[MUD-Dev] Better Combat

[Koster, Raph]

HRose wrote:
> Raph koster wrote:

>> First, define "downtime." I'd say it is "moments during gameplay
>> when you are not actively participating in a game choice."

>>    - There's downtime when you are waiting for the optimal moment
>>    to perform an action you have already decided on.

>>    - There's downtime where you are prevented from performing an
>>    action.

>>    - There's downtime to rest up the player (physically or
>>    psychologically).

>>    - There's downtime to optimally prepare for a subsequent game
>>    choice (some of the preparation may involve choices in itself,
>>    but some may not, such as sitting to recover mana or HPs).

>>    - ...I'm sure there are more. Fundamentally, there's downtime
>>    that is resented and downtime that is not.

> You mix here. There are downtimes happening as part of the game
> (pacing, timing actions etc..) and there are downtimes that are a
> break from the game. To incentivate and open a space for different
> part (socialization).

My point is that all of these are generally lumped into the same
category of "bad downtime," and I assert that they are not all the
same sort of thing. In other words, I'm not the one doing the
mixing, I'm trying to separate out the strands.

When people ask for a "go go go" game, they often mean the removal
of all of the above, or they make assumptions about which of the
above should go away. Untangling assumptions is, to my mind, an
important part of what this mailing list is about.

> With your list here you dodge the critic. Not answer it.

I'm attempting to frame the question, not give an answer. The
original statement was "downtime is a design flaw." I am attempting
to show that this is a reductionist statement. You seem to agree
with me that it is.

It would be more fruitful to elucidate the sorts of downtime that it
is to berate me for dodging a question that wasn't even posed as
such. :)

> You cannot associate gameplay downtimes and out-of-gameplay
> downtimes.

I agree with that, that is the gist of my post.

However, you seem to have arrived at a conclusion as to which of the
above are in-game and which are out-of-game. I am not sure that the
issue is quite that simple--I can read all of the above as "in game"
or "out of game" depending on how we define "game."

> The firsts are excused and indispensable, the seconds are broken
> design to achieve artificially a different, external purpose from
> the game itself.

Now you're making assumptions about what the "purpose of the game"
itself is. You also seem to be using "artificial" pejoratively here,
without justifying it (it may well be justified, but without
clarification, it's a bit hard to tell when a mechanic is
"artificial" and when it is "organic."

> And, by the way, "timing" IS a game choice.

Well, we agree on that. :)

-Raph
_______________________________________________
MUD-Dev mailing list
MUD-Dev at kanga.nu
https://www.kanga.nu/lists/listinfo/mud-dev