Choice and consequences

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13 September 2005

by Mike Rozak

You can simplify the structure of a MMORPG, adventure game, CRPG, as well as many other computer games, into the following recipe:

1. The player is presented with a menu of quests they can undertake.
2. The player choses one and completes whatever actions are needed to complete the quest.
3. As a consequence of completing the quest, the world or player character changes.
4. Repeat. First, remove the completed quest from the list and perhaps append a few new quests.

Of course, I have stated the obvious here, but sometimes obvious statements identify a pattern.

Menu of quests

Notice how MMORPGs, adventure games, CRPGs, and other first-person reality games offer a menu of quests, not just one, and not thousands of choices. MMORPGs tend to have 10-20 quests available to a player at any time. Adventure games always have 3-5 puzzles available. CRPGs likewise provide a selection.

The fact that a menu is offered is significant. Let me illustrate why menus of quests are available for an adventure game:

1. Adventure games typically have 3-5 puzzles available in every region of the game. Once those puzzles have been completed, a door is unlocked and the player is then given access to the next region, again, with 3-5 puzzles. A typical adventure might have 5-10 regions, producing 25-50 puzzles (aka: quests) for the entire game.
   
   
2. Adventure game designers have discovered that if only one or two puzzles are provided per region, problems arise:
   
   
   1. If a player gets stuck on one puzzle they can't "put it down" and come back to the puzzle later with a fresh mind. In a game with only one or two puzzles per region, players inevitably get stuck, put the game down, and never come back. With more puzzles in the queue, they're more likely to keep playing.
      
      
   2. When players solve a puzzle, open a gateway, solve another puzzle, and then open yet another gateway, they feel like they're been guided through the experience and have no choice. They rebel, and stop playing.
      
      
3. One would think that if 3-5 puzzles per region are good, more are better. Adventure games don't provide a large menu of puzzles (quests) though:
   
   
   1. A well-known rule of user interface design it to limit the number of choices presented to a user. Too many choices overwhelm the user. The same goes for games.
      
      
   2. An adventure game is composed of 25-50 puzzles. If the game designer places 15 puzzles in each region, then the adventure game consists of only two or three regions. Since the introduction of new regions is used reward the adventure-game player with new scenery, and to indicate progress, fewer regions results in a less-fun game.
      
      
   3. If an adventure game were to present all its puzzles in one region, the resulting experience transforms into the freely-available experience from game websites like Yahoo Games. The player is merely presented with a buffet of choices. (See Stop the buffet.)

The same rules and reasoning applies to MMORPGs and CRPGs. If too few quests (or activities) are available the player feels railroaded. Too many quests (and activities) is overwhelming and less fun.

Undertaking and completing the quests

I have written about quest design elsewhere, and won't go into detail here. See The toy room as well as many other articles on Deeply random thoughts.

Consequences

Once the player completes a quest, the world or PC changes. Three types of change can occur:

• The player's character can change. CRPGs and MMORPGs provide experience points which lead to more power and new skills. They also hand out new equipment with a similar effect.
  
  
• The world changes. Solving a puzzle opens a gateway into a new region. Killing the evil overlord saves the world and results in the player's heroics being told far and wide. Etc.
  
  
• Other players' character, as well as other players, can change. In a MMORPG, the completion of a quest can affect other players. Single-player games do not have this consequence.

Tied up with the consequences is the ability for the player to chose what form the consequences will take. For example:

• When a player completes a quest in a MMORPG, they earn experience which might allow their character to learn a new skill. The player gets to chose which skill is improved.
  
  
• World of Warcraft and Everquest II both reward players with a powerful item when a quest is completed. Most of the time, players are given a choice of item out of a small menu. (WoW is kind and wise enough to show the reward before players undertake the quest. See Sympathetic goals.)
  
  
• Sometimes, the choice is implicit in the quest: If a player finishes law-and-order quests for the sheriff the number of pickpockets in town might decrease. Conversely, if the player completes quests for the town's criminals, law-and-order loses out.
  
  
• MMORPGs do not typically have quests involving other players, however they do provide player-vs.-player functionality. Players who undertake such self-generated PvP "quests" realise there are consequences to their activities, usually affecting other players. Kill an enemy player enough times and he either avoids your character, comes back with his buddy for revenge, or leaves the game.

The types of consequences vary depending upon the game genre:

• Completion of an adventure-game quest (puzzle) results in the world changing, usually causing a new region to be revealed. Because adventure-game player characters have no skills or attributes, completing a quest cannot affect the PC, and there are no other players to affect. Furthermore, there is only ever one possible outcome to completing a puzzle; players don't get a choice in the matter.
  
