University of Southern California Dissertations and Theses

HARDSCOPE: balancing competition with performance in multiplayer games

(USC Thesis Other)

HARDSCOPE: balancing competition with performance in multiplayer games

PDF

Download a page range

Download transcript

Copy asset link

Request this asset

Transcript (if available)

Content HARDSCOPE
Balancing Competition with Performance in Multiplayer Games
By
John Billingsley
Master of Fine Arts
Interactive Media & Games Division
School of Cinematic Arts
University of Southern California
May 2018

HARDSCOPE Page 2 of 22

Acknowledgements
To Jane Pinckard for helping me think more deeply about my project and for always supporting
me through this process.
To Carl Schnurr for your infinite insights, positivity towards my project and faith in me as a
creator.
To Sean Bouchard for access to your brilliant mind, and amazing brainstorming sessions
To My Team for taking the time to elevate this project, for your passion and your amazing
talents
To My Family for your infinite support and patience with me through this process. Your love has
carried me through.
To My Friends for being the inspiration for this project and for my career. For the laughs and the
excitement.
To USC for giving me this amazing opportunity, and allowing me to grow as an artist and as a
person.

HARDSCOPE Page 3 of 22

Contents
Introduction……………………………4
Prior Art…………………………..…...10
Making Games Is Hard…………..……13
TEAMWORK…………………...…….15
Did You Do Any Research?..................16
Conclusion……………………....…….19
Works Cited…………………...………20

HARDSCOPE Page 4 of 22

Introduction
What kind of competition can support a nurturing community rather than a toxic one? I
know many people who feel alienated by competitive games because of different fears and
anxieties about competing both with and against other people. They fear that people will yell at
them for being bad. They fear they will never win because they are bad. I have felt and still feel
these same anxieties when playing some competitive games and especially when playing a game
that I am new to. While people may still hold these fears and preconceived notions before
playing competitive games, is it possible to create games that not only take these fears into
consideration, but also actively alleviate these fears as people play? How can we make players
feel like they are actively contributing, or even that they are the star, or the most valuable player
of a competitive game in a way that doesn’t feel condescending or random, but also doesn't take
total mastery of the game to achieve?
I want HARDSCOPE to expand how people think about competitive games. I think all
competitive games are on a spectrum from team play to individual achievement. I want this game
to show that you can have light competition and that you can blend teamwork and individual
achievement in a way that makes all players feel special. It is an interesting challenge to make
everyone feel special, especially if people are playing at different skill levels.
HARDSCOPE aims to try and create a competitive environment where players can feel
the rush of competition, but also attempt to reduce some negative feelings and outcomes that
come with competitive shooters through a variety of techniques and “cooling offs” in the later
game and eventually in the end screen. By focusing on what I am calling “Performative player
behavior” instead of purely shooting at each other, HARDSCOPE attempts to take the burden of
competition and stress off direct player interactions and the feeling that one player is “attacking”
HARDSCOPE Page 5 of 22

the other player, and push the competitive gameplay more onto players performing to their best
side by side.

Figure 1. Chaotic combat in HARDSCOPE
HARDSCOPE is a competitive local multiplayer shooter that is focused on trickshots and
performative player behavior. HARDSCOPE attempts to track, measure, and reward players for
performing trickshots within a match. The goal is for each player to feel like whether they won
or lost, at least they had a spectacular moment that they achieved, where they felt like they
accomplished something exciting in the constraints of the match. Trickshots or performative
player behavior consist of actions that players take that would be outside of what would be the
behavior of more “traditional” shooters. Hard to achieve shots are highly rewarded, flashy shots
consisting of multiple bounces and juggles from different objects are rewarded, any behavior that
would not be “tactical” in the real world is rewarded. Players attempt to “out trick” each other
instead of simply trying to get the most kills, or die the least.
HARDSCOPE Page 6 of 22

