Is it some innate nature of red and blue to create warfare? It would appear so in multiplayer First Person Shooters (FPSs). Why is it that red and blue are the usual choices? Could it be that both colours when devoid of their ‘colour’, think colour blind, still appear as different shades? Does it make a difference to the gameplay?
One reason to go with such colours is to take into account the visually impaired by still making both sides look different, even to them.
The question I’m more concerned with here is: Does it make a difference to the gameplay?
In some ways it does, especially if you take the environment/level into account. If the blue team’s area is the same shade, hue and saturation as the blue teams uniforms they will be harder to see. The game designer purist and traditionalist would scoff at this point. Yes, it would affect the gameplay if one were to tailor the environment to favour one team over the other, however, as long as the favour was given to both sides either by the same method or a different way with the same level of advantage… the advantage becomes a new Equalized Conflict Generator in the gameplay.
Say the object of the level is to capture or control the other team’s base by reaching a target somewhere in their base and eliminating it. The blue team has the advantage of being the same colour as the interior of their base, while the red team does not have the advantage of being the same colour of their base, they do have the ability to remotely trigger deadly traps within their base. This is an example of a new Equalized Conflict Generator.
Some game designers’ opinion is that all levels of one particular game should conform to the gameplay. Here I will remind you of the success of mini-game console titles in the past few years and the rising interest in casual games. If a game could be as various as a mini-game compilation with the same core gameplay throughout and still be the same budget, then why not get creative with level design, modifying the gameplay slightly and allowing for more variety!
