Bungie’s quest for global domination has always been well documented and the company has been quite vocal about it. Their latest offering which forms a solid beginning in the Halo series is the biggest game Bungie would have worked upon. Their Senior Talent Scout, Teresa Duke, claims to be looking out for Senior Software Animation Engineers because “we (Bungie) are going to do things we have not done before nor has anyone else.”
Their Web site also holds a few curious positions. One of them is that of a “Player Investment Design Lead,” whose description is as follows:
- “The Player Investment Design Lead directs a group of designers responsible for founding a robust and rewarding investment path, supported by consistent, rich and secure incentives that drives player behavior toward having fun and investing in their characters, and then validates those systems through intense simulation, testing and iteration.
Responsibilities:
Designing the mechanics which drive in-game player reward and incentives.
So players feel invested in the world and their character.
So players have long-term goals.
So players can’t grief or exploit them.
Running simulations of these mechanics based on expected player behavior.
Testing these simulated results against actual player behavior and tuning the live system.
Create content that are rewards in-and-of-themselves.
Organize the Reward Content Designers, who create the reward content for those systems.”
This points towards a system of rewards that has been recently seen in most shooters with the advent of Modern Warfare, building and maintaining a player with boosts and perks to keep the vicious cycle of multiplayer mayhem alive and running years, like they have done with pervious games. But we assume with Halo: Reach, this level of multiplayer addiction will “reach” its pinnacle in 2010.