2 Meaningless Words

First, I apologize for missing last week. I had a bit of a writer's block as well as some projects I've been busy with. Now, let's begin with this week's topic. When you're talking about your game, there are two words you should avoid using - "gameplay" and "fun".

First, let's talk about "gameplay". The word arose in the 1980s during the early days of video game development. It is used to describe the overall experience of playing a video game (usually excluding sound, visuals and other external factors). However, the word "gameplay" is too vague when describing a player's gaming experience. When I describe a game to someone, I don't use "gameplay". Instead, I just go straight to describing it's mechanics, purposes and goals.

Basically, describe the game with relevant details and then let the other person determine whether your game is fun or not.

My Game Design tutor even questioned the very word itself. He told his students that the word didn't make sense to him. It was like asking a person who had just read a book "so, how was the bookread?" In fact, my tutor told us that we were never to use the words "gameplay" and/or "fun" for the remainder of our time in tertiary school.

With that said, let's move on to the word "fun". When describing your game, never use "fun" because it's subjective. What I find fun may be boring to you or vice versa. Using this word shows that you're lazy and that you don't truly understand your game. The only times you should ever use the word "fun" is when you're the player.

When you want to describe your game, take a look at it and ask yourself why people would want to play it.

• Is it engaging?
• Is it challenging?
• Is it addicting?
• Does it bring nostalgia?
• Does it evoke a certain emotion?
• Does it encourage mastering skills?

Remember that one of the things you need to keep in mind when developing your game is your target demographic. If you're developing a hardcore real-time strategy game, you're going to work on things that challenges the player and/or requires them to master certain micro/macro skills. So when you're describing said game, you wouldn't just say that the game is fun, you'd say that it's challenging and skillful so your target demographic will understand.

Well that's it for this week. Thanks for reading and see you all next week!

Micro-transactions

Welcome to this week's topic - micro-transactions. In case you don't know what micro-transactions are, they're basically transactions that you can make inside a game in order to get additional goodies. The cost of the transactions varies as well as the type of goodies. They can be clothes for your avatar, skins for your equipment, mounts and many others.

Currently, micro-transactions are found predominantly in casual games or "freemium" games (a portmanteau of "free" and "premium"). Developers allow players to download and play their games for free as well as offer micro-transactions for players who want premium content. If you have a smart phone, chances are, you've played a freemium game. These include Subway Surfers, Tiny Tower, Pocket Frogs, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic and Clash of Clans.

Now, micro-transactions have recently gotten bad press due to some games being harsh on the players unless they opened up their digital wallets. So let's talk about the do's and don't's when it comes to implementing micro-transactions into your game.
 
Sell convenience, not power
First, let's define what convenience and power are. Convenience is anything related to saving time. In an adventure game, these are things such as more storage or a faster way to travel the world (the former saves time because you don't have to go back and store your items first before continuing on your journey). Power is essentially anything related to affecting another player's experience in the game. In a first-person shooter game, these are things such as a powerful weapon or the ability to go invisible.

If your game revolves around players competing directly against other players, then I highly recommend you never sell power. This is because if you do, you're turning your game into a pay-to-win model. You want your game to be fair and balanced for all players. If not, players who won't pay or can't afford to spend as much will simply stop playing since they know that anything they do will just get trumped by the people who are spending big money on the game.

In casual games, selling power should be avoided like the plague since its demographic is basically everyone. Is it fair for a child with no money to go up against a business man with money to dump? Don't think so.

If your game revolves around players competing indirectly against other players (such as competing for first place on a leader board), then it's more excusable to sell power. This is because you're not affecting another player's experience in the game.

Sell comfortably, not forcibly
If you are planning to implement micro-transactions into your game, don't purposely make the game frustrating in the off-chance that the player will be forced to spend money just in order to play your game normally. The benefits of premium content should not be the dominant factor in your game.

Premium content should be seen, not heard
The access to the premium-content in your game should be presented in such a way that it's not in the player's face nor should it interfere with their experience. Once you've taught the player how to access the premium content, place it passively in the game's flow where it will be seen and not heard. By heard, I mean actively reminding the player about your premium content such as through roadblocks or pop-up windows.

Think of it like the pit stop in a race track where the pit stop is the premium content and the track is the player's experience. While the player drives around the track, the pit stop doesn't make any effort to interfere with the player's driving. It just stays on the side where it is merely visible to the player. While driving, if the player ever wants to access the pit stop, they can simply enter it the same way they've been experiencing the race, by driving into it (thus not breaking the player's flow).

Clash of Clans does this very well by incorporating the access to its premium content into its user interface.

Clash of Clans - "Finish Now" is incorporated into the UI flow

Sell vanity
One thing you can sell other than convenience or power is vanity. Vanity are things such as decorative items, clothes for your avatar or new skins for your weapons. They are purely visual and players will spend money on vanity because they either want to make a statement to other players or simply customize the look of their own game. This is why some people will spend a lot of money buying expensive clothes and jewelry.

Give premium currency for free
In most games, players must first buy premium currency in order to buy premium content. If you're planning to do this, I highly suggest allowing players the ability to earn premium currency by merely investing time into your game. This will allow players to set a long term goal in your game, thus encouraging them to spend more time playing your game, and not make it seem impossible for them to obtain the premium content. This ties in with selling convenience because if the player wants the game's premium content but doesn't have the time to earn the premium currency, then they can always spend money to obtain the premium content.

Well that's it for this week. Thanks for reading and see you all next week!

Self-improvement through Video Games

This week's topic will be about how games can improve a player's knowledge as well as improve certain skills. Now, I'm not talking about educational games that are created for the sole purpose of teaching the player mathematics, English, history, science or so forth. I'm talking about those times when you had learned new words or had your reflexes improved simply because of a video game you've played in the past.

Below are some of the things a player can learn from playing video games.

1. Knowledge of a certain topic such as history, weapons, myths, etc.
2. Languages
3. To never give up
4. Co-operaticve tactics
5. Strategic planning
6. The difference between good and bad
7. Virtues such as patience, loyalty, chivalry, etc.
8. Hand-eye coordination
9. Organizational skills
10. Expanded vocabulary

I myself owe a lot to video games because they significantly helped me learn the English language, expanded my vocabulary, improved my spelling, grammar and pronunciation as well as teaching me valuable virtues. Anyway, when you design a game, have a think about what kind of things you can teach the player while they play your game or what may intrigue them enough that they will seek interest in it once they're finished playing your game.

With all this said, it is important then to keep your information as accurate as possible where applicable. This is rather tricky for me to explain as it varies from game to game. But for example, if you are inserting the Yakuza into your game for the purpose of portraying the Yakuza and using them as they are, then make sure you do your research about them first. If you are parodying them, change their name. If it's part of an alternate timeline, make sure that this is clear to the player.

I hope that made sense to you. Just remember that as game designers, you have the power to not only educate players, but change their perspective on certain things, good or bad. So just remember that the next time you develop a game.

Anyway, I'll stop here and leave you with a link to a news story about how a young boy saved his sister using skills he learned in World of Warcraft. Thanks for reading and see you all next week!

[LINKS]

Boy saves his sister