#05: Gathering Currency and Purchasing Upgrades AKA Merchanimal

About the Mechanic

Purchasing Upgrades encourages players to practice a basic life skill - knowing how many resources you have on-hand, so that you can determine how much you can spend, how much you need to keep back, and further teaches the player to make plans to buy something expensive that the player will want.

You can't discuss purchases, without discussing currency; they're two sides of the same coin, and that pun was very intentional.  Originally, the plan was for currency collection to be its own mechanic, but that's unrealistic, because the exact manner of collection is unimportant; the fact that you can obtain currency is what enables you to make a purchase in the first place.

This mechanic can be considered another sub-mechanic of Incrementing a Score - unlike Gaining Levels, where you don't actually lose any score, just have previously-used score hidden, you actually consume a score to buy in-game perks.

Purchases are a well-rounded mechanic because they define a number of things.  Purchases define a success condition - if the player can buy what they want, they have succeeded.  Purchases define a failure condition - if the player can't gain money in a reasonable amount of time, they need to re-assess their strategy, so that they are gratified in a time that they feel is reasonable.  Purchases define an implicit goal for the player; that expensive object would be really helpful!  Finally, purchases provide for feedback of both progress and success or failure, in the form of handy numbers.

This gets to why the currency is important - the purchase itself is the end result of the mechanic.  In order to afford the purchase that a player wants, the player has to find a means to accrue a suitable currency.  

A player who feels secure with Gathering Currency and Purchasing Upgrades feels like they've mastered the economy of the work in question.  Likely, the player has a gut feeling on what an adequate rate of gain 'should' feel like.  The game designer best-serves their audience by erring slightly towards the longer-end of that gut feeling, so that the player can feel like their goal is met in a satisfying, but challenging, way.

Referee Information / Data Structure

Current Currency Amount

Event Currency Amount

Item Cost

Designer Information

Currency Gain Rate = Event Currency Amount / Unit Time

Time to Purchase = Item Cost / Currency Gain Rate

Conditions

Victory: Current Currency Amount >= Item Cost

Failure: Current Currency Amount < Item Cost

When Is This Mechanic Engaging?

1. When the player character is interacting with NPCs or other players; this simulates real-life economies, which is a practical point of the mechanic
2. When you need a way to give the player a more implicit goal - buying something you want isn't necessarily something that needs to be written in a quest log, and is something you can usually rely on a player to remember, because it suits their interests.
3. When you need to add some play time to your game.  Time is the fundamental currency that players deal with, and in real life, what you are paid is proportional to the amount of time you invest into something.  As Currency/Purchase systems are a simulation of real-life economies, this is a fact that, if properly balanced, actually improves your player's suspension of disbelief, because it's real and interacted with daily.  It's provable and about as realistic as you can hope to get.

When Is This Mechanic Distracting?

1. The player seldom encounters NPCs who are interested in trade.  This is distracting, because this feels 'tacked on'.  Economies are very much social interactions, even in the Internet age.  I call this the Lone-Wolf Buyer Problem.
2. The vendors do not offer items that are useful to the player.  If the player has no reason to use a shop, purchasing items is a superfluous feature; they are better-served to simply get advantages in other ways that the work allows for.  I call this the Knock-Off Rolex Problem.
3. Similarly, money is too hard to come by.  If players cannot accomplish their implicit goal in a reasonable amount of time, they will deem it a waste of time, and move on.  After all - Time is the fundamental currency that we deal with our players in!  I call this the Bare Coffers Problem.
4. On a related note, money is too easy to get.  If players can easily obtain things they want, there is no challenge, which does not help the player to feel as though they've mastered the economy of the work in question.  I call this the Welfare Hero Problem.

Note: The reason I have names for each of the problems, is because many games use currencies and purchases as a mechanic; few use them effectively, including some very well-established games that are considered masterpieces.

