Metrics as a Mitigator in Team Fortress 2
Oct 2, 12:35 PM
I’ve been playing Team Fortress 2 lately. This is strange, because it’s a multiplayer deathmatch FPS, and I normally don’t like those kinds of games. But TF2 is filled with feedback loops to keep me interested in playing, not the least of which are metrics based.
For starters, every player has a stats page you can go look at. Mine is here:
http://steamcommunity.com/id/dariusk/stats/TF2
At the time of this posting, you can tell how much time I’ve spent playing the game, how much time I spend as each class, and my records for each class. It’s pretty neat although I wish there were more drilldown.
More importantly, the game uses metrics internally to encourage players to keep playing. One of the biggest problems with a multiplayer FPS is that when a player dies, they’re often frustrated and are tempted to quit. What TF2 does is that every time you die, it says something like, “Hey, don’t worry. You came awfully close to beating your record for points in that class, and you beat your record for survival time!” This is actually very reassuring and has certainly kept me playing even when I’ve been frustrated.
I think this is a very creative use for metrics, and I can’t wait to see what more they add as the development of the game continues!
