split-screen death-match game likeHalo, socialization also comes largely for free,
though if the game is too frantic and intense in its pacing then the players’ ability to
socialize may be more limited.
For an online game, the designer will need to go out of his way to facilitate player
socialization. The first step is providing an interface with which players can chat among
themselves. Almost all online games do this, though some of the earlier death-match
and “casual” games did not. Similarly, some online games aimed at children have been
forced to leave out chat options for fear of adults abusing such a system to obtain a
child’s address. For example, the children-oriented MMPToontown Onlineallowed
communication only through a symbol-based language. Assuming you are not legally
prevented from adding full chatting, you want to facilitate conversation in all parts of the
game, not just during active gameplay. For short-duration combat games, if there is a
lobby where players wait for the game to start once all the players have joined up, this is
a perfect place for conversation since players otherwise have nothing to do. You should
also enable conversation on any post-game screen where player rankings are displayed;
players will want to be able to talk here in order to discuss what just happened, either to
brag or to congratulate and vow revenge in the next game.
Of course, chatting via keyboard is significantly inferior to the expressive potential
of actual human speech, with the obvious advantage that players can talk while continu-
ing to play the game. Indeed, the use of “emoticons” and creative punctuation may do
their best to imbue text with the emotional depth of speech, but only go so far. Speech
communication between your players comes for free if your game is not online and your
players are all playing around a single screen. Anyone who has ever played a
first-person shooter over a LAN with all the players sitting in close proximity to each
other (such as after hours in a campus computer lab) can attest to how much fun playing
against players who are close by can be, with players screaming in surprise when they
are killed unexpectedly, cursing each other for cheap shots, taunting each other that
their time left to live is limited, or proclaiming their vast superiority over their oppo-
nents. This type of socialization has proven so popular that players who are either in
Chapter 13: Multi-Player 249
With a split-screen
multi-player experience,
as found inMario Kart:
Double Dash, you are
almost guaranteed a
very social experience for
players.