How to handle secrets in games

Edit: Long post for back story, last 2 paragraphs pose the question.

I'm a big fan of the Binding of Isaac games and since Afterbirth came out I've been following everything that's going on. Basically people initially thought only 74 of 120 advertised items had been added to the game because the devs were annoyed that people datamined the previous game and spoiled secrets. The theory was that they were holding the rest behind a time gate and would patch it in after 109 hours...the supposed time it took for the spoilers to be datamined on the previous game.

The devs had some fun with this and encouraged it with some cryptic tweets, but said everything was in the game despite dataminers only finding 74 items. According to dev posts since then it turns out that there was a bug at launch that they weren't aware of and only realised there was an issue after watching streamers/youtube and seeing some items weren't turning up. So of course this just made the problem worse, but they fixed it with a patch after 109 hours - the patch was ready prior to this but they delayed for fun.

Now everything is supposedly in the game...except for a new character that dataminers have found but not everything for it is in the files yet. A hallmark of these games is that there are always hidden secrets, it's assumed/been hinted at by the devs now that there are further unlocks but a certain task needs to be done by many members of the community that will then presumably result in a patch with the next piece of the puzzle. This prevents dataminers from spoiling the content before the community reaches it.

Most of the community has been placated from the explanation after the original outrage over lack of content but there's still some hanging around that are annoyed with the devs continuing to "time gate" the secrets.

It raises the question: If you have a popular game and want to hide secret unlockables then how do you prevent people from datamining those secrets without just with holding the content and patching it in.

In today's environment it seems impossible and is guaranteed to annoy at least some part of the community as they feel ripped off by not getting the entire game.

 

I don't have much advice on the question, but I've always thought if I were ever in a position to receive a tidal wave of complaints and attention from angry gamers; I would just laugh at them. Why? Because gamers are such a fickle bunch. They're always irate about something and vocal about it. Most don't have many cares or comprehension of what goes in to making their product. Its hard to care in that situation. I consider myself a gamer too, but I don't get irate over stupid things a developer did, unless it is blatant and really dumb. The job is tough enough already.

 

Yeah, I haven't felt annoyed with the devs at all. Just following how things are going more than anything.

I posed the question more because I'm curious if there's a way to hide secrets from dataminers without just with holding the content.

 

I'm not sure. Encryption? DRM? I don't know much about either though. People tend to look down on DRM though.

edit: oh! Maybe just leave the knowledge of the existence of secrets out of the equation. Don't tell anyone outside your team about them, people will find them eventually, and won't be upset when they can't get/find them. I think then problem is the devs told gamers there were 120 items, and only 78 were actually found. One more thing you could do is release the content in updates, and make them frequent or at least structure your game so discovering these things is something unexpected. I never once imagined the devs of Minecraft to stick secret stuff in there, until one day I caught wind of it. It made perfect sense, given the game's play structure.

 

The general rule is never trust a client. Anything left on the client side can be accessed and manipulated by a malicious client. So you need to keep your secrets server side and only release the content once its accessed in game.

Some gamers will hate you for it, but its the only way.

 

Yea, just add the content remotely. That is what we do. And our level of secrecy is legendary. .

Our game has a content that will go live on the 17th of next month. Any reference to that content isn't in the game or available anywhere until we flip the switch on the servers. In fact, even internally only those who were directly involved in the creation and testing of the content know what it is. Last week I had to help process some of it, but because I wasn't under that NDA, so I couldn't actually see any of it, or anything about it.

Though, I don't understand how people could be upset, presumably if they actually played the game that content would appear, right?

 

I think in this particular case it might just be salty people hanging around that were annoyed thinking the initial missing content was just a time gate. Turned out it was a bug and the devs fixed it.

The most popular theory for getting the next unlock involves the community as a whole doing something that's pretty time consuming...so again, feels like a time gate.

Also could just be due to these devs trolling people so hard...but to be honest the people kind of did it to themselves too by reading into things way too much. Based on how previous secrets have been hidden though the theories are at least understandable.

