Interprotean Xenomorph

A friend of mine read my post on Coopetitive Online Gameplay and declared: “That reminds me of Cluedo!”

Cluedo (Clue in North America) is a crime fiction board game. You may obtain more details on Cluedo from Wikipedia.

I don’t think I agree with this assessment, since all players do compete, but do not cooperate to identify the murderer.

Coopetitive Online Gameplay is something else. Something that transforms a single-player interactive fiction into an interactive fiction where several roles (antagonists and/or protagonists) are acted by different players.

Let’s go back to Aliens for a second…

Towards the end of the movie, Ripley, Newt and the Colonial Marines are trying to retreat under assault by a swarm of xenomorphs. Burke, an instrument of Weyland-Yutani, is more interested in saving his own life, hoping he will be able to preserve the interests of Weyland-Yutani.

In a traditional single-player campaign, you would play Ripley and all other characters would be AI-controlled. Your objective would be to save as many lives as possible. Losing Newt would imply “Game Over”.

The same sequence played in Coopetitive Online Mode would have you cooperate with 2 Colonial Marines (controlled by human players), against one or several xenomorphs (also controlled by human players).

In other words, realizing AI is not anywhere near human intelligence, the game designer entrusts certain key roles to different players. The gameplay sequence becomes very dynamic.

In fact, this is the challenge with Coopetitive Online Gameplay: You have to draw a box around what is expected and possible in order to ensure storytelling progresses as planned.

I am still working on an action sequence that will fully describe Coopetitive Online Gameplay…later…

I previous explained the importance of Cooperative Online Gameplay.

The opportunity to share a dramatic or epic fiction with one or several human players is mesmerizing. Indeed, a big part of role playing is interacting with other players. Building relationships. Trust. Respect. Friendship. Fear. Disdain. Hostility. The ingredients of verisimilitude.

Yet, why stop there?

Most games require the player to assume the role of a protagonist. Generally, an instrument of Good. From there, it’s all forward. The protagonist is always in control.

When was the last time a game forced you to withdraw under overwhelming force, with no hope at all?

When confronted with a swarm of xenomorphs, there is no way a single Marine could survive.

Yet, most modern games linearly force the protagonist through such a series of impossible situations. Yes, you may experience setbacks, you may have to retrace your steps, but you are expected to progress forward and eventually you will progress forward. That’s the intent of the game designer.

In other words, the entire game world revolves around you and no AI-controlled entity will ever truly surprise you.

So, I would like to introduce a concept that extends, goes beyond Cooperative Online Gameplay:

Coopetitive Online Gameplay

In essence, this mode is very similar to Cooperative Online Gameplay, with one major difference: Players are not forced to play “good guys” or “bad guys” and players do not necessarily know who is playing antagonists and protagonists.

OK, this sounds very abstract. I will use an example to clarify what it all means…

Imagine:

You and 3 of your friends agree on a time and date when you will play Gearbox’ Alien-based FPS.

You are going to play the game in Coopetitive Online Mode. You and your 3 friends will play from 4 different locations.

As you set up the game, you are asked what type of character you would like to play, in general terms.

Then, the game assigns you a role.

Let’s say you have been assigned the role of a Colonial Marine. In Seattle, your friend was assigned the role of a Weyland-Yutani Bioweapon Specialist. In San Francisco, one of your friends will play a Science Officer. In Los Angeles, a Pilot.
Thereon, gameplay and storytelling unfold from 4 different angles. As a Colonial Marine, you may or may not know the Pilot is a human player. As a Bioweapon Specialist, your friend may or may not know the Science Officer’s mission conflicts with theirs. When time comes to confront xenomorphs, the Colonial Marine may have to ally with the Pilot.

Brief, the game becomes a lot more dynamic and linearity is greatly reduced.

I admit this explanation needs a lot of work and I will come back to it later on.

Anyway, Coopetitive Online Gameplay, a flavor of Cooperative Online Gameplay where all human players don’t necessarily play on the same team, some kind of Cooperative Online Gameplay where human players may have to advance different plots towards conflicting objectives.