Audio Notification and Reward in "For Honor"

Reward systems in video games can be attributed to a variety of techniques, these can be identified using various classifications that help categorise and describe the type of reward the player is receiving and why they are receiving it. In a paper written by Hao Wang and Chuen Tsai-Sun (2012), figure 1 (seen below) is used to help visualise the things that motivate players when playing video games. These types of motivations lead players to different types of rewards, an example of one of these classifications "Advancement" was described by Wang and Tsai-Sun (2012) as "Players use rewards to make game progress—for example, building avatar strength with powerful World of Warcraft items. Rewards in this category mitigate challenge levels so that players can advance and gain feelings of increased skill and power." (Wang Hao & Sun Chuen-Tsai 2012).

This classification, as well as the "Cooperate/Compete" classification, fits best into the game example today in Ubisoft's "For Honor" as the game can be best described as a competitive game featuring gear advancement systems (relating to the advancement classification), as well as skill-based competitive gameplay commonly featuring team-based gameplay (relating to the cooperate/compete classification).

Figure 1 - Graph visualising the various motivating factors that drive players in video games.

Flow is a word used by psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (1990) to describe a state in which people are so involved in an activity that no nothing else seems to matter, an intense concentration that there is no attention left over to think about anything else and that you are able to lose yourself for long uninterrupted periods in whatever activity you are doing almost as if distorting time. This concept can be considered the goal of any video game as the creators of games aim to achieve this state with their players.

Bellow is a graph depicting the aspects that need to be controlled to allow for a person to enter this flow state, these can be taken into account when designing video games to optimise a players flow. On the y axis is challenge and on the x axis skill , you dont want what youre doing to be too challenging as it can lead to anxiety, you dont want what youre doing to be too easy either as it will lead to boredom. However, when these two are balanced that a person can enter a flow state, you increase your challenge and your skill increases which allows for higher challenge and once again increasing skill, this never ending diagonal advancement is the experience of flow.

Figure 1 - Graph visualising the various motivating factors that drive players in video games.

Flow is a word used by psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (1990) to describe a state in which people are so involved in an activity that no nothing else seems to matter, an intense concentration that there is no attention left over to think about anything else and that you are able to lose yourself for long uninterrupted periods in whatever activity you are doing almost as if distorting time. This concept can be considered the goal of any video game as the creators of games aim to achieve this state with their players.

Bellow is a graph depicting the aspects that need to be controlled to allow for a person to enter this flow state, these can be taken into account when designing video games to optimise a players flow. On the y axis is challenge and on the x axis skill , you dont want what youre doing to be too challenging as it can lead to anxiety, you dont want what youre doing to be too easy either as it will lead to boredom. However, when these two are balanced that a person can enter a flow state, you increase your challenge and your skill increases which allows for higher challenge and once again increasing skill, this never ending diagonal advancement is the experience of flow.

Figure 2 - Csikszentmihaly flow chart depicting the aspects that create flow.

Figure 2 - Csikszentmihaly flow chart depicting the aspects that create flow.

"For Honor" is a medieval fantasy fighting game released in 2017 that revolves around players controlling different classes of characters with various move sets creating a unique "realistic" melee-based fighting game. For Honor as well as other games in the "fighting game" genre aim to constantly keep the player in this flow state as the concept of competing against other players always presents a challenge that can consistently increase the players skill through learning the game and increasing mechanical skills that game revolves around. The game utilises three directional attack and blocking options, overhead, left and right as can be seen here in video 1.

Video 1 - A clip showcasing the attack/block mechanic in "For Honor".

The game rewards attacking players with visual bleeding accompanied by visceral cutting and impact sounds to further reinforce they have made a successful attack. And while this feature of games may seem somewhat obvious, there are many creative and amazing weapons throughout the game that give the player a more than rewarding sound for hitting a great attack, whether its the clean cut of a katana, or the crushing impact of a Morningstar. In an interview with "A Sound Effect Audio" director Nicholas Duveau also stated how important it was to ensure the sounds were both easy to understand as well as entertaining "we knew that this game’s immersion ambition was not only aiming for a visceral depiction of historical authenticity, but also had to be true to the common feedback rules of fighting games. We had to make sure the audio served two roles: believability, and understanding."

The more effective way sound cues are used in "For Honor" is when helping the player on the defensive end of attacks. Blocking and parrying in the game are essential mechanics to become a good competitive player and these can take new players quite a while to get used to. Most of the help comes from visual cues, as both players in a duel can see what directional stance the other is taking (Overhead, left or right) as well as the animation of the direction of the attack currently being made. If one of the incoming attacks is blocked or parried, the player is most often rewarded with an advantage on the next attack and a greatly encouraging clash of blades sound rewarding successful defensive gameplay.

Figure 3 - A blocked attack in For Honor (No HUD).

