Paper Rock Scissors (Lizard Spock)

Good morning, class. Today we will be discussing the ancient "paper, rock, scissors" mechanic and how it is applied to video games. Please leave any questions for the end of the lecture when you will be able to post your comments.

The essence of his mechanic is choosing a "weapon" from a limited selection. Ideally, when there is odd amount of weapons each has a "stronger" and a "weaker" counterpart and ties are only possible when both players use the same.

We'll start with a few examples of games where this concept is applied incorrectly.

The first example is the origin; that game you play with your hands. This game is imperfect because, unless you cheat or are too predictable, the probability of wining, losing or a tie is the same. The game is ideal for conflict resolving where both parties are at even odds. The real fun is in trying to cheat by "dealing" a fraction of a second after the opponent without him or her noticing, trying to find a pattern or "tell" to predict their "move" or using faints or distractions to manipulate your opponent; all of these elements being very human in nature. One can easily conclude a game will be very boring when played against a computer.

My most recent experience was with a browser-based game titled "Legends of Zork" in which a player had to choose a fighting stance and a type of equipment (if my memory serves me right). When added together the result is a double PRS mechanism that would be turned into a bonus or penalty to the regular combat mechanic (+2, +1, 0, -1, -2). If your character is significantly stronger the mechanism would be negligible, but in tougher dungeons you really had to pay attention. The system is flawed because one could not change equipment while adventuring, therefore requiring the player to become familiarized with the different types of creatures (and the odds of appearing) that would randomly appear within an area. Say eventually you figure out most creatures are "scissors", you equip a "rock" and hope you don't find too many "papers". Keep in mind this game is played in short intervals, so finding a pattern is even more difficult.

The second example that comes to mind is Final Fantasy XII: Revenant Wings. The game was an RTS/Tower defense hybrid in which you summoned different creatures to defeat incoming waves of monsters. While stronger creatures could easily defeat weaker ones, when the action got intense it was all about assigning the right units to the right wave. Melee units were strong against ranged units, ranged units were strong against aerial units and melee units had a hard time hitting aerial units. This made the strategy too simple at times but very frustrating if the next wave was too strong for the units used on the last one and you had spent many resources on them. Also you gained access to different types of units at different rates, so sometimes you just didn’t have the right guy for the job.

A more global example is equipping "elemental" items in RPGs. You find this really neat piece of fireproof armor and then after you notice most of the creatures you find use Ice attacks you decide to switch to regular armor with lower defense as long as it's not weak against ice.

Next I present a few examples in which the mechanic has been used effectively.

Sega's Alex Kidd in Miracle World (1986): At the end of every level you'd challenge a boss to a game of PRS. It would show its choice via a thought bubble and there was a certain strategy as some of them had tells, would "shoot" early or even throw some feints at you. The example is effective because they found a way to mimic the "human" factor.

Another great example is the black mages in the Final Fantasy series. A black mage will always start with three offensive spells: Fire, bolt and ice. These spells will improve at the same rate. Eventually you learn spells for the "rare" elements: water, aero, gravity, holy and darkness among others. But just as the spells are rare so is the rate in which a creature is strong or weak against it compared to other elements or physical attacks. This is good because the elements aren't balanced in a straight-out paper-rock-scissors fashion, and at all times the player has access to all elements

Based on these examples I've come up with a simple formula for how to make it work. One simply has to follow these rules:

• The player must be able to tell what the opponent shot (so as to clearly understand why he lost or won).
• The opponent must have a certain degree of predictability.
• Both player and opponent may try to deceive each other.
• The player must be able to switch "weapons" freely before each "shot", the player must have equal access to the different weapons and plenty of ammunition.

There is also a fascinating article in Wikipedia regarding this subject that you may peruse if you require further reference.