Carabiners for the Learning Curve

During the holidays I got involved in a little game called Rock Band with some of my buddies. I’m not usually one for rhythm games, but I thought I’d see what the fuss was about.

Six and a half hours later, I have blisters on my index finger from the drum sticks and my eyeballs are so bloodshot I can barely see straight. This process was repeated on nearly a nightly basis until it was time to return for one last round of schooling. My buddies are eagerly awaiting my schedule to lighten up a bit so that I can come home for a weekend and jam with them some more.

There’s something really energizing about playing a game that makes you feel like a rock star, and I would say that Rock Band is a genuinely excellent title. Part of what makes it an excellent title though, is that it’s HARD.

Unlike most difficult games, Rock Band evens out the playing field off the bat. It doesn’t matter how good a gamer you are, playing the drums or strumming on the guitar is a totally different experience than mashing on a controller. This means that my friends who might occasionally look at a video game once every couple of months are no worse off than I who live on my computer. If the game was easy, I suspect it would be a lot less fun. Part of what makes it entertaining is the challenge of rocking out a really difficult song.

So here’s the trick. If the game isn’t going to be fun without a really steep learning curve, how do you prevent people from just giving up? The curve is easy enough at first that someone who never plays video games can play the first few songs on easy without getting frustrated, but things get difficult quickly. I would suggest that Rock Band has implemented just such a system, I’m not even sure if they did it intentionally, but that system is one of scheduled rewards.

As previously discussed, scheduled rewards are any system of ‘fake’ or pointless gifts to the player that don’t actually improve the quality of their gaming experience, but act upon psychological hooks to keep the player captivated. Examples in Rock Band would be points, stars, money, fans, and unlockable clothing and instruments. Much of the multiplayer world tour experience involves playing songs well enough to earn ‘fans’. Earning enough fans will allow you to play for special items (such as a tour bus, roadies, a PR team, etc.). These special items serve no purpose other than opening new venues where you can play to earn more fans. The system is essentially purposeless, much like grinding an RPG, each incremental improvement simply allows you to do more of the same.

The difference in Rock Band is that the playing of instruments and singing is arguably a skill. The only way to improve at the skill is to continue playing progressively more difficult songs. By using a horde of scheduled rewards, Rock Band addicts players into sticking with it, ‘just to unlock the next venue’, or ‘just for one more set’. This addicting property offsets the disadvantages of having a steep learning curve - namely that players will become frustrated and give up.  While scheduled rewards do have the rather banal benefit of creating games that are often profitable, if not innovative, this would give them a genuine purpose in the design arsenal - as a counterweight for steep difficulty.