[MUD-Dev] Continuous versus Discrete Functions

[Caliban Tiresias Darklock]

----- Original Message -----
From: <kyndig at kyndig.com>
> On Sun, 23 Dec 2001, Caliban Tiresias Darklock wrote:

>> Current PLAYERS assign no real value to suboptimal outcomes, and
>> real value to optimal outcomes.

> The above brief would be a statement of strong opinion.

It would also be a clarification of someone *else's* opinion. Dave
Rickey said that no value was assigned, and John Buehler said that
what he was hearing was that the game engines didn't assign
values. I was clarifying that I thought Dave's point was that the
PLAYERS did not assign those values. I don't think an engine HAS
values of that sort. :P

What I'm seeing in this discussion is John saying "the current crop
of games are badly designed because they have these problems", and
other people saying "we have those problems because players think
about the game like this", and John essentially responding that if
we designed the games differently the players wouldn't think that
way.

The question that we really want answered, I think, is whether the
game's expectations reflect the player's... or the other way
around. I think we can pretty much agree that there is at least the
POTENTIAL for a vicious circle, with games providing what the player
expects and the player expecting what previous games provided, ad
infinitum. But which came first, and does it really matter? Is this
just another chicken-and-egg problem?


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