Games with a collaborative social element

[happyninja42]

So I was just thinking about how I'm seeing more and more games with a multiplayer aspect to them, even if the game is single player. Between tagging landmarks to provide clues and tips, or troll other players, to invading or providing help to other players, to things like Nier:Automata where you can sacrifice your save file to give it to other players to help them in their final fight Or Death Stranding, that also has a similar component, though I'm not personally familiar with how that one implements it.

But I do like this idea as a form of playing together, without actually having to make it an MMO. I think it opens up a lot of fun options for storytelling. Specifically, one that I was thinking of, that could be cool to see implemented, is a game where the entire premise is a multiverse. Since everyone playing the game, is playing "The Hero." Have that be part of the plot, that there is some multidimensional threat, and YOU, are the only person (but not the only one) who can stop it. So now we all play our game, but have some kind of...I dunno, multiverse attack, where the player is given the option, to give up something, to sacrifice a power, or a powerful item, or to spend a level up on something specifically not for them. But to help the others in the fight. And to have that, if you opt into it, be reciprocated to you. I dunno, I'm just seeing like a final battle with the BBEG, where you can summon the help of various players, and you get a parade of Shadow-You's, all dressed like their version of You, come in with an attack. And the more people that contribute to the group effort, obviously the more powerful the attack.

And it got me wondering, just what other games have done anything like that? Aside from the ones that I've already alluded to. Anyone have any examples, of the group effort mentality in game design, and how well it was implemented? I'm curious to see how they've been done.

 

[BrawlMan]

Animal crossing in general does this. You already took the Nier: Automata examples so I won't use that. Pokémon has the whole trading thing. Other than certain mmos, I got nothing else. I know in certain 3DS Mario games, you can give gifts to other players. Usually power ups.

 

[happyninja42]

Animal crossing in general does this. You already took the Nier: Automata examples so I won't use that. Pokémon has the whole trading thing. Other than certain mmos, I got nothing else. I know in certain 3DS Mario games, you can give gifts to other players. Usually power ups.

Do Animal Crossing and Pokemon let you do this on your own? Or is it simply a case of 2 players logging in and doing some kind of trading thing? Because I was more curious about examples of games similar to Nier: Automata. The "i'm just gonna leave this here to help whoever it might help, with no expectation of ever being thanked for it" and similar stuff.

 

[BrawlMan]

Do Animal Crossing and Pokemon let you do this on your own? Or is it simply a case of 2 players logging in and doing some kind of trading thing? Because I was more curious about examples of games similar to Nier: Automata. The "i'm just gonna leave this here to help whoever it might help, with no expectation of ever being thanked for it" and similar stuff.

I'm not too familiar with animal crossing, but from what I remember, most of the games let you do this on your own. It was Mario 3D Land that lets you give power ypy gifts to other players. That one was definitely not limited to just two players.

 

[Dreiko]

Literally every competitive fighting game is just as much collaborating in figuring out how the game works and chars and mechanics interact. Even as you are fighting someone you're also helping them get better and they're doing the same for you.

Also by putting your tech out to the world you're helping broaden the knowledge of the game so every player that comes after you benefits and then they can go on to build it further. This is the sort of thing that only really works with games that are deep enough where even thousands of people playing can still leave you with a lot of undiscovered stuff that needs to be figure out though, so not a lot of games can be this freeform about it and usually have to hardcode it in.

 

[SilentPony]

Literally any game with multiplayer elements is a socially collaborative game, because we live in a society. COD, Halo, totally collaborative, you just have to convince the other team to let you win.
Any fighting game is a collaboration if you can convince the other player to let you win.

 

[Schadrach]

Or Death Stranding, that also has a similar component, though I'm not personally familiar with how that one implements it.

Basically when you put stuff in the world it can show up in any other player's game. And I mean "stuff" broadly.

For example, if you place a ladder to cross, that ladder can appear in other player's games. Same if you build a structure or anything else. If you drop luggage (say you lose it when attacked by a Beached Thing) and you leave it behind, it will show up in other player's games so they can try to complete the delivery. If the Mules (basically couriers gone mad who hoard cargo) steal your shit and stick it in their base, it will show up in the same Mule depot for other players - whether that's cargo that still needs delivered or equipment. You can also dump stuff in a shared storage area in each facility and other players will have access to it and vice versa.

Also you can trigger a mushroom to grow if enough players pee in the same spot.

 

[happyninja42]

Literally every competitive fighting game is just as much collaborating in figuring out how the game works and chars and mechanics interact. Even as you are fighting someone you're also helping them get better and they're doing the same for you.

