I''m was watching tv and a thought occured to me in tv shows the characters have a whole host of background knowledge about the world they live in. But what about games? In most cases when the player sits down to play they don''t know anything about the world and yet there is certain knowledge that should have. Its not realistic or desirable to have the player read pages of background information before playing so what are the alternitavtes to getting across basic information of the game world? For instance if there is basic elements of the worlds physics or other such knowledge that is need to play the game, how do you give that to the player and explain why the player doesn''t have it already when they should. 1)The character has amnesia or comes from an alternate world. -Rather over used and doesn''t address the problem 2)The character knows things that the player doesn''t and just says what needs to be said. -Removes control from the player. Really only works if the character and their past is part of story. 3)NPC''s tell you what you need to know when you need to know it. -Overly convient. 4)Had an idea while fliping through channels and saw a show called yu gi oh. What if the player and character where two seperate minds in the same body? Not really sure how this would work in practice but could be interesting. Maybe the character takes control some time and refuses to do what the player wants. 5)A tutorial at the begining of the game... -Usually more anyoing then helpful. What other options are their? The player needs knowledge but lacks it, so how do they get it without that knowledge seeming artificaly given? ----------------------------------------------------- Writer, Programer, Cook, I''m a Jack of all Trades Current Design project Chaos Factor Design Document

Isn''t number 4 just a cut-scene?

This is an important issue in game design. A properly fleshed-out world requires a certain amount of knowledge, but making that knowledge mandatory can be a drag for the player. The player is always like a visitor to the game world, while the characters are usually denizens of it. It''s a difficult problem.

I think that a good compromise would be to have engaging gameplay as the primary objective, with intimate knowledge serving as a benefit, but not a requirement. Anyone can enjoy a good cigar or fine wine, but if you learn about it and understand exactly what it is your''e experiencing, the whole affair is deeper and more fulfilling. So it should be with games.

To use a common example, take Halo. You can put it in and start playing, and have a good time with a crisp FPS that features aliens, zombies, and AI team members. Additionally, you can read the various novels surrounding it, visit the web page, and study up on the story and characters. The game becomes more coherent, and you can appreciate the little things Guilty Spark mumbles to himself, and you can become a little more attached to the Marines, but you don''t need that info to play the game, or to enjoy it.

That''s fine for action games, but an RPG, or any other story-driven game, will invariably require the player to become intimate with the game world. In that case, a (skippable) intro movie is apropriate. Vagrant Story is a good example of this. I started that game by pressing the X button really fast until I got to choose "New Game". There was a brief cutscene that only introduced my character as a guy who dove under a falling portcullis, and then got into a fight with some guys. It taught me how to kill them, then pointed me toward adventure. After a few hours of gameplay, and some mildly confusing sequences, I actually watched the intro movie that plays before the menu appears. It gave my character''s affiliation and mission statement, and introduced a few characters I had come across in gameplay. I could have gone through the whole game without watching it, but after I saw it, I understood more clearly the story and characters. Good deal.

I like the way Diablo did it. You are a traveller who arrives in the town and finds out about the story as you interact with the NPCs. However, you can ignore that and hack and slash too if you prefer.

The point there is that your character may have a past, but in relation to the current adventure they are just as much a stranger as you are.

I''ve been working on a Contra-ish game for quite a while now, and have addressed this issue by adding a new spin on a tried-and-true formula...namely, I have 2 types of game.

Right at the title screen, you pick "Story" or "Action" mode. It''s the same levels, in the same order, but in the "Action" mode you get powerups in a similar fashion to Contra for NES. There is no story whatsoever, just a fun and to-the-point action game. In the "Story" mode, however, I am adding a little intro cut-scene, and there will also be locations during the level to buy weapons and powerups. There will even be a few powerups that aren''t in the "Action" mode. There''s also a few town-type areas where you can run around and talk to people, and they will ask you to do certain things, like look for a red and black enemy soldier, as he killed a member of their family years ago. Then if you kill that enemy during the level, you get a reward (more $$, for example).

I''m not sure if this is a good way to try and solve the OPs dilemma, but it''s working for me so far. It''s nice, because it doesn''t take too much work on my part, since I wanted a game with story anyway, so making the action version mostly required stripping out parts of the story version.

