Keeping Players off the Grass

or

Please Dear God Follow the Story; pt1 - Deterrents

Today we return to the world of game writing so I can acquire a few achievements I missed last time I was in this zone. Er, I mean to elucidate a few finer points of meshing game play and story telling in a modern medium. >_>

Deterrents:

The first step to keeping players on track is stopping them from going off track. There are a few tools to do this that we will discuss in a moment but first ask yourself; do you really want to? As Blizzard can tell you players are very determined little punks, if there is a place that's off limits they will try really hard to get there and they will find any hole in your walls, any exploits, clipping errors, or 1337 H4X0RZ they can think of to let them get there.

Your first and best defense is simply to not mind if they go wherever they want to go. Many people even consider it fun to explore where they aren't supposed to be and this "feature" might even make your game enjoyable.

But players (much like people) sometimes just need to be stopped. So here is a run down of the tactics to do so.

Non-existence: the most absolute way to stop someone from going somewhere or doing something is to simply to ERASE IT FROM REALITY!!!

Remember those old games that would start with some mentor saying something like,

"Here is the ultimate gunswordcane of godplanet slaying +9000, you can have this when you prove yourself. Now I will just leave it here on this pedestal unguarded while I look the other way because the universe was designed to not let you click it yet. MUAHAHAH." 

That is called being a dick. This is the exact opposite of that. If you don't want them having something then don't have it exist until they are ready for it. If you don't want them going somewhere then have that someplace be totally unconnected from anywhere they can go until they should go there.

Careful though, some things are kinda obvious that they should exist (especially places) and the game will seem a little off if it doesn't exist. ("Outside of the house? What outside? I've never heard of an outside, that's crazy talk!") Also if the player can freely move around and they move to where something should be and don't find it and the only reason they didn't find it was because you didn't want them to have it yet, they will have an upset.

Ignorance: The first and best way to stop someone from doing something is to not give them the information to access something. There are a few variants to this method.

1. An item is visible but until you are told it does something or is of import you can't click it. This will probably backfire on you though; people will see it early try to use it and find they can't then later when they can they won't try to because they "know" it doesn't do anything, or you will have the gunswordcane problem mentioned above all over again.
2. The item can always be accessed but you would never tell it was different then the rest of the world unless you are told so. This has two problems A): people read walkthroughs, true fact. B): you force your player into hours of hunting and pecking (I am looking straight at you original Legend of Zelda (--_--)
3. Advancement is unlocked through conversation and certain conversation pieces only become available through knowledge. This is your best bet to use ignorance as a barrier.

A Wall: Put a fricken wall in peoples way, A bit crude but effective. The real question becomes how do you bypass the wall?

1. A key. You must get the X of Y'ing to open the great gate of Z. Simple enough but often boring.
2. A conversation, see part three above. This can be a talking door, a fat guy blocking your way (please dont actually do that), or a conversation that gives you the key.
3. An event, pulling a lever in another room, unjamming the dam down river, cutting the power, killing the load bearing boss; whatevs. This can be the greatest way to make a wall.... or the worst. Just think carefully about whether it makes any sense before using it.

Epilogue - The unpassable wall:
Some times you just never ever want a player going somewhere. So here is how you stop them.

1. The impassible wall. You make a wall with no door, that's it. Just make sure there really is no door. WoW is full of "impossible to reach areas." I've been to most of them. Nice way to avoid making maps but you really need to be thorough about it.
2. The wall of death. "Oh you chose to walk off the cliff? You are dead. Reload - Quit?" This is useful for giving the player the sense that he is free to make dumb mistakes without actually having to let him make those dumb mistakes. Works well if death has little penalty and in games where death is a function of story and not of stats and game mechanics.
3. "You chose not to do that." Also, "You can't go you still have to do Blah," "That doesn't seem like a good idea," "Then you changed your mind and returned." <--- There is a special hell for people who bring their crying children to theaters and people who do this. You will spend eternity watching soap operas directed by M.Night Shamylan based on mediocre to poor /slash fiction.

bourgeouis was way to hard to spell

Just Do What You Want To Do!

Every writing blogger, English teacher, critic, and person who knows the rudiments of how to write will give you lots of advice and rules to follow in order to write properly. Rules on what makes good writing and what makes bad writing. This blog is no different.* But through all of these rules on what is good and bad I want to stress one point.

"Just Do What You Want To Do!"

If you want to introduce the murder weapon in the last scene, put in an unhappy ending, let the bad guy get away with it, OR JST SPEL LIEK U MEEN IT!!!111!

Then "Just Do What You Want To Do!"

What' u talkin 'bout?

Let me explain and make this clear. I don't mean ignore all that stuff and stop learning and growing. What I do mean is, don't let all that hold you back. You see there are three stages to learning; apprentice, journeyman, and master. I will add a fourth to the beginning called, nube.

1. - When you first start an art (any art) you are just playing around, you are a nube. You just want to have fun and see if you love this art. Don't go learning and worrying about rules when you're not even sure you want to pursue something seriously just do whatever you want to do and have fun.

You see at this stage you suck. It's that simple, you suck. It's not a poor reflection on your character that you suck. You are in fact supposed to suck and nothing but time will make you not suck; not rules, advice, talent, or passion. So just enjoy it and have fun.

2. - Second of course comes a stage where you are struggling to learn your art. You are an apprentice. An apprentice is the exception, this is the one and only time to strictly follow rules because you're just learning. The job of an apprentice is to learn all the rules. Yes it is boring, tough it out. Of course if you are getting bored then just take a day off and do whatever you want to remember why it's fun again.

3. - Then you are a journeyman. A journeyman is an apprentice who has learned all the rules but hasn't figured out when they apply and when there is an exception. The only way to learn that, is trial and error. So, "Just Do What You Want To Do!" and when you break a rule look at the result and learn what happens.

4. - Last a master is someone who does not need the rules. For Example: He does not put Chekhov's gun in the first act because he was told to, he does it because he can feel the incredulity of the audience if it comes any later. "Just Do What You Want To Do!" you have earned it.


*The opposite of a fact is a falsehood, the opposite of a wise saying is another wise saying.

ps - This advice is not intended to mean that "Just Doing What You Want To Do" will result in a 'good' product. Just that you should try it anyway even though it will come out 'bad'.

pps - Sage advice totally opposed to all of this, detailing how you can stop fucking up, will resume in our next installment.