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The Number One Educational Resource for the Game Industry

Session Name: Single-Player, Multiplayer, MMOG: Design Psychologies for Different Social Contexts
Speaker(s): Ernest Adams
Company Name(s): International Hobo
Track / Format: Game Design

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Overview: This lecture explores the profound differences among game design for single-player, multiplayer, MMOG, and free-to-play games. These differences extend beyond the obvious considerations (types of challenges, fairness, balance, synchronous and asynchronous play, etc.) to questions about how the designer relates to the players, and how his or her own role changes with each type: artist, engineer, sociologist, economist. The experience of the single-player game arises from minute details of interaction, while the multiplayer game is much more about competition and mechanics. The lecture ends with suggestions to help guide the designer's thinking and avoid mistakes caused by assuming that all game design is the same.

GDC 2010

Ernest Adams

International Hobo

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Game Design

Design