Game Design

Toxicity is a huge problem in online video games. Some of the most well-known toxic online gaming communities include League of Legends, Dota and your favorite console shooters. While console shooters have generally included voice chat and a range of “your mom” insults screamed by the 13 year olds on the other end of the line, PC games typically include text chat, and a clearly visible record of every toxic statement.

Over the holiday break, I had a chance to play a number of different games. Among these games, I tried out a few PC ports of primarily console-focused games, and I was reminded of some things that frustrate me when I have my “PC Gamer” hat on. Without calling out any particular developer or publisher, I’d like to take this change to suggest a few recommendations for PC ports that I wish every developer would follow.

In the past few weeks, I decided to spend some of my spare time trying out some new methods for game development. In particular, I thought it would be good to come up with something that would allow me to easily create a networked game for multiple players, and would give me a chance to learn something new. I decided to look into javascript frameworks, and there were a wide variety out there.

I’ve been thinking recently about the kinds of things I’d like to work on most during the break from teaching, and I’ve decided that I really want to take a deep look at game design from a theoretical and practical standpoint. It seems to me that there could be some need for a more formal and methodological approach to the design of games than currently exists. In my experience, game designers (the ones that put the fun into the game) are hard to find and extremely hard to train.