Games often serve to distract players from daily hassles, yet sometimes a game’s core mechanic is so repetitive or enveloping that players can benefit from an attention diversion. Stated differently, occasional variety from a game’s central mechanics can refresh players and prevent repeated actions from becoming boring actions. To reach such variety, games frequently distract players with varying degrees of structure, ultimately in efforts to keep players engaged and satisfied. In terms of distractions in games, degree of structure refers to the extent in which a game’s distraction is required and advertised.
Distractions executed with high structure
To cleanse the player's palate, game designers occasionally force gameplay distractions upon the player, demonstrating a high degree of structure behind such diversions. The adorable Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker involves a surprisingly large amount of cognitive effort through its puzzle-solving gameplay. After a few levels, players can feel mentally drained by such work. To alleviate the player, game designers incorporate several minecart levels that exhibit completely different gameplay. These distractions offer a rush of mindless, coin-grabbing entertainment that rests the player’s tired mind. After these required minigames, the player is once again ready to tackle further puzzles, thereby extending playtime.
As an equally structured and unavoidable approach, Metroid Prime infuses dramatic cutscenes before boss battles to shift attention away from previous sections toward upcoming areas. These cutscenes sharpen the player’s focus by illustrating Samus’s tension. The ominous music and nervousness behind Samus’s acting divert the player’s concentration to the upcoming battle. These cutscenes craftily occur during load times, thus preventing the player from becoming bored or disinterested during a long interlude of no action. By conveying a desired emotion of anticipation, game designers slyly grip the player’s attention and profoundly enhance atmosphere.
Distractions executed with moderate structure
While the previous examples demonstrate how game designers can positively distract players with required content, other contributive gameplay distractions are optional. By voluntarily presenting gameplay variety, the player enjoys enhanced autonomy behind their gameplay experience. Shovel Knight’s discretionary money-making levels, for instance, offer noncompulsory entertainment that diversify gameplay. Instead of the pure platforming to get from A to B evident in the rest of Shovel Knight, these levels offer the twist of manipulating one power-up to earn large sums of gold. If the main campaign becomes too challenging or ongoing, these clearly depicted levels offer enough variety to gameplay to successfully distract and refresh the player.
Similarly, The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds spins an epic story with the protagonist saving the land from an untamed evil. To help prevent this daunting tale from becoming too trying, many brief side missions are openly integrated across Hyrule’s landscape. Players can hunt for 100 adorable creatures hidden across the map, play a Hyrule version of baseball with an Octorok pitcher, compete in a combat-centric colosseum, and more. These missions are completely optional, bestowing the player not only with an ability to diversity their gameplay, but to also enhance their gameplay through earned rewards of weapon upgrades or heart pieces. Because these distractions are not required, their open availability represents a moderately loose structure to energize players for the epic journey that awaits
Distractions executed with low structure
Arguably the most effective method to constructively distract players, designers can infuse their art with low structure in gameplay distractions, resulting in a natural sense of wonder which players can explore whenever desired. Games with this low structure of distractions are often open-ended, rich with copious material to subtly grab the player’s attention. Bayonetta 2, for instance, distracts players from epic battles with its gorgeous scenery. Details glisten and the map is temptingly stuffed with hidden collectibles. Although not required or openly advised, the player often explores Bayonetta 2’s lush landscape to unintentionally divert him/herself from the game’s entertaining, yet constant battles. Low structure of incorporating distractions often includes optional, nondirected diversions, and Bayonetta 2 utilizes its cinematic beauty to wander the player along its gorgeous scenery.
Games can also be built upon constant gameplay variety that rests upon continually distracting the player. Super Mario Maker’s addictive approach of offering user-created levels keeps gameplay fresh because each new level diverts the player’s attention. Super Mario Maker’s 10 Mario Challenge illustrates this point particularly well. In this gameplay method, the player has ten lives to beat six custom levels. These levels are randomly chosen, resulting in a wide variety of gameplay elements, mechanics, and solutions. The player cannot become tired of one level because he/she either loses quickly or progresses to an entirely new level. By continually shifting the player’s concentration to new playstyles, Super Mario Maker elongates player engagement and satisfaction.
As another game built upon the idea of continual distractions, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild fascinates players with diversions that are continual, optional, and nonadvertised. This loose structure synthesises a natural curiosity in the player. Every tree could hold a Korok seed, every hill could hide a shrine, every canyon could store a new character to meet, etc. These copious possibilities drive most of the gameplay, even though the main mission tasks the player to Defeat Ganon. The player often intends to travel to a specific point in a linear fashion, but the tempting and numerous wonders along the way result in a cattywampus route full of enlivening discoveries. By perpetually stroking the player’s curiosity and sense of exploration, the many hidden wonders in Breath of the Wild enrich gameplay through their delightfully distracting nature.
Super Mario Odyssey demonstrates the same point of how continual, optional, and nonadvertised diversions can drive a player more than a formalized mission structure. To progress, Super Mario Odyssey requires the player to explore each planet and find an x amount of power moons. The key lies in these moons’ tempting earnability. With the abundance of these moons (over 900 throughout the full game), players often earn one moon only to see another nearby. From the game’s themes of exploration, the placement of these moons urges the player to discover more of each colorful planet’s secrets and treasures. A strong feedback loop forms where the player explores a level to find moons, resulting in a desire to explore more of the level to find more moons and so on. Thus, the player easily exceeds the initial moon requirement for progression. By constantly diverting the player with an entertaining collectathon, the player experiences more of the game and enjoys more of its upliftingly fun adventure.
Conclusion
Despite their negative connotation, distractions are not necessarily a bad thing in game design. They can refresh the player, vary gameplay, and instill an insatiable drive to fully relish the game. By infusing their games with enjoyable distractions, game designers can enhance their work with depth in gameplay while helping prevent the player from becoming bored or upset from the game’s occasionally tedious or overwhelming mechanics. Distractions are not always diluting to a game’s core gameplay, but rather, the beneficial motivation that returns players to the central gameplay.
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