Strategy Games - 10/15/19
Administration Things
Midterm Format
Slide section: A picture of a key game where you need to give all the info for that game (dev, year, platform, name)
Short answer: Similar to recitation quiz
Multiple choice
Small essay: Similar to CPRs but written in class
It will be the duration of class- an hour and a half.

The final
It will be happening in this room, Dec 16th
Same room, on the first Monday of finals week, at 6 PM to 8 PM
Strategy Games - Frank Lantz
Little Wars by H.G. Wells

In 1913, was the origin of the strategy genre. It was the "first" tabletop strategy game of sorts.
In this book, we see lots of features that are standard aspects of strategy games. hidden info, drama of moves, etc.
Key Concepts
War as a subject
Decision-making under uncertainty
Uncertainty as a key ingredient of game design)
Thinking as experience - the "Cerebral" domain
Some games themselves are about the cerebral aspect of decision-making and how strategy games embody that
Time as a game design parameter - turn-based vs. real-time
Macro vs Micro
The importance of interface and control schemes
The evolution of strategy games from Chess to e-Sports
Kriegspiel ("War Game")
Date: 1812
Developer: George Leopold von Reiswitz
Platform: Board game
Region of origin: Prussia

Evolved out of prussian military school
Essentially a mod of chess. Started out as a game you would play using mulitple chest boards, combining them to create a more complex and expansive version
Part of the ongoing variants of chess. Still a variant you can play by putting two chess boards together
It qualifies as a simulation of combat, as its own standalone game and having different and unique materials.
Had its roots in the study of war by people who were in military schools/academies, training to become generals, etc. that saw the value of board games and wanted to expand them in order for them to be more specific.
Making them more closely aligned with specific problem solving when managing troops in battle or something similar. You have all these aspects, such as terrain, and then extra rules including things like range, etc.
A management of information; You don't know your opponents moves until a unit could see opponent's pieces. It was one of the main shifts from chess- in addition to adding more stuff, there is the idea of careful information management
A "serious" game. Meant for serious usage, and played as an intellectual exercise in cognitive problem solving. The basic idea was to embody the necessary parts of cognitive problem solving one would need as a general. It was extremely popular, but its efficacy isn't really known.
Why Kriegspiel
It was the first "war game"
First example of detailed combat simlulation
First clear example of this
The roots of D&D (and therefore an important influence on much of modern games)
D&D emerged directly from tabletop combat simulations
Little Wars
More playful. About harnessing the simulations of war. It brought from Kriegspiel the attention to detail. Indulging in the pleasure of simulation was a large part of the aesthetic of Little Wars.
Under the hood, Kriegspiel and Little Wars share their components with games like Go and Chess, but they bring so much more to the aesthetic of miniature simulation.
Why do we care about indulging ourselves in this elaborate simulation of perhaps what is the worst thing we can do? Why is indulging in war so attractive?
War was present to those in Europe as a culture of life that was fascinating and vivid
In the theme of it, there is a lot of thinking and, well, strategy involved. Lots of complications that lend themselves to interesting problem solving.
It has a win condition. It has discrete outcomes.
In our culture, there is a certain status for military action. Although it varies
Fog of War
Carl von Clausewitz. Prussian Military.
The Fog of War is a concept he coined. Quote on slides.
The fog of war is that we don't know for sure on the right decision. We are in a darkness of information to make crucial decisions.
In game design, fog of war is the management of hidden information. This marked the difference between chess and Kriegspiel.
The situation is uncertain, but it doesn't truly matter. We drift through the ambiguity of life, but in the heat of battle the uncertainty is incredibly relevant to you and just how much it matters.
Coming up with the best maneuver and making the right decision becomes an intensely present issue
It can also be a sublime experience; There are some who go through combat and realize there were some aspects of it that were profoundly moving to them in that moment.
One way to understand this as a theme to explore within games is as a sort of alchemy. Perhaps we can extract some good and valuable things from the horrible reality that is war.
Strategies
Digging deep
Persevering through difficult and challenging problems
Being able to attempt to come to the correct outcome
Representation of War
Strategy games, at the top
High leven plans
Long term predictions
General principles
Abstract logic
"Attack where the enemy is weakest" (PLaying things smart)
Tactics, lower down to reality
Short-term predictions
Concrete turn-by-turn calculations
"Move the archers back" (Specifics of how you'll maneuver)
Action, more to the immediate experience
Immediate, in-the-moment execution
Skill
"Don't shoot until you see the whites of their eyes!" (Moment execution)
Strategy and tactic bullets are what we are considering in the world of the Strategy Game genre
The core ingredients pf strategy gameswe are worrying about are
COnscious
Deliberate
"Cerebral"
In action games, things are more
Subsconscious
Automatic
Instinctive
Three ways to win a game
Luck
being
fate determining who will win
Actions
doint
skill determining who will win
Strategy
thinking
(deeper) intelligence determining who will win
While COD might require intelligence and brain training, it isn't particularly "cerebral"
The conscious deliberate choices (who goes where, etc.) is what we think of for "cerebral"
Strategy as an ingredient in games
Conscious deliberate choices
Claculation
Planning and prediction
Cerbral style
Strategy as a game genre
Competitive decision making
(Often) military simulations
Top-down general's eye view
Abstraction, systems, rules
M.U.L.E. -
Date: 1983
Developer: Danielle Bunten Berry w/ Ozard Softscape Platform: Atari 400/800 Region of origin: USA

