{"id":112391,"date":"2020-05-01T13:30:00","date_gmt":"2020-05-01T13:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.gamasutra.com\/view\/news\/362156"},"modified":"2020-05-01T13:30:00","modified_gmt":"2020-05-01T13:30:00","slug":"blog-should-players-buy-their-own-ui","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/2020\/05\/01\/blog-should-players-buy-their-own-ui\/","title":{"rendered":"Blog: Should players buy their own UI?"},"content":{"rendered":"

The following blog post, unless otherwise noted, was written by a member of Gamasutra\u0092s community.
The thoughts and opinions expressed are those of the writer and not Gamasutra or its parent company. <\/small><\/i><\/strong> <\/p>\n

\n

Animal Crossing: New Horizons<\/em> drops players onto a near-deserted island, with empty pockets and dreams of a self-made paradise.<\/big><\/p>\n

For the first few hours, players are tasked with organising their new tropical home by crafting and using handy tools: spades, axes, fishing poles. Axes chop trees and yield wood; shovels unearth fossils and buried treasure. Players have to swap between tools continuously to tidy their space.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a slightly laborious process to open the in-game inventory, move the cursor to your desired tool with the d-pad, and double-tap to \u2018hold\u2019, to then resume weed-clearing or hole-digging. And so, when the in-game shop is constructed, it\u2019s a welcome surprise to find a purchasable \u2018Tool Ring\u2019<\/strong>: a radial quick-select menu for speedy access to those essential tools.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Animal Crossing\u2019s purchasable Tool Ring upgrade. Image from NintendoLife.<\/a><\/small><\/p>\n

It\u2019s a radial menu: One press shows the menu, one push of the analog stick in the direction of your desired tool, then another press to select that tool.<\/p>\n

The Tool Ring is one of several upgrades that players can buy from infamous in-game shopkeeper Tom Nook, but so far it\u2019s the only upgrade that\u2019s purely for quality-of-life<\/em> rather than unlocking some new mechanic or progression.<\/p>\n

The Tool Ring\u2019s only job is to reduce<\/em> the players\u2019 need to access and scroll through the inventory to access their tools.<\/p>\n

But until the Tool Ring is bought and unlocked by players they must use the inventory, despite it being slower to complete tasks, more error-prone, and more visually overwhelming.<\/p>\n

Why would designers force players to use a clunky inventory when a perfectly good shortcut exists?<\/big><\/em><\/p>\n

And to unlock this quality-of-life feature, AC:NH asks players to save up and convolutedly buy it. Surely it could just be unlocked at the beginning?<\/p>\n

Why wouldn\u2019t quality-of-life capabilities unlock for players automatically? Why should players buy their own UI?<\/big><\/em><\/p>\n

Like many seemingly counter-intuitive choices in game design, the answer is: to shape player behaviour.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s discuss why player experience benefits by players buying their own quality-of-life improvements like the Tool Ring in Animal Crossing, and see if this might be a mechanic that benefits your title too.<\/p>\n

Ramping Complexity<\/h2>\n

All games struggle with teaching players, particularly those targeting audiences with little gaming experience or little time on their hands.<\/p>\n

If games can reduce the complexity of interfaces then there\u2019s less to teach or become overwhelmed by. As such, it\u2019s common for games to progressively reveal UI elements piece-by-piece through the first few minutes or sessions of play. This approach leads to a more gradual \u2018learning curve\u2019.<\/p>\n

Putting the Tool Ring in the in-game store gave players that extra learning time. But also the opportunity to pre-empt its introduction: to read the written description and understand the utility of an item to be introduced later.<\/p>\n

Any design pattern that can encourage players to concentrate and absorb information has huge value<\/big><\/em><\/p>\n

Providing quick access to tools might be necessary to pacing in AC:NH, but that doesn\u2019t mean the resulting radial menu is easy for players to understand or interact with. It\u2019s deceptively complicated: it\u2019s the only radial menu in the game, and is populated by tools that\u2019re abstractly \u2018favourited\u2019 inside the inventory: one of the most visually-dense and variable menus in AC:NH.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The Tool Ring avoids players having to visually scan and navigate this colourful, complex UI. Image from ACW.<\/a><\/small><\/p>\n

Delaying the addition of complex ideas can also empower teams to introduce more complexity than might otherwise have been tolerated or appropriate for a given audience, had it been introduced all-at-once.<\/p>\n

At The Player\u2019s Pace<\/h2>\n

Progressively revealing new UI elements might flatten the complexity curve, but the cadence of unlocking would still be controlled by the game, not the player. Particularly in free-to-play, players\u2019 first gameplay session risks being overwhelmingly prescripted to ramp from 0-to-fun as quickly as possible, sometimes leaving players without a clue what\u2019s going on.<\/p>\n

The Tool Ring\u2019s introduction isn\u2019t just delayed, it\u2019s player-controlled. The need to purchase<\/em> gave hours or days of space for player to grok the rest of the game first, and even then players still had to \u2018opt into\u2019 adding more complexity by actively choosing to purchase<\/em> that item:<\/p>\n

Whether players knew it or not, they were in charge of their own decision: \u201cI\u2019m ready for more, now\u201d.<\/big><\/em><\/p>\n

Of course there is a risk to forcing friction on players in the short-term, and relying on them to unlock the \u2018true experience\u2019 for themselves; we\u2019ll discuss risks at the end of this article too.<\/p>\n

