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PREVIOUS ARTICLES

#125 CIV TO CIVII: LESSONS OF THE PAST FOR CIVIII Father Beast examines three key points that he feels are a must for inclusion in Civilization III. #124 CIVILIZATION III Tim Bromige gets right to his point: what was wrong in CivII can be fixed in CivIII. #123 TPOD & ROACSG: THE PHYSICS OF SUGGESTION In the third and final installment of this article, TheLimey evaluates Firaxis' and Activision's response to Civer input-suggestions on upcoming titles. #122 TPOD & ROACSG: THE RISE & FALL In his article's second installment, TheLimey picks apart the pieces of Civilization: Call To Power. #121 THE SPAMMER'S REPUTATION adaMada wrestles with the question about some users' reputation in the Off-Topic forum. COLUMN ARCHIVE

I was around when Firaxis was accepting suggestions for SMAC and I'm currently in the thick of designing Technocracy. There's a thing or two I've learned about what makes an addictive game that I'd like to share.

Mood. All games are actually a form of role-playing; in Civ games you play the role of national leader. The deeper you can place the player into this role the more entranced he is in the game. This can be developed by having a storyline behind the game like SMAC. But Firaxis did not develop it as well as it should have; the website had some great stories but the game didn't include anything. Games like Civ can't really have much of a storyline, but there is definite room in Dino. Another way to increase the mood of the game could be to simply alter the way the game communicates with a player. Instead of saying "Your people are clamoring for legalized cannibalism", phrase it from the role of an advisor bringing you this news. Eccentricities like this subconsciously alters the way the player views his role in the game. Flavor art (art that is not used for gameplay purposes) is also helpful.

Sense of Creation. The reason why Sim City, Tomigotchis (remember those?), and Civ games are so addicting is that the game is all about the player making an creation and further molding it throughout the game. The more you enhance this sense of creation and ownership the more the player becomes attached to it. I have laid awake at night unable to sleep while my mind pondered the endless things that I could do with my civ. Having auto-management features detract from this sense of creation, but are sometimes necessary for the game. The more control the player has over his creation the better. Micro-management is not necessarily the key, but rather having many facets of control. The difference is that micro-management is just management of the minor details of a facet, while a facet is actually a completely seperate area of control. An example of micro-management would be the supply lines in Civ2 (a detail of the production facet), while a management facet could be diplom! acy. Adding new facets would be the best way to enhance the player's sense of creation without plunging the user into an overwhelming sea of micro-management features.

Conflict. Creation and conflict seem to be diametrically opposite of each other. After all, Sim City, regarded as one of the best "builder" games, has very little conflict. However, Civ shows us that conflict complements creation. What better way to stir the emotions of a player than threatening the user's creation? The creation-creator relationship is much like a child-parent relationship. Protection of your creation is your highest concern. However, the threat must be strong enough for the user to be concerned with the threat. But it can't be too strong as to overwhelm the player and causing the player to give up. A tricky balance indeed. It is also best to have only one primary threat at a time. The more you split the concern a player has for the survival of his creation the more you decrease the overall concern.

As you can see, the goal in mind that everyone should have is not realism or gameplay, but rather addictiveness. Although both realism and gameplay affect addiction, addiction is an independent goal of itself. I would even classify it as being on the same level of a goal as "fun". An addicting game might not be particularly fun, but it occupies the player and creates the illusion of fun.

It's been a long time since I've written a column and I hope this makes sense to all of you.

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About the author (self-quote): "ex-Civ player, admin of GameLeague and the upcoming Technocracy, and an Apolyton "Master of CGI"".

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