Each character also has audio cues for making an attack as well as specific cues for special attacks that may cause the other player a lot of trouble to defend against. Light attacks will be fast and less damaging being harder to block overall with a short sharp slicing sound, whereas heavy attacks will have large sound cues, warning the player of the incoming heavy damaging attack they will have to avoid both of which can be heard best at 1:04 in video 2.

Wang and Tsai-Sun (2007) refer to this type of feedback message as "juiciness". "Juiciness is the instant positive feedback that players receive in response to successful actions. Its purpose is to create positive emotions; it is not limited to casual games only." Also stating that "They are neither collectable nor available for player comparisons, and do not directly affect gameplay. Their value exists in the sense of praise they evoke" (2012 Wang Hao & Sun Chuen-Tsai)

As mentioned previously, all characters in the game have some sort of special attack or "gimmick" that sets them apart from the rest of the cast. Because of this, coming up against new characters you have not faced before can pose a challenge. The game designs a way around this by combining visual and audio cues for each special attack that alerts the player of the effect or consequence of taking one of these special attacks. One of the most common special moves almost every character has is an "Unblockable", as the name suggests these moves cannot be blocked, the only way to counter then would be to dodge them or to interrupt them with your own attack.

These moves, in theory, would be very overpowered if not for the visual and audio cues used to alert the opposing player that the attack is coming. As can be seen at 2:10 in video 2 below, the moves' animation is accompanied by a bright orange box with an orange flame animation and a flame audio cue alerting the player that the move is unblockable.

A lot of these moves are also accompanied by a line of dialogue, learning what these lines of dialogue mean can put the player at an advantage as they know what move that piece of dialogue is associated with. A good example of this is the line of dialogue that appears at 1:01 in video 2, this alerts the opposing player that the "Nobushi" is about to perform one of her special moves when the line "Oshite mairu!" is shouted. Because of this, the other player is able to sidestep/dodge it which is the correct thing to do against that move.

Video 2 - A few rounds of fights between various characters in For Honor (low volume from 0:00 to 0:56 seconds be wary of volume spike) .

Because of these sounds attached to moves, players can overtime learn to listen for these cues to prepare a dodge or counter-attack against the opposing player rewarding players who use sound as a way to learn and improve when playing the game. This can be attributed to the cooperate/compete classification of motivation previously mentioned (Wang Hao & Sun Chuen-Tsai (2012)) as the player is improving and winning more fights as a result of learning.

Another type of special move is a stun, stun attacks cause the recipient of the attack to be in a disoriented state for a couple of seconds meaning their vision and hearing is impaired and movement slowed. It also causes the opposing player's attack/block direction to be removed as can be seen at 0:08 in video 2.

Players in this state will have a blurred screen and disorienting ringing sound play during this effect. This means they have to try to defend against the upcoming attacks using the visual movement of the other player and the sound effects of upcoming attacks, a good example is at 0:08 in video 2 where if the player stunned had listened to and seen the cues of big attacks coming in (such as the line shouted by the opposing player ("Ad mortem, inimīcus!"), could have dashed back avoiding the heavy unblockable rather than trying to attack back and taking a lot of damage.

One feature that would work well in this game that it lacks is a sound for the "bleeding" feature in this game. Certain characters have "bleed" attacks that if are hit will cause a portion of the other players' health bar to go into a "bleed" state, this can be seen in video 2 at 1:35 as the "Nobushi" depletes the enemies health bar but he does not die because he is in a bleeding state as can be seen by the slowly depleting red bar in his health bar. This is an interesting feature and can lead to some cool fights as the player bleeding can attempt a desperate come back before he bleeds out.

However this bleed effect does not have an attached specific sound to it meaning it can sometimes go unnoticed by the bleeding player, adding a sound to this would create a sense of tension and urgency to the player bleeding out making for more intense endings to battles. Below is a sound that may accompany this bleed audio idea which can be listened to in the google drive link.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1fQfGHiJ7yuvSKXmDgcMX2U9XbbHy5wGi/view?usp=sharing

Conclusion

Reward systems can be identified in video games far back to when video games were first being developed, now more than ever is it possible for game developers to identify what and how players are motivated to achieve and what kind of reward they desire. Utilising this knowledge, developers are constantly constructing new ways to motivate and reward their players to continue playing their games and sound can always help achieve these by pushing the rewards to feel even more worthwhile to the player, whether it be the satisfying sound of a killing blow or ways to communicate to other players in a game through music, sound design and foley or voice communication.

References

Andersen, A. (2017) CREATING THE GLORIOUS SOUND OF ‘FOR HONOR

Huiberts, S. (2010): Captivating sound: The role of audio for immersion in computer games.

Ubisoft, "For Honor" (2013) Playstation 4, Xbox One and Microsoft Windows.

Hao, W & Sun Chuen-Tsai, S. (2012) Game Reward Systems: Gaming Experiences and Social Meanings.

Csikzentmihaly, M. (1990) : Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience. New York: Harper & Row.