Burden of Command - Dev Blog #5

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In 11Bit Studios' This War of Mine, you also have pieces - a group of refugees - and a board - the fictional war-torn city of Pogoren. However, because of the way that the game builds empathy between the player and the characters they control, the player can't sacrifice their "pieces" to win like they would in a game of chess. The question of how to achieve the win state (surviving until the end of the siege) becomes more complex because the player begins to identify with the characters, thinking not only of their own victory, but the well-being of these beleaguered, relatable, but ultimately fictional souls.
The player might find themselves weighing the emotional cost of forcing a character to visit suffering on others for the sake of obtaining much needed medicine or putting their characters at risk to "be a hero". The nature of the win state itself changes. Is winning a matter of pure survival? Or is it better that they make it out with clean consciences that will let them live with themselves afterward?
The player begins thinking less like someone playing a game, and more like those who are trapped in a ruined building in a city filled with chaos.

Burden of Command is This War of Mine seen from the other side. Building bonds of empathy towards the characters under the player's command serves to turn them into more than little olive drab men on a map. In return, as the player starts to empathise with their company, they begin to feel responsible for their well-being. They begin thinking of the win state not only as a matter of taking the objective, but as a matter of bringing as many of their boys home as possible.

They begin thinking like a Company Commander.

The question for a writer then becomes which characters to focus on building empathy with. Generally speaking, the average player can maintain empathic bonds with anywhere from half a dozen to a dozen characters. Anything more and things get dicey - after all, these characters have to compete for attention with a player's real family members, friends, loved ones, and co-workers. Anything beyond those dozen characters, and players will start forgetting names, faces, and uttering the eight words no writer wants to hear: "I don't care what happens to these people".

A US army rifle company in 1944 had a total paper strength of 193. Realistically, we couldn't make every single one of them into an empathetic character - players would lose track. We had to decide who we would build our core relationships around.

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In return, as the player starts to empathise with their company, they begin to feel responsible for their well-being. They begin thinking of the win state not only as a matter of taking the objective, but as a matter of bringing as many of their boys home as possible.

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after all, these characters have to compete for attention with a player's real family members, friends, loved ones, and co-workers.

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screeg said:

All this focus on "relationships" can't bode well for actual gameplay.

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