Players are playing on an alien planet and fighting over spots of land for resources which they can sell.
It is a resource management and economics game
It's a board game on steroids
Innovative and ahead of its time.
It's not mecessarily focused on military combat but more economic combat.
The heart of the game is where you trade resources with other players. It is an incredibly clever way of live real time trading.
Top of the screen sell, bottom of the screen buy. The vertical location is the price, i.e. the players walk up/down to change the price they're willing to buy/sell at.
Part of this strategy is sort of like faking someone out, and this movement system can help you show intentions. A visualization of this market game.
Some inspiration taken from Monopoly
Why M.U.L.E. -
Deeply respected and influential among game designers
Advanced ideas - far ahead of it's time
Economic conflict
Deep multiplayer interaction
Real-time auction mechanic (people stil think of it as a very clever mechanic)
Civilization (Series)
Date: 1991 - present Developer: Sid Meier w/ MicroProse Platform: PC Region of Origin: USA

Civ is based on a specific board game that Meier took as inspiration. A bunch of different designers had considered making a game out of it.
4X Games
Explore
Expand
Exploit
Exterminate 😟
A simulation of a country/nation starting out as a single location. It then expands and grows to occupy the entire map.
It also evolves over time to become more and more sophisticated in time. You move through historical eras
One of the first games to introduce a multimodal interface
Multiple windows to do different parts of the game
A sophisticated diplomatic system, where you have to negotiate with various players.
Negotiating diplomatically was just as important, if not more important, than just war
Deep, detailed, complex, layered ruleset
Multiple paths to victory
Instead of defeating your enemy by destroying them, you can build 'Wonders' to win peacefully
You still need to think about military if you're going for this, though
Tech tree
When your nation starts out, it has a set of simple technologies that are game mechanics.
They are the ways which you can itneract with the board
What type of structures you can build and units you can order, etc.
Evolving these technologies over time
Choosing which technologies and branches to go down
The decisions you make early on continue to unfold. Once you continue going down a certain path it determines the rest of the course of that path
A way to embody the idea that decisions you make early on in the game resonate down through the game
It manifests the idea that decisions matter. Your choices and decisions will continue to reverberate down many hours of play. The decisions will remain to be important and continue to have influence over the rest of the game.
"A game is a series of interesting decisions." - Sid Meier
Very narrow though, for example we can also say games that are more about experience and less about player agency
Player choice is the core aspect of Civ. It is about making the player's choices matter- what makes their choices interesting
What makes a choice meaningful? What makes a game not boring?
An interesting question whilst you play Civ V: Why is this game referred to as among the best video games of all time?
Partly about the theme. In a hobby dominated by vulgar or silly thematic (not always, but often), Civ has a sober presentation- a more sophisticated theme. It's grounded in a sense of realism, and not abstract.
The depth of the systems- i.e. the tech tree, complex interlocking rules- is important.
Idea of exponential growth; start small and get big. It's just a good/fun feeling
It has a steady rhythm of making moves and seeing hte outcome of those moves in such a way that is always overlapping
Why Civilization
Widely considered one of the greatest games of all time
SOphisitcated theme
Deeply compelling single-player game ("one more turn!")
Highly influential (i.e. tech trees)
X-COM (series)
Date 1993 - Present
Developer: Julian Gollop w/ MicroProse
Platform: PC
Region of origin: England