Figure 2. Racing to the end of a level can gain you more points
In traditional competitive games, such as Call of Duty, these types of difficult to execute
maneuvers are meant to show a player’s skill or mastery over a specific aspect of the game. They
can also be used as taunts, especially in a game like Call of Duty, where players receive a “kill
cam” replaying the events directly leading up to the players death from the perspective of the
player who killed them. In later iterations of Call of Duty, the last kill of the game will be shown
not just to the player who was killed, but to all players in the match. Players will attempt to kill
their enemies in outrageous or unrealistic ways to gain respect or show off to their fellow
players. Because of this it has become increasingly popular to attempt more difficult trickshots,
especially at the end of the match in Call of Duty.
HARDSCOPE Page 7 of 22

Figure 3. A replay of how a player died through a Killcam in Modern Warfare
Engaging with these kinds of subversions of game playing has been a primary inspiration
for myself as an artist. I find it ironic that this game which on its surface appears to be very
focused on creating a realistic simulation of urban close quarters skirmishes allows for these
types of physically impossible shots. It also creates a strange narrative, with competing factions
of “elite soldiers” running around empty urban environments jumping off of buildings, flailing
around wildly trying to kill each other. And while this contrast is undeniably strange, as a player,
the burden of stress is shifted from trying to do the best at killing people with or possibly despite
my team, but to a purely performative and individual goal of trying these crazy shots. Wins and
losses melt away, kill death ratio, the ratio to how many kills you get per death, becomes
meaningless on the hunt for the epic trickshot.
HARDSCOPE Page 8 of 22

Figure 4. Top videos for a Youtube search of "call of duty trickshot montage"
My favorite part about using computers to make art and games is how wildly
unpredictable and surreal the things we try and create can be. I think that games try too hard to
simulate and recreate real life. I think that some of the magic of computer generated imagery is
how totally unnatural and surreal things can be. Taking some of these ideas to mind was the key
concept for HARDSCOPE. The goal of HARDSCOPE is for players to pull off miracle shots
that have great value as a spectacle, instead of playing in a way that is technically very good, but
not necessarily interesting to watch. HARDSCOPE is about celebrating both spectacular skill,
but also the spectacle of the computer, the spectacle of simulation, and the spectacle of the
unnatural.
HARDSCOPE Page 9 of 22

The other major design consideration for HARDSCOPE is local multiplayer. This is
partially a practical decision, creating an online multiplayer game is a large and complicated
undertaking, and I was much more interested in exploring gameplay and mechanics than trying
to get the basics of online multiplayer working smoothly. The other reason why I chose to make
a competitive local multiplayer game is because I want players to be sitting next to each other
while they are playing. I believe that playing in close proximity to your opponents makes it less
likely that players will feel the same levels of negative emotions as they might be playing a game
online. I think it also allows for heightened communication between players, and an overall
general enjoyment of playing when you are able to physically interact with other players. I have
seen this work to an extent first hand through fighting game tournaments, and I believe in the
power of playing with your opponents.

Figure 5. A group of people playing a game around a couch
HARDSCOPE Page 10 of 22

Prior Art
Splatoon
Splatoon is an interesting example of a competitive game that I personally feel generates
a more positive player experience than more realistic military shooters like Call of Duty or
Battlefield. The core action in Splatoon is using your gun to spray paint across all surfaces of the
arena over the course of 2 minutes. The team who has covered the majority of the level with their
team’s paint color when time has elapsed wins the game. Notice how the win condition of the
game is not the team with the most kills, or the team who has destroyed the opposing enemies
base or anything directly confrontational. At the end of a match players are shown both teams
“stats” which awards battle points solely based off of how much ground each individual player
has painted over the course of the match. It is entirely possible to be the MVP of a match without
ever engaging an enemy player if you just avoid them and paint areas the enemies are not in. I
think this is the main reason the game has a lower emotional impact when a player loses, because
in some way the competitive stakes aren't directed towards other individuals specifically.
Another factor that keeps the game from creating too high of a negative emotional impact is the
round length. With 2 to 3 minute rounds there isn't enough time to get emotionally invested in
either affecting or being affected by enemy players. Even if you find yourself in an obviously
unwinnable situation, you are not locked into the match for too long. Unlike other games that can
take between 10 minutes and up to 1 hour, this helps reinforce the low stakes environment, and
thus a low emotional impact on players when they lose.
HARDSCOPE Page 11 of 22

