Pacing

Not updating for a month sucks. I have been a busy guy.

Introduction

Pacing is the rate at which a player progresses through the game, and the way in which progress is measured and rewarded.

I'll be blunt. Out of all of the gameplay mechanics you can consider, pacing is hands down the most important. I know I stress balance a lot - but really, with bad pacing, nobody will play your game long enough to find balance problems.

Pacing is what makes a good game concept a great game, or a total disappointment.

Unlike game balance, in the way that it can only be negative if done incorrectly, pacing influences your game positively. If you have good pacing, it will reward you, unlike if you have good balance that only doesn't fail you.

Why is it so important?

Time is very interesting to humans as while we can't perceive it, it has a profound effect on how we react to mediums.

Have you ever heard a song where the singer has an abrasive voice, the music is not in your taste, and yet... you still have the song stuck in your head for weeks?

You can never pick why you love that song so much - really, it shouldn't appeal to you at all - and yet it does.

Scientific studies have shown that this due to the song having a beat that you enjoy. Beat is pacing in the music world.

Similarly, have you ever watched a movie that really didn't appeal to your interests, the plot wasn't like the kind of movies you usually like, but... still... despite the fact that you hate romantic dramas, you secretly enjoyed this one? (Though you'll never admit that your girlfriend was right.)

Again, it's all the pacing of the movie.

This happens with games. You may think of yourself as a hardcore first person shooter player who loves gore and making 14 year olds cry - but then you'll find yourself obsessed with a simple comedic puzzle game for a week or two, until you finish it and get back to the shooting.

Despite the genre, this puzzle game likely had great pacing, that appealed to you.

Though, this can work against games as well. Let's say that you (the proverbial hardcore FPS addict with a penchant for dismembering babies) have been waiting for the goriest, most anti-baby shooting game EVER. It has rockets and chainsaws and zombies and twitch aiming - all of which appeal to you greatly.

You can pick up this game, and, if it has bad pacing and progression, you will simply find it a disappointment and go back to the puzzle game. You will often say "Ugh, it didn't really work for me" or "It was a little boring" or "It wasn't as fun as I thought it'd be" - and all of these will often point to a pacing issue.

Pacing is a mysterious fundamental to game design - but it is the most important aspect of it. Do it well, your game will be amazing to play, do it wrong, your game will be a disappointment.

Pacing is so important to fun, it's not even funny.

What does Pacing involve?

Pacing is made up of Progression, Measurement and Rewards. I guess we could call them the "PMR"s of Pacing. I've always wanted to have my own 3 letters of something. Now I do.

Progression - Pacing is the rate of progression throughout a game, game level, or encounter. In this post, I am mainly focusing on progression throughout the entire game.

Progression throughout the game needs to be just right. Too fast, and the player feels overwhelmed, too slow, and the player feels bored.

The setting, pursuit and achievement of goals should be timed such that the right amount of player effort is put into each goal depending on its over all importance on the game and the actions that must be taken.

If your goal requires too little effort, the player will feel like you're throwing simple content at them, or that the content was not explored properly ("That's all?"). If too much effort needs to be invested, players will simply feel like the outcome or reward simply isn't worth it, and they may stop playing if too many high effort, low payout plays occur in succession.

This is a problem with designers who don't design games to be fun, but more to control players and make them jump through hoops for the slightest congratulations. They don't recognise that if players don't find a game fun, they will just turn it off, and play one that is.

Remember guys, domineering designers don't hook players. You want your games to be enjoyable.

Measurement - A good practise with pacing is breaking up the game into clearly defined chunks that can aid players in progression consciously, or subconsciously. Most games break up their games into levels, areas, or rounds - all of which can help a player gauge their current progression throughout the game, and help them to decide what must be done next.

The best part is, designers do this without really thinking of it. When they think of a concept, they say "Okay, the game will have 20 levels" - and there you have it, the game has been clearly divided into stages.

When a player understands their position in the game, it helps greatly when they must remember what has already been done, and what needs to be done. If a player loads their save game in Level 13, they understand that they have already beaten 12 levels, and they will likely be able to recall a past level to remember what tools they have at their disposal.

Knowing your position in a game is a memory-jogger.

With the player's memory jogged, they are more likely to understand what is expected of them in the future. This counters that horrible feeling when you enter a game, you look at your main map, and you have no idea of what you have done, or where you need to go.

