Hi there,

I am a PhD student from Taiwan, and am working on a study on game scoring system.

My study will begin from finding out the functions of the scoring system in order to make a taxonomy of scoring system.

Here are the functions I currently found in two different perspective - game designer's perspective and player's perspective.

I will be glad if anyone can figure out any other functions that I might missed.

Also, if the following explanations are not clear enough, please let me know as well. Thank you!

Protection: in most of my games (multiplayer) I use score as a protection of weaker players (not allowed to attack a target that is too low score compared to yours)

Complexity unlocker: I also use it as an artificial determiner if the player is familar with the game enough to introduce more advanced features/complex rules (below certain score some game rules might not apply to the player).

Leveling playing field between skilled and unskilled players: I frequently add more penalties to players who have high score and grant some bonuses to those with low score (the premise is that unskilled should have it easier and skilled have it more difficult, this way they always would have a challenge no matter their skill level)

Protection: in most of my games (multiplayer) I use score as a protection of weaker players (not allowed to attack a target that is too low score compared to yours)

Complexity unlocker: I also use it as an artificial determiner if the player is familar with the game enough to introduce more advanced features/complex rules (below certain score some game rules might not apply to the player).

Leveling playing field between skilled and unskilled players: I frequently add more penalties to players who have high score and grant some bonuses to those with low score (the premise is that unskilled should have it easier and skilled have it more difficult, this way they always would have a challenge no matter their skill level)

I've carefully thinking about your suggestion.
However, they sounds like the extented mechanics of the "Status".
For instance the first one you've mentioned, protecting the weaker player indicates the player who is on the weaker status can get protection. The score seems doesn't have a direct function of the "Protection". And the second and the third either.

Score has a direct effect of granting protection. Maybe I will just write code, it will be easier to understand.

if( attacker->score > defender->score *3 ) error("Attack cancelled, too high difference in score.");

I've carefully thinking about your suggestion.
However, they sounds like the extented mechanics of the "Status".
For instance the first one you've mentioned, protecting the weaker player indicates the player who is on the weaker status can get protection. The score seems doesn't have a direct function of the "Protection". And the second and the third either.

These are not suggestions These are facts (from my games) Also "Protection" function is used in all games that have KoC as ancestor (used to be quite popular).

Score has a direct effect of granting protection. Maybe I will just write code, it will be easier to understand.

if( attacker->score > defender->score *3 ) error("Attack cancelled, too high difference in score.");

Great ! that makes sense now, you reminded me that there is a bunch of strategy web games give new player several protection hours to avoid being attacked.

These all seem to look at score on the 0 -> infinity or maximum scale. What about score such as X alignment vs. Y alignment? Good vs. evil is the most obvious example, with evil being negative, neutral being 0, and good being positive. But there are many other options, like faction A vs. faction B vs. faction C, with all 3 being positive. Or in a dating sim, some actions will please one date, some will please all dates, some will please one but displease others, and there can also be checkpoints; for example a checkpoint would be if a date falls in love with the player at a threshold number, the player's score with that date will never go below the threshold number even if he switches to pursuing a second date.

Also, what about gauges? These are scores that fall over time, and the player periodically must do something to raise them so they don't hit 0. The Sims series is all about this kind of gauge, as are most "babysitting" games.

Score can affect available dialogue or action options, then making a dialogue choice or taking an action can change the score, in an interactive story feedback loop.

Scores can be competitively (Player A has more score than Player B, so Player A is winning) either as the metric of winning or to give one player some kind of powerup vs another player.

But scores can also be used cooperatively, shared between both players. Maybe they together need to collect X amount of points to progress, or maybe (if score is a currency) they have a shared/pooled currency. Or even experience-wise, some games have both players leveling up together by sharing experience equally (which I personally prefer, rather than one player advancing ahead of the other player).

How does the score abstraction of "loot" fit into your taxonomy? Many games are built around using items as score.

These all seem to look at score on the 0 -> infinity or maximum scale. What about score such as X alignment vs. Y alignment? Good vs. evil is the most obvious example, with evil being negative, neutral being 0, and good being positive. But there are many other options, like faction A vs. faction B vs. faction C, with all 3 being positive. Or in a dating sim, some actions will please one date, some will please all dates, some will please one but displease others, and there can also be checkpoints; for example a checkpoint would be if a date falls in love with the player at a threshold number, the player's score with that date will never go below the threshold number even if he switches to pursuing a second date.

Also, what about gauges? These are scores that fall over time, and the player periodically must do something to raise them so they don't hit 0. The Sims series is all about this kind of gauge, as are most "babysitting" games.

Score can affect available dialogue or action options, then making a dialogue choice or taking an action can change the score, in an interactive story feedback loop.

Scores can be competitively (Player A has more score than Player B, so Player A is winning) either as the metric of winning or to give one player some kind of powerup vs another player.

But scores can also be used cooperatively, shared between both players. Maybe they together need to collect X amount of points to progress, or maybe (if score is a currency) they have a shared/pooled currency. Or even experience-wise, some games have both players leveling up together by sharing experience equally (which I personally prefer, rather than one player advancing ahead of the other player).