May 13th in class excersise

Imagine the game you developed for your item 2 submission was online in a massively multi-player mode.

Answer the following questions about the game from this perspective:
(one paragraph per question)

Design Practice QUESTIONS
1. How do you plan to deal with the issue of new players arriving in the middle of
a long game? Get rid of the victory condition, or find a way to make sure that players are matched with those of similar ability?

In order to deal with new players we would make sure players are matched with players of similar abilities. This works best with our game since it is an action RPG and would have characters at different levels. Matching players abilities would provide fairness as well as create less frustration for players. This way, players have the oppurtunity to level up with without being constantly killed by stronger players.

2. What will happen to the gameplay when a player vanishes? How will it affect
the other players’ experience of the game (what they see and hear)? Does it disrupt
the balance of the game? Will it make the challenges easier or harder? Is the game
even meaningful anymore?

If a player chooses to leave mid-game, they other players will be notified by showing a message in the corner of the screen. Players will be affected differently depending on the goal of the game. If the game is team based then unfortunately the team that lost the player may be at a disadvantage. However, if it is a free for all or death match then the other players will not be affected by a player leaving.

3. What happens to the game’s score when a player vanishes? Is the game still fair?

The games score will only be affected in team based games when a player vanishes. Because scoring system cannot be changed to give the team with one less player more points, it will be unfair. That team will have to work harder to make up for the player that left.

4. Does your game offer a player an advantage of some kind for intentionally disconnecting himself (whether by preventing himself from losing or by sealing his
own victory)? Is there any way to minimize this without penalizing players who
are disconnected accidentally?

The player will gain no advantages for disconnecting themselves. While it would be a nice feature to have in the case that the player were accidentally disconnected, it is very likely that players will take advantage of the feature in order to gain points quickly and unjustly. There really is no way to make it fair for those who truly get disconnected accidentally since as with many online games, any way that can be used to get ahead will be exploited immediatly.

5. In a turn-based game, what mechanism will you use to prevent a player from
stalling play for the other players? Set a time limit? Allow simultaneous turns?
Implement a reasonable default if the player does nothing?

A player will not be allowed to stall since they may do so to unfairly win the game. Each time their turn arrives they will be given a set time limit to decide what they want to do. This way they must continue otherwise risk losing their turn. If a player attempts to stall by letting the timer run out, the other player will be able to steal that players turn and then take two turns simultaneously. This way a player would be forced to take their turn otherwise risk losing.

6. If you offer a chat mechanism, what features will you implement to keep it civil?
Filters? A complaint system? An ignore system? Or will your game require moderated chat spaces?

While a filter would be nice, it would be difficult to enforce. So instead you can simply choose to ignore the chat. A text chat will be available for those who do still feel the need to chat but that will be moderated and not allow any profane or derogatory language.

7. Is your game designed to prevent (or alleviate) collusion? Because you can’t prevent players from talking to each other on the phone as they play, how will you
address this? Or can you design your game in such a way that collusion is part of
the gameplay, as in "Diplomacy"?

As there will be both team and death matches, collusion will be allowed. In the team games, players will likely want to collude to get more points. With the nature of death matches it is very unlikely players will collude since you never know if the player you are in collusion with will turn on you just for points.