Real machine experience and experimental case feedback
I recruited 14 players to have targeted play tests.In order to ensure the objectivity and reference value of the collected data.These 14 players have a wide range of preferences for game types and have no extreme prejudice against game types and game modes.Some players have social relationships in reality.Players are aged between 19 and 28.I will watch and record everyone’s behavior and feedback in the game world.To explore our problems.In order to minimize the fuzziness of data caused by complex factors.
I choose death stranding and GTA online as comparative games.Both Death Stranding and GTA online have the attributes of large-scale open-world role-playing games and are similar in game operation and narrative methods.This helps to compare the difference between asynchronous online games and real-time online games in emergency narrative.In the process of playing, I will watch and record everyone’s behavior in the game world, implementation and emotional feedback during playing.
Three time points were selected in the game process of Death Stranding: 1. The game started for 1 hour; 2. The delivery task through snow mountain in the middle of the game; 3. The World War II scene in Chapter 7.The game content of GTA online is all jailbreak tasks (four-person team).
According to these records, I divided five aspects according to the feedback to compare and elaborate.
Emergency narrative comparison between real-time online games and asynchronous online games
1. environmental story
Asynchronous online can support the personal narrative of countless players in different time and space, which is different from the specific environmental narrative in real-time online.1、Asynchronous play is being used in modern games to deliberately foster dynamics of interaction between present and absent players. Removing the need foR players to be present at the same time in order to interact and play creates an opportunity for greater networks of interaction to form (1, Neto,20201, 2019), the player’s server can receive the information of random players with no upper limit.And the core player is only one player.In GTA online, players can play games with up to 16 players in one server at the same time.Up to 4 players can play together in a single task.
Example
This is a slightly abstract concept. One person is more than four or sixteen people.1 > 4. why would you say that for the society?If you understand that asynchronous online is equal to all-weather online, you can probably understand this truth.All the players said that they were tied to the fate of countless players, after climbing over numerous complicated terrain and defeating numerous BT.Everyone thinks they are not fighting alone.You can think that this kind of emergency narrative is very simple, which means that other players pass you other items to help you.But one thing to be clear is.Crossing the terrain and defeating boss are the core of the whole game.This is not a flash in the pan.It is a very romantic design to feel your connection with other players (or the world) at any time.
2. Network connection
Asynchronous connection emphasizes that it can “connect” the existence of other players’ characters while taking personal as the core of emergency narration.In the Death Stranding, the operations of other players will selectively appear in the player’s game environment after being screened by the server.Therefore, the requirements of asynchronous online games for network conditions are significantly lower than those of real-time online games.2、Since players may experience different network delays in receiving the same state update from the game server, some players can take early actions against the latest update before others have chances to react.2、The other concerns the order that the game server processes action messages from players. (2, IEEE, 2002) In 2, Multiplayer Online Battle Arena, all players’ operations will give real-time feedback to each other.These operation information based on real-time network will constitute a part of the story of players in the game.
For example, in my feedback, there are a lot of unexpected emergency narratives caused by network problems.For example, triggering a bug, having a car accident outside, and operating mistakes from teammates outside.These are all urgent narratives in gta online.But you will find that these factors are not closely related to your main story.Because this is not what designers deliberately buried.However, this problem does not exist in asynchronous online death stranding.Even in a bad network environment or even when the network is disconnected.You can still use other people’s belongings to realize your own emergency.For example, in some feedback, when a player crosses the high-altitude zip line, he encounters the animation effect that some other player dies here.At this time, you will be alert to the situation ahead.Is there a dangerous area ahead?From here, we can find that these emergency narratives do not disturb the original game atmosphere. They belong to the player’s personal emergency narratives, but they belong to this game environment and are not deliberately made by designers.Because the signals you receive still come from other players!
3. Emotional story
Asynchronous online weakens the deliberate social attribute in reality, and makes players pay more attention to their own emotional narrative.Sam, the protagonist of Death Stranding, is a patient with 3. Haphephobia.This is also reflected in the story of the game and social design.Players can’t ask for it. 3. Ask other players to do something and they won’t be asked to do anything.All the players’ behaviors are based on the principle of voluntariness.This kind of plot has been positively reflected in the stranding of death.In the records of 14 people, all of them chose to praise others after receiving the help of their belongings.All the players have chosen the items that help others during the game.Most people’s evaluation of this setting is warm and enjoyable for players.This positive situation is different from 3, Dark Souls(2011), 3, marks left by other players in your world.Most indicative markers are used to trick new players.Difficulties and depression are in line with the ideas conveyed by Dark Souls.This completely different phenomenon shows that asynchronous online can more truly reflect the emotional state of players in the game.In the records of GTA online, emotional feedback comes from the excitement of completing tasks and the frustration of task failure.Players’ emotional fluctuations mainly come from their own or teammates’ operations that affect the task progress.
4. Process story
Asynchronous online enhances the randomness of “randomness” and weakens the “optimal solution”
The random operation and decision of your peers in real-time online will affect you.But you can still decide who your fellow players are, and even influence his operation in his next actions.In the process of completing the given goals of the game, players and their teams will try their best to choose the way that best meets the needs of the goals to complete the tasks.This is one of the reasons why many large-scale open-world games with story narrative as the core are difficult to stimulate players’ desire to continue playing after they have cleared customs.Death stranding has changed the design of play.We can simply understand the play as moving the target object from location a to location b.In this process, players will encounter terrain obstacles.At this time, there are two choices.Use other people’s props or build their own props.These two behaviors can also occur simultaneously.It depends on the player’s choice.But it is more convenient to use other people’s props.For example, a zip line is useless, and only when the player’s zip line is matched with the zip lines of other players can the player feel the convenience.This way, the open world game is turned into a sandbox game.Although its influence is limited, its greatest advantage is that it blurs the “optimal solution”.There are countless ways for players to get from location a to location b.You can create new routes by yourself or refer to other people’s routes.Even continue the route that others have not finished.Your choice will not be influenced by peers like real-time online games.And the appearance of these non-player factors is random.In the game records of 14 players, there are 6 different routes and transportation modes for the route selection of the same task.These routes and modes of transportation are not game settings, but are selected by players.In the record of the multiplayer joint mission of GTA online, we can only choose the route given by the game.This choice is actually linear, and there is an “optimal solution”.In the course of the game, four players quickly finished the game by searching the introduction.
5. Stories outside the game
Asynchronous online makes players unable to know the real social information of other players.Let players have more associations with each other.Feel more real emotional feedback through the operation in the game.Follow your inner feelings.Hideo Kojima believes that innovations like social media have made it so easy to communicate that people forget to consider the humanity on the other end of a message. “We’re in an era of 5、individualism,” he says. “Everyone is fractured. Even on the internet. It’s all connected,All around the world, but everyone is fighting each other. “(5, Gault, 2019) After the death of playing stranded, four players thought that the way of playing changed his view of the real world.Especially the view of interpersonal relationship.This is different from common online games.In the past online games, players can get their social accounts through some channels.Players’ motivations for interacting with each other are highly dependent on the fact that they belong to the same organization and share similar in-game goals. In that respect, in-game associates can be conceived of as a type of given friend or default contact. These connections are also known as Aristotelian friendships of utility because interaction is motivated by the desire to accomplish common interests or tasks rather than mutual affinity （5、Ramirez,2018）