Gameplay is relevant to the area of shared communications because those aspects of games which make them enjoyable apply also to shared multi-user environments.
The process of videogame development involves the engagement of a set of skills known as videogame design. The videogame designer must find a careful balance for the end player between ease of play, and difficulty of achievement. A game must be engaging and attractive enough to satisfy the player. A good videogame can only do this by deferring goals through deliberate construction of areas to inhabit (play areas) with obstacles, distractions, areas which entrap and offer a site for small sub-tasks.
As the player moves through the game-space, activities must retain a measure of consistency, and a totality of enjoyment can only be assured when the balance between difficulty of achievement is balanced against satisfactory 'payoff' when goals are achieved.
In this interview with Steve Miller, one of the creator of the game Myst, Feed magazine highlights the role of architecture and urban planning in videogame development:
FEED: It
seems that what attracts a lot of people to games is their
environmental quality. It strikes me that programmers act as architects in a
sense, they create spaces and lead people in certain, finite directions. Is
that a metaphor that resonates with you?
MILLER:
I think that's a perfect way to say it. I've said before that Riven
and Myst were a lot like Disneyland, because they were designed to
entertain. And in that way I believe they succeeded, at least for a certain
type of person. It was always our goal to put more into those games than
only entertainment, we tried to infuse them with at least a bit of meaning.
I
think that in the end though, the Myst games ended up being just
intriguing places to wander around in.
Much of the design of a game relies upon the placement and layout of spaces. Different videogame genres offer different types of spaces. Here are some examples:
|
Game Genre |
Types of Spaces |
|
Shoot-em-up |
Corridors, alleyways, rooms, secret areas |
|
Puzzle game |
The puzzle is its own space - e.g. "Tetris" |
|
Simulator |
The space simulated - e.g. sky, ground, racetrack |
|
Side Scrolling Platform game (e.g. "Sonic") |
The maze area, with up, down, left, right movement which scrolls relative to the player character |
|
Adventure Role Playing Game (RPG) |
The adventure setting - e.g. 'Middle Earth' in "Lord of the Rings" |
Keeping the Player Engaged Through Urban Settings
The need to keep the player in a constant state of direct engagement with gameplay is a major priority for videogame designers and the backgrounds, settings, props and other items which constitute the play area must work with other elements such as sound and music to underscore player satisfaction.
Urban spaces often proliferate in videogame imagery and settings. Noticeably in 'simulator' games backgrounds the game environments can adhere very strongly to actual urban spaces. The rise of powerful videogame platforms such as the Playstation 2 and the Sega Dreamcast have made possible highly detailed 3D representations of urban spaces in videogames. These games are often 'multi-player' enabling more than one person to traverse and interact with the settings.
For example in the Sega Dreamcast game "Crazy Taxi" the key setting is a virtual San Francisco, where the player must collect and deliver taxi passengers to locations around the city. Key to playing the game is a familiarity with the layout and relative position of sites around the virtual city. This familiarity with relative spatial relationships of key landmarks echoes the very same skills employed in negotiating actual urban spaces.
The city is a simplified 'imagined' "San Francisco" where tropes evoke actual settings in the city, notably its hills and valleys, and roadside architecture. The game even employs known companies - "Kentucky Fried Chicken" and "Fila" shops as part of its action, doubling up as a 'product placement' media form.
Games such as the shoot-em-ups "Quake" and "Duke Nukem" rely upon the player becoming familiar with both internal and external environments; usually aggressively architectural spaces, where corridors, rooms, even cupboards and filing cabinets hiding objects and items for use. The game "Red Faction" is set on Mars, and amidst the game's vast mineral mine, the player is able to freely wander through often highly complex architectural environments.