Limitations

Games typically have a variety of limitations. These limitations constrain player actions within the game, ensuring that players experience the challenges they are meant to face. It is these limitations that make overcoming challenges enjoyable for players.

Without limitations, players could do whatever they wanted within the game. Although they would have more freedom, the game would become too simple, and the enjoyment of completing the game would be lost. These limitations also ensure fairness in multiplayer games, guaranteeing that each player has an equal experience. Similar to goals, limitations in games include both explicit and implicit limitations.

Explicit limitations are clearly communicated to the player, typically including time limits, spatial limits, and behavioural limits. In tabletop games, explicit limitations are directly stated in the rules. For example, in Landlord (斗地主), during the card play phase, the following player must play a card or set of cards that is of the same type and number but has a higher value. This is a typical behavioural limitation. In chess, pieces can typically only move on the chessboard, which is a spatial limitation. In some fast-paced chess modes, players must make moves within a limited time.

For example, in blitz chess, players have only 2 seconds per move, and if they exceed that, time is deducted from their additional 3 minutes. This fast-paced mode is a classic example of a time limitation. In video games, time and space limitations are easy to understand. For instance, in Super Mario, the character dies when the countdown reaches zero, which is a time limitation, while players cannot turn back and walk left, which is a spatial limitation. Behavioural limitations include things like not being able to damage friendly units in many team-based games.

Implicit limitations are rules that are commonly understood and agreed upon, even though they are not explicitly stated in the game. Although these limitations are typically not written down, all players implicitly understand their existence. The most typical implicit limitation is the prohibition against cheating. In Landlord (斗地主), this includes not looking at other players’ hands, not privately communicating with others, and not secretly switching cards. While these restrictions are not written in the rules, experienced players automatically follow these implicit rules, and they will remind and supervise others if these rules are broken.

In video games, the most common implicit limitation is the prohibition of using game modification tools to alter game data. The game itself usually does not mention this prohibition, but in online games, the player community and game operators will actively work to prevent cheating to maintain fairness. For single-player games, while cheating doesn’t affect other players’ experiences, it still ruins the difficulty and flow of the game that the player is experiencing.