As a researcher, I have always been fascinated by what is hidden from view in the games I play. I still remember well the first time I came under Stormwind in World of Warcraft... Getting there is not difficult, and of course I was not the first. But when I went downstairs under the bustling city, my delight could not be conveyed. Hundreds of people were standing right above me: everyone was in a hurry, selling things at an auction or chatting with friends, and I was kind of not with them, but still there. Since then, I've always looked for something similar in games. I always want to look behind the smoke and mirrors and see the game for what it really is. This led me to think about how developers create games for people like me who are researchers.
Who are the researchers?
If you ask a thousand of The Elder Scrolls fans what they like best about the game, you'll get many different answers. However, this will not be a thousand different answers . We might like to believe that our motives are unique, but in reality they often follow certain patterns and can be categorized. So, in his 1996 study, Richard Bartle divided players into four psychotypes: researchers, careerists, communicators, and killers.
Careerists (Achievers) are a traditional type of player who strives to achieve certain goals in the game: complete the game to the end, pump a character, accumulate wealth, break a record or earn a reward.
Killers(Killers) enjoy inconveniencing other players and showing their superiority over them. They are especially fond of first person shooters and other PvP content. But this is not necessarily about murders: they can also control the in-game economy, accumulating resources and manipulating supply and demand, and this will also not contradict the type. Murderers are delighted if someone else loses to them.
Communicators (Socializers) love to chat with other players. Typically, these players excel as leaders of guilds, clans or groups and are most effective when interacting with other players. Communicators are most comfortable in multiplayer games, where teamwork is a key element of the gameplay.
Researchers(Explorers) are motivated by the desire to discover new things. They love to discover new or hidden areas, discover game glitches, or use creative game mechanics. They also enjoy finding hidden Easter eggs in games.
These four types help to understand how the player interacts with the game. Killers love to influence other players , and careerists love to influence the game world . Communicators love to interact with other players , and explorers love to interact with the game world . The picture below will help you better understand the motivation of each psychotype.
How games punish researchers
It's easy to see how game designers take into account the desires of killers, careerists, and communicators. Almost all modern games have an achievement system whereby players can receive rewards or trophies for completing certain tasks. Killers have fun as they can while designers give them an edge over others. Communicators are happy as long as the game is free to communicate. But what about researchers?
Researchers are often punished for playing games the way they want. And they like to approach the game with imagination, look for loopholes - that is, everything that game designers usually do not count on.
Hidden areas
Hidden areas are places on the game map that are blocked by invisible walls or other obstacles. Designers leave locations in the game that players should not have access to. For researchers, the desire to get to such places makes the gameplay extremely fun. It hasn't been uncommon in the past that developers have brutally treated players breaking into such areas, but why?
There are three situations where this should really be punished:
- The player gains access to and uses items that destroy high-quality gaming experience. We saw this in 2019, when Bethesda blocked the accounts of players who got access to the Fallout 76 "developer room" , where absolutely all in-game items are stored, including armor and weapons.
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Any other means of accessing hidden areas, such as jumping on the wall for several hours in a row in order to find a small gap and get to a new location, cannot be prohibited. However, researchers are often faced with punishment for entering a hidden area where they cannot do any harm or benefit.
The same "developer room"
Unusual use of game mechanics
YouTube channel creator Archvaldor's Warcraft Hacks recently posted a video titled " How I got banned for BOTS without bots ." In this video, he explains how he got banned from World of Warcraft by Activision-Blizzard. This ban was intended to solve the problem of bots that has always plagued the game. The only problem was that Archwaldor was not using any bots.
He thinks someone complained about him as a bot because he was trying to access an area blocked by a gate. To accomplish his goal, he ran to the gate and tried a number of different abilities on it to see if any of it worked. The Game Master (Blizzard employee tasked with solving in-game problems) took the problem for literally a few seconds and then disappeared. Subsequently, he ignored all attempts by Archwaldor to enter into dialogue, and three weeks later he was banned for six months without the right of appeal after trying to climb the terrain in another area of the game.
Explorers have always been a legitimate part of the player base. Some people are not interested in playing the game the way others are. Instead, they want a behind-the-scenes look. They want to achieve the satisfaction of completing a series of complex actions that will lead them to places where other players do not have access. They want to take it to the next level and find exploits that allow them to get creative with their gameplay. Such players are too often forgotten by the developers and then punished for their efforts.
This isn't the first time Activision has been criticized for being over-banned. They also received backlash for banning players for 10 years in Call of Duty Mobile.literally no way. It seems that in an attempt to make games fair for players, anti-cheat programs are choosing to get rid of researchers along with bots. And if in order to get rid of the bots, you need to interrupt all the researchers - well, so be it.
What researchers bring to games
So, researchers are often punished for what they do, but why is it so important? Can games afford to lose them? No no and one more time no. Researchers are believed to average 10% of the player base.
Researchers are good at being an active part of the community of the games they play. They love to create content and chat on forums. This helps to attract new players. They generally have a deep understanding of game mechanics and how the game works, which means they are good at teaching beginners. And by creating new types of gameplay, they help keep those who are bored in the game in the game.
How to make games for explorers
If researchers are a legitimate part of the gaming community that developers cannot ignore, how can they create games that are interesting to them? And how can the integrity of the game be preserved?
The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild has always encouraged players to explore their world
Support for creative use of game mechanics
First, game developers need to broaden their understanding of how their games should be played. In recent years, some MMORPGs have been accused of becoming "theme park MMOs." This means that all players follow the same game scenario. The player's freedom is no longer so important - the story-oriented component of the gameplay comes to the fore. This is how most single-player linear games work, and this approach is very effective. The Last of Us players don't complain that they can't explore the open world. Why would they? They bought the game for an exciting story and character development. But MMO is a very different genre, where open world exploration and player freedom are key concepts.
If developers rethink how their games should be played, researchers can have fun too. As long as the player's actions don't go against the ToS and break the game, what's the harm in having the researchers play it their own way?
Complexity
Differences in difficulty in the game are one aspect that may please researchers. As a rule, they are not interested in awards in the sense in which it is customary for careerists. That is, conventional gamification methods do not work well for them. The more elements of difficulty there are in the game, the more opportunities for explorers to discover new things.
Easter eggs
It is worth adding more Easter eggs to the game. It's simple and obvious, because researchers love finding Easter eggs, and developers don't need to worry about their game being played in some way. And everyone wins.
Here are a couple of examples of such Easter eggs:
- In Doom 2 has a secret ending, opening, if the player shoots the boss in the face, and then pass through it. In this case, you will see the head of game designer John Romero impaled on a stake.
- If you go to a hidden coastal island in Saints Row 2 and wander along its coast, you will see a huge purple rabbit rising from the depths of the ocean.
Remove content only when necessary
If the area or content does not violate the rules of the game, you better save it. Many developers immediately remove content as soon as they realize that their invisible walls are not getting in the way of players. If there is a good reason to remove it - for example, if it gives the player any advantage - then yes, the content should be removed. But if there is no harm in finding it, why not leave it to the joy of the researchers.