Archive for Common Sense

Steamroll

May 1, 2012 Common Sense, Game Design, Written 2 comments

Seriously,

This whole streamrolling thing has gotten out of hand in games these days. In the example game I’m giving here, keep in mind that this is an just to illustrate the core problem. And I’m going to just ramble. Don’t expect this to follow a train of thought.

Let’s play a game where we flip a coin. Here’s the rules:
1. Both players pick head or tails before the game.
2. Each round, the coin is flipped.
3. Whoever wins the most rounds out of ten wins the game.

Simple enough. Let’s add a new rule:

4. Whenever a player wins the toss, they get a pennies, equal to the round number, which they can spend at any time to reflip the coin. So if they win the Round 2 toss, they get two pennies. And if they win the Round 8 toss, they get 8 more pennies.

Already, you should see there’s a problem. The person who wins gets a bunch of extra chances to make sure the game comes out in their favor.

 

But, still, we see this in everywhere in games these days. (Not usually as a fundamental behind the entire game, but in the smaller interactions that define the game flow and balance). In World of Warcraft PvP(since I love picking on it), combat usually comes down to numbers: The entity with the highest numbers wins. And on winning, that entity is awarded higher numbers. (Technically, they’re given points, which are spent on items that make them better at PvP, but – simplicity, man!!)

 

I figure the origins of all this probably come from people who love playing games becoming the people who make games. Particularly when their favorite play style is domination, and they craft the game around that idea.

n = n+1 is a fundamentally flawed equation. You can’t balance a game like that. (programmers, hold your tongues.)

But it’s everywhere now. The strong should get stronger and the weak should just be fodder for the strong. If only 5% of your userbase is L33T, and you’re making the game for them, then everyone else is going to get sick of being stomped by some dude who got even more power to stomp them by stomping people the day before. And then you, the dev, are going to get caught in this dismal spiral of user numbers.

Of course, that’s when insidious tactics come into play. “How can we force people to keep playing and make them think that they want to keep playing?”

Either way: Let’s make a game for 20 players. 19 just sit there, while the last one beats on them for hours. So who gets to be the beater, and who the beaten? Well, the dev that makes the game doesn’t like losing when he plays…

Of Trajectories

February 11, 2011 Common Sense, Development One comment

…Just something to think about.

Over the last few days, as I’ve been working on Chedr (the top secret application that’s technically my second app), I’ve noticed that while I’m understanding a lot more about Java, I’ve really slowed down.

Which makes me realize something about the way I learn things: I go after huge, lofty ideas, can’t make any sense of it, then eventually have a eureka moment where everything falls in place. But, if I’m just sort of trudging around and picking up small bits here and there, I quickly forget most of that I learned.

As it is, I have a total of 5 Java books, out of which I’ve only read three.

I really need to sit down and read the other two, even if they’re not really “Learn Java” books and more “Giant Ass Reference Tomes of Doom”… So, I suppose this post is more for just reminding myself to stay on task. A book dedicated to Java GUI development would be awesome though. (Alternately, some Java genius pointing me towards the proper resources to make the snazzy GUIs I see other people do, as opposed to the current hey-its-1995-again look.)

*shrug*

Either way, I still need to finish the covers for Issues 2 and 3, then I’ll be putting them up on the site, under the Comics page. It shouldn’t take me more than a week, provided I don’t dig myself into another book.

And, in other news, I’m getting my crap out of the storage place in Colorado in the later half of next week. Hopefully the weather is nice during the trip, and double-hopefully I don’t pull any muscles this time.

T’would be nice, me thinks.

The Coordinates of Teamwork (U, I)

September 9, 2010 Common Sense, Opinion, Written One comment

At the very beginning of the school year, in our American Studies history class, we spent an hour or so on an activity. We drew an arbitrary letter up on the whiteboard, and then were told to promptly forget it was a letter, and to think up other objects the picture could be. Together as a class, we were able to come up with many, many more responses than any individual one of us could. And this leads to a pondering of just how much of a role cooperation and teamwork play in an ordinary day-to-day life.

For one thing, most inventions and trinkets that we rely on so heavily would not have been invented without intense amounts of teamwork. For example, let’s examine the lightbulb. Here’s a direct quote from the Wikipedia about the light-bulb’s accredited inventor: “[Thomas Edison] was one of the first inventors to apply the principles of mass production and large teamwork to the process of invention, and therefore is often credited with the creation of the first industrial research laboratory.” He was basically the inventor of the factory-line! Another invention life would be dramatically different without is the atomic bomb. It was developed by a crew of scientists working at breakneck speed, but more importantly, a crew of scientists working together, sharing data and bouncing ideas back and forth.

We ourselves go through an incredible amount of teamwork in an ordinary day, though most of it is rarely noticed or paid attention to. Traffic? A large group of vehicles, driven by people, that moves according to a set of orderly and enforced laws. Drive on the right side of the road, stop at stop signs, turn on the blinker lights before making a turn. While this cooperation can be seen as forced and not genuine teamwork, I would disagree. Regardless of why, the majority of drivers comply with these rules of the road, and work together, if inadvertently, to make progress on the road and arrive at their respective destinations. Is there anything that can be accomplished without some form of teamwork?

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