Score Systems

[droqen]

I won't do separate posts for all 'close readings' relevant to this topic. Maybe I need a new forum category? For now, this will do - I'll put this topic in 'primordial soup' and hopefully revisit it a few times.

Score Systems

[droqen]

Are Score Systems Still Relevant? - watching this today

But as gaming moved over to home consoles, the focus shifted over to games that could be finished. Games like Megaman and Castlevania did hold onto high scores for a time, but players were more interested in fighting the end boss, saving the princess, and seeing the end of the story. And as for competition, real-time multiplayer became more interesting than leaderboards. The glory days of points, high scores, and personal bests, was over.

Is there still a place for high scores in 2018?

Is this the right question? That is, it had never really occurred to me that maybe the only purpose of a score system is high scores.

1. Scores can provide an additional level of difficulty

2. Scores can reveal completely new ways to play

3. Scores can encourage you to see the intended experience

[droqen]

Gunpoint, and Ladderdots

Sometimes a game will reward you - with points, or anything - for playing the game in a way that you as a player find less interesting. What's to be done in a situation like this?

A specific personal example: Gunpoint rewards you for perfect stealth, which I didn't enjoy as much as I would have enjoyed tinkering with everything and screwing it up. The suggestion of the existence of a perfect run... I don't think there's anything wrong with that conceptually. But, it felt like a much more restricted way to play that didn't let me fool around as much. Did it put the right tools on display? I guess I couldn't say. I didn't give myself

Ladderdots did the same for [..] in the paradise discord. Maybe the game didn't have enough depth; the score system indicated a deep system which ended up being quite trivial.

CONCLUSION: Not all games benefit from score systems. Score systems indicate "There is a better way to play this." Score systems belong in a game where you think the best gameplay exists at the edge of the score system -- improving and playing as perfectly as possible should be the desired experience, the cutting edge of what you love about playing the game.

Well, that was short.

[droqen]

More from Are Score Systems Still Relevant? -

Assault Android Cactus

- the 'novice player' get batteries from dead enemies experience mirrors the 'veteran player' full-chain combo experience, so that if you don't pursue high scores, you still get the same 'intended experience'.

- there is an S+ rank that you can achieve by fully chaining a combo, but the game doesn't suggest this as a bonus until you actually do it yourself

Hiding this away until players prove their worth is a neat way to stop players becoming demoralized when they're hit with crappy medals at the very start of their experience.

"NEW GAME+", but based on proving your skill in any single level rather than after completing the whole game. I like it!

(Unlocking difficulty modes?)

[droqen]

Scores are communication. They're there for the developer to indicate to a player that their efforts are noticed, that striving for more is possible, and encouraged.

What's that relationship look like? Mark Brown's video indicates three core messages:

Scores can provide an additional level of difficulty
Hey, you should try doing that faster/more precisely/etc.
You should try avoiding making these types of errors.
I feel like scores make the easiest difficulty the default, and in order to play harder difficulties, you must submit to the Score System... not sure my thoughts here make any sense.

Scores can reveal completely new way to play
Hey, what can you do to make your score go up?
Maybe you haven't exhausted all the possibilities.
Hey, what if you tried that thing that seems impossible and impractical?

Scores can encourage you to see the intended experience
Hey, what if you did X more often?
It's a simple reward... this thing gives you more points/more rank.
Communication.

~

As a player you can choose to disengage with a score system in a way that you cannot disengage with other rules of the world: physics, death, resources.

I like the idea of a score system because as a channel of communication from game design to player.

There is more here, and if you're interested, follow this golden thread up, to wherever it leads.

At its peak, there is often an unintended or unknown way to play. This fascinates me, but it's not design, it's just appreciation.