News Realms Remove Ads - Go Premium! Sign In or Register

Bluetracker

Tracks Blizzard employees across various accounts.

The series finale to Better Call Saul was a masterpiece. So was the finale to Breaking Bad. In this thread I want to talk about something that the head writer of these shows (Vince Gilligan) understands beautifully, the "peak-end rule", which also heavily applies to game design! https://t.co/p9h1LZjx96

The series finale to Better Call Saul was a masterpiece. So was the finale to Breaking Bad. In this thread I want to talk about something that the head writer of these shows (Vince Gilligan) understands beautifully, the "peak-end rule", which also heavily applies to game design! https://t.co/p9h1LZjx96

  • AlecoGereco
    Posted 3 years, 5 months ago (Source)
    The series finale to Better Call Saul was a masterpiece. So was the finale to Breaking Bad. In this thread I want to talk about something that the head writer of these shows (Vince Gilligan) understands beautifully, the "peak-end rule", which also heavily applies to game design! https://t.co/p9h1LZjx96

    • AlecoGereco
      Posted 3 years, 5 months ago (Source)
      The peak-end rule is a well documented psychological bias that affects how people remember things. Essentially, when recalling events, humans tend to disproportionately weigh how they felt at the most emotionally intense points (peaks), and how they felt at the end. https://t.co/QJlQ4oHWdM

      • AlecoGereco
        Posted 3 years, 5 months ago (Source)
        Without giving anything away, the finales to both Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul are widely regarded to be the very best episodes of the entire series. They were meticulously crafted, and were seemingly planned for far in advance. (Don't worry, this will relate back to games!) https://t.co/wGjHdLxKhN

        • HS_Alec
          Posted 3 years, 5 months ago (Source)
          @AlecoGereco Ozymandias?

        • Aleco Gereco
          Posted 3 years, 5 months ago (Source)
          The pilots of both series were also standouts - the briefs in the desert and the boys in the court room - which is also very important for memory (see: primacy effect, recency effect). How many of you haven't seen BB, but have still seen this iconic shot of Walter White? https://t.co/u7RU53BWLu

          • Aleco Gereco
            Posted 3 years, 5 months ago (Source)
            With no disrespect to all of the great episodes of these two shows between the pilots and the finales, the fact that they both started and ended so brilliantly has a huge effect on how we remember the show, which in turn has a big impact on how likely we are recommend it.

            • Aleco Gereco
              Posted 3 years, 5 months ago (Source)
              People talk about how disappointing the final season of Game of Thrones was in a way which seems to wipe away how awesome the first 6 or 7 seasons were. To tie things back to the peak-end rule: the peaks were great for GoT but the end wasn't (currently rated a 4.1 on IMDB). https://t.co/P7zjafNRwl

              • Aleco Gereco
                Posted 3 years, 5 months ago (Source)
                Simply put, a bad ending is capable of ruining someone's entire perception of an experience, even if the experience was otherwise overwhelmingly positive. People are more likely to fondly remember an okay thing with a great ending than a great thing with bad ending (see GoT).

                • Aleco Gereco
                  Posted 3 years, 5 months ago (Source)
                  It's easy to see how peak-end applies to single player games. Bioshock Infinite is one of my all time faves, but after ~10 years I can really only remember the zipline sequences (peaks) and it's jaw-dropping ending. Big peaks + great ending = good memory = high overall rating. https://t.co/FUgTwcSxxe

                  • Aleco Gereco
                    Posted 3 years, 5 months ago (Source)
                    Peak-end also HEAVILY applies to multiplayer games. I'm sure many gamers can relate to the experience of winning a bunch of games and feeling like they're on top of the world, then ending on a single loss and leaving the session with a bad mood.

                    • Aleco Gereco
                      Posted 3 years, 5 months ago (Source)
                      There's a common saying in competitive games, "can't end on a win streak, can't end on a loss." Some food for thought: if there was a magical system which got players to always end on a win, how much do you think that would impact their overall opinion of the game?

                      • Aleco Gereco
                        Posted 3 years, 5 months ago (Source)
                        My guess: A WHOLE LOT. In post-game surveys, often the single greatest factor for predicting if someone will rate the previous game they played highly is whether or not they won or lost. Good design is regularly conflated with winning and bad design with losing. https://t.co/OOJfiYIEzr

                        • Aleco Gereco
                          Posted 3 years, 5 months ago (Source)
                          Finally, the Hearthstone bit (the game I work on). As I'm sure y'all understand by now, the way that a Hearthstone game ends is disproportionately important to how players will recall their experience of the entire game. This is why well designed win conditions are so important.

                          • Aleco Gereco
                            Posted 3 years, 5 months ago (Source)
                            Big and dramatic endings to games can potentially cover up for experiences which may have otherwise been average or even poor. 10+ average turns of gameplay that ends in fantastic fashion is probably a positive memory (which is why I love the design of the Old Gods so much). https://t.co/nUb8ZqUnur

                            • Aleco Gereco
                              Posted 3 years, 5 months ago (Source)
                              Conversely, bad endings to games usually = bad experiences. This is why I think Questlines can draw a lot of frustration from players. They're the first thing you see AND the thing that kills you. Our memories bias this negatively over any good gameplay happening between.

                              • Aleco Gereco
                                Posted 3 years, 5 months ago (Source)
                                Compare these two Rogue quests. Caverns is one of the most controversial (both loved and hated) cards in HS history, while FtI is widely regarded as healthy. Caverns tended to end games immediately, while FtI tends to provide a lot of value without always ending games right away. https://t.co/x9yFS0NkJZ

                                • Aleco Gereco
                                  Posted 3 years, 5 months ago (Source)
                                  The card (or cards) that kill you in a HS game is disproportionately important to how you will recall the entire experience. This means there is extra pressure on win conditions in HS to be super exciting, while simultaneously not being particularly frustrating to lose to.

                                  • Aleco Gereco
                                    Posted 3 years, 5 months ago (Source)
                                    This is a difficult target to hit! The most exciting, dramatic, and spectacular win conditions can often be among the most frustrating to lose to. How should designers balance excitement for the player vs. frustration for the opponent? It's not obvious. https://t.co/ydwLzF361Q

                                    • Aleco Gereco
                                      Posted 3 years, 5 months ago (Source)
                                      To wrap things up: both designers and writers would do well to remember the examples of Better Call Saul, Breaking Bad, and Game of Thrones. If you've crafted an awesome experience but it has a bad ending, will it really be remember as great?

                                      • Aleco Gereco
                                        Posted 3 years, 5 months ago (Source)
                                        Thanks so much for reading! I love to talk design and will try to do more of these threads if y'all enjoy this.💙

    • Rayditzfn
      Posted 3 years, 5 months ago (Source)
      @AlecoGereco AMAZING SHOW and AMAZING POST, this is why aleco is the goat

      • Aleco Gereco
        Posted 3 years, 5 months ago (Source)
        @Rayditzfn ❤️
Tweet