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| Designing Games for the Wage Slave |
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joelmartinez Member since: 1/15/2003 From: Orlando, FL, United States |
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 Posted - 7/12/2004 2:29:52 PM |
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| Wow ... this guy describes my situation perfectly. I love to play games, but don't have time to do so. Vice City, Tony Hawk Underground, and (more recently) Spiderman 2 ... all great games that let me turn it on in the 30 minutes before I head off to work and have fun touring about the city. I hope that this game type continues to evolve because it's fun as hell to be able to just cruise around a big ass city. Joel Martinez http://codecube.net |
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Steadtler Member since: 1/31/2002 From: Montreal, Canada |
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Posted - 7/12/2004 2:41:44 PM |
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| I think there is a now-forgotten feature for wage-slaves games: The Boss Key. The boss key was a key that would turn your screen into a picture of a DOS prompt or a Text Application so your boss would think that you are working when he passes by... can works with Wife-Agro too. (MMORPG certainly brings new interresting terms in gaming). Now very few games have a boss key... What was the last? Anyway I liked the article. Gamers are growing... |
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Oluseyi Staff Member since: 5/14/2001 From: New York, NY, United States |
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 Posted - 7/12/2004 3:27:33 PM |
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Quote:Maybe it's because more people have computers at home, and fewer play unsanctioned games in the office? I know that lots of companies' techies play sanctioned games of Quake on the corporate network during off-peak hours. Anyway, I'm with Stuart on this one (hopefully 0 A.D. will be a wage-slave friendly game, too), though I'm quite a bit more extreme than he is. I feel that the solution to every puzzle or challenge should be self-evident, making it a matter of execution. Playing Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time, I simply turned to the walkthroughs whenever I got remotely close to stuck (the doorways puzzle... wtf?!) Long live GameFAQs! |
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Schmedly GDNet+ Member since: 3/3/2002 From: Chesapeake, VA, United States |
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Posted - 7/12/2004 4:05:00 PM |
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Quote: There's definitely two sides to this issue. I like the satisfaction of completing a game without help. Walkthroughs feel like a crutch to me. As for the article I'd agree with him on some points, but the general feel of the article is that of complaint that all games aren't exactly as the author would like them. That'd be kind of dull I think. There will always be games that cater to the get in get out quick crowd and rightfully so, but designing games around that purpose caters to one segment. Other people enjoy a more lengthy immersion regardless if it's just menu navigation to the impatient. |
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RamboBones Member since: 9/23/2002 From: Blacktown, Australia |
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Posted - 7/12/2004 6:36:26 PM |
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| Definately a very good article with alot of points on how to make a good game for the time limited gamer. However one thing he is forgetting is the 'hardcore' gamers market, which while limitted is still, I feel, a major part of the gaming community. It is also my belief though that 'wage slave' games and 'hardcore' games can be packaged in the same box, just add a simple 'hardcore' game switch. Take for instance Diablo II, in that you can create 'hardcore' characters where any death will be your last. Why do people play on that mode? Probably a mixture of bragging rights and satisfaction. Yet the game can still be played to it's full with normal characters in an easier style. I think if that sort of idea was incorporated more... it'd allow hardcore games and the wage slave to get along perfectly ;) |
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Oluseyi Staff Member since: 5/14/2001 From: New York, NY, United States |
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Posted - 7/13/2004 12:59:15 AM |
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Quote:Crutches are an assistive technology, designed to overcome structural failures. Yeah, that sounds about perfect. The need for a walkthrough usually is indicative of breakdowns in level design, to the point that it becomes a tedious and annoying hunt. |
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d000hg Member since: 1/21/2002 From: Durham, United Kingdom |
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Posted - 7/13/2004 7:13:08 AM |
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| Some good points - optimising your load/saves doesn't rate high on a todo list but is such a blessing to the player. And I agree with the splash screen comment - if you pay £30 you shouldn't have to see any advertising if you don't want to. Check out my blog - my adventure as a professional freelancer working from home I support DevImg.net and BattleBall |
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Hinch Member since: 6/5/2001 |
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Posted - 7/13/2004 7:24:32 AM |
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Quote: Windows has it's very own Boss Key - Alt+Tab. ;) Unfortunately not all developers support this feature correctly and depending on what you're playing, task-switching may crash your game. It works more often than not though. |
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evolutional Moderator - Alternative Game Libraries Member since: 1/25/2002 From: Leeds, United Kingdom |
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Posted - 7/13/2004 7:53:35 AM |
