Goals, Challenges and Rewards

Goals

In video games, a goal is a task or an aim that the player needs to achieve in order to boost the player's experience in the game. They are used to enhance the gaming experience in the game and to immerse the players in the gaming world. This is the main reason why developers need to create these goals so that the players have an aim and find the game more fun and less boring. Short term goals include killing an enemy, destroying a tower, activating an objective or simply scoring a goal. Examples of goals are unlocking a new gun in Call of Duty, completing achievements or acquiring an item for finishing a mission. 

Challenges

Challenges are the longer version of goals. They are built from a game's goals and are either short term, medium term or long terms challenges. 

Short term challenges are ones that are fairly easy and fast to complete for the gamer. You are more likely to see short term challenges while in a mission. Examples of short term challenges could be Killing 100 monsters, picking up 20 stones or get 100 gold. Short term challenges are used to keep the gamer interested and entertained in the game. This is because it gives gamers something to work towards during the mission rather than being frustrated not knowing what to do. Although it is not the missions overall goal, short term challenges can be quite fun for gamers.

Medium term challenges are in between short term and long term challenges. This means that they last longer than short term challenges but not longer than long term challenges. Medium term challenges are harder than short challenges and can include things such as completing a mission or getting to a point in the mission where a cut scene is shown. An example of a medium term challenge could be stealing a car, then get to a place and kill someone. This could easily be a mission in GTA 5 and as you can see each thing you have to do are short challenges. Therefore it would be safe to say that medium term challenges are the collection of short challenges that creates the mission itself. 

Long term challenges are the longest and also the hardest. You could say they are the ultimate goal within a video game. Long term challenges can include completing the game itself, winning the league or even unlocking a new map to play on. Examples of long term challenges include destroying the nexus in a game of League of Legends, making your opponent surrender in Starcraft or simply winning the league in Fifa. Long challenges are used in games to give some sort of reward to the players for getting that farm and also to make them feel victorious since they have completed the game.

Rewards

Rewards are ways in which the designer congratulates the player for being such a good gamer and playing their game to the point where they have unlocked rewards. Rewards boost the gaming experience and makes it more fun for the player. In video games there are two different types of rewards: short term rewards and long term rewards.

Short term rewards are really simple rewards. Things such as an extra life, an extra magazine or increased time to do the mission are short term rewards. In games such as CoD, the instant reward that players get when killing people is their equipment such as bullets, grenades and their guns. Long term rewards are more complex rewards and they usually take long to achieve. These are rewards such as experience, levels and skill points with which the player can improve their character and make it stronger by assigning the points they have achieved to a specific skill their character has. In games such as CoD and Tekken you could be rewarded with new gun skins and new characters to play with. These are mostly used so that the player gets stronger and feels like they are improving at the game. 

Rewards are used within video games to keep the gamer from quitting. They are also used as prizes to give the players so that they are rewarded for playing the game. It would not be as good if you complete a game and not a single reward was given to your character. Also, players would ask themselves what was the point of all the time they spent playing the game if they do not get rewarded at all. So, it could be that rewards act as a reason for the gamer to play the game since once they receive rewards for completing the game the player can be proud of himself/herself.

Difficulty and balance

Difficulty and balance

Balance is linked to difficulty and is determined by the different levels a video game has from easy to hard. These difficulty settings control whether the gamer is at ease or struggling when completing the game. It is important that the early parts of a game are easy to play because they serve as tutorials for newer players that do not have much experience and it also works as an introduction for the story. It is also important that gamers get used to the game before they go on to harder missions and it makes them feel that they are getting better at the game. Games will generally get harder as the game progresses but if they main difficulty is set to easy then the “harder” missions will not be as hard as if they were being played with the main difficulty hard. This setting allows a wide variety of players with different skill to play the game and enjoy it. It also keeps the game from being boring as people like to put a harder level on to test themselves. Examples of games that use difficulty settings are Call of Duty, Mortal combat and Forza. In these games, the difficulty can be changed to suit the player. In call of duty players can change the difficulty of the campaign while in forza the difficulty mainly changes the speed of the computer’s cars. Players might change the difficulty of the game because it might be either too easy for them or too hard. As players get better at the game, they can change the difficulty to hard so that they can challenge themselves and test themselves to see how much they have improved their skills. This is one way in which a game can become interesting because gamers will compete with each other to see who can beat a harder computer. 

Narrative

Narrative

The narrative in a video game is the story line of the game that you are playing. It is basically like a plot that the video game has to follow. Narratives are used so that the player understands what is going on in the story and to make the games more exciting. Without narratives, games wouldn’t be interesting at all and would be quite boring. It is important to have a good narrative because it is what makes a game so successful. Games such as GTA V and Assassins Creed not only have great graphics, but also have incredible story lines and narratives. Narratives are introduced in the game through the use of FMVs (Full Motion Videos) and Cut Scenes. An advantage of narratives is that when a gamer finishes a mission and they see a cut scene or FMV they feel rewarded and shows them that they are doing well in the game. A disadvantage is that it slows down the pace of the game and it could be quite annoying for the gamer. 


FMVs

FMVs or Full Motion Videos are pre-recorded video files or movies which display action and present information in the game. FMVs are used to build the storyline and to boost the game’s visual style. They allow designers to make adverts and give gamers the best quality graphics within a game to promote the game itself but not the gameplay of the game. An example of an FMV would be the Battlefield: Hardline trailer where they present the game to gamers as if it was a real life movie. A disadvantage to FMVs is that they are time consuming and can be annoying to some gamers where are they care about is playing the game. This is a reason why sometimes FMVs can be skipped and gamers can jump straight into gameplay. 

Cut scenes

A cut scene is a video scene which has been coded to be played whenever a character reaches a certain point in the game. Cut scenes develop the storyline of the game but they are sometimes limitations to gamers as they can’t control anything when it is playing. Cut scenes allow the game to have a smoother feel and look more professional after the completion of a certain level and is used by designers for these purposes. An example of a cut scene would be in GTA V after the main character has reached a certain point in the map. Cut scenes are preferred over FMVs because they are easier to render (less time to load up) and it gives a more natural flow to the game without taking too much time off the gameplay.