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Intellectual Manageability An experienced gamer is often accustomed to managing many tasks at once. At one extreme are the strategy gamers who can handle up to 20 to 30 structures and 100 to 150 individual units at once with only a mild sense of panic. But even these people prefer to manage the units in groups because, intellectually, it’s easier to manage fewer objects — fewer objects means higher intellectual manageability. Many independent studies in various professional fields conclude that seven is the highest number of objects that a person can comfortably keep in mind at once. This maxim applies to computer games as well. Maintaining an overview of what’s going on is easier if you have a maximum of (more or less) seven things on which to concentrate. If you’re making a game for novice gamers, you should pay attention to the game’s intellectual manageability. Of course, this seven-object rule is only a guideline. It doesn’t mean that no matter what, the player can only choose from one of seven alternatives. Restricting a role-playing–game character’s inventory to seven items would be nonsensical, for example. Alternatives can also be arranged in hierarchies to adhere to the seven-object rule. At any one time, a player in a role-playing game may choose to move, rest, fight, or administrate his or her character. If the player chooses to fight, he or she can attack, guard, shoot, or use an item. At any level in the hierarchy, the player is never faced with more than seven alternatives from which to choose. Grouping, as I mentioned previously, is also a technique used to increase the intellectual manageability in games. Games in the Warcraft genre let players choose a group of units and give them a single command. Thus, even if many more than seven units must be managed at once, the units are treated as groups and not as individuals. Some games violate all of this and still manage to reach a wider group of players. Civilization 2 is a good example. There may be many reasons why Civilization 2 managed to attract novice gamers, but the most important is that players start with a simple, easily manageable situation (one settler unit) and then build the first city and add various units and cities progressively. Thus, the increased intellectual complexity is introduced gradually, and it’s introduced consciously by the players themselves.
Still, when you make a game for novice gamers, you should keep an eye on the game’s intellectual manageability at all times. The level of complexity is especially important in the beginning of a game. If you present players with an immediately complex situation, even experienced gamers will be turned off. Epilogue: But Won’t It Be Boring? You may say that making a game for novice gamers means making a boring game. However, nothing could be further from the truth. Game elements that work traditional computer games are still valid for games intended for novice gamers. Good game play, variation, an interesting story, pleasing visuals, and engaging audio are important elements in making games for novice gamers too. The hypotheses and guidelines described herein are merely additional challenges that you have to face if you truly want to reach a wider audience than the traditional computer gamers. Trond W. Larsen has worked as a producer at Funcom Oslo AS for four years. For the last two-and-a-half years, he’s been responsible for the games on Funcom’s game site. He is a Master of Management and Economics from the Norwegian School of Management. |
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