Mechanical Principles

A game for Jocks:

The ideal game genre for the jock psychographic I have created is first-person shooters (FPS). First-person shooters have a primarily physical mechanical system, with a secondary focus on mental acuity, a tertiary focus on entertainment mechanics, and in a small way, luck.

In the context of first-person shooters here, for the jock psychographic, there is an emphasis on shooters in a multiplayer context. First-person shooters rely most heavily on physical mechanics, which include timing, sensory awareness, and reflexes. These mechanics could accurately be categorized as components of “twitch gameplay” where the player’s reaction time, reflexes, and hand-eye coordination are constantly tested. It is important to distinguish between player ‘reactions’ and player reflexes, reactions are voluntary responses whereas reflexes are involuntary or unintentional. An example of a reaction in first-person shooters might best be demonstrated in the sniper role – where the most dominant snipers will see an enemy and within a few hundred milliseconds ‘flick’ their gun onto the enemy, killing them in an instant. There are countless YouTube videos dedicated to these ‘flick of the wrist’ shooters. These types of player reactions, like many real-world physical abilities, can be honed through repetition, becoming almost reflexive in nature. Sensory awareness and timing play a role in the larger meta-game of first-person shooters. Where good game design is concerned, auditory cues might allow a player to determine enemy location. A game like Overwatch has distinct footstep sounds for each playable hero – without even seeing the enemy a well-versed player could determine exactly what type of threat they could be facing. With visuals, enemy vs friendly team color or at a distance player silhouettes and enemy trajectory must often be assessed quickly. These visual and auditory signals allow a player to create a sort of “mental map” with the potential locations of friendlies and enemies. The most adept players will have this mental map down to a science, where a familiarity with the level would allow them to time exactly when another player might be “crossing the bridge” or “about to peek out of the window”. These skills represent spatial awareness and timing, but could also be considered mental mechanics at a higher level.

The use of mental mechanics in first-person shooters is what separates the top-tier players from the casual players. In the right framework, many dozens of mental mechanics could play a role in a FPS. Counter-Strike is the best example of a FPS with heavy mental mechanics, most notably strategic/tactical skill, deception, control of information, and pattern recognition/calculation. Strategic skill is a given, where players are allowed some time before a round begins to divvy up the roles, entry fraggers or supports or lurkers, how many of each role they require, and whether they should buy smokes, flashbangs, or defuse kits. This of course feeds directly into more immediate tactical decisions, whether the team will stay as a group, fan out, hold back or push, create a smokescreen or throw a flashbang before entering an area in response to enemy movements and positions. Deception and control of information fall into the same bucket and are a player-controlled variable. There are multiple ways to deceive the enemy in Counter-Strike, such as decoy grenades which appear the same as a flashbang and could cause an enemy to look away, leaving them vulnerable – some players have even mimicked ‘pop-flashes’ by instead throwing their pistol into a room before entering as a distraction. Control of information can be managed with smoke and flash grenade options, limiting enemy vision. More commonly, information can be controlled by walking instead of running to a location. This silences the sound of player footsteps and allows for effective sneak attacks. Pattern recognition and calculation could be described in a FPS as the ability for a player to recognize typical attack and defense patterns and subsequently calculating the appropriate tactical reactions. At higher levels, certain patterns become ubiquitous, smokes thrown, but no flashes for instance might indicate a bluff at that site, requiring the defense to adjust their locations accordingly.

There is an increasing focus on entertainment mechanics in the FPS genre where socialization and self-expression are concerned. Most FPS games will feature leaderboards showing the ‘Top 500’ for instance, the rise of e-sports serves as a backdrop for highlighting the most skilled teams and opening up a world of new strategies and tactics for a wider audience. Voice chat is integral to promoting teamwork and cooperation amongst a group of individuals, as text-only is not typically feasible in such a fast paced genre. Self-expression mechanics have grown as a way to hook individuals in the FPS genre with weapon skins and character cosmetics. Team Fortress 2 has been lambasted for its more recent focus on “more hats” instead of game improvements, Counter-Strike has had its own share of issues with the self-propagated weapon skins market, some items reaching thousands of real world dollars in value and being used for online gambling and betting. Intentional or not, the monetary value of these cosmetics has drastically increased the perceived ‘switching cost’ for many players.

Luck is present in FPS although the player still has to execute certain actions to take advantage of the present luck mechanics. Actions like throwing a grenade over a wall or ‘spraying and praying’ by taking advantage of implemented bullet spread – could invariably end with an enemy elimination devoid of any real skill. This is addictive to those gain benefit from such luck, but extremely demoralizing to the point of feeling unfair to the victims of it.

Each of these mechanical systems and their associated skills appeal to the jock target audience. The physical, mental, and entertainment mechanics present in the first-person shooter genre are in many ways analogous to sports and athletics in general. Using our psychographic as a baseline, we want to target the jock with a genre that allows them to exhibit their competitive and social wherewithal. First-person shooters are competitive, round-based experiences, which ends up with winners and losers. Relatively short rounds equate to lots of gameplay in a condensed amount of time, with nearly zero storytelling. Voice chat helps keep these types of gamers engaged - they can trash talk or coordinate with teammates. Fast reflexes and good hand-eye coordination are rewarded with a number of “twitch mechanics”. The mental side of FPS plays right into those who enjoy teamwork and understand the necessity of different roles on a team for success. For example, there could potentially be a basketball team composed of all Power Forwards versus a team of all Shooting Guards – the imbalance creates in interesting experience, but neither configuration would be as successful as a diverse tea, containing a player of each position. Entertainment mechanics equivalent to athletics are as simple as basketball sleeves and shoes. These are “cosmetics” which allow players to wear Iverson’s or Jordan’s and exhibit some individuality. Luck will always be a factor in sports, like the half-court shot. Some skill is involved, but often it comes down to chance, throw it 100 times, you’ll make it 10. There are many reasons the jock psychographic might be interested in a first-person shooter, but the present mechanical systems certainly make a convincing case.