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| Good article, I have a similar situation. I work all day and when I get home, I have a couple of hours to spare. In this time I want to play games, I also want to make games, draw my Zombie comic and design websites. Fitting this all in is hard and often, it's the game-playing that suffers. I simply don't have time to sit getting aquainted with the game's plotline or sit through an hour of movie before I can do anything. I found the LucasArts games (the old ones - especially the Monkey Island series) very entertaining and could pick them up and play without worrying to much about my immersiveness. Similarly, shooters and such like also fulfil this purpose. To me, the worst thing a game can do is make you repeat the same section over and over (perhaps starting at a bit you can do easily, but it takes time - then ending at a hard bit where it;s easy to die). It's frustrating in the extreme and often causes me to give up on the game, mainly because I feel like I'm wasting my precious time. When I play games like Total Annihilation and such-like, I almost always play them in Skirmish mode. I don't care about the levels and the story, I just want to fight against an opponent for a bit (human or computer) - hopefully providing me a sufficient challenge to want to play it again. Incidentally - the link to 0 A.D. didn't work  [Edited by - evolutional on July 13, 2004 8:53:23 AM] Oli Wilkinson, MCTS SQL Server 2005 Personal Sites: [Journal] | [evolutional] | [Manta-X] | [jsInvaders] | [GameMonkey articles] Useful links: [TinyXml] | [W3c XML Spec] | [SpiderMonkey javascript] | [boost] Useful links: [Psionic's 3d Game Resources] | [NaturalDocs] | [Code on the Cob] | [AngelCode Reference DB] Longing for the good ol' days, where people made games and not engines |
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Pxtl Member since: 5/28/2004 From: Canada |
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Posted - 7/13/2004 8:14:35 AM |
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| The new boss key = a fast alt+tab. Many games crawl their way back onto and off of the windows desktop. But I agree, I'm finding that I mostly play any game that has a "skirmish" mode where I can just throw 3 AI players against myself and play for 1/2 an hour (Quake 3, UT, and Total Annililation). Its too bad that games got stuck in the land of resolution changes and graphics mode changes and full framebuffers, or maybe alt+tab would work better. Plus, it would've allowed devs to use the Windows UI isntead of having to re-re-re-re-reinvent the wheel for every single friggin' game that needs a menu system. Look at UT for example - their window system looks just like Windows except slower. EDIT: Another point: this also means that games need to be easier for new gamers to pick up and learn _fast_ (like, in 20 minutes) without insulting the player's intelligence. I haven't touched an RTS in years because I don't have the time to invest in learning a new unitset - still TA, BattleZone '98, Z, and StarCraft for me. |
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botman2 Member since: 2/15/2004 From: Christchurch, New Zealand |
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 Posted - 7/13/2004 12:10:01 PM |
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| I'd just like to say good article. I enjoyed reading it. The proper link to his game appears to be: http://wildfiregames.com/0ad/. |
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Anonymous Poster |
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Posted - 7/14/2004 12:51:32 PM |
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| Ugh... I *tried* to read this article, but I can't. Allow me to paraphrase what you are saying: "WAAAHHH!!! WAH!!! WAHHH-WAHHH!!! WAH!!!" Man it's no wonder you are a "wage slave" living as a "cog in a cube." Have you ever stopped to realize that nobody cares about your whining? If you don't like the game, don't play it. |
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Anonymous Poster |
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Posted - 7/14/2004 12:52:50 PM |
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Quote: If I catch any of my peons playing games, they are instantly fired and they know it. Perhaps that's why games don't have boss-keys... you shouldn't be playing at work. |
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Sneftel Moderator - Consoles, PDAs, and Cell Phones Member since: 7/7/2001 From: Philadelphia, PA, United States |
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 Posted - 7/14/2004 1:25:18 PM |
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Quote:Looks like you got about as much out of the article as you put into it. Unsurprising. |
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Anonymous Poster |
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 Posted - 7/15/2004 9:46:08 AM |
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| Maybe there should be an option that the game played itself for the superbusy people? |
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Pxtl Member since: 5/28/2004 From: Canada |
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Posted - 7/15/2004 9:52:02 AM |
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| Hmm - to all the haters out there, wait until you have a job, a wife, a kids, and mortgage, and then see how much time you have for games that take a days work just to learn to play, and have 3-hours of play between save points. Games for wage-slaves doesnt mean "killing time at work" - it means "player wants to play NOW, and have fun NOW." |
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Codejoy Member since: 5/25/2001 From: USA |
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Posted - 7/15/2004 1:09:10 PM |
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| Here here pxtl oh and I have to say there is nothing that can turn a hardcore player into a wage-slaving player faster than just what makes thema wage slave(wife kids real job) blah...my dimise was slow from hardcore...last time I was really hardcore was probably the 7th and 8th grade :( then came social life then came college then came real world. *sigh* oh and thats right im: WAAAHHAHAHAHAHAHA :p It was a good article and since my game company writes games for a device catering to wage-slavers I will keep the points very close in mind during game designs. |
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WFG_Acumen Member since: 10/4/2003 |
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Posted - 7/16/2004 3:40:09 PM |