Pointed to as one of the greatest games of all time
Turn-based, tactical battles. You control humans who are fighting back against invading aliens within a larger, global strategy game
There is a large scope
Overall grand scope like base-building and adding specific rooms to your base for the kinds of technology you can develop
Also recruiting individual fighters to join the force, but their persistence over time adds to the game
The units are simply like chess pieces; very simple and abstract. Yet, you give them a name and in that persistence of the chess pieces where over time, they get experience that makes them feel like real people
They might be just chess pieces- no dialogue, stories, etc.- but they somehow manage to feel like little characters
It is conjured by the mechanics of the game. The story the player makes up is a consequence of the mechanics, not of a backstory within the game
This concept is a good example of an emergent narrative
Fog of war - You can't see what's out in the darkness (it's a bunch of aliens)
Why X-COM
Beloved example of deep gameplay
Representing really crunchy, deep gameplay
Two-teired experience/structure; Tactical and Strategic levels
Base building and battle
Powerful example of emergent emotional attachment
Given the right framing structures, stories can percolate up
Fire Emblem (Series)
Date: 1990 - Present
Developer: Intelligent Systems
Platform: Famicom (NES)
Region of origin: Japan

Animation was top-tier, especially in binding blade
There was the design goal that encapsulates the strategy game aesthetic but apply to a much broader audience
Intersection of a composed narrative and tactical gameplay
Why Fire Emblem
Accessible and deep
One of the all-time great turn-based tactics games
Up there with 'Advanced Wars' (game out the 9/10/11)
Successful blend of strategy and storytelling
Modular story and character death
Quick Aside: Game Theory
Game theory game out of strategy games, deeply related
It's the logic of interacting choices
Comes out of mathematics and economics
A mathematical analysis of decision-making
Developed by studying poker and other games
Influential in economics, political science, and biology (!)
Soemthing is up? Time is up!

Populous
Date: 1989
Developer: Peter Molyneux w/ Bullfrog Productions
Platform: PC, Amiga
Region of origin: England

Started out as an experiment with a little terrain generator, a toy-like thing where you could move people around and change the little world
Built a little game around this activity- this little isometric engine he made- designing a game where you were essentially a god over the little world where the people were worshipping you.
More worship led to more power
There are later enemy tribes, and all these various sorts of mechanics
The whole thing unfolds in real time. One of the first examples with strategic decision making, unfolding in real-time
Why Populous
Great example of Molyneux' genius
Had important status in game design. He made a lot of games- many good, many terrible
First "god game"
All these strategy games imply some sort of god-like perspective, and in this one it literally makes you that 'god'
Early real-time strategy (RTS)
Isometric 3D terrain
Other early RTS games
Herzog Zwei, 1989
Often referred to as a precursor to current RTS games
You're flying around and commanding different units
Dune 2, 1992
Considered the first official RTS game. It sets down the blueprint for what is now considered to be RTS
Autonomous units with controls, context sensitive mouse commands, sophisticated modal structure, fog of war, tech trees, etc.
Common Features (the hallmarks) of Real-Time Strategy
Resource Management
Base Building
Tech-trees
Making mutually exclusive decisions that affect what happens down the road
Indirect control / semi-autonomous units
Pathfinding or own types of behavior
COntext-sensitive cursor-based controls
Brett Sperry
Westwood Studios
Dune II, Command & Conquer
Sort of invented RTS but not very popular. This really came out of an individual.
The inspiration from Dune II was partially from Populous, but also from the Mac OS (interface within games, away with hotkeys)
Chuck thought war games sucked due to lack of innovation and design, but Brett took it to the next level with RTS
RTS in the 90s (Westwood / Blizzard Rivalry)
Command & Conquer (Westwood)
Warcraft (Blizzard)
Starcraft (Series)
Date: 1998 - present
Developer: Blizzard Entertainment
Platform: PC
Region of origin: USA

