Multi-Player

Uğur Büyükköy

Overview

• Single-player video games are such a solitary pursuit.• Single-player computer games present the illusion of intreraction with

another human.• It is the designer who takes place of the other players.• The realness of the other players makes the experience of playing a

multi-player game have a much greater importance than any single-plyer game can ever manage.

Motivations

• Many developers see the most immediate advantage of multi-player games as the ability to replace AI opponents with real humans in order to provide much deeper and more unpredictable adversaries.• This increases the amount of challenge a game can provide, and

allows a game to stay compelling for a much longer period of time.• Unlike game AI agents, player opponents will learn as they play.• More significant advantage to having human opponents is the ability

for the players to socialize.• Multi-player games make each win and loss a public affair and thus

significantly more meaningful.

Motivations

• Regardless of whether they win or lose, the potential glory and shame can make playing a multi-player game a much more emotional exprience than engaging in a single-player experience.• They provide for players a challenge, a social experience, the potential

for bragging rights, a significant emotional payoff, and a deeply interactive experience.• It is important to remember that a multi-player component is not

always an improvement for a given game, some titles are ideally suited to being single-player, just as other games can only work as multi-player experiences.

The Forms

• Single System Multi-Player• Online Multi-Player

Single System Multi-Player

• Due to the limitations of networking, multi-player games that ocur around a single computer system have been popular.• These games are limited in that both players have to be constrained

to relatively the same portion of the game-world so that they can both stay visible.• A solution for the problem of constraining two or more players to the

same location came with the advent of split-screen gaming.• Split-screen is used even more extensively for single-machine

adaptations of games that were originally designed to be played over a network.

Online Multi-Player

• Networked games provide a significantly more immersive player experience for the very reason that the other players are invisible to each other.• Seperation of the players enables blind-play in a way split-screen cannot,

thus making these games much more challenging.• Massively multi-player persistent games have become increasingly popular.• Players will not play these games solely for the social experience.• For it to be successful in long term, the game must provide an interesting

enough game that facilitates socialization in conjunction with other rewards.

Design Considerations

• A designer should plan his game so it is possible for players to tend to the needs of the real World without needing to quit the game.• A designer should predetermine how long it will take players to play

your game, at least average.• It is better if your game designed so that players never feel like all

hope is lost.• Your game will need to handle dropouts in the middle through no

choice of their own.• Allowing players customize profiles or base talents of their character

is also key.

Design Considerations

• Playing To Strengths• Protect Newbies• Socialization

Playing To Strengths

• The goal should be that players could never mistake their adversaries for anything but other humans.• The more successful online games include components that force

players to socialize as part of the game mechanics, and thereby make the social interplay in the game that much richer.

Protect Newbies

• Newbies are the mıst vulberable players, and it is the game designer’s job to do everything he can to keep them protected long enough for them to become familiar with the game’s mechanics and tactics.• Instead of always rewarding players for killing other players, more

veteran players can appropriately rewarded for watching over newer players.• Keeping features to a minimum and controls as simple as possible will

also help.

Socialization

• The designer will need to go out of his way to facilitate player socialization.• Provide an interface for conversation.

Development Issues

• Development teams need to decide what type of game they are making.• Adding a multi-player component midway through development can cause

problems.• It is very important to decide from the very start if your game will include

multi-player.• Playtesting and User Feedback

• Anticipating what players in a solo play game will do is hard enough; doing the same thing for a multi-player gme is all but impossible.

• Playtesting your multi-player game for as long as possible before it is released to the general public is essential.

• Designers are often much better served by looking at the root problem.• The value of the player metrics is that the data cannot lie or exaggerate

A World of Their Own

• The future for multi-player gaming looks bright.• The glory/shame balance in a multi-player game can be intensely

satisfying for the winners, but just as intensely depressing for the losers.• For all advantages and untapped potential of multi-player games,

single-player games will probably continue to be more popular for years to come because they can provide a highly tailored experience that games can start and stop whenever they want.

THANK YOU!