Are Cooldowns more Fun than Consumables?
Embracing Infinite Possibilities and Encouraging Creative Gameplay
Introduction
Why must gaming hold on to traditional values of supply and demand?
No really. Its a videogame. A simulated space where anything is possible. Games have often sought to simulate the real world, but at what point is that at the cost of fun?
I would argue that having players deal with using a limited supply of items tied to abilities is less effective, and less fun than giving them an infinite supply of the ability on a cooldown…. in some circumstances.
Understanding Cooldown Abilities and Consumables
The difference between cooldown abilities and consumables is actually quite stark in concept. Comparing them could look like comparing apples and oranges, but I disagree.
Cooldown Abilities are simple. They are effectively “powers” that you as the player have access to. After you activate/use the power you do not have access to that power again for some pre-defined length of time. Its not always a length of time, but that’s the general idea.
Abilities like this were popularized in RPG’s MMO’s and Action RPG’s like Diablo. They evolved from early tabletop examples requiring player to sleep, or not take another action for a set number of turns. Once game calculations started to happen in real-time, so too did the cooldowns for abilities. The modern take on cooldown abilities was popularized by overwatch, a shooter with exclusively cooldown based abilities.
The other end of the spectrum is consumables. Consumables are items that exist within a players inventory that can be used. Its a very obvious solution to a problem of ability usage, and it mimics the real world. If you eat a candy bar, you no longer have a candy bar. Consumables have not changed much over the course of gaming. You either find or craft the item you want to use. When you use it you lose one of it. You can only use as many as you have access to. Fairly straight forward.
The Problem with Consumables
My problem with consumables is that they force players to play in the most boring way. When developers are creating a gaming experience their goal is for the player to enjoy playing the game as much as possible (unless its cruelty squad). That includes the consumables. Consumables need to be fun and satisfying to use, and often they are.
With the case of consumables when the quantity/supply of an ability is limited the player is forced to do a cost/benefit analysis for every use of the item. If a player is especially economically minded they may end up never using the item at all. “What if a better moment arises later when I really need it?”
This is colloquially known as “Too Good to Use.” Razbuten made a great video on his stance on the topic that I highly recommend.
This is an experience that I also have. When games have consumables, I’m more likely to avoid using them entirely since I can’t predict a good scenario for their use. Moreover, every scenario that comes up feels sub-par. Personally I feel like this is a failure of the system as a whole.
If it feels beneficial for me as a player to avoid using an entire part of the game, perhaps something needs to change.
How Cooldown Abilities Encourage “Fun” Play
The reason I personally prefer cooldown abilities over crafting systems is because your supply of the “resource” is effectively infinite. A cost benefit analysis breaks down when the “cost” is effectively zero. This encourages players to experiment with the items at no cost to themselves other than a short period of time.
Since the item is on a cooldown, this system also pushes players towards using the ability early on in an encounter. If they use the ability early enough, and the encounter lasts for long enough, they may get to use the ability a second time.
This flips the analysis on it’s head entirely. The question is no longer “Is this a good time to use that item” and becomes “How do I maximize my usage of the ability during a given encounter.”
This in my opinion is a much more fun system that allows players to fully engage with all of the games mechanics. It promotes experimentation and creativity.
Are Consumables and Cooldowns Interchangeable?
The concept of consumables and cooldowns being mutually exclusive is a new one to me. The reason this came up is because of the release of Dead Island 2. Dead Island 2 is not a very notable game. Its a zombie smashing RPG with the basics of a plot, and some rather impressive procedural mutilation. All stuff that sounds great on marketing, but makes for very basic gameplay.
I’ve been enjoying my time with it. The one thing that caught my interest in Dead Island 2 is how it changed consumables.
At the time of writing this only applies to two things. Shuriken for throwing at enemies to do small damage, and Blood Bombs for distracting basic zombies with something to eat.
In any other zombie game these two things would have been craftable consumables. Its obvious, of course you can only hold so many of them.
In Dead Island 2, however, they are abilities on a cooldown. Which is just so nice.
These abilities themselves are not actually that notable. In my opinion the implementation of the Shuriken in particular is quite poor. But I had never even considered the fact that you could take something that would normally be a consumable, and just give it a cooldown instead!
This really got me thinking about how changing craftable items to cooldown abilities makes for much more engaging gameplay.
It also gave me a glimpse into the future of what consumables could be!
A Glimpse into the future!
Imagine a world where you craft items using a limited supply of resources. Once you craft the item it becomes a slottable ability that you can use infinitely but has a cooldown after use.
To increase the feasability of a system like this you could also give the item RPG-like stats that would encourage players to craft more and more of the item to get the best possible version. Very skinner-box like, sure, but it allows for more positive experimentation with the games systems.
If you frequent games with a lot of magic this system is actually nothing new. With magic a system like this makes sense, but for some reason this same theory has never been applied to physical consumables.
Perhaps the affordance feels weird, but I’d love to give a system like this a shot! Its 2023 we’ve evolved beyond thinking realism in games is the be all end all.
Where This Approach Wont Work
The first thing that comes to mind is any game that is absolutely systems driven. RTS, strategy, city-builders, all examples of games that this doesn’t apply to at all.
Games that are entirely systems driven require resources in a supply/demand structure to even function as games or systems. Its literally in the definition.
For the unaware a systems driven game is one that has resources come in from a “sink” and exit through a “drain.” The player is involved in this system by activating sinks of different resources, converting them to new resources, and eventually using them up and draining them out of the system. The sink could also be a part of the conversion system.
These games inherently rely on the idea that resources are generated but finite (at least at human scales of time) in order to push players to produce more. Is that inherently capitalistic? MMmmm uughhhhh…. I guess maybe. But I’m not really here to argue that.
Even “Idle”, or “Clicker” games operate on this concept. For the unaware an Idle game is a game that plays itself. Its the equivalent of having a robot press on a calculator and keep adding one to it to see how high you can go. The catch is that interacting with the game makes the number go up faster, often at the cost of some of your current number.
These games are built on the complex psychological phenomenon of “Monkey like number go up!” or (MLNGU).
Where Do Ability Systems Work Best
Understanding the kinds of games ability systems don’t work in allows us to better understand when an ability system would actually be better.
RPG’s and large open world games put a lot of effort into pretending their open world has one big economy in it. One that allows players to always feel like they are gaining money, but not enough to where it feels meaningless.
This is often the job of at least a couple of people at a AAA studio. For large open world games something like this is important. But the lines blur when the systems become so abstracted that they barely stand for anything at all.
Like, for example, our zombie games. You pick up scrap as a resource to duct tape it together into shurikens… It’s already far fetched enough as it is, so why not take it an additional step. Cut out the meaningless menu work. Get to the fun faster.
Conclusion
In conclusion I think that the future of craftable consumable items lies in turning them into cooldown based abilities. They allow for more fun and positive experimentation in combat, allow for more room for error, and encourage players to engage with the systems.
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