The Player's Bill of Rights

Gamasutra has a Designer's Notebook column up this week offering up a Player's Bill of Rights. Written by Ernest Adams, the article decries the many indignities that we as players should never be forced to suffer. From the article: "The Right to Feedback: The player has a right to know how she's doing, and in particular, to some means of determining if she's in danger of losing the game. If the player doesn't get feedback, she can't adjust her strategy, and the outcome will feel random. Players need to know whether their approach is working or not."

Comments

This bill is too long

[melikamp]

This and other bills are too long. I think that all of the points in all of these bills will be addressed if we only get the right to

(0) Return a game for a full refund if we do not like it.

Re:This bill is too long

[wbren]

I think that all of the points in all of these bills will be addressed if we only get the right to
(0) Return a game for a full refund if we do not like it.

I had an opportunity to view the rough drafts of the bill. Your suggestion nearly made it into the final version. Here's a history:

First Draft (0) The Right to Have Hell Freeze Over...

The author felt the wording was a little loose and vague, so he modified it slightly:

Second Draft (0) The Right to Pirate the Latest Games Through Legitimate Retail Channels...

The wording was still a little bit off, so he re-worded it yet again:

Third Draft (0) The Right to Return a Game for a Full Refund if We Don't Like It...

Then he came down from his acid trip and decided to remove that right altogether because it didn't make any sense to someone not on an acid trip. The literary process is really quite interesting. But seriously, that suggestion makes no sense to a retailer. Software generally has a return policy of a) no returns if it's opened or b) exchange for the exact same title (to protect against defective media). That won't change as long as publishers care about preventing piracy.

Re:Players Bill of Rights?????

[Nasarius]

*sigh*
I just knew someone would reply like this. Look at what website this is posted on. Look at the name of the column. Now, actually read the article.

It's not a list of demands to game companies. It's some tips for game designers, like pretty much everything on GamaSutra.

The Right Not To Be Insulted

[wbren]

I disagree with that "right"--I still can't believe I'm replying to a post about a Player's Bill of Rights, only on slashdot. In some games, insulting and being insulted by NPCs is an important part of the game. Take Neverwinter Nights as an example. Depending on whether or not an NPC insults you or is ill-tempered, you might make different choices, ultimately causing a different outcome. Likewise, if you insult an NPC they may not be very helpful, which could change the outcome as well. Overall it was a good list of what should(n't) be done in a game. I especially liked the Right to Control Cut-Scenes, that's a must-have.

Re:The Right Not To Be Insulted

[radicalskeptic]

I think there's a difference betwen insulting the player (what the article seems to dislike) and insulting the player's character (what you're talking about). Having an NPC call my character "a fat, smelly elf" is much different from a game actually insulting me.

I will say that the article was complete trash though... most of these aren't "rights", they're just guidelines for good games--and incredibly OBVIOUS ones at that! I mean, c'mon, look at these:

-The Right to Quit, Pause, Save and Resume the Game
-The Right to Instructions
-The Right to Win

I'm looking through my collection of games right now (from all the major consoles), and I can't find a single one that didn't come with a playing manual, didn't allow you to save your progress, or which I felt was impossible to beat.

From the article: The majority of the time a player spends in a game, he should be making decisions, exploring, creating, overcoming challenges, or otherwise acting upon the game world in some way. Players come to play, not to watch cut-scenes. Notice that I say the majority of the time. Non-interactive elements are not forbidden, but they should not take up more than 50% of the playing time of the game. (This is the absolute maximum; many gamers would contend that non-interactive elements should take up no more than 1% of the playing time of the game, if that.)

Uh, well the Metal Gear Solid franchise seems to be doing just fine, and that series is notorious for its long and numerous cut scenes... But whatever.

I have an idea: Why don't we just let the market decide which games people will buy, instead of some guy who is spouting off his opinions and calling them "rights."

Re:she?

[FidelCatsro]

What i never understood is why they need to use a gender specific.

"to some means of determining if she's in danger of losing the game."

could easily be "to some means of determining if the player is in danger of losing the game."
or even better "to some means of determining if they're in danger of losing the game."

Get on with it

[vga_init]

The points forwarded in the article are mere childsplay. For the most part, game designers have been doing all of these things for years; we're talking standard fare. Individual games and genres tend to suffer differently in these cases, but I don't think the problem is as rampant as the author makets it out to be. Right not to be insulted? I've never played a commercial game worth a lick that was like that; the best example they could come up with was a cell phone clone of minesweeper? Apparently this is not such a big problem.

