Test Players' Life Skills
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Refrain from Testing Virtual Skills and Abilities
While virtual skills and abilities can enhance a player’s chances of accomplishing in-game objectives, they should not serve as the sole determinants of success. Examples of such virtual enhancements include:
The Overdraw perk in The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim.
The GLA General’s Anthrax Bomb ability in Command & Conquer: Generals.
The Double Tap perk in Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare.
These in-game advantages certainly provide a degree of leverage, yet they must remain subordinate to real-life cognitive and strategic skills. Consider the following examples, which illustrate how games test real-world abilities even when virtual powers are used:
Example: Overdraw Perk in The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
This perk increases damage output by 20% when using bows or crossbows—a considerable advantage in combat. However, to effectively eliminate enemies using this perk, players must also demonstrate a range of real-life skills, including:
Strategic Thinking: The player must adapt tactics dynamically in response to enemy behavior, taking cover, avoiding attacks, and striking at opportune moments.
Concentration: Accurate shooting demands focused attention to successfully hit moving or distant targets.
Determination: Persistence is essential, as success may require repeated efforts to defeat tough enemies.
Problem-Solving: When encountering unfamiliar or powerful enemy attacks, the player must quickly develop countermeasures.
Spatial Awareness: Constant monitoring of one’s surroundings is necessary to detect threats and track enemy movement.
Multi-tasking: Players must simultaneously manage resources such as health, mana, stamina, and ammunition while maintaining offensive pressure.
Example: Anthrax Bomb in Command & Conquer: Generals
The Anthrax Bomb is one of the GLA’s most powerful assets, delivered via aircraft to eliminate enemy infantry within a large radius and damage light vehicles. Nevertheless, the mere deployment of this weapon does not guarantee victory. The player must also exhibit the following competencies:
Strategic Thinking: Access to this weapon is gated by experience, requiring the player to reach the rank of 5-star general. Once unlocked, the bomb can be used immediately, with a six-minute cooldown before subsequent use. Proper timing and placement are crucial to maximize its impact and to exploit the temporary immobilization of enemy forces.
Concentration: The bomb must be deployed precisely and at an optimal time to achieve strategic objectives.
Determination: After using the weapon, the player must capitalize on the disruption by continuing the offensive against weakened enemy forces.
Problem-Solving: Once the bomb is dropped, the player must assess the remaining enemy assets and formulate a plan to eliminate them.
Spatial Awareness: Vigilance is required to identify immediate threats and recognize opportunities for further attack.
Multi-tasking: Alongside deploying the Anthrax Bomb, the player must simultaneously manage the economy, build units, and respond to enemy actions elsewhere on the map.
Example: Double Tap Perk in Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare
This perk increases the rate of fire by 33%, significantly enhancing potential damage output. Despite this advantage, success in gameplay still hinges on the same real-world abilities identified in the Skyrim example above. Players must exhibit concentration, strategic thinking, spatial awareness, problem-solving, determination, and multi-tasking to survive and prevail in high-intensity combat scenarios.
Prioritize Life Skills Over Random Chance
If a game does not require players to utilize real-life skills, success may be achieved purely through chance. Consider a hypothetical game in which players simply roll dice and hope for favorable outcomes. Such a game would quickly devolve into a monotonous and repetitive activity, lacking challenge, progression, or a sense of mastery.
However, if you intend to incorporate randomness into your game, ensure that it plays only a secondary role compared to core game mechanics. The primary path to success should be through the player’s mastery of systems that require life skills. If luck plays a disproportionately large role, players may become frustrated or disheartened, perceiving the challenge as unfair or arbitrary.
Emphasize the Application of Life Skills
All games, to varying degrees, test players’ real-life skills. The more complex a game, the more likely it is to engage a wider range of such skills. Below is a list of life skills that games often test, accompanied by examples that illustrate their application.
Determination of Goals and Objectives
To avoid player disengagement, your game must clearly communicate its objectives. Players need to understand what actions to take—whether those objectives are explicitly defined by the game or self-imposed. Your responsibility as a designer is to ensure that players comprehend the game’s objectives and are capable of defining their own based on their understanding of the game’s mechanics and narrative world. For more information, refer to Allow Players to Define Their Own Objectives.
Problem-Solving
Decision-making is a fundamental aspect of gameplay, requiring players to continually solve problems. These may range from choosing which area to explore next to devising complex tactics during combat. In these moments, players are challenged to apply logical reasoning and creativity to overcome obstacles and reach their objectives.
To solve these problems, players must first understand the game’s systems. They do so through tutorials, in-game hints, and a process commonly referred to as “trial and error.” Upon encountering a new problem, there are two approaches you may take: provide direct guidance, or allow players the freedom to discover the solution independently.
Example:
In Half-Life 2, during the third level titled “Route Kanal,” the player encounters barnacles—a stationary enemy—for the first time. In this sequence, the player observes a barnacle capturing and consuming a bird, which momentarily distracts the creature and allows the player to pass safely without being caught. This encounter serves as an organic and unobtrusive method of conveying to the player that barnacles use their adhesive tongues to snare prey.
