Asymmetric multiplayer, or whether democracy is needed in games

It is assumed that the laws of physics act symmetrically. Despite this, it is practically impossible to find examples of symmetry in reality: there are five times more right-handers than left-handers, almost all biomolecules are chiral , and matter in the Universe prevails over antimatter. Inexperienced developers, designers and engineers strive to do everything beautifully and symmetrically, while experienced ones create ADSL, asymmetric encryption and Rotterdam swans . Let's take a look at a couple of examples of asymmetry in video games, more precisely, in their multiplayer component, defining in passing the advantages of asymmetric multiplayer, and maybe even look in the near future. I hope the topic will interest not only ordinary users of game consoles, but also developers, on whom, in fact, the entire video game industry depends. Also note that the main E3 2012 presentations will take place today and tomorrow.

What is "asymmetric multiplayer"?

Imagine: the sultry desert in the Middle East, a detachment of fighters successfully resists an attack of numerically superior enemy forces. Here are two l33t_snipa and Ne0_Nmap fighters protecting a strategically important object, another 14 brave men with one knives rushed to the tank, heavy artillery comes from the east ... And you [D1m0n-ne-medved] sit at the command point and watch what is happening from a bird's-eye view. According to your order (just touch the tower with that finger), small figures in camouflage begin to move around the half-destroyed city, as if on a chessboard. At this time, somewhere in Brazil, your opponent is sitting in his command post and in the same way commands several dozens of his soldiers.

What role in this theater of war would you choose for yourself? Helicopter pilot or tank commander? Sniper or grenade thrower? Simple soldier or chief of staff? This is the essence of asymmetric gameplay. The same game can be a shooter, RTS, simulator - depending on what you want more today. Cool, right? It is hoped that with the release of Wii U at the end of this year, such games will appear much more often. The fact is that the Wii U has a controller equipped with a touch screen, which is streamed from the console. This, by the way, means that the graphics on such a “tablet” are many times better than on our iPads. And thanks to the presence of classical controls - buttons, sticks, shifty - when implementing control schemes in games, you will not have to make compromises. Let's return to our sheep. Probably, a similar concept of asymmetric multiplayer is at the heart of the upcoming Ghost Recon Online (video from E3 2011):
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Another example can be seen in the recently leaked trailer for the Rayman Legends game (a great game series, by the way). Three people pass the level, and the fourth, the least experienced player, controls some objects on the level. This segment starts at 00:57:



It is easy to imagine asymmetric multiplayer in the now popular Tower Defense genre (this is the genre of the game Plants vs. Zombies): one player controls resources, sets up defenses, while others are engaged in actually shooting foes. Nintendo itself at last year's E3 also showed an interesting concept - Chase Mii : one player who sees the entire playing field needs to hide, and four other players with regular controllers must find him and catch him.



You can think of a lot more. Take, for example, football: on the field in the finals of the World Cup there are teams of Russia and Brazil, and some Dick Advocaat in our face is watching them. We build all the tactics, draw on the controller the schemes of attack and defense, give instructions, communicate with the judges, assign replacements. And after a couple of hours, Russia is winning the world champion title. Opportunities are limited only by the imagination of developers. I would like to hope that we will see more at the presentations of Nintendo and other companies at E3 2012. The presentation itself, additional videos, all trailers and materials will be available on a separate Nintendo All Access website. The creation of the article was inspired by a fresh video presentation of Nintendo Direct , dedicated to the Wii U. The term “asymmetrical gameplay” was mentioned in it.



Supplement 1. In the comments demand indicates that the game Savage 2 is quite suitable for the described gameplay formula. And indeed: the article on Wikipedia indicated several genres at once - FPS, RTS, Action RPG. Have you played?

Addition 2. Found another game combining genres - Battlezone II: Combat Commander from the notorious studio Pandemic. It is a fusion of a tank simulator, first person shooter and real-time strategy. Thanks to the user JustRoo .

Addition 3. In Battlefield 2, one of the players on the team can play the role of commander. Quote:

In fact, the commander is the "eyes" and "ears" of players, as he can view the entire battlefield from above, and also use satellite scanning of the terrain, which highlights all enemy objects (soldiers and equipment) on the map in red and, if necessary , the commander marks them so that they become visible on the mini-cards of the players. In addition to satellite scanning, other functions are also available to the commander. <...> Organized team play gives a huge advantage. Even a team of good players has no chance against mediocre, but well organized.

Addition 4. Sanchous has found another game, on the page of which it is written that way - Combining FPS with RTS without duliting either side. The game is called Nuclear Dawn .

I think you can sum up some results . As you can see, games that combine different genres, giving players the opportunity to try different roles, have stirred the minds of developers for quite some time. A deterrent is the gaming platform. Until today, the console is not very well suited for the implementation of such ideas, and the PC is used, rather, as a working tool. Although Blizzard still continues to delight with its projects (Diablo III, for example), the console market is hundreds of times more "writing." Until now, asymmetric multiplayer could only be implemented over a network (local or online). On Wii U (one device) up to 5 people can play simultaneously, not counting online players. Let's wait for the Nintendo E3 presentations tonight (8 pm Moscow time) and see what they can offer. Since they started this topic, let them otduvuyutsya.

Source pictures with a rabbit
Nintendo Direct Presentation
I apologize in advance if something is done wrong, I will be glad to any advice. Have a nice week with E3, and Habr - with the last Birthday!