Bored Gamers: Special first, social second

Jim Devereaux on catering for gamers’ needs

T here’s a special intimacy that exists between a player and their game. That invisible connection that intersects your eyes, ears and hands and taps directly into your imagination. Whether you’re alone in a darkened room or leaping about in amongst your friends, you still maintain that connection. It’s the same when reading a book, listening to music or watching a movie.

Only even more than that, as you constantly input to alter, react to and change the parameters of what you are experiencing.

This intimacy is none more powerful then when you assume the role of the hero; a fantasy we all love to indulge in. Like Alice in Wonderland, Dorothy in Oz or Neo in The Matrix, they transcend a humble and insignificant existence in the ‘real’ world to become, even if it’s only short lived,
the hero of another.

Computer games have been experts at this transition for decades, and as technology has improved have become all the more thrilling and believable in doing so.

But technology is a double-edged sword where, just as the worlds have become richer and more vibrant, the ways for people to connect to and share those experiences have changed beyond all recognition. For the first time in human history, not only can human beings share information in real time with one another regardless of geographical location, we can now directly interact in virtual environments of our own design. Assume the roles of whom or whatever we desire in either collaboration or competition.

Developers must balance our want to be social with our need to be special

The net result of such aspirations, however, is the ransacking of
the individual player experience. It’s no longer acceptable to be the
only little girl who can save Oz; no Dorothy, you need to queue up behind 10,000 other people who got here earlier, wait for the wicked witch to respawn, and good luck getting past her because you haven’t even levelled up yet!

The drive to integrate players from all over the world is an admirable one, but the first duty of any gaming experience should be its core purpose.

Just because you can do something doesn’t mean you should.

The technology to match players together from anywhere in the
world in real time is amazing, but such a facility should never be
at the sacrifice of the individual experience.

Let this be a cautionary tale, from which developers must learn
to prioritise the core experience whilst balancing our want to be
social – with our need to be special.

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