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              <p><font color="#0000FF"><b><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" color="#0000CC">volume 
                1, issue 22</font></b></font></p>
              <p><font color="#0000FF"><b><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" color="#0000CC"> 
                </font></b></font></p>
              <p>  <p><font face="Courier New, Courier, mono"><b><font color="#339900" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Today 
                in loonygames:</font></b></font></p>

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        <p align="LEFT"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" color="#0022A8"><b><a target="" href="../../corner/index.html"><font size="-1">Beaker's 
          Bent</font></a><font size="-1">:</font></b></font><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="+3" color="#0022A8"><br>
          Can Real Be Fun?</font></p>
        <p align="right"><font color="#804000"><b><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">By 
          Rich &quot;<a target="_self" href="mailto:rich@loonygames.com">Beaker</a>&quot; 
          Wyckoff</font></b></font></p>
        <p align="right">&nbsp; </p>
        <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">This may seem a bit mystical, 
          so let's go back to the concrete examples, and talk about picking up 
          objects some more. In the real world, it is generally as simple as moving 

          towards the object you want to pick up, and then deciding to pick it 
          up. A designer should be able to see that the expectation is that there 
          are just two commands involved - 1) get within reach of object, and 
          2) pick up object. For the game to feel "right", the game needs to try 
          to match the expectation that there be only two commands as much as 
          possible. The details of translating those expectations between reality 
          and the game world is where a designer's real skill comes in and is 

          not a subject for this column, and anyway, before the translation can 
          occur the expectations need to be identified.</font>
        <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Let's look at some common 
          situations and the expectations most people would have in them. Carrying 
          an object: if you have a good hold on the object, you don't expect to 
          drop it unless someone or something tries to knock it out of your hands, 
          and you expect to be able to trivially place it on any good sized surface. 
          Climbing a ladder: you expect to be able to get on and off the ladder 
          at platforms with little thought, and to be able to ascend and descend 
          without risk of falling off. Jumping onto something: if the object is 
          large, stable, and not very high or far away, you expect to be able 
          to hop on to it and land on solid footing. These are all physical situations, 
          and determining these expectations is as simple as reflecting on experiencing 
          them. Of course, if you've never carried anything or climbed a ladder 
          or jumped on a table, you may need to go and try (even game designers 
          need real-world experience!).</font></p>
        <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">I picked those three situations 
          because they also exist in games, and the expectations are usually violated. 
          In <b>Trespasser</b>, it can be a chore just to carry an object around 
          - even when out of combat, brushing against walls and objects can wrench 
          it out of your hands, and placing something to rest where you want it 
          is near impossible. No other 3D games have really let you carry an object 
          in front of you like <b>Trespasser</b>, and few let you drop objects 
          - <b>Thief</b> is one that does, and actually has similar, though lesser 
          problems. Ladder climbing is a particular fascination of mine, as I've 
          never seen a first-person 3D game do it at all well. <b>Half-Life </b>was 
          particularly disturbing until I figured out that the safe way to go 
          down a ladder was to ignore the reality of the situation and to face 
          down towards the floor, but dismounts onto high platforms to the side 
          were risky throughout the game. As for jumping onto tables, 3D games 
          usually tend to fall into the "why the hell can't I jump high/far enough" 
          camp, or the "I keep sliding off/jumping over it" camp.</font></p>
        <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Even if you meet all the 
          realism expectations, however, you can still wind up with a game that’s 
          not fun. People have a wide range of gameplay expectations as well, 
          most important among them that they are able to win. It's certainly 
          not realistic that a solitary hero can triumph against overwhelming 
          odds, but it is what most people want. It's also not realistic to expect 
          to be able to carry fifteen different weapons and hundreds of rounds 
          of ammunition, but that too is the norm. Because these gameplay expectations 
          are often fundamentally unrealistic, however, they can clash with the 
          realism expectations. If the balance is not carefully maintained, the 
          whole game can wind up either too realistic or too "gamey," and neither 
          is much fun to most people. Gameplay expectations are often recently 
          acquired and faddish, however - when videogames were first introduced, 
          for instance, the solitary hero against impossible odds inevitably lost 
          (<b>Space Invaders</b>, <b>Asteroids</b>, <b>Robotron</b>, etc). Because 
          of this continual change, designers can feel safer about not meeting 
          every last one of the large heap of gameplay requests which come pouring 
          in over the net, if their gut feeling leads them in a different direction.</font></p>
        <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Explaining exactly how a 
          designer squares realism and gameplay would probably fill another few 
          columns, and I only set out today to show that both are important, and 
          designers (and the rest of the development team) should not ignore or 
          be afraid of either one. Perhaps the best way to close would be that 
          with some examples of how I would change the balance between realism 
          and gameplay in the games I mentioned at the start:</font></p>
        <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><b>Trespasser</b> - could 
          have been more fun if the arm was more context sensitive and could be 
          controlled with higher-level commands, and if we had violated our sense 
          of realism enough to either make the character faster or the areas smaller, 
          or give some other quick-travel feature.</font></p>
        <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><b>Half-Life</b> - could 
          have actually used a lower character speed, or at least more-realistic 
          player physics, as I felt like I was rollerblading the whole time. And 
          better ladder climbing...</font></p>
        <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><b>Thief</b> - could have 
          used more game-like bow and blackjack interfaces. It's frustrating that 
          even the most perfectly lined up arrow to the head barely ever seems 
          to down a guard, or that blackjacking is next to impossible. However 
          tough either would be in real life, your character is supposed to be 
          an expert at them, so there should be more player assistance to concentrate 
          gameplay on choosing when to do them, not how to do them.</font></p>
        <p> <font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><b>Baldur's Gate</b> - needs 
          more realism in the conversation system (especially kill the idiotic, 
          jokey NPC one-liners that have nothing to do with the text of the conversations), 
          less realism in the number of NPCs wandering about and the annoying, 
          old-school weight limits and party changing (most RPGs for years have 
          done you the courtesy of having departing characters drop all their 
          stuff, and "advanced" RPGs like those on consoles have gone even further 
          by allowing you to swap characters in and out of the active party so 
          you never have to go through unfun fretting about who to bring along, 
          as well as providing infinite inventories).</font></p>
        <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><b>Zelda 64</b> - needs more 
          realism in terms of having better dialogue: they are making the series 
          more and more adult (or at least young adult) - isn't it time to bring 
          the writing up to at least Star Wars level?</font></p>
        <p>&nbsp; 
        <p align="RIGHT"><i><font size="-1" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">- 
          Rich "Beaker" Wyckoff is a game designer on the game <b>Trespasser</b> 
          for <a href="http://www.dreamworksgames.com">DreamWorks Interactive</a>.</font></i></p>
        <p align="RIGHT">&nbsp;</p>
        <p align="RIGHT"></p>
        
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    <td><i><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="-2"><b>Credits:</b> 
      Beaker's Bent logo illustrated by and is &copy; 1999 Dan Zalkus. Beaker's 
      Bent is &copy; 1999 Rich Wyckoff. All other content is &copy; 1998 <a target="_self" href="http://www.loonyboi.com">loonyboi 
      productions</a>. Unauthorized reproduction is strictly prohibited, so don't 
      do it. We have ways of making you talk.</font></i></td>
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