Previously, we have explored how the community balances a game, sometimes despite the developer’s best intentions.  Tribes is a great example of how the community not only determines how the game is ultimately played, but often decides the path of future development.

Tribes shipped in 1998 to a fair amount of critical and commercial success.  It featured large multiplayer battles on open terrain that were beyond anything that had been seen before.  Players could choose between three armor classes (Heavy, Medium and Light), pilot vehicles, plant bases, purchase weapons and equipment… it even had jetpacks!  It also had one very significant bug, an unintended side-effect of the physics system known as “skiing”.

Go Zebra Tribe!

By tapping the jump button while descending a hill, players could exploit this physics bug to accelerate to an incredible speed.  Combining this technique with the jetpack would allow players to quickly cross even the largest maps, much faster than the designers anticipated.  This worked even with heavy armor, meaning there was little incentive to choose the lighter, more agile classes.  It was faster than vehicles, making them redundant.  Since most of the weapons did not have instant travel projectiles, it became almost impossible to hit anyone outdoors.  Nearly every aspect of the gameplay was affected.

In a short time, the game balance was totally wrecked… and the players loved it!  They invented new strategies, found new ways of attacking bases, used old weapons in new ways.  They became experts in using another physics bug called “body blocking” to physically bar enemies from escaping with their flag.  The chaingun, a weapon that had been scorned, became their weapon of choice because it fired one of the few projectiles fast enough to hit a skiing player.  They re-balanced the game around this new game mechanic.

The Tribe has spoken.

The developers attempted to fix the game with a patch, but the community rejected it.  By that point, everyone who did not like the effect of skiing had already left the community.  The remaining players where those that thought it was fun.  Unfortunately, this smaller community was the only audience for a sequel, so the development team were forced to cater to them.  Tribes 2 not only included an “official” version of skiing, but even explicitly taught new players how to do it!

Takeaways:

1. Don’t just test for bugs, but to ensure the gameplay experience is the one the designers intended.
2. The ultimate balance of a game lies in the hands of the community that plays it.
3. Fun activities are rare, and when we find one (even as the result of a bug) we ought to embrace it.