Drop The High Scores

[Yahtzee Croshaw]

Drop The High Scores

"Asynchronous multiplayer" can mean so much more than "I'm da bes."

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[Gethsemani_v1legacy]

Gratuitous Space Battles relies entirely on asynchronous multiplayer, where you can set up a fleet and tactic for it and upload your scenario to the multiplayer server. From there, other players can access it and try out their own fleets against your scenario. In turn, the creator recieved feedback about how many tried their scenario, how many won and how many lost etc.. All in all, it is a great way to bring the community together without forcing a lot of interaction.

 

[vxicepickxv]

I'm not going to completely agree with the idea of the title to just remove the high score list, but I do see an opportunity for a lot of outreach and marketing tie ins for even just that basic function.

If I had the talent and equipment, I would probably record a song or two for Audiosurf, and allow the distribution through the community. Think about the ability to get free, brand new songs from the community.

 

[XAEnimaX]

You actually do get a benefit for leaving messages in "Dead Souls." If other players up-rate your message you will receive a precious humanity, which is a very (very) valuable reward in that game.

 

[medv4380]

Wouldn't it be nice if Dragons Dogma was just a tick. The NPCs from someone else were just randomly generated, and the "gift" yours came back with was just Randomly assigned from a loot table.

Would you know the difference?

 

[Dastardly]

Drop The High Scores

"Asynchronous multiplayer" can mean so much more than "I'm da bes."

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I'd like to point out that your examples of good asynchronous multiplayer were entirely cooperative. Even the supervillain one. You're not really attacking their base, as much as you're acting as one of those "To Catch a Thief" security consultants pointing out weaknesses they can then improve upon.

Gaming is better when people work together, almost every time.

On a high score list, the only spot that matters is #1. And only one person can be there at a time. And only about 10% of your player population has the ability to unseat that person. Which means 90% of your audience really doesn't care about high scores.

And that top 10%? They don't care either. Because that's not how it works.

The people who aren't competing with you won't be impressed by your high score, because they are uninterested in the high score. The people who are competing with you won't be impressed either because, by and large, they'll assume you're cheating or using cheap tactics.

It's like cotton candy. Looks great, smells great, so you give the man your money... but as soon as you actually have it and take a bite, it vanishes.

 

[Balkan]

I think that numbers must drop out of gaming review , votes and such .
Its art right ? Not math . Games arent like a machine , you can`t just tell if something is better by a dry list of requirements .

 

[malestrithe]

Sorry, but High scores are nothing more than a dick measuring contest. How else can young boys compare schlong sizes without appearing teh ghey?

I would love to get rid of them too, but some gamers need them.

 

[Formica Archonis]

as a kid I'd always put 'BEN' and feel inordinately satisfied with myself

Nothing like having a 3 letter abbreviation for your name, at least in those days. And yes, when I punched LEN onto a table filled with MCAs or EJMs, it made me feel better than getting the high score table itself did.

Then, as a side mission, you're randomly given other players' bases to raid with your gang of goons. The other player doesn't lose anything from this, but they get some kind of bonus for each of the intruders' goons their security measures manage to block or disable.

This one's tricky. "Pick from a variety of layouts" would make them very samey - dead ends would be ignored by to a seasoned player - but it would negate the risk of people just walling off the goal or making crackhead-insane mazes that require foreknowledge of the route to beat in any reasonable timeframe. I don't know if there's a good balance to this problem.

 

[LTK_70]

From the headline I thought you would have read the recent Spacechem Postmortem [http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/172250/postmortem_zachtronics_.php?page=2] on Gamasutra and its discussion of the histogram high score model as being vastly superior to numbered leaderboards. Frankly, it's astonishing that there aren't more games that use a simular model.

 

[Canadamus Prime]

I know I hate it when I play some of the Flash games on Kongregate and think I've done really awesome only to find out I'm ranked something like #256th in the world. Talk about a buzz-kill.

 

[asbrandr]

Reminds me of the dungeon creator thing that exists in City of Heroes/villains/rogues where you can create your own dialogue, bad guy spawns, size and i think layout of the dungeon for other players to romp through and you get bonuses based off participation and feedback from those who get bonuses from completing the player made dungeons! it was a novel idea at the time and i enjoyed making a new Goldbricker base with actual RPG dialogue worthy of King Midas since they are forgotten and tossed aside after lvl 20 like a discarded doll :/

 

[I Have No Idea]

Nobody one would want to spend any time with trapped near the buffet table at a dull party gives a shit about who has the best score in the world.

Was that sentence supposed to make any sense?

 

[Tharwen]

Nobody one would want to spend any time with trapped near the buffet table at a dull party gives a shit about who has the best score in the world.

Was that sentence supposed to make any sense?

Yep. Rephrased, it goes something like this:

'Nobody that you would want to talk to at a party cares about highscores.'

 

[man-man]

Nobody one would want to spend any time with trapped near the buffet table at a dull party gives a shit about who has the best score in the world.

Was that sentence supposed to make any sense?

It's a bit of a run-on but it makes perfect sense.

Start with "Nobody gives a shit about who has the best score in the world."

But that's not quite true - hideously boring people might give a shit.

So qualify the "nobody" to "nobody that you'd want to spend time with", class up your English a bit by using "one" instead of "you", and make it a more entertaining image by specifying that you still wouldn't want to spend time with them, even if you were trapped near the buffet at a dull party.

 

[Terminate421]

Actually the "extra ammo" and "healing" options are found in Battlefield 3 and Bad Company 2's mulitplayer.

In fact, its rare to find any game that doesn't reward you for sharing stuff.

 

[hermes]

Although not asynchronous, your example reminds me of Journey. Its amazing how much intimate an experience feels when the interaction doesn't include "shoot in the face".

 

[ManupBatman]

Although not asynchronous, your example reminds me of Journey. Its amazing how much intimate an experience feels when the interaction doesn't include "shoot in the face".

I thought the same thing, though I attribute it more toward you really can't interact in any over way than assisting each other. If you could talk with each other that whole illusion would just be broken.

OT:

Can you get someone to pick up this super villain game, Yahtzee? I know it started as a joke but it could work.

 

[Kurt Cristal]

SSX did this pretty well with the GeoTag system. Drop a collectible item in a hard to reach place. Other players will see it on their runs. If they get it, they get money and exp... but if they don't, that money and exp is yours.