[MUD-Dev] Finding What a Gamer Lacks in Their Day

[Travis Casey]

Wednesday, January 16, 2002, 3:48:03 PM, John Buehler wrote:

> This may be obvious to some others, but I wanted to present a very
> basic notion about gaming and entertainment in general:

>   Entertainment is chosen because it provides a stimulus that is
>   otherwise missing or lacking in the person's life.

> Again, this is something of a proof by obvious, but I'm sure some
> will contend the point.  I say proof by obvious because if
> somebody has enough of a given stimulus in their life, they aren't
> drawn to that stimulus in the purely optional activity that is
> their entertainment.  And I'm sure somebody will contend that
> entertainment is purely optional as well...

With that explanation attached, the statement looks fine to me.  If
it were going to be used without it, I'd edit it to "... provides a
desired stimulus ..."  That makes it more clear that "missing or
lacking" is being used in the sense of want, not presence.

> The corollary is similarly obvious:

>   Entertainment is avoided because it provides a stimulus that is
>   fulfilled or overfulfilled in the person's life.

I'm not sure that I'm comfortable speaking of a stimulus as
something that "is fulfilled".  Going with the edit above, how
about:

  Entertainment is avoided because it is undesired, or it stimulates
  a desire that is fulfilled or overfulfilled in the person's life.

A desire is something that certainly can be fulfilled.

> And one other point that I would make is:

>   Entertainment is based on the PERCEPTION of the individual.

Putting in the wording about desire makes that clear without an
extra statement, I think, since people's desires differ.

> This means that if I look at a given game and see socialization,
> then I will be drawn to that game or not based on whether I have
> enough socialization in my life.  If I look at a game and see
> exploration, then I will be drawn to that game or not based on
> whether I have enough exploration in my life.  The game may have
> been structured to present a killing spree, but if the perception
> by players is that it's a great exploration game, then explorers
> will end up playing the game.  Certainly we've seen enough cases
> where players play a game in a way that the designers hadn't
> forseen for this to be accepted as true.

This sounds like it's describing a different statement -- something
like:

  Entertainment is chosen based on the individual's perception of
  that source of entertainment.

The first wording seems to me to be talking about the fact that
different people find different things entertaining; the
explanation, however, seems to point to it being about people
choosing sources of entertainment based on how they perceive them,
and not necessarily on the intent of the makers.

[snipping the rest, since there's nothing in there I feel a need to
comment on]

--
Travis Casey
efindel at earthlink.net

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