I will note that you don't need to have numbered game levels. They are the simplest indicator of progression (Level 13/20), but other games have very effectively demonstrated the ability to measure progress through other methods.

A good example is in World of Warcraft, where certain areas have level recommendations. If you know the areas and their general level recommendation, you can quickly remember what you were doing, and what stage your character is at in the game.

Similarly, the games Bioshock and Batman: Arkham Asylum have you exploring themed areas, which can show your progress. The visual imagery of the "Medical Ward" can have the players remember a lot more than a simple fraction - so you can use this to your advantage when creating levels and areas, making them visually distinct from each other.

Just remember, if a player understand their position in the game, they will find the game far easier to get into - which is of course what you want. You want players to enjoy your game, and be able to pick it up quickly from where they last left off - whether they left the game for 5 minutes to get lunch, left it overnight, or didn't leave it at all and have just began the next stage of the game.

You want your game to clearly convey to the player what they are to do.

Rewards - Rewards are great. Rewards are what players want, whether the rewards are implicit or explicit - whether they add onto gameplay, or are simply a progression through a stage of the game.

While rewards are great - you must be mindful to not reward players too much (the rewards will get stale when they should be significant to the player), or too little (as previously explained, if a player feels as if their effort gets unrewarded, they will find the game less fun).

Rewards are important to pacing as they provide feedback for what players have done, they are a cherry on the cake of the player's achievement (you feel great killing a boss, but even better when he drops a massive sword!) - and they often lead into the next part of the game.

Different games offer different rewards, depending on the task that is being rewarded, and the genre of the game. Some rewards are explicitly shown and given to the player as a direct response to the player's achievement (such as defeating the boss and getting a magic item), while others are less advertised to players, but are still very much rewards for their effort.

An Explicit Reward is the reward that players see, and they know is a reward. These are rewards such as "You got 42 exp for completing that battle" and then, "You attained 600 exp! You leveled up!". Similarly, chests found in secret locations are explicit rewards as are items found after battle.

These are the rewards that many designers dislike because they can be intrusive, and can break the flow of the game in intense moments - though, there's no denying that the more explicit a reward is, the more likely a player will feel rewarded for their efforts.

An Implicit Reward is one that is quite subtle in comparison to the explicit rewards - the reward may be invisible to the player, or it may not be recognised as a reward by most players.

One particular example of a reward that often isn't considered a reward is story progression. With the decline of adventure gaming and plot-heavy RPGs in favour of action games, story progression is no longer considered as a reward as much as it was - though, games that reveal plot skillfully, and have great plots that take effort to unfold are still among the most rewarding games.

Implicit reward is preferred over explicit rewards by many designers as they make the game experience more mature, and lend emphasis to concepts and features such as story and theme, where power ups and new game mechanics to explore may not be a viable option.

There needs not to be adversity between designers who favour either reward however, as it is the careful placement of both rewards that will make a great game that appeals to many players.

Despite what you may prefer, using both effectively is far better than only using one.

The Importance of Pacing in World of Warcraft: A Case Study

I want to close through talking about the somewhat controversial game World of Warcraft.

People are always divided on their opinion on this game - some people think it's a time-vampire, others think it's a cost effective means of entertainment (compare the monthly price to seeing a movie at the cinemas - you'll be shocked).
Similarly, opinion is divided amongst designers - some designers think it is effectively designed - and that its popularity is testament to this, others think the design is poor.

Whatever side of whichever fence you're on, you should definitely admit that World of Warcraft is a marvel when it comes to pacing - and is an excellent example of the importance of pacing in games.

World of Warcraft's game play, in my opinion, is too repetitive. You fight the same spiders at level 1, 14, 25, 35, etc. - just with slightly different models, and scaled stats. Some may have a new ability every now and then, but, it's all very similar - and if you are the right level, you will likely fight them in very similar ways, most likely using upgraded versions of the same spells you were using last time.

Similarly, quests are recycled over and over. There are roughly 4 template quests.
- Kill a number of certain enemies
- Go to a position on the map to find an item.
- Gather certain items from the ground.
- Escort this unit from one map position to another (very rare).

