[MUD-Dev] Re: Thoughts

[Caliban Tiresias Darklock]

-----Original Message-----
From: Ling <K.L.Lo-94 at student.lboro.ac.uk>
To: mud-dev at kanga.nu <mud-dev at kanga.nu>
Date: Thursday, January 14, 1999 11:54 AM
Subject: [MUD-Dev] Re: Thoughts


>> The theory of player relativity:
>> No statistic has meaning without comparison.
>>
>> How benchmarks are built:
>> When no measure of quality is readily provided, a measure of quality will
be
>> invented
>>
>> Peek-a-boo:
>> If the player cannot see it, it does not exist.
>
>I feel this contradicts with the previous two.  Is that deliberate or am I
>missing something?


They build on each other. Consider a game which exposes no statistics to the
player, and the following applications of the laws.

Peek-a-boo: The player cannot see a measure of quality, so he concludes that
there is none.

Relativity: A measure of quality will only be acceptable if it can be
applied to others. Therefore he mentally constructs one or more such
measures privately.

Benchmarks: He selects one which makes him look good. Others who look good
under it support this. It *becomes* the measure of quality by sheer weight
of numbers, in the absence of other measures which garner greater support.

In such a way, the game now has *obvious* levels, even though someone could
have found the existing ones with his pedant and magnifying glass had he
wanted to invest the effort. ;)

| Caliban Tiresias Darklock            caliban at darklock.com
| Darklock Communications          http://www.darklock.com/
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