Gaming Usability 101

Next Generation (now happily fully merged with Edge) is carrying a story entitled Videogame Usability 101, attempting to lay out some standards for interacting with games. Some of them, like '3. Always let players remap controller buttons to suit their preferences' seems fairly straightforward and hard to disagree with. Others may be a bit more controversial: "4. Always let players skip cut scenes no matter how important they are to the story. What a predicament cut scenes create. As a designer, you want all your hard work to be acknowledged, even the cut scenes. Sadly, interactive entertainment is the name of the game, and it always comes first. That's why gamers play these things. So rather than assume every player wants to watch your story-telling chops, allow them to bypass cut scenes, tutorials, and even speed up the showing of logos when a game boots up. Tell your story through engaging gameplay, and you'll easily be remembered and praised regardless of what you accomplished in a cut scene, tutorial, or start screen branding." Anything on there that you categorically disagree with?

Comments

Good ideas, bad attitude

[Sciros]

Most of what the author says is obvious and a waste of page space ("don't ship with a bad camera" uh-huh thanks Capt. Obvious), some of it is of no concern ("press (A) to start" on the title screen is just fine, even newbies aren't that retarded and if they are they have no place using a controller with more than 1 button in the first place), but FREAKING ALL OF IT is written with the attitude of "screw you, game DESIGNER, I am your audience and you will bow to me." That's the mentality of a spoiled little brat. Sure, cutscenes being skippable is a good idea, IF coupled with the ability to go back and re-watch these cutscenes on-demand should you skip one by accident. Because, you know, not ALL of us have the "stop showing me story and character development I wants to mash some buttons NOW!1!" mentality when we're enjoying a video game.

Even though the core *ideas* are generally fine, I wouldn't want this guy designing games for me, ever. The best games come from people who love their craft and the characters and story they are presenting to you, not folks who keep driving home the point of how much they DON'T.