Re: PBM design: give away the formulas? (*FORMULAE !)

From: srt@aero.org (Scott 'Dr. Pain' Turner)

Date: Wed, 23 Jun 1993 16:59:59 +0000

>Sorry Scott, but the sad fact of the matter is that no game that has
>ever been created, and probably no game that ever will be created, has
>enough to do with reality that one can rely on intuition.

If you'll read my article again, I said that one time formulas (or at
least strong indications of the formulas) are suitable is when
intuition won't serve.  As far as whether or not a game will ever be
created that has enough to do with reality that one can rely on
intuition, I think it has already been done.  Although I'm one of the
designers of Nethack, I play the game without knowing anything about
the code per se.  I play on intuition, I do fine, and I believe that I
enjoy the game more than people who pore through the source code for
every secret and stat.

>Example from Atlantis: what happens if 200 peasants attack a powerful
>magician?  Intuitively one could argue one of 2 ways...

As far as I'm concerned you're making my point for me.  Naturally no
one has any valid "intuitions" about magic, since magic isn't actually
a part of our experiences.  So this is a case where intuition fails
and the player deserves some additional information.

If you recast this problem to be something we do have some intuitions
about:

What happens if 200 peasants attack a good swordsman?

Then we do have some valid intuitions, namely that the swordsman may
injure or kill a few peasants but will be swamped by numbers.  There's
no need to publish a formula in this case.

-- Scott T.

References

PBM design: give away the formulas?
skrenta@rt.com (Rich Skrenta)
Sat, 19 Jun 1993 18:12:59 +0000
Re: PBM design: give away the formulas? (*FORMULAE !)
rob@ccc.govt.nz (Rob McNeur)
Mon, 21 Jun 1993 12:00:33 +0000
Re: PBM design: give away the formulas? (*FORMULAE !)
ulim@coli.uni-sb.de (Ulrich Mayring)
Tue, 22 Jun 1993 10:41:26 +0000
Re: PBM design: give away the formulas? (*FORMULAE !)
gl8f@fermi.clas.Virginia.EDU (Greg Lindahl)
Tue, 22 Jun 1993 21:26:47 +0000
Re: PBM design: give away the formulas? (*FORMULAE !)
srt@aero.org (Scott 'Dr. Pain' Turner)
Tue, 22 Jun 1993 22:50:14 +0000
Re: PBM design: give away the formulas? (*FORMULAE !)
rwallace@cs.tcd.ie (Russell Wallace)
Wed, 23 Jun 1993 10:52:00 +0000

Referenced By

PBM design: give away the formulas?
skrenta@rt.com (Rich Skrenta)
Sat, 19 Jun 1993 18:12:59 +0000
Re: PBM design: give away the formulas? (*FORMULAE !)
rob@ccc.govt.nz (Rob McNeur)
Mon, 21 Jun 1993 12:00:33 +0000
Re: PBM design: give away the formulas? (*FORMULAE !)
ulim@coli.uni-sb.de (Ulrich Mayring)
Tue, 22 Jun 1993 10:41:26 +0000
Re: PBM design: give away the formulas? (*FORMULAE !)
gl8f@fermi.clas.Virginia.EDU (Greg Lindahl)
Tue, 22 Jun 1993 21:26:47 +0000
Re: PBM design: give away the formulas? (*FORMULAE !)
srt@aero.org (Scott 'Dr. Pain' Turner)
Tue, 22 Jun 1993 22:50:14 +0000
Re: PBM design: give away the formulas? (*FORMULAE !)
rwallace@cs.tcd.ie (Russell Wallace)
Wed, 23 Jun 1993 10:52:00 +0000