Engaging with Economies<\/h2>\n

AC:NH has multiple stores, multiple currencies, and layers of challenges and goals. The intermingling of players\u2019 self-set goals and game-world goals (aka intrinsic and extrinsic goals) is part of AC:NH\u2019s charm.<\/p>\n

The Tool Ring is purchased through the notably unexciting ATM machine with \u2018Nook Miles\u2019, one of the two main currencies, tied to in-game challenges and achievements.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Unlocking the Tool Ring from the Nook Miles ATM machine. Image from NintendoLife<\/a>.<\/small><\/p>\n

Any economy-bound game knows the value of encouraging players to make regular, rewarding transactions. For AC:NH in particular, having a desirable item tied to the secondary currency in the early-game ensures that the challenges for Nook Miles aren\u2019t totally ignored.<\/p>\n

And when players do prioritise these optional in-game challenges, they\u2019re rewarded with something of tangible and immediate value that helps with both their self-set and game-set goals.<\/p>\n

Shortcuts and Longcuts<\/h2>\n

The Tool Ring is a shortcut. It\u2019s a miniature, less-capable but quicker-to-access version of the inventory.<\/p>\n

But the inventory still has a huge amount to do in AC:NH, and players will likely have more tools than can fit in the Tool Ring<\/em>. This shortcut is an addendum, not a replacement.<\/p>\n

Had the Tool Ring been unlocked from the beginning, players would have engaged far less with the inventory; in contrast to the Tool Ring it\u2019s cumbersome and slow. Could lessened use of the inventory have damaged the player experience, or player\u2019s understanding of the game? Without playtesting both versions it\u2019s hard to say for certain, but I\u2019d posit that by the inventory\u2019s nature of constantly-changing, present-containing, item-description-giving, reminders-of-collected-items\u2014that regularly visiting the inventory has value to the player experience.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

AC:NH inventories are filled with excitement and knowledge. Image from Animal Crossing World<\/a>.<\/small><\/p>\n

And so forcing players to take the \u2018long-way round\u2019 for a while leads to better understanding of the world, and the specific value that the inventory has, which lasts even when a shortcut to some actions is unlocked.<\/p>\n

Caveat Emptor<\/h2>\n

We\u2019ve already touched on some risks that this approach presents. Clearly putting all quality-of-life upgrades behind a shop purchase isn\u2019t wise, so what\u2019re our options and risks here?<\/p>\n

Depending on the prominence of the in-game store, or the number of items available to buy, players simply might never acknowledge the item exists. The newest Pok\u00e9mon Sword and Shield chose to have the game volume controls unlockable via an in-game item, the \u201cHigh-tech Earbuds\u201d\u00e2\u20ac\u0160\u2014\u00e2\u20ac\u0160a design judgement perhaps motivated by the reasons outlined in this article. But the choice to unlock them through talking to a specific NPC<\/em> meant their unlock was easily missed by players.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Pok\u00e9mon Trainers had to visit a particular NPC to unlock in-game volume options. Image from NintendoLife.<\/a><\/small><\/p>\n

Holding back the quality-of-life improvements, be they game volume controls or avoiding extra button-presses, disproportionately affects players with impairments, in these cases withholding tools to accommodate auditory and motor challenges. There is clearly a balance to strike here.<\/p>\n

By making it an optional purchase, there\u2019s a clear risk that players don\u2019t recognise that the unlockable will improve their experience, and therefore never invest in it. In AC:NH the Tool Ring is listed in the in-game shop as \u201cTool Ring – It\u2019s Essential!\u201d<\/strong>; this on-the-nose description hints at difficulties in getting playtesters to pick it out from among the other items for sale, or not prioritising it. And so depending on how \u2018essential\u2019 your upgrades really are, or how well you\u2019re able to describe them, there\u2019s some risk that the purchased capability is less useful<\/em> than your promise, or useful but ignored<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Fun and Friction<\/h2>\n

Despite the Tool Ring shortcut, there\u2019s still a lot of UI busywork in AC:NH.<\/p>\n

Much of Animal Crossing\u2019s satisfyingly glacial progression and deliberate friction manifests in menus. These good design decisions haven\u2019t gone unpunished by players, and there are a few key interactions that are chief among players\u2019 gripes. For example, the inability to craft consumable items like fishing bait without crafting them one-by-one, or the need to have crafting ingredients in the player inventory, despite the presence of bulk ingredient storage in players\u2019 homes.<\/p>\n

AC:NH\u2019s repetitive UI navigation could easily be minimised. But it\u2019s this friction that shapes player behaviour that makes Animal Crossing fun.<\/big><\/em><\/p>\n

But if player feedback is heeded, and Nintendo decide to reduce this friction, then perhaps it\u2019ll be Tom Nook that offers players their requested UI shortcuts. For a fee<\/em>, of course.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The following blog post, unless otherwise noted, was written by a member of Gamasutra\u0092s community.The thoughts and opinions expressed are those of the writer and not Gamasutra or its parent company. Animal Crossing: New Horizons drops players onto a near-deserted island, with empty pockets and dreams of a self-made paradise. For the first few hours, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":112392,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-112391","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/112391","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=112391"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/112391\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/112392"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=112391"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=112391"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=112391"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}