Might just be the particular circumstances that resulted in so much anger from the community and they'd be fine with secrets being hidden behind some other conditions to then be unlocked by a download in other cases.

 

Honestly, in part it is probably that there are always players who complain and moan about every little thing. Oddly, usually the most vocal and whiny players are also the most engaged players as well. It kind of makes sense given the amount of time the often put in.

 

anything made can be undone

its up to the player not the dev to figure out secrets and stuff

 

The point is more about how can devs hide secrets from dataminers without just withholding the content until some specific conditions have been met and then patch it in.

 

I don't really see the point. If it's in the game and the game is out, then it's just ego stroking to presume it's a secret.

 

yeah.. its just ego stroking

its up to the player to decide if they are going to look at wikis and forum posts about "hey we datamined this info" , some prefer to be cheaters, some prefer to be like, hardcore, whatever
.. hmm wtf IS datamine? its just like cracking encryption and looking at the data files? and like wanting to mod the game?

i think ALL games should be moddable entirely ... whether the dev supports it with mod tools is a different matter ... if players decide to crack encryptions in the desire to mod and make the game funner or more appealing to themselves, its a good thing!
.. even those idiot dev companies that are all like "oooh if you break our encryptions its illegal uurr duuur hurrr" screw them!!! when a customer buys a game its their game, their experience.
i know thats not true .. but its true in my eyes
all computer data should be moddable (its too easy to do for it to be barred.. i mean, its a primary function of computers...) all the people that like encrytion = total idiots never trust them

 

For the particular case I'm talking about the game series has long been established to include secrets. The last release was spoiled by dataminers, the community was close to figuring it out and then dataminers went and posted it all over the reddit pages. Once something is spoiled for someone you can't undo it. The secret was something that required a lot of community co-operation to figure out all the clues and a lot of people were upset when it got spoiled, the devs included.

So on this latest release they've kept some of the files back - the dataminers have discovered certain bits about a new character but not what it looks like or how to unlock it. This is making it much more fun for the community and it's working as intended.

Still get the odd post of people being cranky with it but that seems to be dying down....So I guess my reason for posing the question has been invalidated. Some people might be annoyed initially but it dies down pretty quick.

Also, about modding - The devs have always been happy with that and encouraged it. Once the secrets have been found legitimately it won't matter anymore. The secrecy is just for the first few weeks/month.

 

Yeah. I would just keep the files and any references to the secrets out of the client if the community knows there normally are secrets in the game. Its literally for their own good/fun. I wonder if there's a way you could facilitate people from datamining or revealing secrets to the entire community.... like a bug bounty. But with secrets. And in reverse? IDK I may be rambling.

I don't think anyone can do anything in the public eye without pissing someone off. Just ignore them unless you think they have a good point. Withhold the content until its ready, and damn what anyone thinks.

 

This.

You're not selling them data or even necessarily access to the data. You're selling them a game, the implementation of which is up to you. If the best way to do that is to have some data on a server that's made available only when relevant, then there's really nothing to complain about. And if complained at, I think I'd simply explain that while I understand their point of view and know these things have been used badly in the past that I believe I'm delivering the best experience I can in the best way I can, and that I hope it's good enough to persuade them that these things aren't always used poorly.

I say that despite understanding why some of them will complain anyway - games have used this kind of thing irresponsibly in the past. For instance, I missed out on a part of a game's main story for a playthrough because it was included as "free DLC" to discourage resale and I didn't have access to my own console to play it on at the time. I literally and unambiguously was denied access to something I'd paid for (that was probably on the disk) because of DLC/DRM/publisher shenanigans. It didn't spoil my day, but I can absolutely understand why similar experiences have managed to put a sour taste in the mouths of many.

On a technical note, you could have the content in the client using encryption. You'd still have to keep the keys on a server, though, because if it's in the client then you've still given them all they need for someone to read it. So it'd save some download, but at the end of the day they still need to be connected to your system to get access to the content.

Edit: Of course, if the game has online or live components then you should be making sure your players know that up front.