Game References

1. The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past is a prime example of the Knock-Off Rolex Problem.  The most useful and expensive purchase in the entire game occurs at the very beginning of the work, one of the four bottles used to store restorative items.  Beyond that point, there's not really much of a point in collecting Rupees or making purchases.
2. Final Fantasy XIII is a prime example of the Lone-Wolf Buyer Problem.  Final Fantasy XIII is notorious for being barely recognizable as a JRPG in the first place.  Through the game, the player will encounter random consoles that allow the protagonists to contact various Cocoon shops to purchase consumables, equipment, and crafting materials.  It's fully possible to play through the game without using the shop feature of the terminals, at all.  The only thing that the shop system in FFXIII got correct, was that if you know what to do and buy, you can create powerful advantages relatively early on by using the shop system.
3. The game Half-Minute Hero handles money quite effectively in the Hero 30 mode.  The main way the character progresses is by buying armors and weapons, sometimes that have special effects including insta-killing certain enemy types, map mobility options like swimming in water, and more.  Notably, HMH tackles the Bare Coffers Problem in a specific level by setting the problem up - no one in the level has any money, including random encounters - and the player must complete quests while rewinding time in order to gain money and level up enough to defeat the stage's Evil Lord.
4. Final Fantasy VII succumbs to the Welfare Hero Problem.  The game goes out of its way to ensure that the party has ample access to money, which makes the purchases nearly useless for casual play; grinding Materia, and exploring for special, unbuyable items is more useful to the player to advance through the work.  This applies with a caveat, however - in that work, shops don't fulfill their 'usual' function, which is to create a goal.  Instead, shops serve player customizability.  Virtually all Materia is available throughout Gaia through shops, which means if you had to ditch some Materia along the way (you have ample carrying space too), you can easily re-buy what you need, to accomplish a build on a character.

#03: Quick-Time Events AKA Panflash

About the Mechanic

Quick-Time Events are reflex-challenges for the player that simulate the character making some sort of highly time-sensitive reaction to an event.  

This mechanic can be considered a sub-mechanic of Beating a Timer, and shares many similarities to that mechanic as a result.  The difference is that QTEs typically experience different dynamics than a high-level Timer challenge - the internal margin, or time that the player has to succeed, is typically very small.  Additionally, the external margin, or time between QTE challenges is usually reasonably small as well.  There is a deeper implication, though - typically a single QTE is not a challenge, but a progression of QTEs, possibly interspersed with other challenges, is what the player encounters.

The skill players are taught is to rapidly and accurately respond to a stimulus.  QTEs are nearly always presented with a visual cue that informs the player that a QTE is occurring.  There's usually some sort of feedback on how long the player has to take the very simple action to satisfy the QTE, usually pressing a button.  Success and failure to satisfy the QTE is usually always presented as soon as one of those conditions occur.

QTEs can be stand-alone events, which represents the character reacting to something sudden occurring in the game world.  I'll be referring to this sort of QTE as a "Snap QTE."  This is the standard for which this mechanics analysis occurred in terms of both internal and external margin.

It's also possible that a QTE can consist of more than one event, that needs to be accomplished a number of times before the QTE expires.  I'll call this a "Machine-Gun QTE" as it requires rapid execution before the QTE time limit expires.  These QTEs generally have a slightly more generous internal margin for the player.

Concurrent QTEs represent a snap decision for the character.  The player can often only accomplish one QTE at a time; the QTE that 'succeeds' is the choice the player is going with, while there is no penalty for failing the other QTEs.  In this entry, I'll be referring to this sort of QTE as a "Branching QTE."  Because Branching QTEs represent a choice that must be considered, typically the internal and external margins for error are larger than other QTE types.

Finally, subsequent QTEs can provide a simplifed way of presenting that the character is doing a complex, technical task if presented in succession.  I'll refer to these QTEs as a "QTE Sequence."  Typically, the internal and external margins of error for the player are smaller than other QTE types in a QTE sequence.

Referee Information / Data Structure:

Start Time

Lifetime

Trigger Time

Successful = Trigger Time < (Start Time + Lifetime)

Player Information / Feedback:

Lifetime

Successful

Designer Information:

Internal Margin = Lifetime

External Margin = Start of QTE 2 - Conclusion of QTE 1

Conditions:

Victory = (IsSuccess)

Failure = NOT(IsSuccessful)

When Is This Mechanic Engaging:

1. QTEs work best when used in a time-sensitive situatoin.  This is because QTEs simulate the character making a snap reaction or snap decision.
2. When a technical challenge for the player is required, judicious use of QTEs can be an effective way of making a challenge require more attention and skill from the player.
3. QTE consequences work best when the severity for failure is low, as these are reflex-critical challenges.  As with Beating a Timer, typically a longer margin set allows for harsher consequences for failure and slightly lower rewards; a shorter margin set allows for softer consequences and slightly better rewards.

When Is This Mechanic Distracting:

1. When a situation isn't time-sensitive or otherwise has low tension, and thus little need for a player to express their reaction times.
2. When a task for the player is already highly-technical, the additional reflexes that a QTE requires can make the task unfairly weighted against the player, and as a result alienate the player in that part of your game.