A game for Intellectuals:

The ideal game genre for the intellectual psychographic is real-time strategy (RTS). The dominant mechanical system in RTS games is mental, with a secondary focus on physical mechanics.

A well-designed RTS will use a large number of mental mechanical systems. For this examination, we will look at data recall, multitasking, strategic/tactical skills, control of information, and deception. Real-time strategy has evolved from the era of predominantly turn-based strategy in favor of faster-paced gameplay which requires players to make intelligent decisions under time pressure.

Data recall and multitasking may be the mechanical systems used most frequently in the RTS genre. Rock-paper-scissor mechanics are a common method of creating parity. The player may know before a battle which ‘race’ the enemy will be employing, which allows the player to recollect which unit or strategic options are available to each particular race. By drawing on knowledge of the game, the player can begin crafting their army accordingly. A tank for instance, might directly be countered by enemy aerial units, as the tank can only attack ground units. The player, seeing his tanks unable to defend themselves, would construct anti-air missile launching units to accompany the tanks to their destination. The ability to recall the relevant unit counters, strengths, and weaknesses provides a distinct advantage to the player. In order to utilize this knowledge however, the modern RTS emphasizes the ability to multitask. The game elements requiring a player’s attention might include resources, buildings, and units. Managing resources like energy, credits, or population caps act as gateways to improving the player army or city. Expert players will understand these limitations before they become an issue, often overbuilding early to prevent complications as the game progresses. Buildings must be managed in regards to the building’s specific functions, such as troop and vehicle creation or upgrades, even specific building placement to maximize the space used. Units can, depending on the game, number in the hundreds to thousands. It is the pinnacle of multitasking ability to manage an army of such a size and wield it effectively whilst employing an overall strategy.

Strategy and tactics in the RTS genre fall hand-in-hand with control of information and deception. It is important to distinguish between the strategy employed in a title like StarCraft and the strategy employed in Civilization or Total War. StarCraft’s vision of strategy typically is centered on maximizing efficiency in resources, unit production and base building for a singular battle. Whereas Civilization and Total War are concerned with politicking, deception, military strategy, and managing resources on a larger scale to win the war. Most of our examples here are focused on strategy and tactics in titles similar to StarCraft.

One of the most attractive features of the RTS genre is the ability for any number of player-created tactics and strategies to be successful. It is the hallmark of a well-designed RTS that there is no readily apparent predominant strategy/tactic to exploit, in other words, anything can work. To illustrate some of the diversity in tactics and strategy, one could look at StarCraft where some players might choose to employ a “Zerg Rush” strategy. This strategy employs building large numbers of cheap, relatively weak troops (Zerglings) early in the game to rush the enemy and deal significant damage prior to the opponent’s ability to adequately defend themselves. The downside to this strategy, is that failure to deal the requisite blow, will inevitably result in a crushing counter-attack. Another strategy might involve the use of drop ships to deploy large numbers of troops behind enemy lines unseen. This would act as a lead into tactics that sandwich the enemy and provide an ambush advantage. Nearly every strategy and tactic relies on control of information. The most commonly implemented control of information mechanic is by design a “fog of war” which allows the player to only see areas of the map over which they have some control or a unit with vision. Without fog of war, players who understand the rock-paper-scissor mechanics would inevitably change their strategy upon seeing the enemy plan of attack. This might be a useful exercise in practice, but does not allow players to employ deception. Deception might be as simple as sending one Zergling into the enemy base as a scout, forcing the enemy into thinking that perhaps the player will be employing a Zerg Rush and making adjustments in response. When in reality the player has instead decided to create heavy, powerful units supplemented by aerial units. The enemy may be wholly unprepared to deal with this series of threats – with fog of war turned off, this type of gameplay would not be possible.

Physical mechanical systems are also employed in the RTS genre, allowing those with a strong grasp of the mental side to make quick and effective decisions. Speed of reflex and sensory awareness/timing play the largest roles. At its highest levels, the quality of a StarCraft player may be directly attributed to his/her Actions per Minute (APM). This is a measurement of the player’s ability to perform meaningful actions and how quickly those actions are performed. Speed of reflex and reaction time paired with a strong mental understanding increases gameplay efficiency and as a result is a good metric for player skill. This also forces the enemy to focus on many other things than they may have otherwise intended. Superior sensory awareness allows players to deal with these threats before they happen or deal with them more effectively as they occur. With an understanding of the map, perhaps by exploring and learning possible routes of attacks – adept players will understand the timing down to the minute for certain potential strategies and can exploit this knowledge to prepare. Even without seeing an enemy through fog of war, players can sometimes anticipate and time enemy movements.

The mental and physical systems in the real-time strategy genre appeal to the intellectual psychographic. The RTS genre fulfills many of the needs and wants of this psychographic. The format of an RTS is in essence a difficult and abstract puzzle, requiring an understanding of the intricacies of the game world. It doesn’t hurt that many intellectuals are open to fantasy and sci-fi genres, as many RTS’ fit into these buckets, and will share basic lore principles and world magic/science across franchises. The opportunity for many tactics and strategies defined by the player is extremely appealing to inventive intellectuals. The extraordinarily high skill cap with combined mental and physical mechanical systems allows for a great deal of min-maxing by the player and fits the “minutes to learn and a lifetime to master” mantra. The RTS genre fits into the needs and wants of the intellectual psychographic.

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