Re: PBM design: give away the formulas?

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

Date: Wed, 23 Jun 1993 22:31:04 +0000

Ulrich Mayring <ulim@coli.uni-sb.de> writes:
> A classic example of a game that really does a marvelous job of
> letting newcomers play alongside experts is Monster Island. The game
> world is divided into regions with varying degrees of danger assorted
> to them. If you are a newcomer you will stay in regions with
> relatively weak creatures and consequently relatively worthless
> treasure.  Experts will simply advance to higher regions, because why
> should they beat up on newbies, when all the newbies have as equipment
> is stuff the experts already gathered years ago?

I think this can work pretty well in games with very low interaction
between players, which is a characteristic of Monster Island (at least
according to the Flagship surveys).  That's because players are more or
less playing against the computer, for the fun of discovering how things
work, and so new players aren't likely to start out by getting
experienced players to tell them everything they know, nor are they
likely to get stomped by more knowledgeable opponents.

(Compare, for example, to computer adventure games, which are solitaire
games against the computer---thus zero interaction---and which
frequently depend almost entirely on secrecy of the game rules and
system.)

However in games with a high degree of interaction, there are a lot more
problems with this approach.  First of all, experienced players might
indeed choose to enjoy themselves by beating up new players.  Secondly,
even if new players are competing against other new players, they each
have a have a powerful incentive to find out all that they can about the
game system from the more experienced players, so they can defeat their
peers, thus "breaking" the secrecy in the game design.

I really do think that a "better" approach---although admittedly also
harder to design---is to have the things that are to be discovered vary
from game to game.  That way the experienced players can reexperience
the enjoyment of discovering them, and the inexperienced players don't
have the temptation of "breaking" the system, nor the risk of being
victimized by players who do.

David desJardins

References

Re: PBM design: give away the formulas?
desj@ccr-p.ida.org (David desJardins)
Wed, 23 Jun 1993 05:01:56 +0000
Re: PBM design: give away the formulas?
ulim@coli.uni-sb.de (Ulrich Mayring)
Wed, 23 Jun 1993 10:51:55 +0000
Re: PBM design: give away the formulas? (*FORMULAE !)
rob@ccc.govt.nz (Rob McNeur)
Tue, 22 Jun 1993 11:30:11 +0000