Dustin Clingman, Zeitgeist Games

Richard Dansky, Red Store Entertainment / Ubisoft

Troy Gilbert, Mockingbird Games

James Ernest, Delightfully Free Independent Free Agent

Olivier LeJade, Mekensleep France

Troy Mack, Disney Online Studios

Jason Rohrer, Game Artist in Residence

John Sharp, Savanah College

David Warhol, Realtime Associates

Problem

Modern retail games include huge amounts of content (art, music, gameplay “moments”). Players are often required to complete one or more tasks (levels, high scores, achievements) in order to “unlock” or advance to additional content. This practice is called “gating,” and it is often included in order to give the user a sense of accomplishment as well as keep the user from diving into content they are not skilled enough to enjoy. The problem with gating is that it is contrary to how users are accustomed to interacting with other media, and more significantly, players are unable to experience all of the product they have paid for due to their own deficiencies in either skill, time or ability.

Is this practice helpful or harmful? Should we be keeping our customers from experiencing the full breadth of content we have invested a huge amount of time and effort in creating? Is it the designer’s prerogative to dictate whether or not the user may “ruin” their experience by skipping challenges?

Solution

We assert that it is advantageous for most games to allow users to move past gating challenges without requiring that the user overcome the challenge in the way prescribed by the game designer.

For example, level or mission based games can allow the player to skip to future levels; action/shooter games can provide invincibility or unlimited ammo; racing games can allow the player to continue racing after time has expired or other racers have finished. The idea is to not force the player to work at elements of the game they are no longer enjoying and instead help them move forward to experience more of the game.

Content gating does not necessarily apply to multiplayer games or games where the player’s “subversion” of the game experience can directly, adversely affect the experience of the other players. Additionally, players skipping content gates should definitely not be awarded community achievements or rank on high score tables.

Cheat codes provide one solution to this problem. They are not ideal as they preclude less sophisticated players from taking advantage of them due to their hidden nature. These less sophisticated users are exactly the players who are most frustrated by content gating.

We do not believe that gating challenges should be eliminated. A significant percentage of our current audience desires the reward of gating challenges.

Ultimately, we are arguing for allowing the player to self-regulate their difficulty curve. Instead of the designer having to dilute the difficulty setting or exclude a larger audience for any particular design, allowing the player to skip content gates preserves the designer’s intent while keeping the player engaged.

section 7

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4. Concept Sketches for Game Design: Best Practices for Prototyping within the Game Industry
5. Multiplayer Game Atoms
6. Game Designer as Artist
7. Please, Let Me Play the Game I Bought
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9. Dramatic Choices
10. Game Designer's Bookshelf
11. Project Unity
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