I also understand that this wouldn''t work for many types of games...but for action types, it works quite nicely.

Of course, some of the other suggestions mentioned are quite good, like having notes and books that you *can* read during the game, but only if you want to. The bad thing is, that if you really want to provide a story, there''s probably some things that would *need* to be read by the player.

-M

Som good points, but as of yet no one has addressed the issue of vital information need to play the game. Not so much background info, but more information on world and game mechanics.

For instance if the player''s primary weapon is a heaven''s gate pistol that banishes demons with mystical bullets. However if you fire this weapon in a highly magicly charged environment then it will cause a massive explosion and kill/destroy everyone and everything nearby.

Now the player needs to know this to prevent blowing themselves up all the time. as well they need to known how to recoginze a highly magical enviroment.

So how do you get that infromation to the player? As well as other important information like that. Without the whole process being artifical.




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Writer, Programer, Cook, I''m a Jack of all Trades
Current Design project
Chaos Factor Design Document

Don''t make the need of background knowledge at the beginning of the game and introduce slowly the player to it so he doesn''t gets tired of it, through NPCs, movies and other stuff.

Make sure that if there is something the player need to know, you told about it first. Also the player can deduce some stuff from the enviroment, so he isn''t totally blind.

That would be option 3. The overly convient solution and the most artifical way of providing infromation to the player. Thats exactly what I want to get away from.

I just don''t like the idea of some little old man popping up and saying "Hey, buddy you really shouldn''t fire you gun in high magic enviroment. Because it will blow us all to kingdom come."

There has to be a better way then that to get info to the player. Espically if that is something the character would already known. Such as in the case of the main character being an expert demon hunter. Then they would defintly know not to fire their gun in highly magical environment.



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Writer, Programer, Cook, I''m a Jack of all Trades
Current Design project
Chaos Factor Design Document

Gauntlet II popped up a screen that informed you of stuff the 1st time you did it. You could do something similar as an "are you sure?" screen.

What that means is that if the player tries to get their character to do something out-of-character, the system would stop and tell them, allow them to read the background on why if they choose, then let them choose. The context-based dialog only shows the 1st time.

quote: Original post by TechnoGoth
[...]I just don''t like the idea of some little old man popping up and saying "Hey, buddy you really shouldn''t fire you gun in high magic enviroment. Because it will blow us all to kingdom come."[...]

Why not? If I lived in a world where guns could cause huge explosions just by being firing, I''d definitely ask people with said guns not to put me within the blast radius. I might not explain why until the person asked though, so you just need to add an extra line from the PC to the dialog.

Concerning the method to introduce a player to its character''s background, I was very happily surprised by soldier of Fortune (first or second, cant remember).
While installing the game, you would be given the chance to watch and read a short bio, photographs of the hero''s past, and get a generally good idea of it is that he does for a living.

Then the same trick would be used when you would load a level. You could, once the game was loaded, simply skip the screen and go for it, or like me do a bit of reading.

I have noticed this method emerging in quite a few other FPS now, and I think it''s a very clever way of doing it.

Now of course, with seamless worlds in RPG, it would be a bit of a challenge to use this particular method.
Maybe we could simply go back to the old Ultima method with its doyen of books you could read wherever you went that would enlighten you on the history of the world, and even give you the odd clue. As seen in Neverwinter Nights, BTW.

Personally I think it''s a bit artificial, or at the very least tiresome, because it doesnt actually give any advantage in game (in the case of NWN). If you are gonna go for that method, give either an advantage to the player that spend time reading (that is, make the info in the texts USEFUL rather than simply flavouring) or make it have some sort of direct consequence in the game (you increase your Reading skills, or a Knowledge attributes that is used in dialogues to solve puzzles)

As a sidenote, last time I went to a roleplaying convention, I had like 10 minutes to read a one page write up about my character and that was more than enough.
The most developed character "briefing" I got was for a Vampire the Masquerade game where 6 players had extensive 4 pages of background, and the Storyteller briefed us EACH for half and hour before the game (which lasted 12 hours straight). This was exceptional because most of the tension of the game was based on the secrets each player hid from the others. Meaning this would be hardly necessary in a cRPG.
This could also easily be distilled throughout the scenario by a good script (see Max Payne).

Anyway...

Sancte Isidore ora pro nobis !