There are subtle differences - for example some quest will ask you to kill boars and collect their tusks. Smart designers however, will realise that this is just a slight variation on the first quest.
If tusks drop 100% of the time, and you need 8 tusks, you essentially need to kill 8 boars.
If the tusks drop 50% of the time, this just means that you have an average number of kills to make (with a minimum number of kills, there is however no maximum). You will be able to finish this quest in 8 kills, but you will need to make 16 kills on average, and, there's the chance you'll need to make 100000 kills. (This is of course, assuming there is no Pseudorandom Distribution system in the game which increases the probability of an outcome every time it doesn't happen.)

Regardless, many players and designers still believe the gameplay of World of Warcraft is fairly lacking in variety. This conclusion is also supported by an amazing occurrence in many MMORPGs that at times require grinding - and that is when players pay others to play their game for them.

Why would they do this?
It's simple - the rewards the player wants to attain are considered more important to a player's enjoyment than the experience of gameplay, a player will play merely to get their character to the highest peak in the game.
This is of course, one of the main problems when creating an RPG - you want to avoid grinding.

Now, let's explore why players feel this need for basic progression, over the enjoyment of experience (I like to call them 'progressophiles').
World of Warcraft is ingenius in this respect, its pacing creates this desire for progress by bombarding you with rewards as you level.

Let's look at it like this.

• Every level, you get a Talent Point to spend on your skill trees.
• Every 2 levels, you attain new spells, and upgrades to old spells.
• Every 3-4 levels, you get access to new instances (dungeons with bosses that require a team to complete), and quests in the area.
• Every 5 levels, you get access to new tiers in your talent tree, opening up more ways to diversify your character.
• Every 10 levels, you get access to a new battleground (PvP), abilities pivotal to your character are gained through the Talent Tree, and you gain new class skills that are key to the definition to your character (for example, the Druid's animal forms, a Warlock's summons, etc.). Every 10 levels, the recommended region for you to level in also changes, resulting in a new environment to explore.
• Ever 20 levels, you get access to massive game mechanics that greatly change how how your character can interact with the world - such as through mounts.

Then, at levels 60, 70 and 80, the amount of content that you can access explodes, as they are the end of the game for each expansion, and you can access all content your expansion limit has to offer - with each expansion adding new worlds, raids, and other activities.

You can kind see how World of Warcraft hooks people in, can't you?
You are bombarded by rewards every time you level, all of which giving you access to many new ways to diversify your character and interact with the game.
People love to be rewarded, and this game delivers to an extraordinary degree. This keeps them playing, and playing, often just to get more and more.

With this knowledge of why World of Warcraft is so successful, it's quite easy to see why so many MMORPGs that try to stand against it fail. That element of constant recognition of achievement and reward is often far less present in these competitors, and, as such, the repetitive gameplay often associated with MMORPGs stands out more - which bores players.
And that is exactly what I mean when I say pacing is extremely important - with great pacing, your game is far more fun to play, regardless of some possible shortcomings. Similarly, a game with bad pacing will be no fun to play, despite other features that would otherwise make it amazing.

For all those would-be-rewarders though, I must warn you. While World of Warcraft does deal out great numbers of rewards often, you still should be mindful of over-rewarding players for simple actions.
World of Warcraft is able to dish out the rewards because levelling does take a fair amount of time as you progress. While leveling from 1 to 6 often takes around an hour for experienced players, 6-10 can be several more, 10-20 can take days.
Don't reward players with new swords, guns, and characters every 10 minutes - keep in mind your genre, and the difficulty associated with the achievements that unlock that reward.

Summing Up

• Pacing is extremely important to all games.
• Pacing can subconsciously affect the player players respond to game.
• Pacing is defined by the rate of progression through a task in the game (or throughout the whole game)
• Games should move at different ideal paces depending on genre - not too fast or too slow.
• Pacing often involves breaking up the game into distinct sections. (Measurement)
• When players recognise these sections it allows them to evaluate what has been done, and needs to be done easily.
• Pacing also very much deals with the way in which rewards are given to the player for achievement.
• Rewards don't have to be explicitly shown and given to the player, though both types of reward should be given.
• Rewards should be given according to the effort required to complete the tasks set.
• Over-rewarding can work against you when players are used to the rewards given, and as such, don't feel as rewarded when they attain them.
• Under-rewarding will definitely work against you, as players will quit your game if they feel the effort is not worth the reward.
• Pacing is extremely important to all games.

I hope you all found the post a good read - and I'll try to update again soon.