Figure 6. Paint spraying battles in Splatoon 2
SSX Tricky
SSX Tricky is a major influence on this project not only because of the mode of play, but
also because of the game’s shift away from a somewhat strict simulation of snowboarding
towards a more fantastic and insane awesome style. SSX Tricky all about snowboarding tricks,
but players are able to perform tricks like kickflips, and spinning the board around the players
neck as they fly hundreds of feet through the air. I love that while this game is grounded in the
realistic activity of snowboarding, the game quickly escalates into snowboarding fantasy. While
the game is very focused on getting a high score, from a player experience, it is much more about
getting the most spins and flips you can stuff into each single jump. The game then becomes a
peaceful flow, building speed and maintaining combos from one large jumping set piece to the
next. Building speed and winding the player up for the maximum amount of spins and flips that
can be packed into those massive set piece jumps becomes the main objective of the game. SSX
Tricky shows us that games can mimic real life without being constrained by real life. And also
that spectacle can be a reward of its own.
HARDSCOPE Page 12 of 22

Figure 7. An impossible trick being performed in SSX Tricky
Call of Duty
Call of Duty Modern Warfare specifically has had a major influence on my life as a game
player. I put more hours than I care to admit playing COD4. What kept me so engaged with the
game was a couple of things. First, I was playing with a group of friends. Second was the golden
guns and unlock system. Finally, however, I stopped being interested in winning and became
much more interested in exploring the boundaries of the system in the multiplayer setting. My
friends showed me Youtube videos of people performing miraculous kills, using weapons like
smoke grenades to kill people, using only the weakest weapons in the game, and a variety of
different funny and extreme moments. Seeing people play the game in this way inspired me to
want to do the same. I no longer saw the game as a military simulation competitive game but
more as an open sandbox where I tried to complete the objective of the game in the most obtuse
HARDSCOPE Page 13 of 22

and ludicrous way I could. Because I was always setting new goals for myself, and because
different players act differently in the space of the game, especially confronted with a player like
me who was obviously trying to subvert the intended structure of the game, I found an endless
amount of energy that I could put into this game. I wanted some of that feeling to come through
in HARDSCOPE, the feeling of playing in a match with your friends trying to do ridiculous
things.

Figure 8. Multiplayer chaos in Call of Duty
Making games is hard
“That’s not easy to do, man! Y’all just be acting like that shit is regular.” - Kanye West
What is it that makes making games so hard? For this project I think a lack of definition
of specifics made it much harder to reach an end goal. For instance, the game is supposed to be
all about trickshots, but we never found a clear definition of what defined a trickshot in
HARDSCOPE. It feels like we have been chasing a core for the game but have never solidified
anything that felt fluid or systematized. Looking back, it would have been better to create tricks
HARDSCOPE Page 14 of 22

using more animation and set actions, however, all the systems in the game, including the player
controller, are physics based. The physics based system for the game, while easier to get off the
ground and prototype, has meant that everything from bullets to players to jump pads all have
somewhat inconsistent and potentially impossible to recreate behaviors, especially when
chaining multiple tricks together.

Figure 9. High scoring combos from players 2 and 4
I think one of my other biggest challenges with this project, and in my development as an
adult is in asking for help. I tend to not ask for help until I feel I absolutely need it, and I have
realized that this is not a productive thing to do. In creating this project, I struggled to show it to
as many people as I could at different stages of development. We did internal playtesting, but I
think that using more opportunities to get a broader range of feedback from people would have
guided the project more and helped focus are vision more quickly. Personally, I feel it hard to
show my project and ask for help when I know it is in a stage of disarray and unorder. And while
that is perhaps the point of creative development where it is most important to solicit and accept
player feedback, it can also be the scariest and most painful time to see the known glaring flaws
HARDSCOPE Page 15 of 22

