PUNTOS DE GUARDADO

Randy Smith from EA gave a brief 20 minute lecture on his theory of Save/Load compulsions. Although the primary audience for this lecture are game designers, it still held enough weight allowing the rest of us to understand what level/game designers need to understand: it’s one thing to craft the level; it’s another to determine the risk for gamers. It’s a fine balance that designers need to ride, and how to strike that balance by studying a gamer’s psyche.
In order to eliminate the desire to constantly reload a game, — deemed a destructive gaming experience — after a difficult sequence you could have done better (i.e. – lost some hit points), is to actually provide rewards at the end of these sequences (i.e. – placement of health pack after a difficult battle). Of course this is a simple example of how designers are trying to tap into the human psyche: reward success, emphasis on gain which then downplays the risk factor. Of course the difficult approach to all of this is that some gamers are gamblers, who follow the adage that good luck will always follow bad. The ability to reacquire resources is one way to appease this experience, and not lose the risk factor.

Although most of the lecture could be considered common sense when it comes to design and implementation into a gaming experience, it’s good to know it is a topic that is being taken seriously. As such, it was a principle lecture at GDC, helping the industry stay on the same page by understanding how the rest of us think while we play.

Jódete MariJose. Como ya sabrán en Gamesajare, odiamos los checkpoints porque más que nada nos gusta jugar como a nosotros nos sale del culo y no como el diseñador decide más alla de lo que debiera, quién si no un adoreibol fulano de EA para explicarnos el por qué y no sólo eso, si no hasta el comor. Paso de traducirlo que me pongo de muy mal café. Y ya es suficiente con que sea Lunes morning glory; guats the story.