The Versus

Wednesday, March 19th, 2008 | Editorial

When analyzing writing it is common to categorize the story based on the central conflict. The major conflict types in literature are: Man vs. Man, Man vs. Self, Man vs. Nature, etc. In video games these conflict types have never been applied because narrative is secondary to video games. In classifying video games a different set of conflicts must be defined. These classifications draw some interesting parallels between previously unrelated games. It should be noted that these classifications are independent of genre, tho some genres are defined by their conflict.

While in literature a story can feature several conflict types simultaneously, in video games it is uncommon to have more than one conflict type presented to the player at a time. On the other hand it is quite common for a single game to contain several different conflict types that it switches between periodically. It is also interesting to note that non-symmetrical conflict types change game play dynamics of if the person playing switches sides.

These classifications cropped up by trying to classify known games. In playing a game if it didn’t fall into an already considered category obviously a new category had to be conjured. Then, once an extensive enough list was come up with a matrix was developed to see if I had missed anything. I had, the many vs. one category, and I rectified the problem on the list but had to then find an example of the category. There are very few, which is why I missed it the first time. However, now I think this list is exhaustive enough to use as a basis of comparison or of paradigm for games.

One vs. One: Two opponents, equally matched, the only difference being who’s controlling who. Examples in this classification include: Pong, SpaceWar!, Street Fighter 2, and many boss battles.

One vs. Many: A single fighter is attacked by endless legions of enemies that are markedly less powerful than the one. Individuals of the Many side are usually defeated easily. This classification is marked by the fact that your competition of a level is not dependent on a specific goal but by how many of your enemies you defeat. Examples in this classification include: Space Invaders, Galaxian, Tempest, Robotron, Geometry Wars, and the online portion of most shooter games.

One vs. Level: A single character must navigate an environment that is attempting to exterminate it. The level may defeat an opponent by direct assault, racing against a clock, or providing a fixed set of resources that when exhausted mean the players demise. Elimination of computer opponents may be present giving the appearance of One vs Many, but if it is possible to avoid confrontation and still win then it technically your opponent is the level. This may be the most popular classification used. Examples in this classification are: Frogger, Pac-Man, R-Type, Carmen Sandiego, quiz games, the level portions of most platform jumpers like Mario or Megaman, Doom, Race games, Prince of Persia, Katamari Damacy, and Portal.

None vs. Level: A minor distinction to the above, there is no character present or the character represented acts merely as a pointer. This is made clear if there is no chance for the environment to “kill” the player. You are allowed to play levels until you accomplish a specific goal or decide to stop. Examples in this classification include: Rocky’s Boots, The Incredible Machine games, Sim City, Myst, and tower defense games.

Many vs. Many: Each side is given many units to control. Success is dependent on one side accomplishing a goal before the other. Examples in this classification include: Chess, WarCraft, and Advanced Wars.

Many vs. Level: The player is given charge of several units and must navigate a level or environment successfully. Examples in this category include: Lemmings and Pimkin.

Many vs. One: The player is given control of many units and must utilize them to eliminate a single super powered opponent. An example in this category is the Dungeon Master game (tho I’ve never played it so I correct me if I’m wrong).

None vs. None: Once the initial setup is made the game plays itself, the player has no interaction. There is not a specific goal stated by the game. An example in this category is Jim Conway’s Game of Life.