doing those episodes on fable legends
and checking out evolve has got us
thinking about asymmetric gameplay
lately and where it's headed so I
figured we'd discuss that today at its
most basic asymmetric play is game play
where the players aren't all using the
same set of mechanics so for example
chess is a symmetric game both players
follow the same set of rules to achieve
their goals
something like Starcraft on the other
hand is sometimes asymmetric each of the
three factions Terran Zerg and Protoss
function fundamentally differently even
the game like Team Fortress is
fundamentally asymmetric the two teams
of players may collectively play by the
same rules but individual players can
use a variety of different asymmetrical
classes like engineer and spy and pyro
all of which play with slightly
different mechanics for our discussion
I'm going to divide asymmetric play into
two types weak a symmetry and strong
asymmetry in weak asymmetry players
utilize some of the same mechanics to
play the game this is the case with Team
Fortress basic rules for how bullet
collision works health bars death the
basics of movement and navigation these
same basic mechanics apply to everybody
but engineers and spies will still play
fundamentally differently in games with
strong asymmetry on the other hand
players share few or even none of the
same mechanics Artemus would be a good
example of this with its completely
divergent crew roles weak a symmetry has
been a mainstay of multiplayer games for
years so much so that it's easy to
forget that there was once a whole era
when multiplayer shooters like doom and
quake were played with identical
mechanics for all players and there were
in the Mo's like Ultima Online where all
players weren't restricted by their
class where they had the option to play
with all of the mechanics available but
seeing how prevalent things like class
selection have become in multiplayer
games how we barely even register them
as asymmetric these days it's worth
asking ourselves what function does
asymmetry serve luckily there's at least
one fairly straightforward answer
asymmetry Foster's teamwork compare a
team fortress match with a team
deathmatch in a more symmetric shooter
like quake 3 you'll find a lot more
teamwork in the asymmetric game even
amongst unorganized strangers the medic
just naturally heads off to work with
the heavy so why do players default to
cooperation because no one player has
all the tools
need to win by denying any one player
all those tools the game forces players
to work together to achieve what they
want you'll see asymmetry in almost any
multiplayer environment where the
designers considered teamwork beneficial
to the game almost all modern mmo's and
MOBAs rely heavily on asymmetry and in
shooters you can usually tell whether
the game is meant to be more focused on
teamwork or individual play based on the
presence or absence of weak asymmetry
when creating a weak asymmetry game you
need obvious synergies abilities that
players will instantly identify as being
effective when used together these
synergies immediately signal to the
player that your game is a team game and
will start to get them to think in that
mindset additionally these obvious
synergies which James will often call
signalling mechanics for this very
reason allow players to signal to one
another that they're going to play
together even if they can't talk when
the medic approaches the heavy and hits
him with that medigun both players share
a little unspoken moment thinking all
right pal I'm sticking with you let's do
this even if they never said a word to
one another in chat but even when
creating a weak asymmetry game you also
need to build in much subtler synergies
these smaller mechanical benefits reward
the player for approaching the game with
teamwork in mind and train players to
work together these subtle changes can
even become larger multi person
synergies as players graduate to the
point where they can begin thinking of
team dynamics this all allows you to
lean on the asymmetric nature of your
game to encourage players to climb the
skill ladder but the real reason we
wanted to make this episode was to talk
about strong asymmetries and how we're
starting to see more and more strong
asymmetrical experiences lately strong
asymmetry is something we've often shied
away from as an industry games based on
strong asymmetry can be some of the most
rewarding and memorable multiplayer
experiences when they work but they also
absolutely rely on a team that's highly
communicative and that has strong
communication skills these games often
turn into a miserable experience if even
one person isn't communicating or
cooperating that's a pretty intimidating
design challenge but the interesting
thing about the recent surge of strong
asymmetry and multiplayer game design is
that not all of the games featuring this
kind of design are even about
communication anymore what we're seeing
are games where all the players on one
side share symmetric or weekly
asymmetric rules but the opposing team
plays in some totally
different strong asymmetric fashion and
because such teams are competing rather
than trying to work together these games
no longer require the intense level of
communication that strong asymmetry
games generally demand but since we're
no longer using asymmetry to make
interesting communication challenges
what's it doing for our design it's
giving us gameplay variety within the
same shared space this is the kind of
thing games like fable legends dungeon
land and zombie you multiplayer are
attempting to achieve by using strong
asymmetry in this way you can create a
game where all the sudden one doesn't
have to like the same type of game to
play with their friends if you've got a
buddy who doesn't really like action
RPGs but loves RTSs
they can still hang out and share the
game with you this idea is potentially
brilliant and all kinds of exciting but
also really intimidating on the one hand
such a game could potentially reach a
much broader audience
then again building such a product
basically requires making two games and
they better be equally good or the whole
experience falls apart even if your
action RPG team mechanics are amazing to
play if your streamlined RTS doesn't
also knock it out of the park
the experience is ultimately ruined for
everybody no matter how good one side of
your game is if nobody's playing the
other side nobody's playing your game at
all for a long time this type of game
was thought to risky to attempt but
we're starting to see more experiments
testing the waters of strong asymmetry
and I'm excited to see where these go
I'd love to see an experience where I
could play a match-three puzzle game to
generate minions to fight off my friends
who are playing a shooter or I'd love to
play a post-apocalyptic city building
simulator while my buddies could play a
brawler periodically turning up as
Raiders to storm the place the
pie-in-the-sky final destination for
this train of thought is the impossible
dream of the ultimate MMO which
everybody could play the idea that
someday we'd have a game where no matter
what type of games you liked you could
do something fun and productive in it
and it would be a game we could all
share I don't think that's going to
happen and I'm actually not completely
sure I'd even want it to happen but this
early experimentation with strong
asymmetry mixing game types and genres
in a competitive way rather than simply
using asymmetry to foster communication
is a branch of game design with exciting
possibilities if developers can afford
to pull it off I am eager to see where
this goes see you next week