Re: PBM design and formulae - a summary

From: desj@ccr-p.ida.org (David desJardins)

Date: Mon, 05 Jul 1993 03:21:52 +0000

Graham Matthews <gym@dcs.ed.ac.uk> writes:
> Now do you understand the point? Its really very simple. A game to be a
> good simulation should only allow players to learn things by a means that
> the character they represent could learn in the "reality" being simulated.
> This gives everyone the same information and something therefore of an
> equal chance.

In the immediately previous article you claim to be discussing "games of
all types."  Now suddenly you are discussing games which are to be "good
simulations," which is surely a very tiny sliver of the space of all
games.

Subject to your restriction to that very small set of games, I agree
with the following proviso.  The most likely outcome of the game you
have described, is that players will play one game learning just as you
have intended.  However, in the second game, the players who have played
before will know all of this stuff which the game is supposed to
"simulate" learning, which ruins the point of the game both for them,
and for the first-time players who have to compete against them.

I gave examples of games which do model this learning process well.  For
example, rogue, in which the player has no idea whether the yellow
potion is restore strength or poison, but once that player has "learned"
which it is, that fact remains the same within that game.  Then the next
game has a new set of things to learn, keeping the game fresh.

However it seems to me that when you advocate "learning" the basic
formulas of the game, you can't possibly use this paradigm, because it's
not practical to vary the formulas themselves from game to game,
certainly not in a computer-moderated game.  Nor is it going to be
practical for players to join the game at different points, since that
will ruin the "simulation" by giving them different levels of knowledge.

How do you intend to address this?  All I have heard you say so far is,
yes, that experience will help.  But surely it is not a "good
simulation" to have the single most important factor be whether the
player---not the "character"---has played the game before!

David desJardins

References

Re: PBM design and formulae - a summary
gym@dcs.ed.ac.uk (Graham Matthews)
Sat, 03 Jul 1993 16:31:08 +0000
Re: PBM design and formulae - a summary
desj@ccr-p.ida.org (David desJardins)
Sat, 03 Jul 1993 22:10:46 +0000
Re: PBM design and formulae - a summary
gym@dcs.ed.ac.uk (Graham Matthews)
Sun, 04 Jul 1993 17:56:46 +0000

Referenced By

Re: PBM design and formulae - a summary
gym@dcs.ed.ac.uk (Graham Matthews)
Sat, 03 Jul 1993 16:31:08 +0000
Re: PBM design and formulae - a summary
desj@ccr-p.ida.org (David desJardins)
Sat, 03 Jul 1993 22:10:46 +0000
Re: PBM design and formulae - a summary
gym@dcs.ed.ac.uk (Graham Matthews)
Sun, 04 Jul 1993 17:56:46 +0000