Instead of focusing on things that games ALREADY do, I'd rather like to see some rights that consumers need such as the right to fresh, creative content. It seems like the most popular games today are sequels and/or rehashes of old game engines and ideas. Where's the excitement?

Also, gamers should have the right to OWN their games. That's right folks; they should be able to pay once and get a full copy, preferrebly with source. Along with this goes the right to play your game; I own dozens of Windows and DOS games that are no longer playable on my current systems. More games should be liberated so that we can port our treasured games and continue playing them.

See, now we're talking about rights, not this "I can't figure out what the buttons for my game" nonsense.

The Right to Logical Gameplay

[ComputerSherpa]

When my character is presented with a puzzle, the puzzle may seem incredibly arcane and complicated at first glance, but when it is complete, I should be able to say "Ah! That makes sense. If my character had spent enough thought and observation on this puzzle, he/she could have figured it out without the need for a cheat, a walkthrough, or a brute-force." Puzzles need to make sense, or you're just torturing the player needlessly.

Likewise, game designers should not needlessly impair the player's progress. Designers should keep the characteristics of the player-character in mind and design environments accordingly. If I am playing a fireball-hurling Mage, a wooden chest should not prove too difficult for me to open, key or no key. If I am playing a human, when confronted by a waist-height fence, I should be able to hop over it if I choose instead of worrying about the silly lock. (That doesn't mean I shouldn't be looking over my shoulder when I get to the other side, watching for dogs, guards, or laser turrets.) Any player should be able to ask, at any time, "Well, why can't I do this?" and receive a better answer than "Because you're not supposed to do it that way" (e.g. "Because you won't fit there" or "Because you'll die"). Being blocked by an invisible wall for no apparently good reason is frustrating and insulting. Put some thought into it and make a game that we can get into.

Backups and Internet Blackmail

[thirty2bit]

Don't forget:
1. the right to make a backup of your disc.
2. install and play your game without having to reinstall bare Windows to do so (Starforce: hostile anti-user copy protection and Punkbuster, which currently hates GetRight of all things. Both quickly pronounce users as guilty of hacking without a trial)
3. install and play your game without needing ANY kind of internet connection whatsoever. Half Life 2 and the (currently vaporware) Prey will never touch my systems because of that.

Games that might have inspired the bill...

[dbhankins]

1. Right to Play
   Final Fantasy X
   
   
2. Right to Win
   Not sure on this one, unless he means arcade-style games that don't have an end. Perhaps he's referring to games which have a bug that prevents finishing, none of which I've had the misfortune to encounter yet.
   
   
3. Right to instructions
   Mortal Kombat, Tekken, and other fighting games that make you figure out the combos by trial and error.
   
   
4. Right to Feedback
   Bushido Blade
   
   
5. Right to Motivation
   Sim City, Populous
   
   
6. Right to Make Decisions
   Not sure, unless he means rhythm games like Parappa the Rapper or Space Channel Five
   
   
7. The Right to a Swift Death
   Sierra's Quest games (especially Space Quest) and any number of old adventure games.
   
   
8. The Right to Control Cut-Scenes
   Final Fantasy X
   
   
9. The Right to Quit, Pause, Save and Resume the Game
   Final Fantasy games, Tomb Raider games, and lots of other console titles. Not to mention a horde of games based entirely on checkpoints. These are why at least one PS1 emulator comes with a "save state" function.
   
   
10. The Right to Choose Not to Save the Game
    Checkpoint-only games like Killzone
    
    
11. The Right to Reconfigure the Input Device
    Lots and lots of console games. Final Fantasy Tactics comes to mind. Non-console, X-Wing comes to mind.
    
    
12. The Right Not To Be Insulted
    Never encountered this, myself.
    
    

Re:What's this 'She' crap?

[UserChrisCanter4]

It's possible that the author simply hasn't sat in a writing class in a few years. About 8 to 10 years ago, the MLA standard for a personal pronoun that referred to an indefinite person was "she." The MLA created this situation to rectify what was seen as the discriminatory use of "he" for years, and most style handbooks advised alternating between "he" and "she" when writing a lengthy discourse involving indefinite subjects.

I can remember being taught in English classes that "she" was the correct way to approach a situation such as this Bill of Rights.

Of course, after only a few years, it dawned on the members of the MLA that "she" was equally discriminating. Thus, the correct approach is now "he or she" in situations such as this, though it is very common for writers to erroneously use "they."

