VoodooLabs

Now, while I don’t normally make a post about a single link, and I don’t read Game Girl Advance (too girly) I feel that this link has some merit. Clicky.

I’m not sure about all of you out there, but I have been in many situations where we were playing a multiplayer game and decided on our own rules. It makes things fun, and, well, is something that tends to happen after playing the same game too much.

If I’m playing a multiplayer game I’m probably playing Halo and a very fun game to play is ‘Warthog Madness”. Create a race game in Blood Gulch - each Player will have a Warthog. The aim of the game is to run someone down with the ‘hog, to do so you have to flip their vehicle first, then run them over. A caveat is that once a player has died they are allowed to get back to their warthog in peace, and given adequate time to start moving.

The whole game is played in a relaxed manner with ‘big air’ being a side goal. The vehicle physics in Halo (original) are very mushy, especially with the warthogs, and it’s easy to collide and perform aerial acrobatics. There is often a very non-competitive nature, at least with the people I’ve played with. It’s seen as good will if someone spawns after they die at the ‘wrong base’ (the base at the other end of the map) another player will take their warthog halfway, thereby getting everyone back into the game faster.

Anyway the linked article and included comments describe many other game-rule recipes.

I think a game could be quite successful if it allowed these sort of rules to be arbitrarily setup, or at the very least flexable enough to facilitate more of these behaviours. This “emergent gameplay” is not new, but I think it’s quite cool. It is, in part, tied to the mod scene. The successful mod - Counter-Strike has a few of these gameplay elements. Save hostages, protect the VIP, plant the bomb. And a few extra maps have other gameplay elements, such as ‘Grenade Tennis’ - two teams, a large glass wall with an opening on the top and grenades all over the floor. The only way to elimintate the other team is to throw the grenades over the wall and try and time it right. Another map “Sniper” is two identical set of obstacles facing each other. Players use cover and try to snipe the opposition. Yet another CS level has two identical sides and a large wall that moves up and down, kind of like a reverse garage door. The game is almost the same but this door leaves time to find another position, or get into a position to rush the other side.

I’m just musing over this, I find it quite interesting. LANs seem to end up everyone playing the small fun games, or the rule changed normal games which is interesting, it seems that simple arcade rules still have standing.