  
• In a CRPG, completing a quest results in changes to the PC (usually in the form of experience points and new equipment) and changes to the world. Players choose how their PC's skills are affected. Some CRPGs, such as Morrowind, allow players' actions to affect the world in different ways too, as per the law-and-order vs. outlaw example above.
  
  
• Standard MMORPGs like World of Warcraft and Everquest II don't allow players to change the world, and limit player-vs-player action. Therefore, most of the "change" is funnelled into the player's character. If the player has no choice over how their PC changes, the resulting phenomena is called a "levelling treadmill".

Several types of choices

Notice that adventure games, MMORPGs, and CRPGs all provide the following choices:

1. Players have a choice of which quest they wish to tackle at the moment. The quests to chose from are limited.
   
   
2. Players have a choice in how the quest will be completed/solved. Each quest can only be solved in only a limited number of ways though, because programming in a large number of alternate solutions is expensive. See Problem solving.
   
   
3. Players have a choice (often implicit) in how the completed quest will affect their characters, the world, or other players in the world. The number of outcomes is also limited, and related to the quest; killing the evil overlord won't result in a cure for in-game cancer.

A game which offers too few or too many choices (in any category) isn't as fun.

Categorising some popular genres

• A game-like MMORPG, like World of Warcraft or Everquest II, provides a large range of quests whose solution primarily involves organizing and completing the quest as a group. (See Problem solving.) Upon completion, player characters are changed (level-up) and relationships with other players might change. The world does not.
  
  
• A world-like MMORPG, like Star Wars Galaxies or Ultima Online, provides a choice of activities (instead of quests). Again, while players have different ways to complete the quests/activities, the most efficient solution usually involves teaming up with other players. The consequences of completing a quest involve changes to the player character, other players involved, and (to a lesser extent) the world.
  
  
• An adventure game provides a choice of puzzles to solve. Most puzzles (by definition) only have one solution, although some adventure games allow for multiple solutions. Upon completion of the quest, the world changes in a single way; player's actions serve to unlock a single possible future, not to explore alternative futures.
  
  
• A CRPG like Morrowind provides a large selection of quests. Players have a variety of ways to complete the quest. Once completed, the quest affects the PC, the PC's relationship with NPCs, and events in the world.
  
  
• Yahoo games provides a large menu of quests (puzzles and card games). The choice of solutions depends upon the game. Completing a game has no effect on the player's character (which doesn't exist), the world (which doesn't exist), and only minimal impact on other players.
  
  
• Choose your own adventure books only allow players to tackle one quest at a time. A handful of solutions are possible. The outcomes of the quests are affected based on the player's choices within the quest.

Verbiage

I just described a system where players are provided a menu of quests, chose one to work on and solve using one of a variety of approaches, and then upon completion of the quest, change the world.

I can restate the cycle in much clearer terms:

1. The player is provided a menu of goals (or sub-goals) they could undertake. If completed each goal results in changes to the player's character, other player characters, or the world.
   
   
2. To complete the goal, the player must determine a solution (out of several possible) and act on it. Adventure games tend to require more effort in coming up with the solution than acting on the solution. CRPGs don't require much time to problem solve, but more time to act. See problem solving.
   
   
3. Once the goal is achieved, the goal's effects are applied to the PCs and world. See We don't always get what we want.
   
   
4. Repeat. Ideally, completing one goal will lead to other goals so that the player is never without goals.

Consequences of stating the obvious

So, after stating the obvious, have I learned anything?

1. Both WoW and EQII are pushing the upper bounds for how many quests they offer a player at any point in time. Hard-core players like the freedom of 20+ quests in their journal, but more casual players will be overwhelmed by the choices.
   
   
2. Both WoW and EQII provide players with a choice of reward items when they complete a quest. WoW displays the reward items before players undertake the quest, while EQII only displays the choice after the quest has been completed.
   
   If the ability for players to chose the outcome of their actions or to chose their actions based on expected outcomes is important (which I claim), then showing the rewards ahead of time is a better game-mechanic than keeping the outcomes hidden.
   
   
3. A skill-based system allows players to control the outcome of a quest (good); pure level-based systems do not (bad). However, providing players too many skills to choose from overwhelms them. (Most MMORPGs have a hybrid level system combined with skills.)
   
   
4. A typical MMORPG doesn't provide enough different ways for players to complete a quest. Players can either attack the monster with a sword, or attack it with an axe; there's no way to trick the monster, etc. Nothing new here.
   
   
5. A typical MMORPG doesn't allow players to change the world! The ability to change the world is vitally important. If a player cannot change the world, and they cannot engage in PvP (and change other players), players spend all their time changing the only thing they can change, their character's level and equipment.
   
   A way for players to change the world is desperately needed. See Fractured realities.