No Fighting in the War Room

I play games for their combat systems. But it's not like because I like to fight-- it's because I'm chasing a certain feeling, a certain emotion: fear, exhilaration, accomplishment, or maybe the ones in between.

If combat design is an art form, I like to think that the primary colors of combat design are Murder, Destroy, and Kill.

Murder
Murder is the art of the player creating a situation in which his target is completely helpless, then striking without fear of retaliation.

• One on one fighting games: The player is free to execute a combo once his opponent is stunned or juggled.
• Jet dogfighting games: The player has no fear of being shot down when he is behind the enemy plane.
• Stealth action games: The player is easily killed when detected; he must strike only when the time is right.

Murder is probably the most advanced, most sophisticated form of videogame combat. It requires the player to learn (more accurately, it requires the gameplay to teach) the various ways to win, creating a game environment that allows for such complex rules, and artificial intelligence that operates properly -- that allows itself to be tricked believably. The characters need to understand that they can destroy the player except for in a specific situation, in which their personalities show that they're vulnerable. Once the player figures it all out and finally wins, the sense of accomplishment and relative ease of the coup de grace is enough for the player to want to do it all again.

Destroy
Destruction refers to the a player's concern not necessarily about how he will win a given fight, but how efficiently he can kill many of his enemies at once.

• Scrolling shooter games: The player can destroy an enemy without even thinking about it-- the challenge comes in the form of huge hordes of enemies with patterns.
• Action-role playing games: The player is generally confronted by a large number of weak enemies at a time.
• Realistic jet simulations: With an advanced arsenal, the player can effectively engage and destroy many enemies at once from far away. He is more concerned about fuel and armament economy than about the combat itself.

Destruction is generally considered to be an arcade style type of combat. The player is the most powerful entity in the world, and he feels a sense of strength and exhilaration. The simple pleasure of having an effect in an environment is amplified by the fact that this effect is by far the largest source of change on screen. While much of game design is learning how to create a stimulus to evoke a response from the player, the art of destruction is all about allowing the player to provoke the game world.

Kill
If Murder is outwitting a superior opponent and Destruction is out-muscling many inferior opponents, Killing is the middle ground: defeating an opponent of equal ability.

• Multiplayer combat: The opposing players are on equal (or at least balanced) footing in honor of fair competition.
• Difficult action-adventure games: The enemies have to be taken very seriously, and often don't have built-in ways to "trick" (murder) them.

While Murder rewards the player with a very easy killing blow and Destruction essentially makes the player a god in the game world, there's nothing easy about Killing. Straight Killing does not offer any easy elements of the combat, and generally the player needs to keep killing and killing until a certain goal is met. Without the payoff of Murder or the ease of Destruction, Killing demands the player's full attention constantly.

So what's the moral of the story here? What's the magic formula to creating a game with great combat? There's no way to prescribe a perfect combination of Murder, Destroy, or Kill, just the way one can't simply describe the RGB values of the Mona Lisa. The prognosis in either case is the same: it depends both on the taste of the artist and what is appropriate to the piece itself.

I guess there's no way to get combat exactly right. Too bad there are a million ways to get it wrong, huh?

This is my rifle. There are many like it, but this one is mine. My rifle is my best friend. It is my life. I must master it as I must master my life. Without me, my rifle is useless. Without my rifle I am useless. I must fire my rifle true. I must shoot straighter than my enemy, who is trying to kill me. I must shoot him before he shoots me. I will. Before God I swear this creed: my rifle and myself are defenders of my country, we are the masters of my enemy, we are the saviors of my life. So be it, until there is no enemy, but peace. Amen.

Marines (Full Metal Jacket)