Comes out of this active period of competition
Started with Warcraft/Warcraft II engine, but with a cosmetic difference
The key ingredient to Starcraft was thinking about three different sides that all play intensely differently
A strong commitment to asymmetry
Each one (3 diff) has different tech trees, units, etc.
Each side had characteristic match ups against the other two or players playing the same side
All combined to lead to a rich strategic experience
All these games were competitive and played against each other, but Starcraft was the first game to get a serious, high level competitive game scene.
Similar to the relationship of chess, go, tennis, etc. Getting good at Starcraft could become a full-time application
Eventually led to the development of contemporary e-Sports - South Korea = ground zero
Korean commitment to broadband culture
Needed PC games (not Japanese arcade games)
There already was a culture of serious, professional, competitive strategy game playing (i.e. Go)
Starcraft has openings that you study, like in chess
There is a very important between micro and macro
Micro: What you are doing when controlling individual units
Macro: What you are oding when you are doing base building, tech-trees, etc.
You have to balance both very carefully in Starcraft because it is entirely both of them
APM = Actions per Minute
A little technical skill of moving hands around fast enough
In Starcraft II, each of the 3 races has a special unit
The terren special limit is called the Mule (a direct reference!)
Why Starcraft
Greatest RTS game of all time
Macro/Micro balance - Deep strategy and high skill simultaneously
Pioneering ESport
Global cultural impact
League of Legends
Date: 2009 (Released today, Oct 15th, 10 years ago!)
Developer: Riot Games
Platform: PC
Region of Origin: USA

A 5v5 real-time strategy game
Started out as a mod of Warcraft III
Some games are the individual works of authors, this game came out of the community in Battle.net and to Blizzard's commitment to open process
Blizzard would ship a game and tools to mod and work on this game.
Tower defense as a genre came out of this process of modifying and tinkering and sharing of ideas and collaboration
Now the most dominant eSport
Defense of the Ancients (DOTA)
Sort of a mixture of chess, basketball, and Pokemon
Chess from tabletop
Basketball team-based
Pokemon from its deep complexity
Even though you are controlling individual units, you can trace back some details to tabletop history and working with essences of military conflicts
The team-based aspect is a really important aspect of this game
The intricacies of coordinating actions amongst an entire team happens in real time and takes deep skill
Deliberate, conscious decision-making involved, but also immediate skill at various points
The game is so hard to play, memorizing items and units is easy in contrast
The strategic came play is the core connection with the rest of the games in this lecture
Why League of Legends
Biggest, most popular video game in the world?
Complex, deep, difficult, challenging, and beautiful!
For the first many hours, there is struggling and losting to learn in order to understand the intracacies of the games; akin to the mind of Shakespeare
Team-based strategy game
Most advanced expession of real-time "Action RPG" combat
Often involves tank, dps, healer, crowd control, etc.
The legacy of Kriegspiel continues to evolve (full circle!)
Note to self: Maybe playing strategy games will help you make decisions when there is a darkness of information... Like if someone really likes you back or not and what the right decision is! It's all about not knowing.

Fire Emblem (!)
Civ V