This example illustrates that explicit instruction is not always necessary. Games should provide players with meaningful challenges rather than dictating every action. When presenting players with a challenge, give them the opportunity to assess the situation. If they require additional information to proceed, offer it—just enough to support progress without eliminating the need for critical thinking.
Furthermore, risk-taking should be encouraged. If players are told precisely how to win, the game may devolve into a linear sequence of predetermined steps, stripping it of any real challenge.
Example:
In Command & Conquer: Generals – Zero Hour, the difficulty of the fifth mission in the China campaign would be significantly reduced if players were informed of the enemy’s superweapon locations from the outset.
If players succeed in overcoming a challenge, it likely indicates they have internalized the intended lesson. They may have also succeeded due to a stroke of luck, which is acceptable—luck is an inherent aspect of gaming. However, games should not demand excessive reliance on chance. If success is too easily attained, it may suggest the game lacks appropriate difficulty due to overexplanation or oversimplification. Effective playtesting is essential to evaluate whether the balance is correct.
Conversely, if players fail to resolve a challenge, the issue may lie in the way knowledge is delivered. Below are two examples of common player issues and their potential solutions:
Problem 1: Players are unsure how to progress.
While players are intelligent and capable, they should not be left entirely without guidance. If you observe that they are consistently struggling in certain situations, ensure that clear instructions are provided.
Some mechanics require detailed explanation—such as constructing a base in a real-time strategy game—while others may be intuitively understood, like pressing a button to stop a car.
It is also possible that you have provided sufficient instruction, but too rapidly. Allow ample time for players to practice and absorb the information.
Problem 2: Players are given tasks that are excessively difficult.
Certain gameplay scenarios may demand more knowledge than players can reasonably apply. In such cases, reduce the difficulty by lowering the cognitive load. For example, avoid requiring players to remember numerous key bindings for rapid, successive actions.
If players are unable to apply their knowledge quickly enough, offer more time or design adjustments that allow them to engage with the content at a more manageable pace.
In Stronghold Crusader 2, players must simultaneously address multiple concerns: maintaining popularity, ensuring adequate resources and food, producing military units, and fending off enemy forces. If players consistently fail to withstand attacks, it likely indicates that they are unable to act quickly enough. One potential solution is to allow them to restart the scenario with easier difficulty settings.
Credit: Firefly Studios. Screenshot captured by the author.
Concentration
Concentration refers to the ability of players to direct their attention deliberately and maintain focus. Games constantly test this ability. In general, the more challenging the game, the more focused players must be to effectively track and respond to the events occurring within it.
Output System
Players must first process the game’s outputs, which include interpreting visual cues on the screen and understanding audio signals from the speakers. Issues with concentration may arise when players become overwhelmed by information. This can occur in situations such as:
An overly cluttered user interface.
Scenarios where the player is required to act quickly or handle multiple tasks simultaneously.
Players may also experience temporary lapses in concentration due to external distractions, such as:
Other players speaking or behaving inappropriately while using voice chat.
Notifications or messages from in-game communication systems.
To mitigate these issues, cluttered graphical user interfaces should be avoided whenever possible, as they can lead to frustration. However, players are more likely to tolerate a complex output system in games that inherently demand such complexity, such as simulators or deeply strategic games like Civilization V.
Control System
In addition to interpreting output, players must also execute inputs effectively. These actions include pressing buttons, moving thumbsticks, interacting with touchscreens, steering wheels, rudder pedals, or joysticks.
To help players remain focused and avoid frustration, games should aim to provide intuitive and straightforward controls. Overly complex control schemes should be avoided unless the nature of the game justifies them. That said, players are often willing to invest time in learning a complex control system if the game offers a deep and immersive experience, as is often the case with simulators.
Activities
Loss of interest may occur when players are engaged in repetitive or uninspiring tasks that demand minimal attention. Examples of such activities include:
Lengthy travel sequences within levels where nothing significant occurs.
Watching long or unengaging cutscenes.
Grinding for progress or items.
Passive waiting periods.
Patience, Perseverance, and Determination
To provide a meaningful challenge, the game’s level of difficulty must strike a balance—neither too difficult nor too easy. When difficulty is well-balanced, players will experience both victories and defeats. Failing occasionally is acceptable and even beneficial, as it motivates players to persist and improve.
However, if failure becomes too frequent, only the most dedicated and persistent players—such as completionists—may continue. This could inadvertently narrow the appeal of the game to a very specific audience.
Conversely, if the game is too easy, players may achieve early victories quickly, which can initially be gratifying. Yet, if this continues without escalation in challenge, the experience can soon become monotonous.
A challenge holds value when it leads to a sense of accomplishment or tangible reward. Games test players’ determination by encouraging them to persevere in order to earn these rewards. At times, the reward may simply be the personal satisfaction of completing a level or defeating a formidable opponent. In other instances, players may be driven by the promise of virtual rewards tied to their progress.
To sustain players’ determination, the game must offer progressively more meaningful rewards. This aligns with a natural increase in difficulty as players advance through the game. Both the increasing difficulty and the associated rewards are essential for maintaining motivation and ensuring player engagement.
For further information on reward systems, refer to Rewards.