Designing for Harmony with Reciprocal Features

Reciprocity, the fundamental social exchange of responding in kind, is a building-block of trust. When players experience reciprocity in their interactions, they feel valued and welcomed, leading to a more positive and engaging overall experience.

big idea The Building Blocks of Trust

Designing with four key elements of trust can lay a foundation for community health and digital thriving.

As designers, we tend to focus on mechanics that directly serve the gameplay. However, we shouldn’t underestimate the impact of social interaction on the overall experience. By intentionally designing features that facilitate positive and reciprocal interactions between players, we can elevate the game’s atmosphere and enhance its overall appeal

Effective reciprocal features are designed to be simple, low-risk actions that foster connection and goodwill among players. While no single feature can guarantee a thriving community, offering a variety of such options is crucial. The goal is to cultivate an environment where positive, prosocial behaviors become the norm, outweighing unproductive or harmful interactions.

Starting off: Rules for reciprocal features

To be effective, reciprocal features should:

Enhance the experience, not interfere with the game.
Be relatively simple and easy for players to do.
Remain appealing even after the novelty wears off.

Design principles for reciprocal features

Designs should:

Inspire playfulness — Invite natural play with others, such as adding a ball to a waiting-room lobby. Don’t be afraid to leave activities freeform to invite social creativity.
Help players synergize — Offer interactive features that are enhanced when done together. Dancing, playing music together, or interactive emotes are some examples.
Invite, not obligate — Typically, reciprocal features should be doable alone but designed to entice joint play. Responding to another player completes the “reciprocity loop,” sending a strong social signal and creating greater goodwill.
Offer intrinsic appeal — Creating tailored animations or other delighters can incentivize the use of these reciprocal mechanics and further a sense of connection and social value.

Method Encouraging Trust by Design

Delve into design techniques that can help players overcome skepticism and build connections.

Designers should:

Map out the interactive space – Playful moments can happen anywhere, anytime. Consider offering reciprocal features in places you anticipate down time or celebrations or in spots you want players to create moments of harmony or togetherness.
Test thoroughly – A well-meaning feature can also frustrate players if it gets in the way of gameplay or becomes tedious, so be sure to test for this.
Evaluate risk / reward– In addition to external testing, test by intentionally trying to annoy others with these features and see what happens. Ultimately, ensure the feature has benefits that sufficiently outweigh the risks or can otherwise be mitigated.

Method Comparison of Methods for Mapping Social Experiences

Tools for visualizing and designing for social experiences.

Ideas for reciprocal features you might build

Dances, stickers, or other interactive gestures like high fives.

Shared music-making in Sea of Thieves — *Sea of Thieves* facilitates organic reciprocity: Shared music-making encourages social bonding and a sense of belonging among players. Image courtesy of TIGG.

Harmonizing pings that celebrate a complementary choice with a satisfying audio cue or musical riff.

Apex Legends ping wheel showing "looting this area". — Even functional mechanics like pings can foster reciprocity. Audio feedback reinforces positive choices and builds a sense of shared strategy. In *Apex Legends*, the contextual ping system has audio cues that change based on teammate actions, creating a sense of non-verbal teamwork. Image courtesy of TIGG.

Character banter that is triggered by players responding to situations or call outs.

Characters traipsing through mud and exchanging banter. — In *Left 4 Dead 2*, the survivors constantly trade barbs and worried remarks during the zombie onslaught. Their banter reflects the stressful situation and creates a sense of shared struggle and resilience. Image courtesy of TIGG.

Non-interactive gestures or actions that invite players to find their own ways to creatively interact or interpret interaction, such as waving, dancing or even sitting down.

Chirp bubbles in Journey encourage players to stay close and work together. Image courtesy of TIGG. — Even limited gestures can evoke powerful emotions and forge connections when designed mindfully. In *Journey*, the “chirp” is modulated by a player’s proximity to others

Playful items encourage exploration and optional collaboration, such as mini games, environmental toys such as a ball and basket, or interactive set pieces like a piano or playground.

Drinking beer with friends in Deep Rock Galactic — Downtime is fertile ground for emergent fun. In *Deep Rock Galactic* drinking beer offers both a buff and social lubrication, offering hilarious moments between missions. A smart way to keep players connected even outside core gameplay loops. Image courtesy of TIGG.

Ways to travel together that evoke a sense of togetherness.

Close up of the sea turtle mount in World of Warcraft. — In *World of Warcraft*, multi-person mounts from dragons to comical contraptions transform a mundane task into an opportunity for bonding. Image courtesy of TIGG.

How to know if your features promote harmony?

You might track and measure these indicators to see if your features are working:

Feature usage — This will tell you if players are engaging and how often. Since these are not core features, you’ll need to think about what a successful usage rate means to you.
Reciprocal success rate — How often are players responding to other players by joining or reciprocating?
Sentiment — Are players talking about these features positively? Sharing stories or animated GIFs? Are these features becoming part of the local ethos or community culture?
Impact — In games where reciprocal interactions are high, look at the overall behavior or sentiment to see if they are having a positive impact.
Abuse rates — Check for reports of features being co-opted to abuse other players and monitor those rates. While it is generally impossible to avoid some abuse, you’ll want to ensure these numbers are not too disruptive or growing in disruption.