Emergent gameplay

Emergent gameplay is the creative use of a videogame in ways unexpected by the game designer's original intent. It commonly appears as complex behaviors that emerge from the interaction of simple game mechanisms.

The components of a game can be broken down in basic form to include: a game universe, game rules, game objects, communication tools, game objectives (or winning scenario) and game engine (or board). Emergent play usually involves leveraging one or more of these components.

More recently game designers have attempted to encourage emergent play by providing tools to players such as placing web browsers within the game engine (such as in "EVE Online", "The Matrix Online"), providing XML integration tools and programming languages ("Second Life"), and fixing exchange rates ("Project Entropia").

Examples

Unusual AI behavior

Emergent gameplay can arise from a game's AI performing actions or creating effects unexpected by even the software developers. This may be by either a software glitch, the game working normally but producing unexpected results when played in an abnormal way or software that allows for AI development; for example the unplanned genetic diseases that can occur in the Creatures series. [ [http://www.biota.org/papers/sginterview.html "The Origin of CyberLife: An interview with Steve Grand by Sue Wilcox"] retrieved from biota.org, in which Grand discusses emergence.]

Creative solutions

In games with complex physics and flexible object interaction it may be possible to complete in-game problems using solutions that the game designers did not foresee. "Deus Ex" is often cited as a game responsible for promoting the idea of emergent gameplay, [cite web | url=http://www.igda.org/articles/hsmith_future.php | title=Deus Ex designer Harvey Smith discusses emergent gameplay | publisher=IGDA] with players developing interesting solutions such as using wall-mounted mines as pitons for climbing walls.

Glitch or quirk-based strategies

In several games, especially first-person shooters, game glitches or physics quirks can become viable strategies, or even spawn their own game types. In id Software's "Quake" series, rocket jumping is one such strategy. In the game "Halo 2", pressing the melée attack button quickly followed by X and the primary fire button would result in the player not having to wait for the gun to be back in position to shoot after a melée attack. Doing this has become known as "BXR-ing".

Thanks to a programming oversight by Capcom, the "combo" (or "2-1 combo") notion was introduced with the fighting game "Street Fighter II", when skilled players learned that they could combine several attacks that left no time for their opponents to recover, as long as they were timed correctly. [http://www.1up.com/do/feature?cId=3134279 1up.com - The Essential 50, Part 32: Street Fighter II] ]

In the first game of the franchise, a physics bug allowed repetitive jumping to significantly lower friction for players on the expansive and sloping outdoor terrain. This gave rise to a tactic known as "skiing", quickly popularized with various client-side scripts to automate the process. The gameplay challenges and opportunities created proved so popular that it became a formal feature in subsequent games.

A technique called "surfing" has emerged in the game "", whereby the player is able to slide along sloped geometry. Special maps have been created (with the prefix 'surf_') that exploit this physics glitch, featuring large sloping geometry that the players slide down, achieving great speeds.

equence breaking

Completing games without getting certain items or by skipping seemingly required portions of gameplay result in sequence breaking, a technique that has developed its own dedicated community. Often, speed of completion and/or minimalist use of items are respectable achievements.

This technique has long been used in the Metroid game series and has developed into a community devoted to speed runs.

Cat and Mouse

In online car racing games, particularly "Project Gotham Racing", players came up with this variation. The racers play on teams of at least two cars. Each team picks one very slow car, and their goal is to have their slow car cross the finish line first. Thus the team members in faster cars aim to push their slow car into the lead and ram their opposing teams' slow cars off the road.

Real economy interaction

Traders in massively multiplayer online games with economic systems play purely to acquire virtual game objects or avatars which they then sell for real-world money on auction websites or game currency exchange sites. This results in the trader's play objective to make real money regardless of the original game designer's objectives.

Many games prohibit currency trading in the end user license agreement (EULA), but it is still a common practice. The issue of currency trading is hotly debated in gaming circles.

Some players provide real world services (like website design, web hosting) paid for with in-game currency. This can influence the economy of the game, as players gain wealth/power in the game unrelated to game events. For example, this strategy is used in Blizzard Entertainment's "World of Warcraft".Fact|date=October 2008

Gambling

Gambling and lotteries may occur in online role-playing games such as "EVE Online" and "Dark Age of Camelot". The provision of gambling services in exchange for in-game currency can take the forms of a lottery, card games, event betting, or any number of other variations, most often at least loosely based on established real-world games. Players typically establish a betting facility, lottery etc. Players typically create a website for executing the gambling, then accept payment from gamblers using in-game currency to credit the gambler's website account. Winnings are then paid back to the gambler's account.Other forms of gambling are commonly used in Massively Multiplayer Online Games, such as betting on who will win a duel.

Game financial institutions

In games with no financial law game mechanism, players develop financial institutions. Forms include banks or investment schemes launched with an IPO, typically based purely on trust.

The world's first MMORPG IPO was "ISS Marginis" [cite web | url=http://www.eve-iss.com/marginis/index.asp | title=ISS Marginis, worlds first MMOG IPO] by the Interstellar Starbase Syndicate "(ISS)" in Eve-Online, on 29 September 2005. This was for a dividend based on profitability. The ISS followed up with a series of IPOs, culminating in an IPO of the player guild itself [cite web | url=http://www.eve-iss.com/isso | title=Interstellar Starbase Syndicate - Player Guild IPO] promising a fixed return, like a Bond. Eve-Online has no game-mechanism for financial law.

In games with rough economies like World of Warcraft's Auction House system, some players make a living by buying items that are unusually low priced and reselling them at high prices, or by buying out all competition and creating a monopoly.

Theories

imulation

Emergent gameplay appears when there is good game simulation according to Peter Molyneux, creator of "Populous" and other games. Simulated worlds allow players to play around the world and should respond realistically to player’s action. This is what made "SimCity" and "The Sims" compelling to people. Similarly, being able to freely interact with the city’s inhabitants in the "Grand Theft Auto" series adds an extra dimension to the games.

The following is an example of emergent gameplay Molyneux gave with his game, " Fable":

He says he watched a 15-year old playtester chat up a woman in town who happened to be the mayor's daughter. He brought her gifts and flowers, talked to her all the time, started hugging and kissing her... and eventually they married and moved in together. Molyneux says he was delighted that a player was exploring this part of the game. Then the playtester talked to the Mayor and asked him to follow him. He took the mayor out to the woods, got him behind a tree ... and killed him! "Why did you do that!?" Molyneux asked. "I figured the mayor was rich, and he'd give all his money to his only daughter," answered the tester. Of course, now the daughter had lots of money, but didn't want to share any of it. So the playtester killed her, too. (Then he moved into the mayor's house!)

Molyneux also claims that emergence (or emergent gameplay) is where game development is headed in the future. [cite news | last = Kosak | first = Dave | title = The Future of Games from a Design Perspective | publisher = gamespy.com | date = 2004-03-07 | url = http://archive.gamespy.com/articles/march04/dice/molyneux/index.shtml]

ee also

*Metagaming
*Alternate reality game

References