and game breaking bugs tear through the project you are working to create. While this has been a
difficult lesson to learn, I think it is one that is important to learn early in my career and I am
incredibly thankful for the opportunity to create and learn on my own through the making of
HARDSCOPE. I think having both a supportive team, and a supportive community around
myself or creators in general, can alleviate some of these anxieties around showing a project that
is in a difficult state, and in showing the project at this state and being open and vulnerable to
your community about the state of the project, we can foster a healthier culture of creating, and
of expressing ourselves to our community.
TEAMWORK
HARDSCOPE is the first game that I am creative director for. As such, it is an important
game for me not only as a piece of artwork, but also as a critical moment for exploring both my
leadership style and practicing my leadership skills. I worked with a team of nine other people.
They were all amazing and focused on art but they are great and im excited to keep working with
them. I have gained confidence as a leader and I feel more comfortable leading projects. We
havent had much conflict, I suppose I could be more proactive about forcing deadlines but
overall it has been a rewarding experience and I have learned a lot about giving responsibility to
people. A lot of working with a student team has been trying to figure out how much work
people can handle and managing expectations both about the amount of work I receive, and the
amount of work I am asking from people. I found working with my team to be infinitely
rewarding, and was excited at everything they created for HARDSCOPE. I believe that great
games in particular come from a strong community of creators, and cannot be created without the
help, support, and feedback of other people. I really appreciate everything the team has done for
this project and I look forward to collaborating more in the future.
HARDSCOPE Page 16 of 22

Figure 10. The HARDSCOPE Team
Did You Do Any Research??
There have been numerous articles researching how violent video games and player
behavior is linked (Adachi, Ewoldsen, Gentile, Greitemeyer, Velez). There has been significantly
less research on how playing competitive and cooperative games affect subsequent player
behavior. However, the research that has been done points to a single conclusion. Competitive
games tend to decrease “prosocial behavior” (Adachi, Ewoldsen). Prosocial behavior is basically
behavior that is collaborative or benefits others. Therefore, playing competitive games
diminishes players want to collaborate or act in ways that benefit others. This finding alone is
incredibly important, and probably has a ton of intersectional contexts and explanations that I am
not ready to address. However, this finding can help us understand how game design can lead to
HARDSCOPE Page 17 of 22

increased or decreased toxicity within a game community. These games in their nature are
reducing players want to collaborate and to act in a positive social way.
Interestingly, research suggesting the opposite hypothesis, that playing prosocial or
cooperative nonviolent games will cause players to increase their prosocial behavior, has been
mixed. While a majority of tests have shown that prosocial behavior increases after playing
cooperative nonviolent games, some have shown no increases in prosocial behavior after playing
prosocial games (Ewoldsen, Gentile, Greitemeyer, Tear, Velez). However, if players were to
collaborate at the end of competitive matches there is some chance that players could potentially
exhibit an increase of prosocial behavior after their matches. If players are left in this state, it
could theoretically be possible that the community around such a game may behave more
collaboratively overall, and be generally less toxic than a community around a game that is more
competitive. There has not been a lot of research that I could find trying to quantify the gains of
cooperative playing versus the loss of competitive playing in relation to prosocial behavior,
however it is a general principle we can bring to our design practice (Velez).
HARDSCOPE Page 18 of 22

Figure 11. HARDSCOPE action
Research also found that the content of game playing was less important than the mode of
play, ie competitive or cooperative play, when relating to prosocial behavior(Ewoldsen, Tear).
However, adding violent content on top of a competitive game would be most likely to reduce
prosocial behavior. This can also help us inform our design practice when trying to tune the
feelings we want players to feel when finishing a round of a game.
While most research suggested a link between violence in video games and a decrease in
prosocial behavior, It is important to point out that there is some research that could not
reproduce the same result. Some research attempted to measure if there was a difference between
modern depiction of violence in video games versus depictions of violence from older games but
failed to find any link between either type of game played and a decrease in prosocial behavior
(Tear). Further, A study attempting to measure how violence represented on a spectrum from
nonviolent to ultra violent affects subsequent prosocial behavior found that participants
responded in a similar way no matter what type of game they played. This study reveals that the
HARDSCOPE Page 19 of 22

