are always different things to consider when making a decision. A decision where the answer is obvious and clear is no longer a strategic action but becomes a dull one. Strategic decisions are probably the most powerful actions if you want to keep your players engaged for a long time. Systems that are so complex that the actions in their gameplay loops keep being interesting even after thousands of hours are hard to craft but have the highest potential if you want to keep your players engaged for a long time.
Examples of games that rely heavily on these kind of actions:
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Random Actions
Random Actions appear if the player has no idea what he has to do to achieve a specific outcome. This often appears when the game offers too much information at the same time and players are so overwhelmed by the information that they can’t use it to make meaningful decisions. If my mom had to play a StarCraft 2 game against a professional player her actions would be probably pretty random. Her mental model of the causes and effects of the game is not evolved enough to make educated decisions in the specific time frame. Random Actions can also appear if the game offers too little information. If I would give you the task to tell me what number I am thinking of right now your answer would be probably pretty random. You should try to avoid these kinds of actions because most of the time the result will not satisfy the player and trying things out without any clou about how the different things could possibly work will probably lead to frustration. To avoid these actions you have to think about what information your players need to make educated decisions.
Twitch Actions
Twitch Actions offer a challenge on a physical layer. Quick Time Events are a good example for these actions as they only present a Twitch gameplay that offers no decisions. Jump’n’Runs rely heavily on these kinds of actions as their levels are often very linear and test the players precision, timing and reaction time. If your game involves this kind of actions make sure that the difficulty matches the players skill. You also need some kind of granularity to provide a broad range of possible outcomes. If you want to give your players the possibility to really show of in these kind of actions, have a score system that is able to show the difference between a bad, a good, a great and an awesome player. Racing games tend to measure the time of the players three to four decimal places because of this. If they would only provide the seconds as a result a lot of players would have the same score. So give your twitch gameplay results almost infinite range if your game relies on it.
Examples of games that rely heavily on these kind of actions:
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Strategic-Twitch Actions
These actions are a combination of both. Micro commands in Warcraft 3 have a strategic layer but also require a high apm to be realised in a proper way. Shooting an enemy that is about to throw a grenade in Uncharted is another example. Players have to gather the information that the game provides and decide whether they should run or try to shoot the enemy that wants to throw the grenade. If they decide to shoot the enemy they also have to hit him, if they don’t the action loses its desired outcome and reward. Raid encounters in World of Warcraft rely heavily on these kinds of actions as players have to make strategic choices on how to defeat the boss and still have to transform their decisions in twitchy gameplay challenges. As soon as the strategy for the boss is well known it gets reduced to a twitch gameplay. If the equipment of the raid becomes better and better raiding can even become a sequence of dull actions. The order is always the same in these actions. First players have to make the strategic decision what kind of action they want to perform and after that have to realise the desired outcome through a challenge that tests their reaction time, precision or other physical properties. Almost every FPS features this kind of action and if it’s done right your game may have a longevity like Counter Strike of League of Legends which are both highly strategical and also reliy heavily on twitch gameplay.
Examples of games that rely heavily on these kind of actions:
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Social Actions Social Actions are the actions where players engage with each other in some kind of communicative and social engaging way. Sending messages by chat, voice chat or some other kinds of messaging features. Also expressing some kind of emotes with your characters like “/hi” in World of Warcraft falls under this category. The “signal pings” that you can find in MOBAs are another example of social actions. Social actions are all about communication between players. Social actions can be part of the fiction but do not have to. If players give signals to each other in Counter Strike, this is clearly part of the fiction, as real Anti-Terror units also do communicate in an operation. If a player uses the chat system to talk about the weather these actions clearly fall out of the game's fiction and context. Social actions can be very important in certain kind of games. Most of the time you need some kind of communication system in multiplayer games that feature a strategic layer where players have to communicate to reach a certain goal. But social actions can also be a strong engagement driver if players use them to form and strengthen their bonds between each other. A lot of players that play one specific game for years keep playing because they want to continue performing social actions with their friends that they made in the last years. Because of this a lot of F2P games reward players for engaging with the social systems and other players in the game by giving bonuses and rewards for doing so because they know that thos can be a strong retention driver. If you want to have Social Actions in your game you should try to make the act of communicating as simple as possible so players can concentrate on the exchange between each other. The more important certain Social Actions could be the faster your players should be able to perform them. Not every social action between players is a good one. Keep in mind that you need some kind of solution for players that abuse your communication system to grief other players because a toxic community is something that you definitely want to avoid as it drives a lot of players away from your game.
Examples of games that rely heavily on these kind of actions:
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Dull Actions
Dull actions can be found in a lot of gambling games where players don’t have a challenge but need to do actions to receive a reward. For example pressing the button on a slot machine is no challenge at all. Still millions of players are willing to perform this actions a thousand times hoping for their reward. Claiming gifts in a social game is another example of a dull action that involves no challenge but leads to a reward. A lot of MMORPGS especially asian ones are well known to have a lot of grinding in their game play. Grinding is also a good example that falls in this category as it is most of the time a monoton experience that doesn’t contain any challenge. Sometimes actions that were once strategic become dull after the answer is clear to the player. Puzzles usually suffer from this phenomenon as they can be solved only once and after that offer no challenge due to their lack of dynamics.
If your game contains these kinds of actions you should try to make sure that your game keeps being entertaining on another layer. You can add a lot of value to these actions by providing a reward structure with a lot of variation to them. Even dull actions will be performed many times by a lot of players if they can’t be sure about the reward they receive from these actions. This also plays a huge part at mobile games these days as their audience isn’t always looking for a challenge when playing games. The feedback for these kinds of actions should be very juicy and a reward in-itself to higher their value as they lack interesting decisions or skill based challenges.
These kinds of actions can also be part of bigger gameplay loops that have some kind of strategic layer. Think about games that feature some kind of resource management. Maybe harvesting crops is a dull action but harvesting crops to balance a complex resource cycle for the highest and most efficient outcome can be satisfying.
Other genres that feature a lot of dull actions are narrative games like point’n’click and other narrative adventures. These games don’t rely too much on strategic decision but their players like to progress the plot of the game they keep talking to NPC’s, picking up items and walking through cities experience the story of the game even if the necessary actions to drive the plot are neither interesting nor challenging. An interesting story is of course the key to keep the interest of your players in these kinds of games.
These kinds of actions can also be part of bigger gameplay loops that have some kind of strategic layer. Think about games that feature some kind of resource management. Maybe harvesting crops is a dull action but harvesting crops to balance a complex resource cycle for the highest and most efficient outcome can be satisfying.
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