Also by putting your tech out to the world you're helping broaden the knowledge of the game so every player that comes after you benefits and then they can go on to build it further. This is the sort of thing that only really works with games that are deep enough where even thousands of people playing can still leave you with a lot of undiscovered stuff that needs to be figure out though, so not a lot of games can be this freeform about it and usually have to hardcode it in.

This is so far afield from what I'm talking about, that it's actually kind of fucking fascinating. To see that THIS is how your brain processes information. I ask for examples of people helping others out, generally at the expense of their own character, and your answer is "Well when I kick your fucking ass in a fighting game I'm helping you! "

I just....I don't even understand your brain.

 

[bluegate]

Go and punch black knights in the face in Co-Op in Dark Souls, or punch werewolves in the gut in Co-Op in Bloodborne.

 

[Dreiko]

This is so far afield from what I'm talking about, that it's actually kind of fucking fascinating. To see that THIS is how your brain processes information. I ask for examples of people helping others out, generally at the expense of their own character, and your answer is "Well when I kick your fucking ass in a fighting game I'm helping you! "

I just....I don't even understand your brain.

No man you don't get it. The way I play fighters usually I have a discord chat going on with someone and give live tips and feedback and ask questions if I don't know something so it's kinda like going at a dojo and sparring as you're training your martial arts. Sure the guy tosses you to the ground but then he spends 5 minutes explaining the technique involved in what he just did. Competitive level fighting games are a ton like that, where you have people analyzing stuff as it happens and figuring out counters and so on.


And the key factor about this is that it's real, it's not some "feel good" type thing that makes people feel like a community in a shallow but ultimately mechanically insignificant fashion when taken in contrast to the game's scope. This is THE way fighting games develop and people get better and more stuff is discovered, not just a cherry on top such as for example when you blast away your save data to help someone else finish the credits minigame in Nier.


Suffice it to say that out of the majority of my sessions I am ending up giving tutorials and tips and advice more than just playing and not chatting at all outside of the match and just going away. If you wanna get better you have to actually talk through your matches.

 

[Dirty Hipsters]

The souls games do stuff like this.

You're playing single player but you can set up messages to warn people of danger, show where there's a short cut or a secret, etc. When someone rates your message for being helpful you get healed for it. The more useful messages you put down the more likely you are get have your message get rated and the more likely you are to get healed at a random time that you might actually need it.

When you get summoned into other people's worlds you can also drop items for them to help them out.

If a person dies with a significant amount of humanity in their world, or loses an item, a creature called a Vagrant can spawn in someone else's world and you can kill that creature and take the item or humanity.

 

[Drathnoxis]

Not really what you are talking about but I really liked the multiplayer in Journey. You just get randomly paired up with another player, don't get told their name and can't communicate in any way outside of little chirps. Despite that, it really does enhance the experience. Going on your journey alongside another person, cheering them along when it gets rough, you can still feel the connection despite barely having any means of communication. It was a neat way of doing things.

 

[Drathnoxis]

No man you don't get it. The way I play fighters usually I have a discord chat going on with someone and give live tips and feedback and ask questions if I don't know something so it's kinda like going at a dojo and sparring as you're training your martial arts. Sure the guy tosses you to the ground but then he spends 5 minutes explaining the technique involved in what he just did. Competitive level fighting games are a ton like that, where you have people analyzing stuff as it happens and figuring out counters and so on.


And the key factor about this is that it's real, it's not some "feel good" type thing that makes people feel like a community in a shallow but ultimately mechanically insignificant fashion when taken in contrast to the game's scope. This is THE way fighting games develop and people get better and more stuff is discovered, not just a cherry on top such as for example when you blast away your save data to help someone else finish the credits minigame in Nier.


Suffice it to say that out of the majority of my sessions I am ending up giving tutorials and tips and advice more than just playing and not chatting at all outside of the match and just going away. If you wanna get better you have to actually talk through your matches.

Except all that is outside the game, the game mechanics still put you in direct competition with the other players, the fact that you use 3rd party services to somewhat work around that is completely on you. This is like calling Phantasmagoria 2 a light-hearted comedy adventure because Spoony did an LP of the game that was absolutely hilarious.

 

[Bedinsis]

Does Fez, and how it had puzzles the lead designer did not expect people to solve, count?

People solved those puzzles through collaborative effort.

I haven't played myself, I was inspired by a tweet that suggested people that haven't played it should do so and start a discord group where they would discuss and document their collaborative efforts. That sounded fun.

 

[Dreiko]

Except all that is outside the game, the game mechanics still put you in direct competition with the other players, the fact that you use 3rd party services to somewhat work around that is completely on you. This is like calling Phantasmagoria 2 a light-hearted comedy adventure because Spoony did an LP of the game that was absolutely hilarious.