Game References:

1. The Guitar Hero series, and most rhythm games, are actually entire games built with QTEs - specifically, QTE sequences - as the primary mechanic.  The QTEs are sequenced based on the rhythm of the audio track, which helps the player have better insight to when they need to trigger the QTEs.
2. The Legend of Dragoon is an example of how QTEs can make an otherwise non-technical challenge - a turn-based RPG battle - more technical with the "Addition" system.  Attacks require a QTE Sequence to strike for their optimum power.  Additionally, attack item effects can be boosted with a Machine-Gun QTE in this work.
3. Final Fantasy XIII-2 is a perfect example of the Snap QTE, Branching QTE, and Machine-Gun QTE in the "Cinematic Action" sequences.  These occur during cutscenes that the player can influence the outcome of, by either completing a single QTE, making a choice of concurrent QTEs, or spamming a button to accomplish a QTE.
4. In Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare, the infamous "Press X to Pay Respects" is a critical example of how not to use QTEs.  The situation in question is a funeral for a fallen comrade.  This is a somber event that is entirely story-driven.  There is simply no need for a reflexes challenge in this situation.
5. In the Super Mario World ROM hack, Kaizo Mario World, an anti-usage of this mechanic comes into play: immediately when the game starts, a Thwomp comes crashing onto the player with nowhere for the player to go to dodge it.  If you jump, you will die in the introduction to the game.  This is usually known by the trope, Press X To Die.
6. In Metroid Prime 3: Corruption, a counter-use to the "Press X To Die" situation - in this case, Press X To Not Die - is presented: early in the story, Samus Aran is corrupted by a mutagenic element called Phazon.  She's given a special suit to compensate, but periodically her Phazon corruption will spiral out of control.  In a great example of a Machine-Gun QTE, she will have to spam her weapons to rid herself of the excess Phazon, otherwise you will get a non-standard Game Over where she will become a carbon copy of her nemesis, Dark Samus.

#01: Beating a Timer AKA Ticktockster

About the Mechanic:

The Timer mechanic is all about completing some task or tasks, at or before a certain amount of time has passed. This mechanic is useful for providing players with a chance to take a skill they feel confident with, and express mastery of it by doing it quickly and with precision. This mechanic creates stress for the player; historically this mechanic is often used when tension is required in a work.

The "Referee" of a game is responsible for measuring this mechanic; the game's interface is responsible for letting the player know how much time they have to complete their task, however.

Referee Information / Data Structure:

Target Time
Start Time
Elapsed Time = Current Time - Start Time

Player Information / Feedback:

Remaining Time = Target Time - Elapsed Time

Designer Information:

Margin = Target Time - Expected Execution Time

Conditions:

Victory: Elapsed Time <= Target Time
Failure: Elapsed Time > Target Time

When Is This Mechanic Engaging? 

1. The player has been well-trained in a particular skill, or that skill is so intuitive it doesn't require much training. 
2. There's a well-balanced margin between how long it takes a player to do something, and the target time. 
3. When a feeling of stress is needed. 
4. The challenge can be retried, so that the player can improve their mastery of the skills, if appropriate to the context the mechanic is used in. 
5. When other players are involved - beating another player's time is a long-standing social tradition dating back quite a long ways! 

When Is This Mechanic Distracting?

1. The player has not had adequate practice with skill(s) - the player feels like they can't succeed, and gives up. 
2. The margin of failure is too long - the player has so much time that there is no tension, thus there is no emotional effect on the player or audience. 
3. The margin of failure is too short - the margin is so small the player feels like they can't succeed, and gives up. 
4. The payoff is not appropriate to the margin of failure - the challenge of beating the timer needs to be worth it. 
5. The consequence isn't proportional to the margin of failure - short challenges should be less consequential if failed; long challenges should be more consequential, up to and including non-standard game overs. 

Game References:

1. Speed Chess during each player's turn. Each player has to quickly reason what their best move it, and make it before the timer sounds. 
2. Super Metroid's intro where the player has to escape a self-destructing space station - as an early 'quest', the player has a comfortable, but short time to escape. Also, the escape from Zebes, after Samus defeats the final boss with a super-weapon gained during that boss fight - just like the intro, the player has a balanced time to escape. 
3. Final Fantasy VII's intro uses this after the Scorpion Robot fight to add tension to the escape sequence; the time limit is extremely lax, however, as it's the first quest in the game. In Wall Market, a part of the quest to get into Don Corneo's mansion involves challenging a body-builder to squats to gain a required item. Failure is only minimally punished; you get an inferior item that still counts towards advancing the quest. A bonus boss, Emerald Weapon, is fought under the ocean, while the party has a limited oxygen supply. Also, the boss itself is really freaking hard. 
4. Any video game speedrun (many people give up speedruns due to not being able to beat a high-profile runner's times at a particular game.) 
5. World of Warcraft, the Dwarf starting area has a quest where you're supposed to take a mug of hot hot something to an inn. The quest gives you five minutes; the quest is achievable within one. There is no tension, and the mechanic feel superfluous in this case.