link between violent games and subsequent behavior is more complicated than simply more
violent games equal less social behavior, but they can be used as a guide for designers to
understand the potential impact on the content of game creation and its implications on the
games players and the games community at large.
Conclusion
I think it’s important to be aware of the effects the games we make can have on our
players not just inside the game, but on the players behavior outside of the game. While current
research has not been able to prove a definitive link between the types of games we play and how
they affect our behavior outside of the game, I think its something important to at least be
cognizant of when designing games. How can we promote values that are good for society
through the games we make? Where does toxicity come from and how can we discourage this
behavior in our communities and through our games? Can we create modes of competition that
are not so adversarial without devaluing the excitement of the competition itself? I hope that
HARDSCOPE is a first step towards interrogating these questions.

HARDSCOPE Page 20 of 22

Work Cited
Adachi, Paul J.C and T WIlloughby. “Demolishing the Competition: The Longitudinal Link
Between Competitive Video Games, Competitive Gambling, and Aggression.” Journal of
Youth and Adolescence., U.S. National Library of Medicine, 18 Apr. 2013,
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23595418#
Billingsley, John. “CODTrickshotYoutube.” Youtube, Youtube, March 29, 2018,
www.youtube.com/results?search_query=call+of+duty+trickshot+montage.
Billingsley, John. HARDSCOPE Big Combos. March 20. 2017.
Billingsley, John. HARDSCOPE Combat 1. March 20. 2017.
Billingsley, John. HARDSCOPE Combat 2. March 20. 2017.
Billingsley, John. HARDSCOPE Racing. March 20. 2017.
Billingsley, John. HARDSCOPE Team. November 29. 2017.
Cod1. “COD4killcam.” Killcam|Call of Duty Wiki|FANDOM powered by wikia, FANDOM,
April 7, 2009, vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/callofduty/images/5/5c/COD4killcam.jpg/
revision/latest?cb= 20090407210859.
Ewoldsen, David R., et al. “Effect of Playing Violent Video Games Cooperatively or
Competitively on Subsequent Cooperative Behavior.” Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and
Social Networking, vol. 15, no. 5, 2012, pp. 277–280., doi:10.1089/cyber.2011.0308.
Ferguson, Christopher J., et al. “Digital Poison? Three Studies Examining the Influence of
Violent Video Games on Youth.” Computers in Human Behavior, vol. 50, 2015, pp. 399–
410., doi:10.1016/j.chb.2015.04.021.
Gentile, Douglas A., et al. “The Effects of Prosocial Video Games on Prosocial Behaviors:
International Evidence From Correlational, Longitudinal, and Experimental Studies.”
HARDSCOPE Page 21 of 22

Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, vol. 35, no. 6, 2009, pp. 752–763.,
doi:10.1177/0146167209333045.
Greitemeyer, Tobias, and Silvia Osswald. “Effects of Prosocial Video Games on Prosocial
Behavior.” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, vol. 98, no. 2, 2010, pp. 211–
221., doi:10.1037/a0016997.
Polkite_Wolf. “SSXTrickyScreenshot.” SSX Tricky (2001) promotional art – MobyGames.
MobyGames, February 27, 2018. https://www.mobygames.com/game/ssx-tricky/promo/
imageType,1/promoImageId,349248/
Tear, Morgan J., and Mark Nielsen. “Failure to Demonstrate That Playing Violent Video Games
Diminishes Prosocial Behavior.” PLoS ONE, vol. 8, no. 7, 2013,
doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0068382.
Tear, Morgan J., and Mark Nielsen. “Video Games and Prosocial Behavior: A Study of the
Effects of Non-Violent, Violent and Ultra-Violent Gameplay.” Computers in Human
Behavior, vol. 41, 2014, pp. 8–13., doi:10.1016/j.chb.2014.09.002.
Unknown, “MW3Multiplayer.” The 10 Best Call of Duty Games :: Games :: Lists :: Paste. Paste
Magazine, November 3, 2014. www.pastemagazine.com/blogs/lists/2014/11/the-10-best-
call-of-duty-games.html
Unknown, “SmashBros.” Smash Bros Staff playing 8-player Staff, Know Your Meme, March 19,
2018, knowyourmeme.com/photos/875878-super-smash-brothers.
Velez, John A., et al. “Violent Video Games and Reciprocity.” Communication Research, vol.
43, no. 4, 2014, pp. 447–467., doi:10.1177/0093650214552519.
HARDSCOPE Page 22 of 22

