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Fear of Death: Punishment & Reward...
Posted By: Xian	Date: 2/2/00 12:53 p.m.
One of the key elements to multiplayer online team games is the balance between reward and punishment. This is important because every online game relies heavily on public pick-up servers where the majority of the gamers don't know each other. This means that teamwork and team goals and team communication aren't always ideal... and often far from good. While there's little a developer can do about people determined to spoil a game for others, there ARE measures they can take to futher immersive or team gameplay... One of these is a fear of game death. Those weaned on the traditional FPS (team game or otherwise) have a devil-may-care attitude towards their own death, often. Sure, the teams that work together will often do better, but in a game such as TFC (Half-Life) or team deathmatch (Quake3)... your personal pleasure is more important than the team's success (usually) and one can typically find enjoyment fragging folk merrily apart from the team. Dying costs you nothing personally, so a player places little value on his own life. Gameplay is basically reduced to deathmatch with teams... and some secondary team goals. Compare this with FPS team games that instill a punishment... Rainbow6 and Counter-Strike (HL) are tactical FPSims with a generally higher lethality to their weapons and a high stress on team tactics. They have a very simple method of punishment: You die, you wait. If you player dies, you wait until the next round before you can play again. Ouch. What does this mean? It means players are less anxious to go Cowboy and die alone against the teams that use team tactics, it means people pair up for superior firepower against lone Cowboys, it means that players are forced to learn to work as a team... or suffer the consequences- rather than simply hit the SPACEBAR and respawn. This is a GOOD THING. But is it good for Halo? Granted, we know very little about how Halo actually plays... but it's up to Bungie to make a reward & punishment system that doesn't simply make team goals a matter of personal taste. In traditional FPS games, it's possible to have one outstanding player decimate a well-coordinated (if slightly lacking in skill) team... in a FPSim, that almost never happens. So, I submit that SOME form of punishment is needed... but I ask you, what? Ideas? (Remember the goal is to promote teamwork using a method that would affect the most utilitarian and selfish player...)

Message Index

Fear of Death: Punishment & Reward...	Xian	2/2/00 12:53 p.m.
Re: Fear of Death: Punishment & Reward...	DogFish	2/2/00 1:20 p.m.
Hmmm...	Xian	2/2/00 1:49 p.m.
Re: Hmmm...	Regdren	2/2/00 3:31 p.m.
Re: Hmmm...	Adam	2/2/00 10:35 p.m.
Well...	Xian	2/2/00 10:54 p.m.
Re: Well...	Adam	2/3/00 12:24 a.m.
Re: Well...	phayd	2/4/00 8:53 a.m.
Re: Well...	o	2/4/00 11:51 p.m.
Re: Well...	phayd	2/6/00 4:44 p.m.
I never mentioned this before, but...	Stryker	2/6/00 5:37 p.m.
Re: I never mentioned this before, but...	phayd	2/7/00 4:28 p.m.
Re: Hmmm...	Desio	2/2/00 3:31 p.m.
Re: Hmmm...	DogFish	2/3/00 4:24 a.m.
Responding (long; for everyone)	Xian	2/3/00 11:59 a.m.
Re: Fear of Death: Punishment & Reward...	Br'fin	2/2/00 1:50 p.m.
Re: Fear of Death: Punishment & Reward...	Ragnarok	2/2/00 6:00 p.m.
Re: Fear of Death: Punishment & Reward...	Giule	2/2/00 8:30 p.m.
Re: Fear of Death: Punishment & Reward...	mud	2/2/00 9:13 p.m.
Re: Fear of Death: Punishment & Reward...	Ragnarok	2/3/00 10:13 a.m.
limited lives theory + rambling	XZCion	2/2/00 8:45 p.m.
Re: limited lives theory + rambling	Ragnarok	2/2/00 9:27 p.m.