Re:One

[jcenters]

Alternation is awkward. He or she used repeatedly is sexist and exclusive. You can't use they or them because that be bad English.

So here's my solution: Combine "he" and "she." Of course, that pretty much just leaves "she," and it's not really inclusive, because it leaves out objects, like artificial intelligences and robots.

So She + He + It = Shit, our new, all inclusive pronoun.

Take for instance, this sentence that appeared in TFA:

"If the player doesn't get feedback, shit can't adjust shit's strategy, and the outcome will feel random. Players need to know whether their approach is working or not."

See, MUCH better!

Bullshit

[Moraelin]

You seem to define "deffective" as in "the CD was physically unreadable", which is just about the only thing that would be solved by giving someone another copy. What if the software itself is broken and deffective? Because that's the actual product I bought there, and the CD was just the medium it comes on.

E.g., the german version of Victoria threw a script _syntax_ error right at the start of a new campaign. Yes, you've read that right. Not a crash to desktop, not some graphics glitch, _nothing_ even remotely blamable on my hardware or drivers. A script _syntax_ error. That game couldn't work as released on _any_ hardware.

E.g., a german version again, Everquest 2 was released with a completely broken translation, which actually did impact gameplay. NPCs and items would be named completely differently in the quest text and in the actual game, making it literally impossible to do what you were told. The NPC you were told to kill simply didn't even exist in the game. (And generally, you know it's bad when even the few fans tell you to try translating it word-for-word back into English, to figure out some texts.)

E.g., Phantasy Star Online Blue Burst doesn't seem to be able to connect at all on my XP machine, although it works flawlessly on my Windows 2000 machine. (So, no, it's not a case of ports being blocked by the router or ISP.) Mind you, I needed to dig through tech support faqs even just to get it to the point it would try to connect: first it didn't even let me input my name and password. No, literally, typing anything in those input boxes was a futile exercise. The only key they accepted was basically escape to cancel it.

E.g., to take an older game, take The Elder Scrolls 2: Daggerfall. The collision detection was so bad, that you'd fall into the void even when running on flat groud, or when teleporting back to town. I'm picking on it, instead of newer ones, because it's a clear-cut case of deffective software, and can't be blamed on drivers or hardware. It took many _months_ for Bethesda to try to fix it, and eventually they gave up and made a cheat code to teleport you back to the beginning of the map if you fell into the void.

E.g., Morrowind was shipped with a pretty nasty race condition that resulted in a crash to desktop when zoning. But as is usually the case with race conditions, on different PCs it produced wildly different results. On some you had a crash every couple of hours, but some people couldn't even leave the starting ship at all, because the game would crash when they went through the hatch. I'm not even going into the aspect that a game that crashes at all _is_ deffective, but the fact remains that some people just couldn't play it as shipped.

Etc.

So giving them a replacement CD is gonna solve... what? No, seriously.

Yeah, they were sooo trying to rip you off, by not accepting a game they couldn't run at all. Not. Geesh.

Which brings us back to square 1

[Moraelin]

Well, then, if "he" can be used to mean any gender, then why can't "she" be used in exactly the same way? It's just as clear, it's certainly familiar (it's one word you hear every day), and it's just as concise (one extra "s" now and then won't lengthen the whole article by any significant amount. And when you read it, it's still one syllable.)

Don't get me wrong, I'm not advocating either of them as such, but I _do_ find it peculiar that someone would need to throw a "what's with this 'she' crap?" tantrum. Using 'she' was insulting... how?

I don't know, I'm a guy myself, but I find it anywhere between hillarious and idiotic (or most often a mixture of both) the way some guys absolutely have to defend their supremacy in some field as if their manhood depended on it. As if, god forbid, even acknowledging that women gamers exist (e.g., by using a 'she' now and then) could make their dick shrivel and fall off.

Let me rephrase that: I don't even think it's a "guy thing" as such. It's not about "guys" as such, it's about complexed insecure guys who need to put someone down just to mask their own insecurities.

And you'd thing that what with being the victims of that, nerds would know better than to do that. In practice, frankly, it's the exact opposite. When you see someone blanketly insulting whole population segments, for the most idiotic and irrelevant pretexts (e.g., that they don't use vi, or that they play on a non-PK facet in a MMO, or whatever), chances are it'll be a nerd.

To anyone falling in that category: folks, get a life. Gaming is just a passtime, no more. It doesn't make you a "man" or anything, it just makes you less bored. Noone will come and beg to carry your baby because of your clan's scores in CS or your Linux PDA or whatever.