Vogel, Mitch. “Splatoon.” Splatoon 2 Version 2.2.0 is now live – Nintendo Life. Nintendo Life,
March 19, 2018,
www.nintendolife.com/news/2018/01/splatoon_2_version_2_2_0_is_now_live

Abstract (if available)

Linked assets

University of Southern California Dissertations and Theses

Conceptually similar

PDF

Ruben's puppets

PDF

BONDS: an asymmetrical collaborative adventure game on exploring the player's emotional connection and emergent gameplay

PDF

Day[9]TV: How interactive Web television parallels game design

PDF

Emotion control of player characters: creating an emotionally responsive game

PDF

Resurrection/Insurrection

PDF

The Distance: a cooperative communication game to long-distance players

PDF

Cultural-specific mechanics (Case study: Agave VR): can mechanics in games reflect cultural values?

PDF

The Cleaner: recreating censorship in video games

PDF

Bardcore!

PDF

Free Will: a video game

PDF

Emetic Labs: simulator sickness in videogame players

PDF

Ahistoric

PDF

The moonlighters: a narrative listening approach to videogame storytelling

PDF

Come with Me: a cooperative game focusing on player emotion

PDF

Influencer Incubator

PDF

FRKN WKND and video game mixtapes: developing talent and experience through video game mixtapes

PDF

Brinkmanship and the process of narrative design

PDF

Life On A String: an ink painting narrative game

PDF

No Ground: a nostalgic play on childhood

PDF

Psychic - an interactive TV pilot: development of a game project for native TV platforms

Asset Metadata

Creator Billingsley, John (author)

Core Title HARDSCOPE: balancing competition with performance in multiplayer games

School School of Cinematic Arts

Degree Master of Fine Arts

Degree Program Interactive Media

Publication Date 04/23/2018

Defense Date 04/11/2018

Publisher University of Southern California (original), University of Southern California. Libraries (digital)

Tag behavior,Billingsley,competition,competitive,HARDSCOPE,John,OAI-PMH Harvest,performance,performative,player,prosocial,toxicity,trickshot,video game

Format application/pdf (imt)

Language English

Contributor Electronically uploaded by the author (provenance)

Advisor Pinckard, Jane (committee chair), Bouchard, Sean (committee member), Schnurr, Carl (committee member)

Creator Email jmbillin@usc.edu,johnmbillingsley@gmail.com

Permanent Link (DOI) https://doi.org/10.25549/usctheses-c40-493220

Unique identifier UC11265811

Identifier etd-Billingsle-6264.pdf (filename),usctheses-c40-493220 (legacy record id)

Legacy Identifier etd-Billingsle-6264.pdf

Dmrecord 493220

Document Type Thesis

Format application/pdf (imt)

Rights Billingsley, John

Type texts

Source University of Southern California (contributing entity), University of Southern California Dissertations and Theses (collection)

Access Conditions The author retains rights to his/her dissertation, thesis or other graduate work according to U.S. copyright law. Electronic access is being provided by the USC Libraries in agreement with the a...

Repository Name University of Southern California Digital Library

Repository Location USC Digital Library, University of Southern California, University Park Campus MC 2810, 3434 South Grand Avenue, 2nd Floor, Los Angeles, California 90089-2810, USA