Kingdoms of Camelot (KoC) Part III: Parallels with The Game

Hello World!

Kingdoms of Camelot (KoC) has been seductive and addictive, has spiked my adrenaline and linked me into a community of new friends. So here’s the hard part. How do I duplicate all this in my novel, The Game? Is it possible to reproduce the allure of virtual gaming in the  real-life theme park of my story?

I think I’ll examine my four summaries on how KoC works in reverse order.

The fourth piece is easiest – community. My characters are all looking for connections. That the Game exists means that friendships will form. Plus, I encourage interactions between the local. and The Game staff through a system of rewards. The book’s in pretty good shape here.

You can’t have too many adrenaline spikes, but I have not neglected them. And with those that occur outside The Game, this is fine tuning rather than substantive change. Hopefully, awareness is all that is needed.

The first two aspects of KoC gaming – seduction and addiction – are those I must recreate in The Game. Of the two, addiction is more difficult. Yet for The Game to work, must draw people in and leave them aching to return over and over again.

I’ve been working, with my writer friend Lee Hallison, on developing the pamphlet that players in the story will receive as they enter The Game. It describes points, categories and levels of experience, and offers some hints.  Having my characters reference it for direction should help non-gamers understand what is happening..

The Leaderboard could dominate more, I suppose, though comments from my writing group tend to ask, “Why explore?” “Why continue?” Who cares about earning a score?” Why indeed? The seduction needs to precede the addiction – and I’m not sure yet how to strengthen it.

In kiosks, players can check what they’ve found and their points earned. If my characters make more use of these at first, they’ll be reinforced more often. Perhaps I need some additional way for players to discover their progress?

Though I sense layers of involvement on the horizon in KoC, they seem less adaptable to The Game. The vital elements must occur early on – make The Game more winsome, and draw the players into exploration. Their rewards will constantly encourage them onward.

Next stop – back to the book!

Kingdoms of Camelot (KoC) Part II: Adrenaline and Community

Hello World!

In yesterday’s blog I began an analysis of factors that made the fb game Kingdoms of Camelot effective.  If I’m to  include them in my book, The Game, I need to figure out how to adapt them and weave them into the experiences of the characters.  I covered numbers one and two, so shall move on from there.

1              KoC is seductive.

2              KoC is addictive.

3              KoC spikes adrenaline.  Not long into the game, I was attacked! Already seduced into believing I was talented, and addictively spending hours online, I played in a zoney glaze. Suddenly, WHAM! My carpenter friend had me defend my castle and I wiped out my attacker’s entire army. Bound to my city, I wanted nothing more than revenge!  I counterattacked, waited for my troops to arrive, then cheered and shared the victory (see #4.) One U.K. player described his city as “his baby,” and I understood his possessive devotion. Build it. Protect it.

4              KoC builds community.  The best protection for your investment is an alliance (up to 100 people.) Our alliance has a particularly enticing chat. A new member from a different alliance recently told us, “I like experiencing the people all around me.” In chat, I help others, speeding up their building and research by tiny increments.  If they are fb friends, I can help again on their fb post. We send virtual gifts on fb, and receive several chances per day at winning magic spells. Webs of connection spread.  We forge connections as we pass the time in chat. Online communities are quite compelling. I love meeting people without visual prejudices kicking in. So I support this alliance – and the idea of losing these friends one day is totally unacceptable.

Which brings me to the end of part II of this blog. The hardest part is ahead. How can I use this knowledge within my very different novel to make my real-life game work? I guess I’ll just have to wait until I can read what I write in part III!

To be continued . . .

Kingdoms of Camelot Part 1: Seduction and Addiction

Hello world!

Yesterday marked two months of involvement with Kings of Camelot. A good time to distill what I’ve learned and gained (and lost) so that I can somehow infuse it into my novel, The Game. The what-have-I-learned part is easier than the distilling, so, for the sake of my own sanity, I’ll start there.

1. KoC is seductive. Early on, I had to discover what was expected. A list of “quests” set my goals, and a “might” score increased as I messed around. As the might score increased, I began to earn higher ranks. By following quests and points and ranks, I trained myself to be a better and better player. And always, the little rewards and awards kept coming, making me feel smart and competent (whether or not that was true).
2. KoC is addictive. I’m reminded of training my late cat, Caspia. She occasionally stood on her hind legs in anticipation of a treat, so I encouraged the behavior, until she always stood for food. Then, I enticed her to stand for longer, and finally had her do a string of “tricks” to receive her goodie – chase me round and round the divider between the living room and kitchen, run to her indoor cat condo and climb to the highest level -- squishing her chubby belly through a tight passage (making us laugh), until she stood on hind legs at the tip top, five feet above the ground, in anticipation of her reward.

Similarly, KoC’s reinforcement schedule trained me to give over bigger and bigger chunks of time. There is a city to construct -- structures to build. They take a few seconds at first, and it’s a small inconvenience waiting for them to finish. But each one needs eight more upgrades to achieve full usefulness. Each level means a longer wait, and they begin to require resources that you need to gather. So you learn to wait longer. And longer. Soon, you are spending all day online. Trained exactly to the game’s demands as surely as Caspia atop her cat condo. 

With that lovely image, I think I’ll stop for today. But do check back for the next thrill-packed episode . . .