Drop In — How Sports Games are Challenging the Multiplayer Scene
If I am being completely honest, I am not really a sports kind of guy. Sure I’ll watch them every now and again, but if I am gonna play sport, why not actually play it versus playing a digital simulation of it. However, my family has always been really into sports, specifically football (not american, the real one). Because of this, FIFA has always been a game we get every year no matter what. I enjoy playing it, but I really enjoy playing it with my family even more. With four controllers and two teams, we always have fun planning tactics with each other, and setting up plays ultimately resulting in either an amazing finish or a terrible miss. With a game based of a sport and competition, having a good multiplayer experience is important. However, this landscape is changing thanks to innovations in how we structure multiplayer gaming in sports games, and its a welcome change I could see in other genres as well.
Bartle’s Taxonomy and Early Sports Games
Any game designer has heard of Bartle’s taxonomy; a set of four player types that define interactions of players. Bartle’s taxonomy states that a player can be classified by whether they act or interact on the players or the worlds. Originally, this was used to describe players in RPGs after observation, and is now used to target specific types of players through narratives or mechanics. In early multiplayer sports games, we see players interacting with players, or more specifically acting on players, since the actions the players take directly affect another player. Thus, the players of multiplayer sports games typically are classified as “Killers”, a group of players who are interested in dominating over other players. They will consistently try and one up each other through play. This creates longer engagement, and by implementing play modes where players are competing in tiered systems or in professional leagues like EASHL in NHL can also increase investment in the players. However, this is just one player type.
When you think of multiplayer, you automatically think of Socializers, the type of player who enjoy interacting with other players, and you’re not wrong, but in early multiplayer, this was limited to voice chat and single control multiplayer, when one player controls a team and another player controls another, for a PvP experience.
Nowadays, we are seeing a change in how we play online through lobby like experiences. For this we can look to NBA 2K MyPark, an online mode where players play with other players using their own custom players. These could be up to 5v5 games with 10 unique players, allowing for more interaction with players. These systems also have rankings, invoking the killer role. 2K has capitalized on these players by using micro-transactions to get players to buy more goods for customization, like jerseys and hats.
One of the major aspects of these open world multiplayer games is your status or “clout” in the game. These include badges which represent your level or tier. This ropes in achievers, who are looking to leave their impact on the world. As such, being known for being the “Park Bully” is just one of the ways a player can leave their impact. In NBA 2k20, players can build their reputation, earning levels such as “pro” and “legend”. The structure of these new multiplayer experiences help rope in more of these player archetypes into the game, and with yearly installments, can help increase the base.
Where to go from Here
Multiplayer in Sports Games have enticed 3 out of the 4 player types to come into the system, but we are missing the 4th type: Explorers. This type prefers interacting with the world itself, trying to find hidden secrets and learn all there is to know. When developing sports games, the major focus is on the gameplay experience within the actual matches; how the player’s play the game. However, if sports games wanted to incorporate elements that explorers would enjoy, it would be as easy as adding a simple story mode for your player. Similar to manager mode in FIFA, you could have a career manager with your player, allowing you to open businesses and make deals for endorsement. Allowing you to manage your own park can allow for hidden secrets, which means that explorers would be constantly looking for these things.
Of course we have to address the elephant in the room: the validity of Bartle’s Taxonomy. In reality, this system is really poorly designed for games other than MUD’s (Multi User Text Dungeons). However, the core idea here is that Multiplayer sports games are becoming more and more adaptive to new play styles, ranging from the causal players to the more competitive players. The taxonomy gives us a solid foundation when looking into player styles for games, such as adopting new play styles, or adopting for a spectrum of styles. Just like the Taxonomy, take this with a grain of salt because these are just here to show that the multiplayer scene is changing in the sports games market, and I can see it soon changing in other areas.
Conclusion
The adoption of open world multiplayer systems helps cultivate an experience for players to not only play competitively, but encourages exploration, communication and perseverance in games where frustration is a prominent feeling. Is this a perfect system? No, but in the game design world, perfect is the enemy of good.
