Game Design

(Elliott) #1

Chapter 13 Multi-Player.......................


Chapter 13 Multi-Player ........................


“No one on their death bed ever said, ‘I wish I’d spent more time alone with
my computer.’”
— Dani Bunten Berry

A


s the above quote suggests, few computer gamers would care to admit to their
families just how much time they spend playing their games. One might think
this shame is because single-player video games are such a solitary pursuit.
What’s interesting is how other pursuits that are equally solitary — reading books, lis-
tening to music, or studying math — are not seen as embarrassing ways to spend one’s
time. Besides their often-puerile nature and immature content, one key difference
between games and other pursuits is that single-player computer games present the
illusion of interaction with another human, though no other human is actually present.
Though the AI agents take the place of the other players required to play a
non-computer game, in many ways it is truly the designer who takes the place of the
other players. Unfortunately, the designer can only take their place to the extent he can
put himself into digital form on a CD or DVD. Of course, in the end the dynamic interac-
tion that single-player games provide is far more limited than what can be provided in
multi-player games.
But to the non-gaming world multi-player online games are seen as just as
antisocial as single-player games, if not more so. Indeed, with an online game, the user


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