Overview of Collaborative Ping Systems

This collection of ping and facilitated-communication examples highlights some elements of collaborative design in practice. Keep in mind that no ping system is perfect, and opportunities exist to push the boundaries of effective team communication online with both friends and strangers.

Method Designing Pings that Inspire Collaboration

A look at some concrete design practices for supporting collaboration among players using pings.

Apex Legends

Apex Legends is a hero-shooter-inspired battle royale that features 3-player squads. It offers a diverse roster of playable Legends (playable characters), each with their own unique abilities. Apex offers a wealth of ping types that are tailored to the many different situations that players may find themselves in. Its system ushered in a new era of comprehensive ping support, inviting other developers to think more deeply about the potential for good collaboration via pings.

Collaboration Highlights

Effortless and informative — Context-sensitive pings provide relevant information without the need for complex menus. The system does the work, reducing cognitive load and letting players focus on the action (e.g., adjusting voice lines depending on what was pinged, such as weapons, loot or ziplines).
Build rapport — Ping requests and “thank you” options encourage reciprocity and build trust. For example, when being revived players can thank their squadmate, and they can reply with “you’re welcome.” Players can also “like” other players’ Holosprays.
Tailored to gameplay — Unique voice lines, Legend-specific pings, and automatic prompts (like requesting health) make communication feel natural and integrated. For example, Mirage’s decoys automatically ping the location they were shot from, and Watton’s fences ping players when enemies cross them.
Clear and visible — Large visual indicators and prioritized information ensure pings are easily seen and understood, such as the rays of light when pinging locations.
Easy to contribute — Players are automatically given the correct ping, so less worry of mistakes or miscommunication and greater confidence in your squadmates. Even downed players can ping, keeping them engaged.
Priority placement — The default placement of pings on the bumper button reinforces their value as an integral gameplay mechanic and nudges players towards frequent use.

Battlefield Series

Battlefield is a large-scale, multiplayer, first-person shooter franchise renowned for its epic battles, class-based gameplay, and emphasis on combined arms combat involving infantry, vehicles, and aircraft. Strategic coordination and teamwork are crucial for success.

An image of the first-person view of Battlefield on a standard map. — *Battlefield* series. Image courtesy of TIGG.

One of Battlefield‘s unique features is its 3D Spotting System. Players can mark enemies, vehicles, and objectives, making them visible to their entire team via icons on the map and HUD.

Collaboration Highlights

Shared situational awareness — Spotting provides invaluable battlefield intelligence, helping the team plan attacks and defense strategies.
Role specialization — Players can adopt scouting roles using tools like binoculars, drones, and sniper rifles. Assist points for providing intel encourage this playstyle.
Meaningful contribution — The spotting system allows players to contribute significantly to the team’s success, even without scoring direct kills. Notably, it is possible to not fire a single shot and still top the leaderboards.

Additionally, Battlefield‘s medic class automatically highlights teammates in need of healing. This streamlined system makes it easy for medics to identify injured allies and creates the feeling of timely support, even for players who might never choose the medic class themselves.

Call of Duty: Warzone

Call of Duty: Warzone is a free-to-play battle royale, where squads of 2-4 players fight for survival in a shrinking map. Collaboration with teammates is essential for identifying threats, sharing resources, and outlasting the enemy.

The core of Warzone‘s communication is its ping system. Players can highlight points of interest, directions of travel, enemies, or areas to loot. The ping system is context sensitive, and can include relevant information like the distance to an enemy.

Collaboration Highlights

Tailored to gameplay — Automatic character callouts supplement pings (e.g., “Enemy spotted!” or “I need ammo!”).
Assist with situational awareness — Pings help teammates stay informed about dangers, resources, and objectives without lengthy voice comms. Mark enemies for focus fire or to plan flanking maneuvers.
Efficient resource sharing — Find and distribute loot based on squad needs. The Buy Station ping system encourages saving up resources for team revivals, which can boost morale and help players feel valuable.
Facilitated planning — Each player can ping the map to suggest a location. Whoever gets the most “confirms” effectively wins the vote and the team moves in that direction.

Deep Rock Galactic

Deep Rock Galactic (DRG) is a 1-4 player, cooperative, sci-fi shooter, where teams of dwarven miners venture into procedurally generated caves on the hostile planet Hoxxes IV. Teamwork is essential for survival against alien swarms and completing objectives like mining precious minerals or recovering lost technology.

Collaboration Highlights

Laser pointer — The core communication tool. Players can point at anything (terrain, minerals, creatures, objectives) highlighting it for the whole team and providing essential context-aware information.
Voice lines — Each dwarf class has unique, personality-filled callouts triggered automatically by actions and ping usage, adding both information and a sense of camaraderie.
Map pings — The map offers tactical pings for marking points of interest, resources, or threats.
“Rock and Stone!” — The simple and iconic dwarven salute reinforces team morale and shared purpose.
Sense of community — The lighthearted humor and emote system build rapport even among strangers, encouraging a positive, cooperative atmosphere.

Overall, DRG‘s intuitive systems reduce the need for complex text or voice chat, promoting inclusivity and ensuring everyone contributes to the success of the mission.

Helldivers 2

Helldivers 2 is a chaotic, top-down, cooperative shooter, where teamwork is paramount for survival against hordes of alien foes. Strategic communication is key, and the ping system allows Helldiver squads to share vital information effortlessly, maximizing squad efficiency and adaptability in the heat of battle.

Shows a player pinging on the map using minimap view. — *Helldivers 2:* pinging on the map. Image courtesy of TIGG.

Collaboration Highlights

Promotes coordination — Pings help teams prioritize targets, plan flanking maneuvers, and efficiently manage resources.
Simple and versatile — A streamlined set of pings allows players to quickly indicate points of interest, objectives, incoming threats, and supply needs. This helps players of all skills be effectively contributing.
Adaptive, informative, and integrated — Context-sensitive pings provide relevant information based on the situation. For example, pinging a location will cause the player character to report “over the radio” the type of location, its direction, and its distance from you, making it easier for players to react.
Inclusive communication — The visual nature of pings benefits players who might not use voice chat, ensuring everyone can participate in communication.
Communication wheel — Supplements pings with a variety of quick commands for tactical planning on the fly.
Situation specific — Locations marked on the minimap last until dismissed or you reach the location. This is helpful as players are often distracted farming for medals and may need to get back to the extraction zone quickly.
Shared discoveries — Pings automatically add discovered objective locations to the map for all players (e.g., if you ping a Jammer, the icon is added to the map for all players).