Re: [GD-Design] Speed kills

[Hakan Y. <hak...@3t...>]

I have read the document you wrote. I have some points those I dont agre
with you:

You say" I was talking to my friend Rob Trickey about game design, and he
made the comment that "games just need a speed slider".  And, by golly, he's
right, and thinking about his comment made me realize that speed is the
fundamental parameter that makes an action game easy or hard."
I totally disagree. Good action games are fast paced games. But speed isnt
the fundamental parameter of this games. In all sort of games desicion
making and interaction level is the key element. Yes in action games you
have to decide,act/react fast. But increasing the speed to make the game
harder is just make the player to think he's being cheated. He'll see the
same kind of events and problems becoming just faster. He"ll say "Hey i did
this before, I have to do this just faster". I think (an examle) the player
shoud make desicion in between 1-2 seconds. This 1-2 seconds shouldnt change
for the whole game. Oponent style, intelligence, equipment, event types etc
should change.

You say: "The difference between a skilled player and an unskilled one is
the delay from confrontation to reaction -- in other words, their speed of
response."
I disagree. Actually I agree the first sentence. But I dont think "their
spped of response" make them fully skilled. In quake 3 arena you sould
listen the sounds, know the map, experience the possibilities, experience
the events, and at last you should have aiming and jumping skills. I know
some players, their aiming and jumping skills are very good, But they play
mindlessly, players can increase their aiming and jumoping skills in quake 3
arena but these dont make them good players. I have played q3 in nightmare
mode 3-5 days ago. Computers shoots very fast and its moves better than me.
But it moves precditably and stupid. I know where he is going or doing, I
know he will come from that door, I can hear its voice, So i react and kill
him before he get out of the door. So does the spped of my aiming and
jumping/moving make me kill the bot or my desicion making, knowledge of the
map and game? If you increase the speed of  the bots in quake 3 more the
game will be unplayable. Because when i see the bot I am dead, so i started
to play the game by hiding all the time. Again designers make the NPC's more
intelligent to make the game harder.

You say: " we're stuck with health and ammo restrictions and limited enemy
spawn points."
No, we're not resrtricted to them.  Todays games are lack of artificial
intelligence. The enemey doesnt have the sense of real opponent. Consider
quake 3. Suppose that I am playing quake 3 areana with you. I am a good
player and you're a bettter player than me. What makes you a better opponent
isnt the speed of your character or rate of fire. What makes you better is
your desicion making and playing skills(you make better rocket jumps, good
timing, good aiming vs). The only thing here related to speed may be your
aiming. You may aim faster than me. Take these to single player mode.
Computer should think better, so react better. It must react like a human.
Designers should make the computer more intelligent to make the game harder
an challenging.

You say: " In many cases, they alter the rules enough that the game itself
changes nature between difficulty levels -- instead of becoming harder, the
game becomes harder and different."
You're right. In some games when you change the difficulty level it becomes
a different game. But is it a bad thing,if the game is still playable and
enjoyable?

You say: "An exemplar of this is Hitman 2, where difficulty is adjusted by
limiting the number of saves!"
I agree. Limiting the number of saves isnt related to difficulty. Its
another problem of game design. Its more like cheating to me. Designers
shouldnt use the save game count to make the game harder.

You say: "And there is an element of truth to that, but altering many
variables at once is generally considered more dangerous than changing only
a few.  It's easier to balance and test a system with fewer parameters."
Its lazy design and its very limited, not creative.

You say: The ironic thing is that several games today have included
speed-modification as a way to make the game easier, but in the form of
power ups.  Max Payne's "bullet-time" feature slows down the action, which
in turn makes it much easier for the player to analyze his surroundings and
take appropriate action in a deliberate, unhurried way.  Prince of Persia
and Viewtiful Joe also includes the ability to slow down the action as power
ups.
I agree. Its a good idea but makes the game easier. It doesnt have side
effects except its lessening when used. Maybe in harder difficulty levels
this bullet timing ability could be removed(Maybe they did this I dont know
yet. I just played max payne 1-2 but i didnt played harder difficulty
levels)

You say: "Of course, there is no magic bullet, so there are some complaints
and weaknesses.  A lot of people equate speed with excitement, but I don't
believe that there is as much of a correlation as you'd expect.  Consider
the original Quake, where the player runs at a rate probably twice that of a
character in Call of Duty -- yet I doubt anyone would argue that Call of
Duty is less exciting than Quake.  Speed definitely contributes a certain
degree of base elemental adrenaline to an action game, but I don't think it
is the sole determining factor."
I totally agree here and the following paragraph

Most of my answers will be like these. I  think i give the idea of aht i
think.

My result is changing the speed will not make a game harder or easier most
of the time(Maybe in a few games it can make). Designers should wealth their
games, with challenging NPCs and events. We need more intelligent NPCs, We
need to give the players alternatives to go over. We need to make  playable,
interacting environments. etc. After these are done you can make a fast
paced or slow paced game, an action or strategy game. Speed wont be a
challenging factor in games. Making of desicions in a short time will be
hard, not in shorter and shorter times. Beating one intelligent monster will
be hard and exciting but not 10 fast movoing stupid monster. Action is
exciting but faster action is just overwhelming. Games should be deepened
even action games.

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Brian Hook" <ho...@py...>
To: <gam...@li...>
Sent: Saturday, December 27, 2003 4:14 AM
Subject: Re: [GD-Design] Speed kills


I just did a slightly more cohesive write up on this, in case anyone
is interested:

http://bookofhook.com/Article/GameDesign/SpeedKills.html



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