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| Hi, guys. Thanks for your comments (good and bad), and especially to the gamedev.net staff for being kind enough to make it a Featured Article. This was my first article for gamedev, and I hope to have the opportunity to contribute more in the future. Apologies that I've taken a while to reply (I've been in hospital after surgery this last week). I'll try to pick out the major points: Quote: True, whatever happened to that? As pointed out, the death of DOS prompts and more home PC users may have phased it out, or there might have been corporate pressure to discourage it. Also, a lot of corporate networks (and office network softwares) are so tight on IT security that software can't be installed without an administrator. Quote: Very true. In the early stages, the game displayed popup hints to keep the player pointed in the right direction. It was a bit of a shame when they disappeared, as it helped maintain the pace. Perhaps something games could use more in the future, maybe as a guidance method available on the easier difficulty levels, or something that appears if a player doesn't seem to be progressing after a period of time? Quote: My apologies that it came across that way. Undoubtedly, the market represents a wide spectrum of players, and a game will need to be able to appeal to lite and hardcore players to survive (the latter particularly as they're the most vocal, and will put the greatest number of hours into gaming to explore every facet of it). RamboBones' Diablo 2 Hardcore mode is an excellent example of catering to both ends of the spectrum. Making games purely for wage slaves would be a grave injustice. Making games that only cater to the elite limits sales to a narrow but dynamic fragment of the potential market. Cater to both, maximise sales. My intention was to highlight elements that frustrate most players (lack of guidance, trial by error gameplay), but are particularly galling for those that don't have the time to just live with them and keep playing; I'll endeavour to consider the wider picture in the future. Quote: Oluseyi, we were spawned from the same flesh vat. :) The fun of gaming is interactivity. Knowing the path is not the same as walking it, and it's making that journey through the game that's the interesting part. If they're not providing that information in the game or the clues are too obscure, then the player has to bang his head on the wall until he stumbles upon the solution, or has to find that information elsewhere. Quote: But why they had to stick the Windows key between the Ctrl and Alt keys and make it a hardware standard, I'll never know. :) Quote: *cries* I can't believe that happened. All delusions of professionalism just went down the tubes. :D Oh, well. Looks like the staff have corrected the link. Thanks for catching that oversight, guys. Quote: Ah, but that would restrict your code base to a particular platform, right? No Unix support, limited console compatibility. :) Quote: Yep, that's the ticket. Quick to learn, slow to master. Such as in your RTS example, uncomplicated units with clearly defined roles are simple building blocks, then employed in combination for a diverse range of tactics. Quote: Yeah, I openly admit that the article was far from perfect. In particular, it grew rather excessively during the editing stage, leading to a lot of repetition and filler. In the future (if the staff let me, that is :)), I'll endeavour to use less subjective examples and focus on the key points with tighter pacing. |
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botman2 Member since: 2/15/2004 From: Christchurch, New Zealand |
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Posted - 7/28/2004 5:11:27 AM |
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| Hey, you made Slashdot. Nice. |
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Matei Member since: 4/30/2004 |
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Posted - 7/28/2004 10:06:46 PM |
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| Awesome, 0AD just got indirectly slashdotted. |
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Anonymous Poster |
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Posted - 7/29/2004 2:31:35 PM |
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| Oh yeh! Back in the 80's a friend of mine and I developed a game from the Amiga. The first thing we decided was 'you bought this game because it's supposed to be fun. We're not trying to suck quarters out of your pocket, we want you to have fun ALL the time.' The result, our boss complained he couldn't stop playing it... it was 'mindlessly addictive like peanuts'. I was trying to get this across to a guy who's writing a nostalgic side-scroller for OS X. It was like I was talking a different language, I kept saying things like "respond to the guy's skill level. When he gets killed a lot, slow the game down. When he gets through levels quickly, speed it up... but give him more points and effects. Ideally, you should be able to play forever without getting killed", and he came back with "Look, all you need to do is set of a bomb HERE when you get started on the level, then do this that and the other thing, it's EASY." No, not when you're 44 years old and you don't get to sit around all day learning the patterns... So his game looks cool, but I don't think I'll ever run it again. |
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eedok Member since: 9/15/2003 From: Edmonton, Canada |
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Posted - 8/23/2004 2:58:34 AM |
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Sweet article, seems serious sam follows all you have in your article but no mention is made of it  |
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bernatk Member since: 4/30/2000 From: Budapest, Hungary |
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Posted - 9/8/2004 2:34:24 PM |
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| Well, I think u missed the point. Games are aimed at the 14-24 years old. You are long out of the focus group. Teenagers have access to almost unlimited amount of cash, so no need to please the older ones. For them there is the casual shareware industry's short and fast games. Man, grow up as you get older! The world is changing! ;) |
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