Among the reading of this week, I want to talk something about Big Reality. It’s an interesting game genre, but most of games in this type are experiments. I noticed this thing about 3 years ago, from a start-up company in China which focused on AR technology. They want to utilize Big Reality to find practical utility of their tech. Unfortunately, I didn’t hear anything about them for a year.
The article also remind me of another thing. It’s a positive example. There is a student activity named Model United Nations. If you didn’t know what’s this, to make it simple, is an activity that students from Universities and Colleges (in China there are also some high school students) trying to pretend they are diplomatist, having meeting (like real United Nations do) to address global concerns in a real world context. When I read the word “The games we make often have elements of collaboration, but also usually have some form of player vs. player competition, and less about puzzle-solving and more about skill, tactics, and strategy”, I realized that MUN is actually kind of Big Reality games.
That’s interesting, isn’t it? It’s hard to tell why the AR company couldn’t get it but MUN did success. Even so, we can still find some clue about compelling elements of Big Reality.
1) Narrative
In the article, Frank said they want their game with less content driven, even distract. This is the only part I can’t agree with him. One important thing of multiplayer game is the sense of identification. Player played a role which is different from their life, and this unique experience becomes the playing motivation.
2) New mechanic
“New” doesn’t need to be brand new. One point I like Pac Manhattan is that they broke the balance of information. It means that this game looks like Pac Man, but the experience could be totally different. In Pac man, you know everything as the other guys know, your job is simple; but in Pac Manhattan, you need to do some reasoning to find the best decision.
3) Participation
Give players something to do. I don’t like “games” in which players could just observe the environment, open a door or something. I think it’s not really interaction. You should create something to make players feel they could influence the game world.
4) Accumulation
A very important part. What kind of features make players return to a game? What kind of system make players feel like they are playing even they are not in the games? Accumulation. In big reality, creating some virtual things, such as exp, fake money, equipment, skill point and so on, let players collect them or produce them. This feature can make players’ account and play action more valuable.
The article also remind me of another thing. It’s a positive example. There is a student activity named Model United Nations. If you didn’t know what’s this, to make it simple, is an activity that students from Universities and Colleges (in China there are also some high school students) trying to pretend they are diplomatist, having meeting (like real United Nations do) to address global concerns in a real world context. When I read the word “The games we make often have elements of collaboration, but also usually have some form of player vs. player competition, and less about puzzle-solving and more about skill, tactics, and strategy”, I realized that MUN is actually kind of Big Reality games.
That’s interesting, isn’t it? It’s hard to tell why the AR company couldn’t get it but MUN did success. Even so, we can still find some clue about compelling elements of Big Reality.
1) Narrative
In the article, Frank said they want their game with less content driven, even distract. This is the only part I can’t agree with him. One important thing of multiplayer game is the sense of identification. Player played a role which is different from their life, and this unique experience becomes the playing motivation.
2) New mechanic
“New” doesn’t need to be brand new. One point I like Pac Manhattan is that they broke the balance of information. It means that this game looks like Pac Man, but the experience could be totally different. In Pac man, you know everything as the other guys know, your job is simple; but in Pac Manhattan, you need to do some reasoning to find the best decision.
3) Participation
Give players something to do. I don’t like “games” in which players could just observe the environment, open a door or something. I think it’s not really interaction. You should create something to make players feel they could influence the game world.
4) Accumulation
A very important part. What kind of features make players return to a game? What kind of system make players feel like they are playing even they are not in the games? Accumulation. In big reality, creating some virtual things, such as exp, fake money, equipment, skill point and so on, let players collect them or produce them. This feature can make players’ account and play action more valuable.