Crowds and Recognition (Was: Introductions and )

[s001gmu at nova.wright.edu]

A note: I cleaned this mess<age> up a bit.  the line wrap-arounds were 
starting to annoy me.

On Sun, 14 Dec 1997, Matt Chatterley wrote:

> On Sat, 13 Dec 1997, Richard Woolcock wrote:
> > Stephen Zepp wrote:
> > > Richard Woolcock wrote:[snip]
> 
> > > > The problem I can see is - if the crowd is really big, would I
> > > > actually be ABLE to recognise everyone (or even anyone)?  What if
> > > > you barely know them?  Could a thief (as in someone who had just 
> > > > robbed you, rather than thief class) hide in a crowd to escape 
> > > > the authorities?  Maybe you should have to push through a
> > > > crowd in order to find someone?[snip]
> > > make the recognition just a check against vision ( perception stat )
> > > and how well you know them?
> > 
> > But should this depend on the size of the crowd?  Could you recognise
> > your friend Bob the dwarf if he is standing in a huge crowd?  What 
> > about Joe the Giant?  Would you suddenly notice new people over time 
> > if you stood in the crowd long enough?
> > For example:
> 
> Sidenote: Richard, your mail reader does not seem to be formatting to
> 78-80 characters per line? :)
> 
> The size of the cloud does not directly affect your chance of recognising
> someone. It does however affect your chance of *noticing they are there*
> and you should either not see everyone in a crowd, receive far less
> information, or simply have a far greater chance of failing to recognise
> them. UNLESS as you point out they stick out like a sore thumb, eg a giant
> in a crowd of humans (not a dwarf - theyd get kinda hidden!).

As I understand it this is because of the way the human mind handles 
groups of things.  We are wired to handle individuals well, two ppl 
pretty well, three ok, 4 is starting to stretch it, 5 is about the 
limit.  After that we usualy do well to start breaking them into groups 
of groups.  (note, I am speaking in the general case here).
The usual max is around 6-7 individual pieces of info (a person, a 
number, whatever).  After that, we just see it all as a blob, unless we 
break it down into groups of groups.  The reason it takes so long to scan 
a crowd is that you have to look at either individual faces, or small 
groups of people, and then shift your focus to another small area.

> > ]north
> > You are standing on a grassy knoll.
> > There is a large crowd of people all around you.  You recognise Bob and 
> > Joe in the crowd.
> > ]say hi bob, have you seen Bubba?
> > You say 'hi Bob, have you seen Bubba?'
> > Bob says 'He said he would meet us here, but I've been standing around
> > for several minutes now and I've still not seen him'
> > 
> > Of course this would also mean that if you saw someone, the chances are 
> > they would also see you.  I suppose this is more about the players 
> > location than anything.
> 
> Yeah, but not necessarily - I might recognise you but you might not
> recognise me (or spot, in the crowd scenario).

exactly... what if I am looking in another direction, trying to spot you? :) 
tho if I glance your direction and catch that there is someone looking in 
my direction, and focusing in my area, I am more likely to do a double 
take and see if I recognize them.
*shrug*  it all depends on how you want to code it.  Randomness is well 
applied here, I believe.

-Greg