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Making Friends is Hard: Social Mechanics in Contemporary Design
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There is more to modern game design than combat focused or competitive mechanics – designing systems that allow players to express themselves by creating friendships with other characters or players can broaden the audience and create new and exciting toys for both players and designers to play with. As the market grows and broadens, so must the types of games we create. This talk will survey social mechanics between player avatars and simulated characters in several recent titles, several of which I worked on personally: the relationship simulators in the Sims 2; the relationship management game in GRAND THEFT AUTO 4; the several social mini-games in SPORE; the controversial positive and negative emote system in ARMY OF TWO. It will also expand to look at social mechanics between players themselves, examining the sharing systems in SPORE and the sharing tools in LITTLEBIGPLANET, and eventually proposing some key elements of social mechanics design to try to kick start a deeper discussion on this issue. It's an aspect of gaming that will only continue to grow as the market broadens, and designers can either get board and help direct it, or miss out on an exciting new design tool.

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