Game Theory: Teaching Players

When designing a game there is a huge degree of freedom when it comes to teaching your players how to play your game. Many games often fall victim to the typical default tutorial menus, a theme so common in mainstream gaming that often refuses a player the right to figure things out for themselves.

That isn't to say all tutorials are evil and should henceforth be banished from the gaming world but they need to be informative, not definitive. When a game explains itself to a player it loses that bit of mystery, and the room for player involvement dwindles. A tutorial that works is a tutorial that shows a player their tools but gives them the ability to learn how to use them and, as a player, learning in your own way just feels good.

Continuing off this idea we can look at an example of a game that embraces this type of hands-off approach to at least some degree, Wildstar. Now, if you don't happen to know what Wildstar is...well you should. It's an upcoming Sci-Fi/Fantasy MMORPG by Carbine Studios and published by NCsoft; it features a bunch of wicked cool stuff but what I'd like to talk about here is the game's telegraphed combat and how that changes how players will learn how to play the game.

This telegraph concept is a bit of a twist on traditional MMO combat as it takes a previously unseen element (Attack hitboxes) and displays them for the players, showing both their own attacks as well as the attacks of opponents/allies. So what does this do? It basically allows the use of Wildstar's free-form targeting in addition to acting as a learning tool for players. Since this discussion focuses on the latter we'll stick to that, for now.

So how does showing skill hit boxes help players learn? In essence it's exactly what players need to see in order to learn how to handle the various scenarios they'll be encountering while playing the game. It's a system that caters to players learning with a degree of freedom in order to figure out what works for themselves. It grants a sense of autonomy that isn't always present in today's game market, especially when it comes to MMO's.

Personally, I enjoy the idea of being able to approach situations with a level of diversity as it changes player experience in a way that grants a bit of empowerment when you figure out how to overcome a particularly tricky encounter. Giving your players a sense of accomplishment is something that is both hard to accomplish from an MMO design perspective and differs depending on player type, a tricky formula, but I digress.

Let's get back to the telegraphed combat and look at what that means for accessibility within group settings whilst fighting bosses. Let me paint a picture that I'm all too familiar with in an MMO setting: I'm heading into an instance in a pick-up group (PUG), we've all got a fair idea of what to expect but some members of the group haven't run this encounter before. Enter the boss. Despite your long winded pre-fight explanation of what to expect, half of your group ends up dead because they didn't know what they were doing. So, you get upset, swear off pugs for the rest of your days and retreat into a tiny anti-social bubble, we've all been there.

Now, the above situation isn't uncommon simply because everyone starts as a novice when they run something for the first time. If people honestly didn't know what to do how could you blame them? It's not like they could see what the boss was about to do or anything.

Boom. Telegraphed combat. This is why I love this idea so much. Not only does it preserve the difficulty of boss encounters (Knowing what's coming isn't a surefire way to avoid failure, but it sure helps!) but it also allows people to pick up the fight strategies quickly even if they have no prior experience. I hear the word "accessibility" all the time when people talk about their MMO's but it typically ends up meaning that the content is cushioned so as to avoid alienating the casual player. I don't feel like Wildstar is doing that at all from what they've shown thus far with the telegraphed combat. All it seems to do is open up the door for people to learn the encounters which is a fantastic way to make the game more accessible while also maintaining a sense of difficulty and strategy.

It's tough to cast a definitive statement about Wildstar right now as it has yet to even enter beta but from what they've shown so far I can't help but look forward to it. If you'd like to hear the actual developers talk about their combat (and other things) you can watch a nice big video here!

I'll be revisiting Wildstar in the near future with some of their other game features under the microscope. If you enjoyed this article feel free to drop a comment or strike up a discussion!