You don't have to use third parties, if you are playing offline you just speak to the other person, which is what discord is mimicking. You also use the ingame voice chat too if it's a game that offers it but because some games don't people just default to discord voice chat for convenience more than to "alter how the game is played" or something that 3rd party software inclusion usually implies, but really it's the same thing. After being at locals for so long and having that experience, it's impossible to describe it as anything other than collaborative. The only time it isn't that is when you're at a tournament and there's money on the line but most of the time playing people online you won't have money on the line. Every other kind of match you have is like you're training at a dojo trying to push eachother to be better.


To be more specific since I guess people just don't know fighting games at all. In a lot of my fights I adjust how I play to let my opponent practice how to deal with something specific by using that one thing repeatedly in an obvious fashion, as opposed to just playing in the optimal way I would if I just wanted to win.

Throughout this, I will be giving them tips on how to beat what I'm doing, revealing its strong and weak points all the while, and my thought process for how I go about applying the approach, and I will be joyous when they finally figure it out, which in fact makes them a more dangerous opponent and reduces my chance of victory in a serious match.

Literally the purpose of my session is to make them better at beating me, to explain to them the weaknesses of what I'm doing so that they can comprehend the approach they need to use to win.

This, and "beating someone to a pulp", are so far apart that you can't liken them in any capacity.

 

[Drathnoxis]

You don't have to use third parties, if you are playing offline you just speak to the other person, which is what discord is mimicking. You also use the ingame voice chat too if it's a game that offers it but because some games don't people just default to discord voice chat for convenience more than to "alter how the game is played" or something that 3rd party software inclusion usually implies, but really it's the same thing. After being at locals for so long and having that experience, it's impossible to describe it as anything other than collaborative. The only time it isn't that is when you're at a tournament and there's money on the line but most of the time playing people online you won't have money on the line. Every other kind of match you have is like you're training at a dojo trying to push eachother to be better.


To be more specific since I guess people just don't know fighting games at all. In a lot of my fights I adjust how I play to let my opponent practice how to deal with something specific by using that one thing repeatedly in an obvious fashion, as opposed to just playing in the optimal way I would if I just wanted to win.

Throughout this, I will be giving them tips on how to beat what I'm doing, revealing its strong and weak points all the while, and my thought process for how I go about applying the approach, and I will be joyous when they finally figure it out, which in fact makes them a more dangerous opponent and reduces my chance of victory in a serious match.

Literally the purpose of my session is to make them better at beating me, to explain to them the weaknesses of what I'm doing so that they can comprehend the approach they need to use to win.

This, and "beating someone to a pulp", are so far apart that you can't liken them in any capacity.

This is still all completely on you and how you choose to approach the game. There's nothing in the game mechanics that encourage players to not to try and win and instead attempt to teach their opponents to play better. It may be a friendly competition where you don't put all your effort into winning, but the game still has you as direct opponents and will judge one person to be the winner. Almost any game could be played the way that you describe, so your answer is so general as to be meaningless to the question OP asked. I could play a completely single player game with a friend, passing the controller back and forth every chapter, but that doesn't mean the game has a collaborative social element. That's something additional that I brought in that changes the way the game is played.

 

[Dreiko]

This is still all completely on you and how you choose to approach the game. There's nothing in the game mechanics that encourage players to not to try and win and instead attempt to teach their opponents to play better. It may be a friendly competition where you don't put all your effort into winning, but the game still has you as direct opponents and will judge one person to be the winner. Almost any game could be played the way that you describe, so your answer is so general as to be meaningless to the question OP asked. I could play a completely single player game with a friend, passing the controller back and forth every chapter, but that doesn't mean the game has a collaborative social element. That's something additional that I brought in that changes the way the game is played.

Yeah but the thing is that while other games have a main way of playing them that's not like that, with fighters the way you get better and figure out how the game is supposed to be played is by doing this cooperative research and help thing. You don't learn fighting games by playing the tutorials and fighting the CPU or the AI, those are like reading the rules of the game more or less, the actual game is in playing cooperatively and developing the game through that. Everything in fighting games revolves around this mode of play and stems out of it.

 

[Kyrian007]

Shadow of War (maybe Shadow of Mordor too, its been too long and I don't remember) had some minor elements of this. If an orc killed one player, that orc could show up in my game for me to "avenge" the other player. What I don't know is if that in any way affected that other player, I don't remember ever seeing any kind of notification that I had ever been "avenged" but maybe something happened.

 

[CaitSeith]

ZombiU had that Dark Souls-like message mechanic where you could leave some tip symbol that would appear at other player's game.

 

[hanselthecaretaker]

ZombiU had that Dark Souls-like message mechanic where you could leave some tip symbol that would appear at other player's game.

I like how Sekiro takes it a step further where you can record remnants on top of messages for other players to help guide them visually, which has helped me at least a couple of times for secrets I would’ve gone to a wiki for.