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

[John Buehler]

Travis Casey writes:
> 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.

...

>> 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.

In truth, I would reword the corollary to match the original
observation.

  Entertainment is not chosen when it provides a stimulus that is
  sufficiently present in the person's life.

The notion of 'desire' is a fuzzier one that I care to tackle.  Even
the idea of 'fulfillment' was too fuzzy, apparently.

>> And one other point that I would make is:

>>   Entertainment is based on the PERCEPTION of the individual.

...

> 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.

Think of it this way.  Perceptions are the means by which we
determine if a source of entertainment provides the stimulus that
lacks in our lives.

How about:

  The availability of a stimulus (in a potential source of
  entertainment) is determined by the perceptions of the individual.

JB

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